5-8 Minutes to More Consistent Turns

If you’d like to save time cleaning your skills and working on technique to improving your dance turns, I recommend incorporating strength training in your class with a specific focus on the skills that need the most work.

I hear from my dancer fitness community that turn consistency is a big goal – not only staying in relevé but also timing with rotation which means upper body strength.

❗️Note About Upper Body ❗️

Don’t forget that your dancer’s wingspan (finger tip to finger tip) is approximately the same length as their height so when your dancers don’t control their arms, that’s over 5 feet of bone and muscle lagging in the rotation.

Below you’ll find 4 of my favorite exercises to improve:

1. Upper body strength and control
2. Core and trunk stability
3. Ankle strength
4. Supporting leg strength and endurance

Why supporting leg endurance? Because I’m guessing you want a turn set that’s longer than an eight count without dropping heels and bent knees. This takes strength and endurance in the supporting leg.

Think you don’t have time? Give it 3 days and see. Watch how much time you’ll save running your turn combos over and over again.

Do each exercise for 45 seconds, rest for 15 and if you have time repeat once more after stretching. 

That’s 5 -8 minutes of really intentional exercise that will benefit your dancers technique too.

Push up 

• Come into a plank position on your knees.
• Place hands shoulder distance apart.
• Slowly lower your chest toward the ground keeping your belly pulled in.
• Keeping your eyes out and neck in line with your body, press yourself back up into the plank position.

Repetitions and Modifications:
Repeat 6 – 12 times

[+] Lift your knees off the floor and lower from a full plank position

Hover extend

• Starting with your hands below your shoulders and knees below your hips, push your hands in to the floor until your knees are 2 inches above the ground.
• Slowly lift one arm straight in front of your shoulder while your opposite leg lifts straight out from your hip.

Alternate sides for 10-12 reps total.

Wide To Narrow Reverse Lunge

• Begin with feet together
• Plie and jump feet to a wide second position
• Jump feet back together keeping knees bent.
• Shoot one leg backward and bend both knees until the back one touches the floor.
• Bring both legs back together with knees bend.

Repetitions and Modifications:
Repeat 8 times on each leg.
[-] remove the jump and simply walk feet wide, narrow and into a reverse lunge.

Turn technique

• Start in a lunge with arms straight, parallel to the floor.
• Press into your front foot, bringing your rear leg to passé.
• Turn your head in the direction of your passé foot.
• At the same time, open your arms two inches.
• Return your head and foot back to start. Bring arms back to original position.

Repeat 10 times, each side, 2 rounds.

[+] Come to relevé

Can I take the guess work out of this for you? I’d love to create a custom training plan just for you and your dancers!

Your Custom Training Plan Will Contain:

• 8 – 12 exercises including a warm up and circuit.
• Repetitions and sets for each exercise
• All exercises chosen based on goals collected from survey.
• Printable version of the training plan including images and written instructions
• The ability to watch each exercise from the training plan
• A Full video of the entire plan
• Variations of each exercise to grow with your dancers as the season progresses and to create variety in your classes

*Please allow 48 hours for plan completion

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I teach a weekly Strength & Stretch class and struggle with coming up with exercises that will really benefit them. So I am thrilled to have this resource in one place instead of surfing the web”