With classes, performances, and competitions cancelled, staying in shape and keeping up my technique has been tough, so here are my top 8 tips and ideas to stay in shape and keep up your technique during this global pandemic.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the blog. Today's topic is going to be slightly more serious that what I normally talk about on the blog. I'm sure that you all know about the coronavirus outbreak that has taken the globe by storm. I live in california (silicon valley), so there are many preventative measures being taken in my community to prevent the spread of the virus. My school has been cancelled (i am doing online school at the moment) and my ballet studio has been shut down for the moment. Our performance was canceled, and all rehearsals have been put on hold. For the majority of ballet students, this means that all classes will be cancelled. Luckily for me, my studio is doing all of my regular ballet classes on Zoom, which has been super great!
Unfortunately, this is not an available option to most people, and for the first week of closure, I was also on my own when it comes to my technique training. So, keep reading for my tope 8 ways to stay in shape and keep up your technique!
1. Create your own classes and combos! I love going through my ballet playlist of songs, and creating my own combinations! Not only to it keep me taking class, but it also challenges me to be creative, and try out some more unusual things. I typically just follow the standard order, plies, tendus, deggages, ronds de jambes, fondus, frappes, adagio/developpes, and gran battenmants. Then in the center ill do an adagio with a grand plie( that's one of those thing I can never practice enough), then a tendu/pirouette combo, a turning combo across the floor, jumping, traveling petit allegro, and then finally some gand allegro!
2. Take an online class! This is one of my personal favorites. I know that the Royal Ballet had some of their company classes on youtube, there are tons of Prix du Lausanne classes, and Kathryn Morgan makes some great follow along videos!
3. Do some cross training. Do some cardio and sprints for endurance, work on your core, do some pilates to engage all of those little muscles!
4. Learn a new variation! One of my summer intensive teachers from last year told us that "Variations are very important, and teach you much more than just the choreography. If you ever have spare time, just look up a variation and learn it!". It's great advice, and it's super fun in my opinion. Some of my personal favorite variations are Giselle, Cupid, Paquita, and Bluebird.
5. Stretch! I don't think that there is anything more important than stretching! Now with all of this time on my hands, as I like to say, I'm gonna get bendy! All jokes aside, I think we all know how beneficial flexibility can be! Some of my favorite stretches include, splits, oversplits, kneedes, turnout stretches, and just simple yoga.
6. Just throw on your pointe shoes. I love to just throw up my pointe shoes and start dancing (after warming up my feet with some releves of course!). It's super simple, and i love to just chaine turn all around my house, or just work on balancing in a pique arabesque!
7. Make up some choreography! It's really fun to just pick a song and make something up in your living room. I even like to challenge myself sometimes by picking songs with lyrics (gasp!) and trying to do something a bit more cONteMpoRAry.
8. Strengthen your feet! Work with a theraband, do tons releves, and just roll through your feet. As a challenge I love to try to stand on one foot with my eyes closed (much harder than it seems...).
Anyways, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you try some of these out (even if you aren't a ballet dancer!). I was also thinking about doing a day in the life of online school, so let me know if that is something you would be interested in reading. Wishing you all health and happiness!
xoxo,
malia nicole