How do you know when you're doing too much?

One of my students asked me this today. She takes a lot of classes and teaches and choreographs, and today was sore and tired, which prompted the question. In sailing, the answer to "When should you reef the sails?" is "The first time you think of it."

When your body starts to ache, to hurt, when it's telling you not simply to rest, but to stop, NOW, perhaps that is when you have reached the "too much" point. When injuries that should heal quickly, don't, when you can't remember the last time you didn't feel tired, when you start to question your love of the art, all these are red flags that say "too much".

Side note: this is a great site. Thanks, Gloria, for recommending it:
http://www.med.nyu.edu/hjd/harkness/patients/injuries/

One way to prevent injuries, is to do everything as correctly as possible, but the quest for perfection in dance can be deadly. We can always be better, and we should strive to be the best we can be, but there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. More is not better. Yes, you need to take a good amount of classes, not simply to work on your technique, but to increase your strength and stamina. One of the flaws in ballet class is the shortness of the exercises. The longest thing you're going to do in class is an adagio, or a long fondue combination that will last for 2 minutes, maybe. When you start performing, you quickly realize that "Waltz of The Flowers", or the Entrance of the Shades in "La Bayadere", or "Les Patineurs" are all a hell of a lot longer than 2 minutes, so you need some kind of stamina base so you don't die in your first rehearsals.

That being said, you can take too many classes. Not only physical fatigue sets in, but mental fatigue as well, and that takes a lot longer to recover from. If you're physically tired, a good night's sleep and you're good to go (remember to take that one day off a week). If you're emotionally exhausted, that can linger for weeks, and is downright dangerous, not only in dancing, but driving a car, or just walking down the street. If you do the exercises thoroughly, two classes a day is plenty. If you have the drive and energy to do more, by all means, go for it, but learn to listen to your body. It's going to give you the answer to
How do you know when it's too much?

Or. maybe it's time to reef the sails.

See you in class.

Starting Over

I tell my students that, when coming back from a vacation or injury or any time away from ballet, they should take the opportunity to start over. I don't mean forget all you knew about dancing; I mean, use the "new" time for your body to really dance properly.

When we, as dancers, get into a class, or class/rehearsal rhythm, we start to develop habits in our training. Some of these are conscious, as in working on something we don't do as well as we would like, or avoiding something we know we should work on, but don't. Some are completely unconscious, such as favoring one side, doing pirouettes more to our preferred side, or rehearsing a part and not realizing that it's all on one leg.

Coming back from an injury, we tend to work very correctly, so we don't re-injure ourselves (or, at least, we should). Coming back from a vacation can be all sorts of things: you come back slowly, which is good, too slowly, which isn't so good, or too fast, which isn't good at all.

I was thinking about all this the other day, when I was missing my students (yes, I do think about you when you're not around), and I thought, why wait for the vacation, or injury, to "start over"? Why not make it a daily thing (starting over, not getting injured).

Ballet class is your entire career in a microcosm. You begin with small, simple movements, holding on to the barre (not so tight!). When the body is ready (warmed up- which you should be when you start class, but that's a subject for another blog), you move on to more complex/difficult stuff, then you move to the center, and on and on, to the grande allegro. Every class affords you the opportunity to "start over". Every class, you can "learn" your technique anew, but with the added benefit of all the things you already know. You can go through the corrections your teachers have given you about specific stuff before you do it, apply them, and teach yourself to dance all over again, every day.

Every time you step to the barre to start class should be fresh. Yes, there are the aches from yesterday's classes or rehearsals. Yes, you might still be rolling on your feet. Yes, school, life, etc. may be weighing you down. All that has to be taken into account, of course, but it doesn't have to stop you from doing what you're in class for in the first place, learning to dance better. You can do that by "starting over" every day.

Happy New Year, and see you in class.