Thera-Bands for Dancers: Improve Balance

Here's some other posts you might enjoy:  Preparing to Exercise, Foot & Ankle Exercises or read all the posts here: Thera-bands for Dancers
____________________

Today's post contains exercises you can do in class or at home to improve your muscle strength.  Before you begin, remember to review our exercise tips.

Benefit to dancers: Strengthened hip flexor muscles and improving balance on one leg (which helps with turns and static poses).

All of these exercises need the band to be stabilized by a stationary object low to the floor.  At home, this could be a sturdy table, bed post or other heavy piece of furniture. In class, you could use a partner - just remind the students to check their bands for small tears which could cause the band to snap.

Slow Degages to the Side (Hip Abduction / Adduction)
Loop the band around your ankle and attach the other end to the sturdy object.

Tips for Balancing

This is a great video on balancing created by The Anaheim Ballet (via BalletScoop):



I like the way they illustrate pushing down while pulling up - the one thing I always tell my students. This can be hard to visualize, so I am going to share this video with my students and see if it helps!

The other thing they didn't really touch on is focus - I find that when I tell my students to focus on something that is eye-level instead of looking around, they are able to balance longer.  Then as you get better at balancing, you can challenge them to move their head while balancing.

What are you favorite balancing tips?