The Physics Behind Ballet

This is an extremely interesting video from Ted Ed, which explains the physics of doing fouetté turns on pointe! I highly recommend showing this video to your dancers. There are extremely important elements in which reinforce their training with actual facts, like why your spot and your relevé are important.

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Are you properly teaching the "Frog"?

While attending Velocity Nationals in 2014, a workshop was provided for the individuals at Nationals with a director or instructor pass. This workshop was taught by Shannon Mather. With more than a plethora of experience and a resume as long as an encyclopedia, Shannon Mather is more than qualified to speak to dance instructors and share her experiences and knowledge. One go-to that many of us use after sliding through our middle splits during warm-up is the "frog" stretch. By laying on your belly, slapping your feet together behind you, and letting gravity do the work on your feet (like pictured above), many of us may think that we are stretching out hips. However, as Shannon Mather noted, this stretch is actually just twisting your knees into an unnatural turned in position. However, the correct way to do this stretch is to ensure your students' knees are in 90 degree angles. With their feet right below their knees, they will sink their hips as low as possi...

Teacher Reactions

While we as instructors are so passionate about seeing our dancers improve, it is important to sometimes take our experiences with a grain of salt. From excuses like "I didn't have time", or "my Mom didn't tell me," we have heard them all. This article , is full of dance teacher reactions that we are all-too familiar with.

Injuries for Life

In the dance industry, career-ending injuries are all too common. As a dance teacher, coach, or instructor, it is important to be aware of some of the most common dance injuries. According to a study by Dr. Raj Deu and Hopkins Medicine, the following are injuries often seen on dancers: Hip Injuries Snapping hip syndrom Hip impingement Labral tears Hip flexor tendonitis Foot and ankle injuries Achilles tendonitis Trigger toe and ankle impingement Knee injuries Patellofemoral pain syndrom Stress fractures Metatarsals Tibia Lumbar Spine Sesamoids Arthritis Knee Hip Ankle Foot As a teacher, it is important to listen to your students if they are complaining of pain in these areas. It help them distinguish between pain and an injury, you can ask them the following questions: Does the pain keep you up at night? Is the pain already present before you start dancing? Does the pain increase with activity? Doe...

The Instructor's Dance Floor

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