Dancing Queen

Things dance is used to improve:

Finesse:  Finesse is required in ballet to look fluid, strong and in control all at the same time.  It also allows a ballet dancer to use their muscles efficiently.  Think of finesse as taking the quick route back home from work… Why take the longer way when you can get home using half the time and gas?  In football and ballet, it’s no different.  Games typically last hours, and muscle exertion is back and forth from maximum to minimum, much like a ballet dancer standing on the side of the stage before doing a variation.  When a receiver in football is dodging a tackle, they can grit their teeth and use all of their muscles and fatigue themselves more quickly, or they can use finesse to move about the field without using as much muscle.  Same outcome with much less muscle exertion.

Speed:Along with finesse, comes speed.  Much like an intermediate ballet dancer begins to learn and understand that relaxed muscles move more quickly, so should a football player.  It may feel strong and tough (and testosterone filled) to tense every muscle in their body, but the outcome is scientifically proven to be slower.  This doesn’t mean you don’t engage muscles, it means you use them correctly.  Playing harder, or dancing harder, doesn’t mean better.  It often means slower.  Many ballet combinations in class rely on speed to be done correctly with the music.  For a football player to master quick foot, efficient and precise foot movement provides countless benefits for every position out on the field.

Ballance:Its no mystery that balance is essential in ballet, and it should also be equally as obvious how important it is for football players, or any athlete for that matter.  Its extremely hard for a ballet dancer to jump well in allegro, turn consecutively and cleanly in pirouettes or developpe in adagio without balance, many of which happen on one leg.  This same concept of doing a difficult step on a single leg is no different for football players.  By practicing balance outside of their normal routines, a player could more easily begin to understand and adapt better balance in their footing or jumping to catch a pass.

Strength: This may not seem as obvious to some, after all, most football players could easily be three times the size of a ballet dancer.  However, professional ballet dancers in particular are typically very strong.  Pure size and mass doesn’t necessarily equal more strength or being “better”.  Since ballet often requires precise and quick movements where being just an inch off can be considered “needing correction,” their smaller “quick-fire” muscles tend to develop to adapt to this demand without adding much bulk.  These smaller muscles, possibly pushed aside at the gym by football players in favor of working larger muscles, are particularly useful to offensive players who may rely on strength and quickness, where too much bulk would actually take away from their performance on the field

Flexibility: Flexibility is pretty obvious.  Every athlete requires flexibility to perform well, as the right amount of flexibility allows your muscles to extend longer and into more above-average positions before engaging.  Think of how many slow motion re-plays you’ve seen where a football player looks like they could possibly be doing movement from a contemporary piece.  Also, notice the limitation of their reach with their legs and arms from their back and torso.  While football players do stretch as part of their training on the field, working on flexibility in a ballet class would provide even more benefit as it would likely begin to target muscles they hadn’t previously stretched.  There are few sports that understand the importance of strength and flexibility as well as ballet, in fact, it’s practically built on mastering that balance.

Dance Costumes are an extremely important part of every dance team for their performances and competitions.  Dancers practice for months to get their routine memorized and perfectly executed.  They even travel far distances in order to compete with other teams of equal talent.  Costumes help bring to life the performance that dancers work so hard to complete.  They help accentuate the dancers movements making them look more flowing and elaborate.  Because of this it is important to choose the right costume for your routine and team.  Every member of the team should have costumes that are fitting of the same theme if not exactly the same.  When choosing a costume every individual on the team must be kept in mind.  The type of dance must also be kept in mind, there are appropriate costumes for every style of dance.  

Ballet is one of the oldest and most classical types of dance that is still performed.  Ballet requires its dancers to posses balance, grace and strength to complete basic movements.  These features should be reflected in the costume of the dancer.  Ballet dancers should choose simple and classic dance costumes that make their graceful motions look even more stunning then they are.  Their costumes should also be simple as to not interfere with their performance or distract the audience from their moves.  Leotards are very common costumes for ballet performances because they are both classic and simple.  They allow the dancer to perform with the balance and flexibility that they need while displaying beauty and adding elegance to the performance.  

Jazz and hip-hop styles of dancing allow the dancers to wear elaborate and themed dance costumes.  The movements of jazz style dancing incooperate the entire body so that it appears that the group is moving as a whole.  Often times choosing the perfect costume will complete your team, making their performance appear flawless.  Costumes of this style should be flashy and eye catching so that the audience is drawn to every movement of the body.  They should also be fitting of the song that is being performed so that the mood of the performance is just right.  Uniformity is extremely important to this style of dance because the costume adds so much to the performance.  

Lyrical dance is a combination of ballet and modern styles of dance.  Its movements are slow and graceful but can also be elaborate and incooperate the entire body.  Lyrical dance often requires very simple dance costumes and are elegant in design.   Often times these style costumes require a lot of light and long flowing material.  This will accentuate the dancers slow and graceful movements and the fabric will highlight every move the dancer makes.  The audience will be drawn to even the slightest of movements from the dancers body.  Lyrical costumes are often long and gown like.  They should also be exactly the same for the entire team because the uniformity will add to the awe of the performance greatly.

  Themed dances are the only style of dance that will have much variety in their costumes.  Themed performances often are styled after a song or era and are often as playful as they are professional.  These dance performances require many different dance costumes and props.   When assembling costumes for a themed dance performance it is extremely important to choose costumes that are very similar in style and make.  Because the performers will be performing on stage simultaneously it is still important that they look professional.  Purchasing costumes that are too eclectic detracts from the professionalism.  It is also important when choosing to performed a themed dance that your theme can be portrayed through costumes because it is not simple to portray a theme in moves alone.  

Cultural dances often require a fitting cultural costume.  It is important that your dance costume accurately reflects the cultural dance you are performing.  It is inappropriate and rude to perform a cultural dance in a costume that is not meant for that dance.  Many cultures have specific costumes for their dances, those costumes should be used.  When performing a cultural dance it is important to know much about the culture the dance comes from.  Some research may have to be done if you do not come directly from that culture.

Children’s dance costumes should be fun and colorful.  Children bring a playfulness and joy to every performance.  Their costume should bring to life their natural childless.  While many styles of dance are performed by children their costumes should not be as mature or elegant as the costumes of the same style performed by adults.  Children’s costumes should be very song themed as they will need to interest the child as well.  They key element in picking a child’s costume is comfort.  If the child is not comfortable in their costume then it will inevitably be removed.

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