During the first week of August I had the great pleasure of teaching Pilates for Dancers to all the dancers on the Irish Ballet Forum. This is a week long intensive Pilates, Ballet, Pointe work and Repertoire summer school for dancers between the ages of 12 to 18.
As dancers, we all know how important it is to keep good alignment of our pelvis and spine, so we worked on strengthening up our abdominals and back muscles to help us maintain good posture.
In dance, our arms are very soft and graceful, but this hides the strength that lies within them. We worked on the mid back muscles to help create a strong base from which our arms float and help to balance us.
Ballet dancers are known for dancing en pointe. We worked on our foot and ankle strength and focused most especially on the strength of the intrinsic muscles of our feet to help with pointing our feet and bearing our weight en pointe.
Looking forward to working with everyone again next year!
