Ballet Exercises
Shape Your Body



Ballet exercises have the ability to transform your body into a long, lean look as elegant as a ballerina. Only if you work the correct muscles can see your body lengthen and strengthen.

Many professional ballet dancers work daily with physical therapy equipment to target specific muscle groups in their body. This is particularly good if you have weaker areas and need to focus on strengthening for ballet class.

The exercises in ballet class develop the muscles in a very specific way.

If you look at any ballerina, they will have a similar strong yet lean body.

Dancers create specific muscle groupings defined by their training.

Even top ballerinas still have physical strengths and weaknesses.

If you want any particular advice on ballet exercises, or what to glance at other dancer's thoughts then look at the bottom of this Ballet Exercises Page‏.

Ballet Exercises

Professional ballet dancers have an intense lifestyle of training and performance. They take a daily ballet class (expect Sundays - usually!) every day in their ballet apparel, followed by a schedule of rehearsals and/ or shows.

Ballet class is absolutely the most important time for dancers to push and work the body. In every intense ballet workout, your muscles should be active so that you are building strength and endurance. 

Not only does ballet class improve your technique, but it helps maintain the shape of your body. With such a particular way of working in ballet, the more classes you can do the better.

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The intense work during the exercises keeps your muscles firmly toned, and the ballet stretches keeps your muscles elongated.

You could say ballet class is like brushing your teeth for dancers. They can not go a day without it!

Well, they can, but their technique may become unclean just like your teeth would too if you didn't brush them.

Ballet class gives you the time to focus on fine tuning the muscles in your body. Every precious second or minute you are working, your body is soaking in each muscle movement and forming the body of a dancer.

That is why you must commit to each exercise in your ballet class, even when you are ballet stretching. Each of the ballet exercises are linked together in a class and they gradually build up to progress into the harder steps. You can watch ballet videos to give you a deeper understand to the way dancer's move, look and work.


Royal Ballet of Flanders in rehearsal


Building strength is an ongoing process for every dancer. Even top ballerinas are still be trying to improve their strength with exercises and individual programs. 

Particularly in ballet jumps, the dancers need a huge amount of muscle strength in the legs to push off the floor and jump in different types of elevation.

Your glutes, quads and hamstrings are key areas to work on. They are the main muscle groups you need to strengthen and keep pushing for even more improvement.

There are many ballet videos which can guide you through strengthening exercises for different muscle groups. An abdominal workout is key to activate your core stability and help get the strength in your abdominals.

Did you know?  In modern dance, the Horton Technique is designed to move beyond your physical limitations.


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