Dance Better Now

A technique for better dance movement: what is the Alexander technique?

For the past couple of months I have been seeing an Alexander to help improve my mobility for general benefit and to improve my dance. This post is about the benefits I had on doing this so that you can decide if it is something for you.

The Alexander Technique

The Alexander technique is a system that helps you move more efficiently so that you can perform your tasks (whatever they be) more efficiently. It was developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander who was a stage actor who had troubles keeping his voice throughout a play despite all doctors at the time telling him he was in sound health. After watching himself in the mirror as he practiced acting he noticed oddities in his posture. By focusing on his posture he found his issues was resolved. He later saw others with the same issue and noticed that by focusing upon posture and self awareness that anyone could improve their efficiency and their overall well-being.

He developed a system that could be used by what he called 'teachers' to impart better habits of movement upon his 'students'. I am unsure why he did not call them patients, but it might be because it is about teaching people better habits.

The typical session involves you taking various positions, standing or sitting or laying down, while the teacher will place hands on you to encourage the relaxation of certain muscle groups. They will also ask you to conduct certain movement as they guide your body. There will also be some imaging techniques, which are very familiar to most dancers. Finally, in my case at least, you get some exercises to do at home.

The best thing about the technique for most is that the method is very easy on you. You spend much or your time laying down so you get the benefits with little effort. 

Benefits

As a dancer I like to think I am fairly aware of my body and movement. I have been working on that to improve my dance for some time now. However, I still found more awareness from these sessions. Especially with parts of my body my teachers of the past have mentioned. Especially letting my shoulders drop. Since doing these sessions I have:

• Felt less pain when in general - we all have aches and pains at times
• Been able to adjusts what I do to limit the onset of fatigue and strain - most notably when walking while on holiday in  Tasmania, which is where Frederick Matthias Alexander was born, so that was poetic
• Felt more grounded in my feet - I have some pronation, which now feels reduced
• Felt less aches when dancing
• Felt more control over my posture when dancing

Recommendations

I would recommend this to anyone - it worked for me so it should work for you. Even if you do not get benefit from it, you at least know you have worked out that you're in good shape. However, you will probably have some issues that can be resolved. For dance I would especially recommend it if you have any of the following issues:

• Contracted shoulders
• Hunched posture
• Poor hip movement
• You fall into steps at times
• You ever feel pain from dancing for longer periods
• Stiffness in your back
• Poor head position

Where to find a practitioner

In these days of the internet it is very easy to type Alexander technique and you local area into a search engine and find someone near you. I found one a block away. 

More information

This is a pretty good article on how to be a better dancer from the perspective of an Alexander teacher - The Biggest Mistake Dancers Make. It shows both what Alexander teachers know and gives advice on how to dance better.

Getting a body that moves well when dancing

How to get a good dance body

 It is probably well known to most of us that dancers have excellent bodies. They have balance, poise, they move gracefully, and fluidly, and they are symmetrical. These are all characteristics required to be a good dancer, and they need to be displayed when dancing. Years of training and simply trying to dance with these characteristics will develop them in anyone.  This means that you know you can eventually develop them too.

However, it would be much better if you could fast track your development of your body so that that you can dance well without the years of practice.

It would also be better if you could do this outside of dance class. It is always good to get feedback on how you’re moving when you dance. But really, that can be a waste of time. Dance classes are best spent learning a dance instead of having your teacher make you try to move the right way. In fact, this approach is doomed to fail. You might get it right in one class, but by the time next class comes around you might have lost the movement, and you’re back where you started. Plus you might have a disgruntled teacher.

 

 The ideal solution is having a body that naturally moves in a way that suits your dance.

 

Exercises for a better dance body

 So if you do want to get a good dancer’s body at a faster rate, then you need to engage in dedicated exercises that will really get your body working. The other advantage is that a dancer’s body is usually healthier and more attractive. That means you will feel better and look better when you try some of these exercises. However, I think the best advantage is that by working on this outside of your dance lessons you will have more time to actually learn dance.

 

 Depending upon where you start from it will take longer to see the benefits. However, when I started working on improved movement, I saw results within two weeks (this was based on comments made by others). I also know fellow dance student who got positive comments from her dance teacher within a week.

 

General exercises

 There are a number of other activities that you can try to help develop a body that moves well. Such activities could be: martial arts, Pilates or yoga. The key is that these activities work the whole body. By doing so, they get all the small muscles that provide balance and control working. When these muscles are well exercises and strong, you will have much better movement.

 

 If you’re into weights, then you might want to take a look at kettlebells. Because they do not have a handle that encloses their centre of mas, they require you to provide the stability. This extra effort works those small control muscles mentioned earlier. Also, because they are work one hand per weight, they will develop symmetry, which is essential for a good looking dancer’s body.

 

Hips

 By hips I really mean the whole pelvic area. Doing little more than walking and sitting doesn’t really do much for this part of the body. Many dances (especially the Latin ones) require fluid movement within the hips. This means that for many of us this is a weakness. The best exercises I have found for this part of the body are lunges. However, you can’t just do them forward. You need to do them to the side and with a twist around to the back. This will work those muscles in each of the key directions of movement.

 

Core

 Like the hips, many of us probably do not have a core that works as well as it should. Also, this is probably because of our lifestyle.

The thing that probably enters your mind straight away is sit-ups or crunches. These can do a lot to build strength, but you need more. You actually need your core muscles to activate naturally while you move (including dance).

 

 As a test, try the following:

• Stand up with feet should width apart

• Now lift your hands above your head and interlock them with your arms straight

• Now lean back like you’re trying to reach out the wall behind you

• Note where you feel stress: is it in your stomach, you back or a mix?

 

If it is all in you back, then it means your core is not working well. Try the following:

• Place a chair in front of you

• Place one foot on the chair

• Raise the opposite hand above you head (you might want to have the chair oriented so that your other hand can hold the back for stability)

• Now lean back and note where you feel tension

• Try leaning to the side or twisting to induce a stress in your stomach

• If you still can’t, then try breathing deep into your stomach – this will often cause the tension required, and encourage your stomach to work naturally

 

 It’s good to do the above prior to your crunches or other abdominal workouts so that you do them with an activated core. You will then have a core that can help move your hips and keep them isolated from your top-line (upper body).

 

Upper body

 A strong and fluid upper body is required for good posture and balance while dancing. The most important thing for this is a chest and back that respond naturally while you move, and dance.

 

 To get this movement, swing your arms up above you’re your head or around your body or behind your head. The important thing is this is dynamic and there is a bit of a snap at the end to make the muscles respond. It is this snap at the end that really gets the muscles switched on, and working naturally for better posture and upper body control.

 

Taking it further

 The above should have convinced you that a nice moving body is good for dance and something that you can work on outside of your dance class.

It has also given you some basic ideas on what you can try doing to improve this movement, However, it is just an introduction. There are many programs out there that will help you take this further. Part 1 of Dance Better Now has some suitable exercises, but Part 2 has some really good stuff along with other useful information for dance students looking to improve their learning ability.

 

Other products

 If you’re interested specifically in improving your body though, then take a look at the products below. I have used them and found them to be excellent. For full disclosure, note that I will get a commission if you make a purchase. That should not affect your decision, but I want to be transparent with these things.

 

Code of the Natural (For men)

by Rob Brinded

Rob has put together a really interesting package here. It is a book that explains a system that is designed to free up your body to give more attractive movement (which includes symmetry). The thing is that such movement is ideal for dancing. When I used this system I felt my walk and movement improve after about two weeks. I also got comments on how well my body (especially my hips, which are hard for men) was moving. Even though this is meant for men, women can perform the same exercises. Rob tells me that a womens version will be out soon. Once it is I will have a link to it here.

 

 

 

The Truth About Six Pack Abs

by Mike Geary

A strong core can be key to isolation in dance, and better movement.

This e-book covers the keys to building a strong core, increasing fitness and trimming down to have good looking and athletic body. I have still been able to use the contents of this book to build a stronger core that allowed for much better dance.

Click the abs --------------------->  

 

Getting to the bottom of great dancing

Do you know how important strong buttocks are for good dance?

I first want you to try something. Stand up and try to get into the Latin dance position where the pelvis is pulled forward. Now try squeezing your buttocks while you do this.

If you do not do Latin dancing, then just stand normally and squeeze your buttocks.

You should notice how squeezing your buttocks brings the pelvis forward.

This is a simple exercise to show how important your gluteal muscles are to your poster. It is most common in Latin that you need to take a position where your pelvis is tucked and brought forward. However, in all dance it is important that your pelvis is not pulled back too much. This is simply not good dance posture in any style.

If you have well developed gluteal muscles, then you will find it easier to have a better poster naturally.

Safer dancing

However, you will also be less likely to have pain or injuries that could be caused by dance or that will prevent you from dancing.

One of my dancing friends recently sustained an injury that while not major in itself caused his gluteal muscles to weaken for a period. This then put extra strain on his groin, which led to another injury that was much more serious than the original dance.

If you don’t have strong well developed buttocks, then you can injure other parts of your body. And it’s not just your groin.

Do you ever have back pain when dancing or just from standing or walking?

If you do, then next time you are feel back pain, try squeezing your buttocks. You will potentially feel that pain go away and notice that your pelvis comes forward.

With strong buttocks you will be much less likely to be injured or unable to dance due to pain.

But that’s not the only benefit to your dance.

Do you ever have trouble lunging?

If you do not have strong buttock, then you will like find lunging puts a large strain on your thigh muscles (often close to the knee) and you might have troubles maintaining good posture in the upper body as you do.

If you find that lunging does prove a challenge, then next time try to focus on using the gluteal muscles on the side you are lunging too. You should find that it is easier and that you have better posture.

I know how much strong buttocks can improve dance, but how do you make them stronger?

How to quickly increase your buttock strength

If you now think you need to work on this, then here’s the easiest way:

When walking focus on flexing your gluteal muscles to help you walk. One your left foot touches the ground, flex the left gluteal muscles. Then the right and so on. You will notice two things:

1. Your gluteal muscles can work more than they do when walking
2. You will be walking faster with little more effort.

If you want to extend this further, then focus on doing the same thing as you walk up stairs. You will feel the same thing as when you walk, but it will be much more intense.

This is a good start, but you can go further with dedicated exercises. I was recommended this one by the friend I mentioned earlier.

1. Buy a Thera band (if you do not have one)
2. Stand near a chair or table for support
3. Wrap the band around your ankles
4. Push you pelvis forward
5. Stand upright
6. With a straight knee take one of your feet back
7. Take your foot back as far as you can while keeping the knee (on the same side) straight and your pelvis forward
8. You will really feel it in your buttock if you’re doing it right

 

 

Do this 10-20 times each side depending upon how hard it is – this will depend upon your fitness and the stiffness of the band.

If you would like to take this even further then Conditioning for Dance by Eric Franklin is an excellent book. It has a lot on the buttocks and just a lot on dance in general. I use it a lot when I feel a part of my body is not really working quite as well as it could be or needs to be for better dance.

 

Why do women dance better than men?

This article/post has actually been a long time coming. I have only written it now because I have had the time to properly think about the REAL cause behind the question why women dance better than men.

I actually have been thinking a lot about a number of things that I have read about the differences between men and women. I have also been thinking about the different responses that I have been getting from the men and women that I have spoken to while helping them to find better ways to learn dance. Finally, I have also been thinking a lot about what I have read by other experts on dance and learning dance. After spending time considering these things, I am pretty sure that I now understand why it is that women do dance better than men.

As you might know I also have an email list where I email subscribers things I find that help people learn dance faster*. I cover a lot of different things in these emails. One of the things I focus on though is training your body so that it naturally moves well. In part 2 of the e-book Dance Better Now I go over the key exercises that I have found to help most. However, I learned most of them from a man called Ron Brinded who released a book called Code of the Natural, which you can read more about via the link below.

This book was specifically aimed at men, but Rob told me that the exercises he covers inside work just as well for women in freeing up the body for more attractive movement. I tried them and they worked really well. I then got a female dance friend of mine to also try them and she found the same thing. However, the product was aimed at men so I only told my male subscribers about it. The women still could learn the exercises in Part 2 of my e-book anyway.

Another issue I cover is confidence and feeling attractive enough to think someone would want to dance with you. This lack of confidence actually limits a lot of people from dancing socially as much as they would like. This is a real shame because social events are an excellent place to get the best kind of practice in. For men, the best program I came across was the Authentic Man Program (AMP). It was set up by a group of guys who felt that if you could be authentic and true to yourself then you would feel (and actually be) much more attractive. To see what I am talk about, you can click on their link below. This was very clearly a product for men so I only sent it to men.

When I sent these emails out the response I got from some men was quite remarkable. The best word to describe it was hostile. Also, because of the language used I can’t really reproduce the comments here. At first you might think that people found such products to be offensive, but the thing is I tell women about similar products for women too. Not only that, but I assumed if people were offended, then they would simply unsubscribe from the email list; not go out of their way to voice their hostility with such anger, which requires a much greater effort.

One of the keys to dance is body language. If you have attractive body language, then you will be a better looking dancer. A woman by the name of Patty Content, who once used to be a professional dance competitor, found that her body language skills in dancing actually carried over to helping her feel better in very day life and attracting men. She codified these ideas into an e-book on femininity. I figured that women who wanted to be more attractive dancers could use her lesson on body language so I sent a link to her site to me female subscribers. You can see her product by clicking the link below.

The response I got from the women on my email list? It was the exact opposite of the reaction that I got from the men. Actually, it was one of the most positively responded to emails I ever sent out. I recall one woman saying ‘These are things my mother just never taught me and it’s time I learnt.’

Why were women so open to learning about ways to improve their dance, even if they seemed to on a tangent from dance, but men were so hostile to them? Given the nature of the products and the stereotypical view of men and women in modern society you might have expected the opposite.

I had to think about this question for a while. I am a believer that positive actions and comments come from positive emotions and that the negative emotions bring about negative actions and comments. That meant that for some reason women saw opportunity and men saw something like a threat, thus the hostility. Then, while I was thinking about this, I came across two related articles written by some people who I sometimes read (I read about a lot of topics so I can’t give too much attention to any one person).

The first article was written by a guy called John Allanis. John is basically like a dating expert and advises men on how to present themselves so that women would want to approach them; John actually thinks this is the way dating is meant to work. I am not sure if I agree, but I think he makes some interesting points. You can read learn more about him and his ideas here.

One point he made that I found interesting was to do with the fear of looking stupid. Men are ‘told’ by society that they should always be competent. Therefore, to learn something new a man will need to transition through that period of incompetence that makes him look incompetent, and foolish. This can cause great fear, which can then result in hostility toward that which he needs to learn. A man might even decide to never really try so that he need never look incompetent, and then never improve. Therefore, men need to have the courage to look foolish if they wish to become better.

The second article that left an impression while thinking about this topic was by Peter Lovatt, who is a research psychologist and a dancer. He found that men are always less confident than women when it comes to dance and attributes this is a lack of training. The opposite is true however, when men are over the age of 60, when they no longer seem to care too much. You can see the article here.

So if men lack confidence in dance and feel threatened by taking serious action that might seriously reveal a lack of skill and ability to improve their dance, then thy might respond with hostility. This is why I think I got the response that I got – the men saw something that they were not good at (being more attractive to women for better dance ability), and became fearful of confronting this. Women on the other hand were prepared to confront a lack of similar skill and try to become better.

This is of course a generalisation. Some women might also be hostile toward the notion of looking incompetent to become better and some men will be able to confront the fear. The lesson for all dancers is that if you wish to become better, then you will need to confront this fear. You also need to remember that there is a lot to dance, and the things you will need to confront could be very diverse and reveal all sorts of inabilities you never thought you would need to deal with.

You will need to confront these inabilities in a positive manner and actually view the confrontation as a chance to improve. If you do choose to think of each event that might display your inability simply as a step toward improvement, then the fear will subside. And then you do not even have the issue of fear to deal with in the first place.

So how do you respond to people offering new and challenging ways to improve your dance? Or any other skill for that matter?

 

* If you’re not signed up, then you might want to. You get a free e-book when you do and you will get extra information on how to learn dance that will augment what you get from this blog. You can sign up here.