Dance can help change the brain. This statement seems sweeping and unfounded, and yet it is true. Much like how our life experiences change the brain, dance can also. I've previously written about how dance can help those with Parkinson's, a neurological condition that can also affect the mental health of a patient (Read More… Continue reading Welcoming Well-Being: How Dance can help the brain.
Jumping has long been one of my favourite parts of dance class. Not because I'm good at it, I have a habit of not using my pliĆ© as much as I should that I'm trying not to pass on to my student. But just because I enjoy it. Jumping forms the basis of many moves,… Continue reading One Move at a Time: Beats (or more formally entrechat)
In May last year I wrote an article outlining common dance injuries and ways to treat them. This post can be viewed using this link; https://radancefitness.com/2017/05/17/injuries-in-dance/. Similarly to that post, this weeks post will also focus around injury. Informing you of external factors that can contribute to injury, in order for you to have further education… Continue reading Development Series: Recognising Contributing Factors of Injury.
The leg hold is a challenging move that I usually only begin to try with senior dancers. There are components that make up this move that can be tricky for younger dancers to pick up. That being said strong dancers of any age can grasp this move with a little practise. The components that make… Continue reading One Move At A Time: Leg Holds
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Traditionally a ballet step, the chaine turn can be one type of turn that children begin to try at a very young age. Constant spinning as they travel along pretending to be a tornado or spinning top will create something that looks like a chaine turn. Many children will probably… Continue reading One Move At A Time: Chaine Turns
I've been teaching students for nearly 3 years now and throughout that time I've noticed there's a few things as a teacher I leave out when talking to my students. I'm not, yet, a full-time dance teacher but am still in regular contact with students 4 nights a week. These trends may only be within… Continue reading Things We Don’t Tell Students: Flexibility
Choreographers are all inspired by different things. Even if they base their routines on the same stimuli/idea, the finished piece are most likely going to look very different. This is because everyone works in a different way, our imaginations can help us find different uses and ways of using ideas. These interpretations can be based… Continue reading Choreography: How to find that first idea.
So much of the time as dancers we get caught up in doing the hardest steps we can think of, or putting in more tricks like leaps and turns to fill out are routines. In doing this it is easy to forget the basics and disregard steps we learnt as a beginner, but many of… Continue reading One Move at a Time: Tap Step
Heart rate monitoring as become increasingly available to consumers as the years have gone by. 16 years ago, Runner's World claimed that the two reasons to use heart-rate monitoring are to train and race at the right pace for ourselves. Years later and this is still one of the main selling points of heart-rate monitors… Continue reading Improvement Series: Utilising heart-rate monitoring in dance training.
As the western world's food availability continues to thrive, so too does the dietary regulations and restrictions people place upon themselves. In other words, the choice of 'diets' to follow increases. There's; vegetarian, paleo-based, ketogenic, flexitarian, vegan, aktins, low-carb, intermittent fasting, pescetarianism, and many more variations on an activity we all share: Eating. One of… Continue reading Pro-tein or Con-tein?: Is Protein Supplementation Right For Dancers?
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