Because They Wanted To Dance: Part 1

There was a warrior princess and prince who wanted to dance on pointe at The School of Dance.  Warrior Princess Anna needed to work on strengthening her feet and Warrior Prince Keane needed to work on his posture.  They both knew they wanted to dance on pointe with grace and strength but didn’t know how to do it. They both were very flexible and growing in height super fast; making it difficult to progress like other students. They asked their dance teacher how long it would take for them to dance on pointe. Well, their teacher told them in time and with more practice.  Anna and Keane didn’t like this answer.  One day after class, Anna and Keane just couldn’t just couldn’t wait to dance on pointe, so they tried and tried to practice in the studio after class so they could catch up with their peers. Anna ended up spraining her left ankle and Keane ended up hurting his back when doing a back backbend.

While Anna sat down on the floor and looked at her ankles and Keane laid on the floor trying to hide his tears because he just couldn’t practice anymore, a little mouse scampered by and noticed these sad dancers in the room.   He wanted to help them.  This mouse and his family had lived in the dance studio for many years. They have seen many dancers attend and graduate from The School Of Dance. The mouse, named Anthony, wanted to cheer them up and asked them what was wrong.  Anna, having heard about the family history of this mouse before, asked if he knew of any dancers like them who were able to dance on pointe? Well, Anthony didn’t, but his grandmother might know.  His grandmother, named Sylvie, was a dancer herself when she was young and loved watching all of the dancers practice everyday from the back of the studio.  

Anthony told them to follow him to the back of the room, where his grandmother watched from a small entrance in the back wall. To everyone’s surprised, Sylvie was waiting right outside of the little doorway and ready to  shake the young warrior’s hands when they arrived. Before her grandson could explain anything further, Sylvie said, "It was about time she met these warriors!" Sylvie couldn’t wait to share her wisdom and what students, like Anna and Keane, did to get stronger and dance on pointe with grace and with minimal injuries.

Stay posted! I will share some of the exercises Sylvie shared  with Anna and Keane in part 2 of Because They Wanted To Dance.

It Starts With Your Hips

In previous work, I discussed how current anthropological research has associated the development of shorter and wider hips in humans with our ability to move more with more ease in a biped position. Such findings provides more support on how integral hips play in human movement and posture. Because of their importance in movement, I tend to focus a lot on factors that can help this part of the body move with more ease during training sessions.

That being said, I would love to share with you some basic exercises I did to maintain and balance my range of motion in my hips and SI joints (the area where your spine and hips meet) as I rehabilitated from a neck injury this year.  In the video below,  I included some exercises that helped me not lose my ability to squat and walk with more ease; activities that became difficult to do when I injured my neck. 

If you have Ankylosing Spondylitis (an autoimmune condition) like me, these exercises may help you relieve some tension and perceived aches around the SI joints associated with neural and muscular imbalances, along with inflammation.  There are definitely more exercises to help with this condition, but I wanted to cover some of the basic ones for beginners and people returning back to movement after a flare, like mine. 

When I shot this video - several months ago -  I wasn’t able to move very much.  If you know anyone suffering from this similar condition, please forward them this video.  Please help me help as many people as possible.  

Lastly, you don’t have to have AS to benefit from practicing these exercises.  You can think of these exercises as a form of mindful movement; incorporating the benefits of body awareness, breath work, meditation, focus, relaxation, and core strength.  

I highly recommend you view the complete video before performing these exercises. And please let me know what you think about them. Lastly, please double check with your doctor and/or physical therapist to make sure these exercises are appropriate for you.  

Now let’s get started!