Active Relaxation

The physical and artistic demands of being a dancer can be overwhelming.  Massive expectations from outside, and inside sources, can push you into the unhealthy regions of self-harm.

Dancers tend to over-work, which unchecked, can become detrimental to body and soul, and set training goals back, rather than advance them forward.

Although we admire dancers for their work ethic and laser-like determination, over-working puts so much pressure on the anatomy and things can start acting in opposition to the desired effect.

If your body never gets a chance to release all the work it has undergone, it starts to hold onto that state of effort as the norm, or *baseline.  

*The baseline is the optimal resting condition before the body prepares itself for dynamic action.

Letting Go Makes Space For More

Imagine squeezing a sponge until it’s a tight, little ball.  You’ve pushed out all the water until it’s completely empty, and therefore, it should be able to soak up more water, right?  

Not if you don’t let go first.  If the sponge stays balled up tight, and you don’t let it relax, it loses all capacity for gaining anything else.

Now, for example, think of that sponge as your external rotators.  See yourself working so hard to open your hips and hold onto that rotation when you’re standing in first position.  This type of holding is often referred to as ‘gripping’.  You may look like you’re in the best first position you’ve ever accomplished, but now you’re locked in.  How is your body expected to move, or create any other position, when you’re gripping so tightly?  

If you don’t allow those muscles to relax and stretch, you’ll only ever be able to find that amount of rotation in that gripped state, which is essentially a particular shape. That is not helpful to your goals of external rotation while dancing, ie. movement.  Your body will not be able to find what it needs for a dégagé to second, or a pirouette in retiré, because it can’t use the same grip for those movements.  

Additionally, over-working can present as chronic tension in seemingly unrelated areas of the body, muscle imbalance, locked or dislocated joints, headaches, or tummy troubles. 

Similarly, over-stretching can cause the same sort of adverse result, which are addressed here.

Effectively finding and utilizing your technique is a balance between holding on and letting go.  It means knowing which muscles to activate, and which to relax.  It isn’t about flexibility.  It is about actively letting go of over-worked muscle tension to create space in your body for the greatest range of movement possibilities.

Very rarely do we get to practice letting go, but it is crucial for our physical and emotional needs as dancers, and now is your chance to focus.

← Try this Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique and see how it makes you feel!