Complete Short Practice

This is an intermediate practice to centre your mind and condition your body. This final video in the series combines elements of videos 1-4. Moderately paced, this class can be done before, after or between classes or performances. This is for experienced practitioners - there is less instruction and advanced poses such as headstand, splits and backbends are included. If you need more of warm-up, practice the Yoga for Ballet Sun Salutation video once prior to this! Thank you for practising. Namaste.

Hip Openers

The action of turning out, balancing on one leg and going up into releve require great strength in the hip rotators and glutes.  If these muscles get too tight they can limit our range of motion as well as cause knee and back problems.  Here are some graceful hip openers to release tension in  the hips.  Perfect after a long day in the studio or on stage.

Backbends and Core Strength

This simple sequence is to help you gain a flexible spine and strong back.  There are many benefits of yoga backbends for classical dancers, so read on!

We tend to think of a "backbend" as a flexibility move.  While you do need a mobile spine to bend backwards, a back extension (or 'backbend' in layperson's terms) is actually a back strengthener when done correctly -- it's the front of the body that's lengthening and stretching.

When we bend over backwards, our hip joints are also in extension -- but in this case it means opening at the hip flexors, And this is exactly the kind of flexibility that dancers need to achieve arabesques, attitude derriere and the back leg of a grand jete.  Plus, when our hips are in extension our glutes and hamstrings switch on while the hip flexors release, and those are some of muscles we need to hold the leg there out back.

I recently met a young male student from the English National Ballet School.  He had come to one of my classes after being advised to try yoga as he was carrying a lot of tension in his shoulders.  And sound advice that was:  A strong, supple upper back can also prevent neck and shoulders in partnering work and port de bras, and most backbends also help to open and free existing tightness the chest and shoulders, too,  This, in turn, can help you deepen and control your breath, too,

As you'll see here, many yoga backbends involve quite a big range of motion, but that's good news for ballet dancers who need to achieve a more extreme shapes and lines than the general population. One word of caution:  Dancers often have very mobile, expressive spines already.  (As you'll also see from this video, I'm not one of them!)  But it's important not to rely on this mobility and not to "sink" into your low back by hinging  solely from the lumbar.  The upper back needs to be strong and mobile, too, as well as the abs to support the spine from the front.  So here's how we bend over backwards the yoga way.

You may need to warm up a bit before this sequence.  Enjoy!

Balance for Ballet

My ballet teacher recently questioned why my body weight wasn’t where it should be as a lost my balance doing a double pirouette “even though I do all that yoga”.  I had to explain that in yoga balances, although we sometimes flow through a variety of poses with the working leg, we don’t move the standing leg!   So although you’ll need to keep practising ballet to achieve those specific skills required for  the dynamic balancing inherent in ballet turns, rises and changes of direction,  balance-based yoga poses can help lay down the groundwork.

So here's video #2.  A standing and balancing yoga flow.  Plenty of work on hips, hamstring and spine flexibility for classical ballet lines, plus balances on one leg to improve foot and ankle strength and pelvic stability.   Natajarasana – Dancer Pose – is here, of course, and I’ve included a headstand balance, altering your relationship to gravity completely!  By removing the added challenge of moving the standing leg as you would in dance (e.g. rises, fouettes, promenades or turns) we have the opportunity to calmly cultivate balance, proprioception,  awareness of the centre of gravity, transference of body weight, eyeline and focus from a still, firm foundation.

(Please excuse the part where I say “Exhale as you breathe out”.  It’s been a long week!)

Voila!  Here is the first of a series of Yoga for Ballet videos.  The plan is to do a series of five (one for each day of the working week) with a different body focus for each one.  The videos can be done as stand-alone practices, although I recommend always including this one first as your warm-up.

Once those 5 videos are completed I'll also be creating a 'complete' 30-ish minute express practice highlighting the peak poses.  That way you'll be able to mix it up each day, or just practice the "greatest hits" medley.

This is just the start, and videos to come will be more varied and advanced, including splits, backbends and even a bit of adagio acro!

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See you again soon.

Welcome to Yoga for Ballet.

I am a yoga and Pilates teacher and lifelong ballet student.

I have devised a yoga routine designed to help with ballet technique and allow ballet dancers, whether professional or recreational, to maintain and restore a balanced body and mind.

No matter how great your love for dance, ballet can be stressful both physically and mentally . The technique alone is physically demanding, requiring a unique blend of strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility and precision.  And these physical demands, in turn,  can lead to a good deal of mental pressure.

Dancers are subject to constant scrutiny and judgements, whether by themselves, teachers and peers in the studio, or critics, audiences and company directors.  For professionals additional pressures may come from having to learn new work quickly, difficult partnerships, dancing through injury or replacing an injured colleague.   Artistically there is the challenge of interpreting a role both dramatically and musically.

Competition, too, is everywhere, whether you are a young dancer entering competitions and festivals, a professional at an audition or a company member vying for a role or promotion. Even recreational ballet dancers strive to dance well.  By nature, ballet seems to demand perfection, both as an art form and in order to remain safe and satisfying for the dancer.

A personal yoga practice can provide an invaluable respite from the mental and emotional challenges of ballet, while at the same time supporting your ballet body physically.  Yoga is process-orientated rather than performance-driven.  There is no competition between yourself and others.   No judgements are needed, other than the mindful awareness required to find safe alignment and balance.   Movements are moderately paced so that you can focus on your breath and the feedback in your body.  There are no spectators and the body need not be pushed for aesthetic ends.  Your health and well-being come first.

In tandem with these complementary mental benefits many poses can be practised to supplement ballet technique itself.  In the sequence I have created I have covered hamstring and hip flexor suppleness and back extensions for long, graceful lines, standing poses to improve leg strength for jumps, core strength for control, balancing poses for strong ankles and feet and hip openers to ease  the muscular tightness than can come from constantly turning out.