Training for Dancers
Conditioning
Dancers are athletes. Like other athletes, they need to be at a certain level of physical fitness in order to dance effectively -- to do things right and to look good doing them. Different styles of dance require different athletic abilities. The physical demands for Ballroom Dancing may be very different from the physical demands of Ballet. Dancers were some of my first clients when I began training people in the late 90’s. I was also performing as a dancer and directing dancers at that time. Over fourteen years involvement in the theatre and other performance arts has shown my students and me some unique challenges and opportunities for the dancer who wishes to improve his or her performance.
Part I Conditioning: What does it mean?
Conditioning is physical activity that improves an athlete’s performance. This activity does not include actual practice of the chosen sport or dance form, although that practice can have a conditioning effect. It has been fairly common knowledge since ancient times that in order to improve significantly an athlete must do dedicated conditioning drills. Boxers do not just box, they lift and throw weights. Runners do not just run, they do jumping drills and stretching. These sessions build certain specific attributes which improve the athlete’s performance in the match. Dancers have also done similar training, Pilates is a good example. Pilates in no way resembles dancing visually, and yet it is a well established conditioning mode to improve the abilities of dancers.
General Physical Preparedness (GPP)
The sad truth is many quite high level dancers, and other athletes, are simply out of shape to put it plainly. They may look decent and even perform fairly well, but something is missing, perhaps the dancer tires too quickly during rehearsal, moves are not “nailed” with the required look of strength and sharpness. Maybe the dancer has not improved at all for years or even decades. Many times the dancer is lacking in General Physical Preparedness. Sometimes a beginner starts dance training in ignorance of the physical demands of his or her chosen dance form. Advanced athletes and dancers can become distracted, complacent, or just lazy, and neglect their own athletic fitness or GPP. Often people take up dance as a means to physical strength and health. This is a great idea, but no dance form is a complete system of fitness. Capoeira may look close to that ideal, but if you want to really shine at Capoeira you must do special conditioning. You could say that conditioning is only a must for dancers who actually want to improve above their present level of ability. Prehab and rehab of injuries can sometimes be considered conditioning, and part of GPP. Some coaches speak of using GPP training as a tool to increase an athlete’s Work Capacity.
Special Physical Preparedness (SPP)
Each sport or dance form has skills or abilities that are unique to itself. Conditioning for those singular skills is called Special Physical Preparedness. For instance lifting a heavy weight overhead is SPP for a dancer who must lift other dancers overhead. That kind of drill could also be SPP for an Olympic weightlifter. The same drill would be GPP for a Boxer. The Boxer would never lift a heavy weight overhead as part of a fight, but overhead lifting would strengthen the shoulders, teach full body tension and how to transfer lower body power into the hands. SPP for a Boxer might involve medicine ball throws or other moves which build rotational explosiveness and more directly make the punch more powerful. Now the actual throwing of punches at a sparring partner or a bag, would be what we call Sports Specific Training.
Sports Specific Training (SST)
Dancing is Sports Specific Training for dancers, so is learning steps. SST is the actual practice of the game, contest, or performance. Lifting of other dancers is also SST because it is sports specific. Almost no other sport lifts people the way dancers do. The lifting of barbells or other weights however, is SPP because it is conditioning for the lifting of dancers.
Putting it all Together
As you can see, there can be a certain amount of fluidity or overlap in these definitions. Doing SPP drills for dancing can improve overall conditioning or GPP. Work capacity is important because the rate of skill improvement of a dancer is directly linked to how much quality work that dancer can do per day. These terms are a way to order an athlete’s training for better understanding and maximum results. Hopefully this short article gets your gears turning and you can see dancing and training for dancing, in a fairly well ordered cause-and-effect type harmony. Our goal is to have this section be a constantly growing interactive reference archive. There are more specific dance conditioning pieces to come. We will give case histories and build templates of programs for different types of dancers. Please feel free to e-mail us with your questions or insights. We will use those to help create the design of this section.