Ballet exercises- A Daily Stretch Routine

by Breanna
(Australia )

Ballet exercises- A Daily Stretch Routine

Hi! I am an 12 year old dancer, and I do ballet classical, lyrical, contemporary, Demi character (acting), national, jazz, and song and dance styles. I am mad about dance and in my schools junior representive group, consisting of only 4 people and I am the youngest. I started taking dance lessons when I was about 4, and even loved it then. I would like to be a dancer or dance teacher when I am older, If I can make it. Right now I am focusing on eisteddfods, and trying my best in them. I would also like a routine for building strength and flexibility, that i can do daily in about 30 minutes.I am quite flexible, but I need to be able to do centre splits for one of my contemporary routines. I have my left and right splits and I am comfortable sitting in them, if I stretch before, and that I always do. I need to improve on my technique, is there any good exercises for that? I also need to improve on my jetes, as I can't reach a full split in a jete. I have a really great song that I am choreographing my own dance to, it is cry by Alexx calise, and I am acting as an orphan missing mum and dad, and I was thinking of doing a grande jete going into the chorus. My favourite dance styles are lyrical and contemporary. I am going onto pre pointe next this year, and I am very nervous, but my teacher said I was ready.
Thanks for listening!

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Reply by Odette
To:- Ballet exercises- A Daily Stretch Routine

Hello Breanna,
Thank you for contacting me it is great to hear from you. I love to hear about your story and ambitions at such a young age of 12. It sounds like you are in the right direction and challenging yourself by studying lots of different styles of dance.

If you want to become a dancer then you have to keep training until you are around the ages 17 or 18, before you can become a professional. You can look at my my personal development plan which will be a good help to give you an insight of a dancer's training plan through the years.

It is always most beneficial to stretch when your muscles are really warm, so after or during your dance classes is the ideal time to really work on your flexibility.

When stretching daily in a routine, you can think about using all the muscles. I like to stretch my glutes, quads, hip flexors, hamstrings and calves which are all areas I work a lot when I'm dancing. The stretches I do are very similar to the ones in Pilates or yoga, so take a look online to get some more help of the positions.

Then, if you want to do more stretches to challenge your flexibility you can work on the splits and other deeper stretches. Try placing your leg on the barre in devant, side and derrière at 90 degrees. You can plié and rise in these positions, then also take your leg off and hold it high with your hands.

Keep stretching in the splits to keep up the flexible range for a split jete. Also, when you jump it is about the power in the legs to split them quick enough. So, really approach the jump with attack and use your preparation to get a bigger jump.

That's mostly what I have to say for now, but please do keep in touch! I am always here to listen.

Best wishes,
Odette