Despite the graceful and fluid motions of dancers who make ballet look so effortless, the dance is very physically demanding. These dancers practice for hours every day, perfecting every single move. Ballet dancers have to constantly condition their bodies to maintain their shape, which in turn allows them to execute proper posture and maintain balance in their pirouettes and arabesques. Ongoing exercises are necessary to improve balance in ballet.
Floor Exercise
Ballet dancers do floor exercises, which are often called "mat exercises." These are low impact and focus mainly on stretching the muscles. Stretching muscles improves flexibility and adds muscle strength, which enables ballet dancers to sustain en pointe steps -- or steps done on the ends of their toes. Stretching also allows tight muscles to loosen up, giving dancers more flexibility and reducing the risk of injury.
Barre Exercise
Barre exercises are important because they develop the muscles you need to dance ballet. An example of a barre exercise is the turnout, which involves standing with the barre at your side and lifting the leg that is closest to the barre so that your ankle rests on the barre, with your legs elongated.
Core-Building Exercises
Exercises that help improve your core include ab workouts, such as basic sit-ups or crunches using a balance ball. Bicycle crunches are also a good exercise to develop your core. Having a strong core is necessary in ballet, because the core holds everything together. It contributes to stability, which is a key skill that ballet dancers must have.
Conditioning Exercises
Compared to other exercise techniques for ballet dancers, conditioning is closer to the dance. Conditioning exercises for ballet dancers go beyond stretching by using steps that allow you to dance in a low-impact way. Jumps are part of conditioning exercises, as are plies and tondues. Along with these physical repetitions, conditioning exercises also allow you to work on your tempo and movement progression. Through repetition and focus on optimizing every small move, you can improve your balance and your hold.
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