101 Reasons to Study Ballet - # 25 Warm Your Body

Reason # 25 Warm Your Body

The ballet barre is a series of exercises that warm your body to perpare to dance. A good ballet teacher knows how to warm you up properly. Professional dancers are careful with their bodies and this warm up has developed over 300 years. Every barre workout alternates the big and small muscles groups accelerating the exertion needed in a gradual method. Most dancers like to develop a warm up routine that they do before class starts. These pre-class warm ups can be simple :
Examples
> Roll head to right slowly and then left
> Roll wrists slowly out and in
>lying down on their back the dancer assumes a low passe, legs parallel and then turned out
> Reach up slowly to releve then slowly roll down to touch the floor
There are many more warm up exercises that dancers add to their routine before class.
Ballet will warm your body and help you gain a healthy body.
http://www.theballetcenter.org/

101 Reasons to Study Ballet - #19 Go to the Barre

Reason #19 Go to the Barre

We don't drink at the ballet barre. We do a series of exercises designed to prepare the body for classical ballet. The barre is a stationary wooden or metal pole that is a used as a handrail. We use the barre during ballet warm up exercises. We also refer to the exercises that are performed at the barre, as "barre". Why use a barre? The barre helps dancers by providing stability and balance, while learning correct placement and building strength for dancing in the center. The exercises at the barre include: plie, battement tendu, battement degage, fondu, rond de jambe a tere, develope, battement frappe, rond de jambe a l'air, and grand battement. We also use the barre to stretch legs, back and other parts of the body.Join your friends at the barre, join a ballet class today.

http://www.theballetcenter.org/