There are a lot of pieces to think about when you do a turn. Many dancers struggle with perfecting each piece at the same time. Forget about one part and you look like the leaning tower of Pisa. If you don't have a strong foundation, everything on top is just...
Summer is a great time for dancers to shift their focus from performing and competing to improving skills with strength training. Although your dancers may use this time to recover from the previous competition season, the school year, and other demands — now...
I think we can all agree that having enough strength and mobility to hit a full split at the top of a split leap is hard enough. Now imagine needing to hit that while your body is diagonal or quickly changing leading legs mid-air! The skills we’re talking about...
Have you ever noticed that whenever skills don’t go as planned we tend to increase core work and run the skills over and over again? Although core strength is important for balance, there’s something else that’s needed for strong skills. What if there...
A Dancer-Fitness member recently asked me — “How do I train my dancers to see progress in their skills, technique, and strength?” She wanted to know HOW to structure workouts to make sure she wasn’t going too hard or too easy on her dancers. She wanted to get...
Whether you’re a dance team dancer or coach or part of a studio, there are three seasons throughout the year for dancers who compete. Those seasons are: off-season, in-season, and competition season. The difference between in-season and competition...
What's the silliest thing you've ever heard about increasing your flexibility? I've heard that sleeping in a frog stretch or watching TV in the splits is the fastest way to increase flexibility. (Yikes!) Unfortunately, when flexibility is your dancers’ main focus,...
This week I want to talk about exercises for your mini-dancers. When I say mini-dancers, I’m talking about your dancers who are ages 5–10. You may not be giving strength training exercises to this specific age group, but you really should. (If you don't have...
Every coach wants to help their dance team become the best they can be, right. But it’s not about running your routine over and over again and then poof, you impress the judges at competitions. (Although that would be nice.) Your dancers need strength training in...
Are your dancers complaining about tight hips? Do they feel like their hips don’t open easily? There are three key things you need to focus on with your dancers to make it easier for their hips to open. With the exercises below, increase your dancers’: Hip...
3 Exercises to Drastically Improve Your Leaps and JumpsStrengthen Glutes to Advance Your Favorite Dance SkillsAvoid Dancer Burnout During Competition SeasonImprove the Top 4 Critiques From Judges With Strength Training Exercises