Hey Deborah! I am a huge fan. I met you at DTS this summer and purchased a lot of your stuff. I am anxiously waiting your analyzing extension series! My reason for writing, I have 2 dancers (both semi-serious/semi-recreational) who both have very tight backs. One in particular cannot even touch her toes. When she [...]
Happy New Year! Hoping the holidays were restful for everyone! First question of the year comes from Katie who writes: Like most of the western dancers, I was taught that one should be aiming to hold the hips square when standing in 4th and 5th positions. (e.g. demi-pliés, or echappé sauté landing 4th). In [...]
Read more of Is it Hip to be Square? Looking at 4th and 5th positions…
I received some great questions from Lynn and have imbedded my responses below. Hi Deborah, I have a few questions and was wondering the best way to go. I have the Essential anatomy course for dancers and just started to dig into it a little bit because I bought it in the summer and just [...]
Read more of Stretching, Assessment, Pinkie Balls & Hamstrings…
I’m going to answer 2 questions – one at the top of the leg with a hip injury and another at the foot. Especially with foot injuries there is such potential for compensation and shifting your weight subtly in order to continue walking and dancing and so I encourage everyone to pay attention to the [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the mindset it takes to become a successful dancer or performer and decided to put together an initial video clip on 5 important success principles. Enjoy! “Education is the key to injury prevention”
Happy January! I love the first of the year as it is so filled with potential and possibilities and thoughts of change. As a dancer and dance teacher there have been similar patterns to my thoughts over the years at this time. I vow to decrease my sugar intake, increase my exercise and spend more [...]
I am a ballet teacher living and working in New Jersey. I used to teach in New York City, and my teacher training started with Don Farnworth in New York. As time allows, I contribute to Dance.net. A question just came up regarding splits and young dance students. When is it safe to start doing [...]
Everybody has their favorite dance blogs that they bookmark and read. Nichelle at DanceAdvantage.net (a wonderful blog) is having a contest for the top 20 dance blogs. I decided to enter my Dancing Smart blog in the Teacher Talk section. The way this contest works is the blogs with the most comments will win in [...]
With the holiday countdown, Nutcracker performances, increased social engagements – stress levels can easily increase. Dancers and dance teachers need recovery time and ways they can train (or retrain) their bodies into more efficient patterns. I created a mp3 file of guided imagery for my students. As I talk about in the Inner Dance of [...]
Today’s post came from an email from a concerned mother who’s daughter was diagnosed with an os trigonum in both ankles. She writes… My daughter is 14 and very serious about her dancing. She has heel pain and has worked with a PT for the past year and rested a good part of last year. [...]