Pilates for Dancers

Pilates for Dancers. Pilates has been a part of my exercise regime on and off for quite a few years. Having grown up learning dance and it now being a part of my career as a performer, choreographer and dance instructor, I find Pilates to be my “saving grace” when it comes to strength and stability! My first Pilates experience was in a studio in Adelaide having sustained a dance injury after a fall. I was in a show at the time and my physio suggested going along to a session to help my recovery and to maintain my muscle strength. I really enjoyed the low impact style of the exercises, especially being that my injury was located in my hip, also affecting my knee and ankle. I found that being able to work specific muscle groups, whilst lying down and executing mat or reformer exercises, was ideal. Now living in Melbourne and performing, I have to keep up my skills base and strength which includes dance classes and Pilates. At times, when I have random jobs all happening at once, it can be difficult to fit dance classes into my schedule and be available for the specific classes that I require. To combat these busy times I like to keep up my regime of Pilates before work three times a week and stretching at home and for this, I am very grateful! A perfect example of this was last year when my agent called to inform me of an audition that required a ‘dance call’ as the first discipline to get through before hopefully moving on to sing. I said that I was available, but I only had two days to prepare and it had been one of those times when dance classes had been few and far between. I was, not surprisingly, a little nervous... just the thought of dancing in a high pressured environment and knowing that the style of the show would require strong technique, was enough to make me worry! I kept up my stretching and Pilates exercises in the hope that this would be enough to help me through as I knew from experience that dancing after a bit of time off is not exactly like riding a bike!! The day of the audition had arrived... we were taught the routine (all in chorus heels) and it was just as I had expected, fast and furious! All I was thinking whilst rehearsing the routine was to focus on getting it in my muscle memory as quickly as possible. I had my brain working, so now it was just a matter of my brain passing the messages through to my body! We were split into small groups and there was nowhere to hide. So, the first time through and...I got it- I was happy! Then we were asked to do it again and I thought, oh no I hope that wasn’t a fluke... But it felt great! I was strong, in control and centred, finishing with a triple pirouette and landing the end pose with confidence. Now I am not trying to brag about my performance, but I felt that without having kept up my Pilates practise and continually working on my core strength, this audition wouldn’t have gone so well! My body was working from my centre and I was able to automatically engage the right muscles without a thought, it was automatic. I knew from the past that Pilates had helped my dancing but I really noticed it more so in this situation, having not done a dance class or being ‘show-fit’. So for this reason, I will definitely be keeping up my Pilates classes and I always highly recommend it to friends and family as part of any exercise regime. Oh and the best part...I got the job!! Do you enjoy reading our blog? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter to get all the latest Pilates articles, news on courses and latest jobs.