“Dancers have extraordinary flexibility, muscular strength and both physical and mental endurance. Professional dancers train and practice every day for an average of six hours. Many also cross-train with cardio, weight lifting, yoga and/or Pilates to improve their physical fitness and technique.” (Facts About Dance - Did you know?). Dance is a fun activity, but it is obviously difficult and time consuming. The activity takes hours of training, team effort, and a strong passion for the art. Even though dance may just look cool to some people, it is a dancer’s job to make what they are doing look easy. If there is no motivation or dedication to work, practicing dance would be pointless and no one would improve. Competing and growing with a team
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In reality, the definition for “sport” is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.” (Dictionary.com). Dance fits all of these criteria. Competitive dance is what most dancers start out in in their school years. There is rigorous conditioning that is needed to be a dancer so that you can do what may be asked of you with ease. (Wiltshire). Although dance may look easy, it takes a great amount of strength to hold anything from a pose, a leg extension, to a handstand. Every move that is made is working different muscles in a number of ways. There is so much focus put into training specific muscles to ensure that dancers are both in shape and strong. Dancing and performing tricks require a lot of strength development to execute a number of unique …show more content…
Ballet is used to improve this too. This, just like strength, makes the tricks easier to learn and do. Training in ballet uses movement to lengthen and stretch the dancer to make their lines better. In ballet, dancers do combinations at the bar to work and stretch their feet and legs, and they do combinations on the floor that are meant to stretch many parts of your body. Focus on posture stretches the legs muscles, and turned out legs during combinations lengthens the leg muscles and improves turn out through hip flexibility. Along with ballet, there are other ways that dancers stretch. Dancers do all kinds of stretches from splits, straddles, butterfly, frog, and gravity stretches. No matter what stretch is being done the focus is to warm up and cool down, to have correct form, to open up the body step by step by doing the stretches in a certain order, and to breathe to relax and allow the muscles to stretch. (Nemour). Stretching in this way is effective and prevents many stress injuries from having tight muscles. Being both flexible and strong gives the ability to move and pose in a way that looks appealing and being able to hold that position. It is a good combination to have because if something is easier to do, the less likely someone is to hurt themselves. “One’s level of flexibility affects that individual’s form, alignment, the ability to have clean lines, proper technique and it prevents injury.”
In reality, the definition for “sport” is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.” (Dictionary.com). Dance fits all of these criteria. Competitive dance is what most dancers start out in in their school years. There is rigorous conditioning that is needed to be a dancer so that you can do what may be asked of you with ease. (Wiltshire). Although dance may look easy, it takes a great amount of strength to hold anything from a pose, a leg extension, to a handstand. Every move that is made is working different muscles in a number of ways. There is so much focus put into training specific muscles to ensure that dancers are both in shape and strong. Dancing and performing tricks require a lot of strength development to execute a number of unique …show more content…
Ballet is used to improve this too. This, just like strength, makes the tricks easier to learn and do. Training in ballet uses movement to lengthen and stretch the dancer to make their lines better. In ballet, dancers do combinations at the bar to work and stretch their feet and legs, and they do combinations on the floor that are meant to stretch many parts of your body. Focus on posture stretches the legs muscles, and turned out legs during combinations lengthens the leg muscles and improves turn out through hip flexibility. Along with ballet, there are other ways that dancers stretch. Dancers do all kinds of stretches from splits, straddles, butterfly, frog, and gravity stretches. No matter what stretch is being done the focus is to warm up and cool down, to have correct form, to open up the body step by step by doing the stretches in a certain order, and to breathe to relax and allow the muscles to stretch. (Nemour). Stretching in this way is effective and prevents many stress injuries from having tight muscles. Being both flexible and strong gives the ability to move and pose in a way that looks appealing and being able to hold that position. It is a good combination to have because if something is easier to do, the less likely someone is to hurt themselves. “One’s level of flexibility affects that individual’s form, alignment, the ability to have clean lines, proper technique and it prevents injury.”