Photo by Carlyn Strang
[ID: Victoria Wright and Diego Cruz squat side by side on a diagonal to the camera. Lisa Giannone stands behind them, arms outstretched.]
There was a time, not long ago, that dancers didn’t train muscles outside the studio or stage. A dividing line between the type of training deemed necessary or ‘appropriate’ for sports versus dance existed. Dancers didn’t avail themselves of the science, training, and physiology embraced by other physical sports.
Times have changed. Athletes in every sport are using strength and power training to improve performance. The rules and science of physiology and training can apply across physical disciplines. Moving with strength, coordination, balance, and explosiveness is the same in pointe shoes, bare feet, or cleats. Muscles don’t know if they are contracting for a jump in dance or basketball. Training your body, if it’s a moving machine, changes the way you work and feel.
But reluctance remains in the dance world, justified and not, when it comes to training other than with very specific dance movement. Worry over interfering with turnout actions, disrupting lines, and developing too much tone or bulk is still very much a concern in dance. But all training is not created equal and some of those concerns may be the unintended result of misdirected, non-nuanced, or generic training approaches.
Independent of the central question of “to train or not to train” lie many other questions about structuring a program best suited for dancers. What does “training” mean? How does it look, why, and how do we do it? Train in parallel, or avoid it? Use added resistance, like weights or machines, or only body weight?
Most importantly, how do I do it all safely and specifically: build strength and endurance, protect against injury, prolong my career, and enhance my performance? If you can reach outside of traditional dance training to better achieve these goals, it’s all possible.
There comes a moment in a dancer’s career path, maybe related to injury or sense of physical vulnerability, an internal inkling or an urging from a dance teacher or director, when the thought comes to mind that perhaps, just maybe, I should consider training.
For years we’ve seen reports of NFL and NBA players doing ballet, Pilates, and yoga; world champion boxers dancing to enhance footwork and balance. These competitors learned that moving slightly differently than their norm was paying huge physical dividends. Take that successful concept of training outside the dance norm and the traditional boundaries of class with repetitive relevés, pliés, center and jumping, and apply it to professional dance and ballet. Training with different stresses can relieve the repetitive strain brought on by the exclusive participation in one activity.
Cross-training for Eurocentric dance forms is traditionally Pilates and Gyrotonic. Dancers find comfort in their dance roots, relationships, and specificity. However, when we analyze the forces involved in making the movements in dance, including ballet, we know that the limbs and the body not only create repetitive acceleration or jumping forces but also repetitive landing forces. Dancers move and push across the floor. They stabilize and balance in motion. The dancer’s body has to hold, balance, and move. That level of physical presence—having muscles on, available, and ready to react—doesn’t come with ballet classwork alone. It’s “athletic stuff” and must be specifically trained into the system with complexity beyond simply setting out to “strengthen.” Optimized function is the goal. There are powerful means to get strength and enhanced muscular function that don’t involve contraptions, excessive load, and “bulking up.”
“Training,” then, comes down to two main issues – SET-UP and FIRING.
Set-up: establish moves, actions, and positions at angles and in planes so that the target muscle group has the maximum opportunity to work. This is often in parallel and not just in turnout.
Firing: bring optimal coordination and awareness of muscle activity, what we call neuromuscular activation, recruitment, or turning the things on that need to be turned on. Learn to fire with intention and focus and keep the muscle on.
It’s far more technical than it appears. This is the key, whether applied to rehab, injury prevention, or enhanced ability: look for muscle burn – it’s the body’s built-in biofeedback to let you know you are working properly and thoroughly.
Obtaining conscious access to muscles, or neuromuscular recruitment, is the step BEFORE working on strength, etc. Bodies “try” to do less; we need to make them do more. Activation of muscle, for any athlete, is the primary means through which training gives results. If you cannot “summon muscles” at any given moment, they cannot offer support or direct action at a joint or through a limb. Access and use of the target muscle are the goals – muscles that function better. A ‘Muscles 2.0’ version without the unwanted “side effects” of building bulk.
QUADS
As discussed above, dancers lift, lower, and move their torsos with their limbs. They jump and land, and create elegant lines with a straight leg. Your quadriceps muscle is responsible for these actions and more. Your quads are central in providing shock absorption to the joints, tendons, and ligaments up and down the limb and spine. The better they work the better you can perform.
This training is effectively done with your body weight, as that (and at times the weight of another if partnering) is the primary resistance that a dancer needs to be able to move. Quads need to have a solid “presence” in the lower limb of a dancer and be able to produce force, stabilize, and sustain over time. Fatigue and weakness are the enemy of both protection and performance as they reduce shock absorption and spring of the lower limb.
A dose of parallel squat work in a dancer’s weekly regime prepares the body for optimum functioning. The body weight squat, set up with precision and intention, is the exercise that isolates and works this main player of the leg. It’s a beginner, mid-, and advanced-level exercise depending on how it’s issued and performed, and should be the primary tool in the dancer’s training toolbox.
POSTERIOR CHAIN MUSCLES
Additionally, in parallel, one can train the hamstring and superficial and deep (think turn out muscles) glute groups. Despite vigorous daily activity—class, rehearsal, performance—dancers frequently miss out on specifically targeting and isolating these key “directors” of the hip and limb. In fact, weakness in these groups, and the quads, is a number one finding in the bodies of dancers despite their exquisite skill in making aesthetic and athletic-looking movement.
THE CORE
The core is both under- and over-hyped. The core, including muscles on all sides of the torso, links the lower and upper body, and is key even when it’s not moving. For instance, during a bodyweight squat, it controls the torso while the legs work and move, sustaining “perfect” posture, without losing proper spine position. The legs are pistons to a fixed torso. This provides extremely effective core activation and stabilization. Without a solid base and stable link between upper and lower body, it may be impossible to generate force and efficient limb movement. Additionally, the core, especially the spine, becomes vulnerable to injury when not stabilized.
While dancers are masters of nuanced and refined movement, it is interesting to isolate the contributing motor units, i.e., movers and stabilizers, of a dancer’s body into component pieces. Breaking movement apart can expose a lack of sufficient activation and use. When not at one’s personal full activation and potential, there will be a deficit working not only across a specific joint but for the body as a performing whole.
The goal of training must be specific and intentional activation of all target muscles so they can contribute to the entire spectrum of movement and protection. Enhanced durability, stability, and ability are the result. Quite simply, your body feels better, works better, and performs better.
This article appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of In Dance.
