#overstretching

Back in the mid-to-late 90s, when I was a little girl, I did ballet/tap combo and the first 2 levels of ballet. My dance studio rarely had their students overstretch.

So what is overstretching? Well, that’s when dancers use often injurious tactics to increase extreme ranges of motion.

“We're seeing labral tears (tears in hip joints) and issues in their back in 11 and 12-year-olds,” physiotherapist Lisa Howell told Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2015, “which is very disconcerting because while they're doing these moves to make themselves better dancers, they are often actually ruling themselves out of a professional career because they are getting injuries so young.”

“The biggest issue we have now is that people are taking moves from rhythmic gymnasts and trying to insert them into dance and trying to do this in a very, very quick way as a one stop shop, rather than looking at all of the detailed training that has to go in before any of those tricks are actually attempted.”

“If they look like they are unsafe they probably are. If you cringe then it probably is cringeworthy."

The trend actually started a few years earlier before social media took off. In 2002, netizens on Dance.net started posting pictures of contortionists and rhythmic gymnasts on their stretching pages. Initially, they became motivators for them to become more flexible. 

Through competition footage vids, despite the prevalence of dial-up internet, dancers allegedly also started to borrow key movements from RG in their routines.

The movements included fouettes with legs in horizontal (grandes pirouettes a la secondes en dehors, or a la seconde turns, also borrowed from collegiate/HS dance teams); front or side split pivots with help (pirouettes detires, or leg hold turns); and scissor leaps in ring with both legs passing to the floor (pas de kiltses en tournant, or turning C jumps). 

IMHO, this is what my brain sees watching video footage of youth dance competitions, especially the musical theater routines that aren’t related to the showtune’s originating musical.

While they allegedly have dancers reaping top brass at dance competitions, classic jazz dance proponents feel that such movements are cheapening the dance genre by trading in history and heritage for flash and shock value.

“The prime reason for the choreography was to display the ability of the dancer, often resulting in a surfeit of tricks and of course the ridiculous inclusion of fouetté turns (or rather, said grandes pirouettes a la secondes en dehors) in a jazz dance routine,” Matt Mattox protege and master teacher Bob Boross told audiences at the Dance Teacher Summit in 2018.

“I would imagine that it hasn’t gotten much better in recent years, but competition jazz dance has not done much to improve the quality of the form or its knowledgeability in its audience.”

“This idea of truthfulness in jazz dance is a big issue in today’s jazz dance world. The term ‘jazz dance’ is used and misused in so many areas. Dances that have little or no jazz dance qualities are routinely (and inaccurately) described as jazz dance.”

Another thought in my brain watching a youth dance competition.

“When a media outlet has great or highly influential visibility (So You Think You Can Dance, etc.), the audience begins to believe the inaccurate description, and in the process the truth of jazz dance is ignored. What often is called jazz dance will have minimal jazz dance characteristics.”

Boross listed qualities of jazz dance sorely needed in much of youth dance education: grounded, relaxed hits that emanate from the pelvis outward; judicious use of body isolations (non-sexual, of course); sense of "cool;” inclusion of rhythmic sophistication; and manipulation of dynamic impulse.

Above all, many dance teachers are pedantic in jazz dance history, which is why many MT routines (especially those to any cover of “Le Jazz Hot” or Tami Tappan Damiano’s cover of “Hit Me With a Hot Note”) lack context, let alone the era of the song or originating musical. 

Such as the case of my TFBSAADE Zazzle product line Savoy Kicks vs. Oversplits. 

Besides the fact that sports science increasingly urges dance teachers to eschew overstretching and hyper-detires (in which dancers shoulder their legs next to their earlobes and beyond that) in favor of functional strength and cross-training and dynamic flexibility, I created the character - Neil the Neurodivergent Lindy Hop Dancer - to ALSO promote jazz dance history and heritage that will trump over gluts of tricks.  

Savoy Kicks vs. Oversplits Button

Neil isn’t just any ordinary Lindy Hopper I illustrated mid-fall off the log. Symbolic of the Neurodiversity Pride Day flag, Neil wears a cyan blouse with violet trousers and burnt umber shoes. His head, of course, is a rainbow infinity symbol.

“Research and know the history of your genre,” Boross informed, “Know the music of jazz in its early formations – ragtime, hot jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz... And also know the standard dances that were created to meld with these jazz rhythmic elements. Have the music and movements solid in your mind and in your bones.”

“And once you have that, then let this be a subliminal guide in your jazz dance creations of today. You will find that aspects of the true jazz formations of the past will emerge in your work, or the overall look/style of your jazz dance will show a reflection back to the veracity of the past.”

“This is a surefire way to know that your work is truly 'jazz’ and that you are honoring the past as you move into the future.”

And also - limit the overstretching, please.

"The biggest issue we have now is that people are taking moves from rhythmic gymnastics and trying to insert them into dance and trying to do this in a very, very quick way as a one-stop shop, rather than looking at all of the detailed training that has to go in before any of those tricks are actually attempted. If they look like they are unsafe, they probably are." - Marko Panzic

Bad news, Tito Marko - the said dancers have been copying moves from RG for 20 years. Here’s proof of that:

Thyrocare share price rise shows diagnostic sector valuations over-stretching

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Stocks of diagnostic chains are seeing a sharp rebound even rising over the pre-pandemic levels. Covid-19 cases are increasing, driving the demand for testing but the sharp run-up in the sector leaves little room for upsides.

Agreed, the covid-19 testing may have kept the cash registers ringing in the last quarter. However, some of the government’s testing capacities have increased.…

Your IT Band is Not the Enemy But Maybe Your Foam Roller Is

I am not sure this applies to dancers per se, but it is food for thought.

  Your IT Band is Not the Enemy But Maybe Your Foam Roller Is | Breaking Muscle.