Learn the Benefits of a Winning Warm-Up

Dancers: Learn the benefits of winning a warm-up

Professional source published by ‘The Stage Casting’ in April 2014 by Dominic Antonucci, ballet master at Birmingham Royal Ballet. This article discusses warming up for professional dancers. I know my inquiry is based on primary school ages, but I found this article fascinating. We perform a ballet each year over the summer as a workshop for the children, and we have professional dancers come join us. The children love to watch the professional dancer’s warm-up and do their own routine to focus themselves before a performance.

Warm-up

A warm-up can vary depending on what type of person, there are many factors you need to take into consideration.  When you perform a warm-up there are certain changes you should see and feel in the body. For well trained professionals that do it every day should see a warm-up as a ritual and help prepare them mentally too. You should spend your time during a warm-up to focus yourself, and listening to the music, counting and using coordination’s.  Mentally people need that to time to collect their thoughts, forget about them, and focus their mind on the dance class or performance ahead.

How do Dancers Warm-Up?

When you get to a certain level of training and especially professional dancers you become to know your body and tend to find your own routine and set stages of warming yourself up. Dominic talks about professionals knowing their bodies, some like to go swimming before a performance, jogging on the spot, some like stretching and others think against stretching. But by the time you reach that level you know your body well enough and know what state their body needs to be in before a performance or class.

I found this section very interesting, should a warm up be changed or varied? Professionals tend to find a warm-up and if they feel they performed well after that specific warm-up they tend to stick with it. On the other hand if you have a bad performance you try a new warm-up the next day or whenever the next performance is. Dominic stuck to his 20-25 minute barre work over a 20year period because that worked for him.

How Should a Dance Student go about shaping their own Warm-Up?

Dominic talks about how most dance teachers will try and awaken their student with describing a certain feeling and self-awareness. Body conditioning exercises and pilates especially goes very much by feel. A dancer needed to analyse their body and how they are exactly feeling in that moment. If their back is tight? Or if it’s the hamstrings? You have to design the warm-up around yourself and how you feel. Dominic said he always warmed up but did not always cool down and I find this is many classes, teachers need to make sure they find the time to cool down before letting their students leave.

 How do your Dancers Cool Down?

After a performance Dominic talks about his dancer’s cooling down, backstage they spend time walking around and shaking their legs, jogging and stretching. They need to let their heart rate and breath slowly decrease and find time to relax after a performance. After those curtains go down dancers will practice certain moves that did not go well that night, and practice certain sections, this can all be adding to a cool-down, they are still moving but not as extreme as when they were performing. Chi Cao Birmingham Royal Ballet principal dancer who took the lead role in the film Mao’s Last Dancer spend a long time warming up and cooling down. He would stay on stage cooling down an hour or more after the performance, stretching and manipulating his body to get it just right to be prepared for the next day. Dancers are educating themselves more now which I agree, I was taught to know my body and make sure you look after it, dancer’s need to know their weaknesses and spend extra time on certain parts of your body. When you are younger you do the same as your friend next to you, but they are still developing and learning. It is important teachers try and explain that not everyone is the same.