While ballet exercises are crucial to a dancer's success and often comprise a portion of every practice session, they are also beneficial to those who seek the long, strong, graceful body of a dancer. Like any form of exercise, ballet exercises increase your stamina, strength and flexibility -- but they also focus on posture. The result is a leaner, more graceful and confident you.
Strength
Although professional ballerinas may look like they float through air, the reality is that ballet requires a tremendous amount of strength. Exercises like releve/retire and plie strengthen the calves and inner thighs in preparation for dancing en pointe, and grand battement and arabesque work to build stronger ab and glute muscles that enable the dancer to achieve and hold lifted positions. Ballerinas also do decidedly ungraceful exercises like pushups, Supermans and crunches to strengthen all of their muscles -- because every part of the body is involved in every step.
Flexibility
Most people think of splits when they think of ballerinas, but splits are only the beginning. A flexible body moves more gracefully and achieves a more fluid motion than a stiff body, so every class begins and ends with stretching. The upper body is generally stretched with a series of exaggerated arm positions -- and the upper body is gradually worked into the movement to stretch the sides and abs. The back and legs are stretched more intently, as stiffness in these areas leads to poor execution and possible injury. The barre comes in handy for stretches, as it provides a solid support to help push stretches further.
Posture
Ballet posture is all about "up." Dancers stand at the bar and imagine their bodies being pulled upward from the top of their heads, which helps them to stand straight. Even during exercise where a leg is extended or raised, dancers are told to "activate" the leg -- that is, reach with it rather than just extending it. And even the simple act of releve requires a lift from the diaphragm instead of the calves. Proper posture, with neck long, shoulders back, stomach in and butt tucked under, must be maintained throughout all exercises. Once a dancer slouches or slumps, her teacher will likely make her repeat the entire exercise in correct posture. The purpose of the drilling is to force posture to become second nature, so the dancers can focus their attention on sequencing and combinations instead.
Control
Every ballet exercise is performed with a very measured sense of control. There is no room in classical ballet for wild abandon, so every movement is executed in a very precise way, to a precise height, for a precise length of time. This teaches dancers to be aware of what their bodies are doing at all times, to the point where they know exactly how they look when they dance with their back to the mirror. For example, grand battements should be slowly raised, not kicked, and held for exactly one beat before lowering for the next one. Although actual steps may vary, ballet exercises never rely on momentum because the only way to train a strong dancer is to make her use her strength.
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