Tight Calves

I wrote this a few years ago, when Gerald Arpino was still alive. He may be gone, but I still wouldn't cross him.

One of my students said to me, with quite a distressed look on her young face, "My calves are tight and really hurt! What can I do?"

Okay, if your calves, or any of your muscles are tight and causing you pain, there are two things you must look at first; water and stretching- are you getting enough of either? Dehydration is a primary cause of muscle cramps, and tight muscles are heading that way; every time you use a muscle, you are contracting it, so you must stretch it out as well.

You must drink water. You must drink a lot of water. You must drink water on a frequent basis. You should take a water bottle with you into class and take a couple of sips at least every 15 minutes. If you are with a teacher that doesn't let you drink water, run, run away, run away screaming from this lunatic! Dehydration is an athlete's worst enemy and ANYONE who says dancers aren't athletes is a fool. Go ahead; tell 'em I said so! No lesser than Gerald Arpino, co-founder and current Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet calls dancers "Artistic Athletes" and if you want to argue with him, I have only one thing to say to you: where do you want your body sent?

Quick tip: every time you pass a water fountain, anywhere, take a sip.

Stretching is like drinking water; you probably won't do too much. (Now don't go out and try to prove me wrong and stretch so much you look like an old rubber band). In an ideal world, you would stretch after every exercise. As it is, most dancers wait until they've done something really strenuous, like one of my fondue combinations, to stretch and that's like waiting until you're thirsty to drink water- it's too late, you're already dehydrated. Stretch BEFORE your muscles get tight, and drink water BEFORE you get thirsty, that way, your muscles won't get tight and you won't get thirsty.

Yes, it is that simple.

But, wait, there's more!

Your technique has a great bearing on how tight or loose your muscles are. I learned this the hard way- I tore a calf muscle. Two months before I had to go guest in a NUTCRACKER! I had to quickly relearn landing (and stretching), but I did, and when I went to do my NUTCRACKER, the local director said I had the softest plie she had ever seen. This was because I had changed my technique out of sheer necessity. I do not recommend doing it that way. Try this, instead; when you land from a jump, you must use the muscles in your feet and calves to control the landing, placing the heel gently onto the floor, but after your heel is down, you can relax the calves, using the muscles in your thighs and hips to keep control. If you keep a muscle under constant tension, it occludes the blood flow (go look it up) and fuel (nutrients) cannot get into the muscle. This results in fatigue. One of the reasons marathoners can run such incredibly long distances, is they have trained their muscles to relax as well as contract, so that there is a constant flow of fuel. If you don't relax your calves when you have the opportunity, they will get very tired very quickly. I was working with a fantastic dancer last year on the Lilac Fairy variation for Sleeping Beauty and I made it a point (pardon the pun) to get her to relax her calves at certain moments, giving the muscles vital time to rest. Just coming off pointe for a few seconds and walking gently (in classical ballet style) gave her enough rest to get through a dificult solo.

Furthermore, you MUST put your heels down when you plie, either in adagio, turn combinations, or jumps. This is where I disagree with Mr, Balanchine. I think Balanchine dancers are wonderful and I base a lot of my teaching on Mr. B's principles, but keeping the heels off the floor is something I think is simply wrong, We were taught at SAB that you should be able to slip a piece of paper under your heel at all times. This puts constant and, in my opinion, undue stress on the calves, never giving them a chance to relax. (The guys in my class actually wrote a song, "Tendonitis Blues" about the subject). You must put your heels down, not slam them into the floor, of course, but put them down, to relax the calves and for balance. Mr. B felt that keeping them off the floor allowed for greater speed, but there are better ways to teach this. The Bournonville style of not sitting in your plie, and taking off again the instant your heels contact the floor, is much safer and can be just as fast. The great Stanley Williams taught this. To do this properly, you have to be able to relax your calves instantly, so that you can get that moment of rest. Practice, practice, practice. It isn't bouncing, but that's a subject for another blog.

So, water, stretching, and putting your heels down properly. Those three things will go a long way to giving you supple calves and a soft plie.

See you in class.