Cheaper Ways to Stay in Shape This Summer

Training to be a dancer is expensive! Classes can range from $10-$30 per session, and then there's summer intensives, costumes, shoes, dancewear, rehearsals, and gas money! It's the summer, and you've got plenty of things to spend your money on besides classes.

Hold on, I'm not saying you shouldn't take class. Please do - if you can, take at least ballet (preferably multiple times per week) and one other style (jazz, modern, contemporary, lyrical, hip hop, ballroom, etc) to keep your technique up. But for those of us who are strapped for cash, I've got a few free and/or cheap ideas to keep you in your best dance (and bikini) shape.

Free Ideas:

1. Swim in your local community pool - swimming is absolutely fantastic cross training for dancers. It's easy on the joints, the water provides natural resistance (strength training!), increases your lung capacity, and it's intensely cardiovascular if you do laps.
2. Jogging - great cardiovascular exercise, and you can listen to music, explore new places, and relax while you're at it. Jogging also trains your legs to move in a pattern very different from dancing - you get to spend a lot of time in parallel, learning how to be efficient and push off of your back foot. For even better training, do it on the beach!
3. At-home workout - create a regimen of all your favorite (and least favorite) exercises and stretches. Be sure to alternate strength, endurance, stretching, and cardio, and choose exercises that will target various muscle groups.
4. Exercise-ize your daily life - if you don't have time to devote to a daily ritual, add little things throughout your day. Park as far away as you can from the front door, use a basket instead of a cart in the grocery store, take the stairs instead of the elevator/escalator, push your chair back and do squats while you're on the computer, or pull out that shake weight you got as a gag gift for Christmas. Even better: wear ankle weights. You can easily make your own with a pair of old socks and some rice.
5. Grab a yoga mat or towel and look up yoga exercises on Youtube - it's easy to follow along! You can put on some relaxing music and rewatch the exercises as many times as you need to get them right.
6. Get a few friends together and teach your own dance classes - you don't need to be in a real studio to dance, especially if you're doing a ballet barre and center adage and petite allegro! Switch off who's preparing the lesson plan and playing "teacher" (don't want to lose your alignment, it's always good to have someone else watching). You'll be more motivated to follow through if other people are in on it, and you gain valuable teaching experience. I firmly believe that if you can teach your peers, you can teach anyone!
7. Watch movies or Youtube dances and learn the moves - teach yourself some fantastic choreography! Or...
8. Create your own dance film - I did, and it was so much fun! Choose a song, a theme, and flex your choreographic brain. Hey, maybe you'll get Youtube famous and I'll be posting your video on my "best of the best" posts (if you do make a film, PLEASE link me)!
9. Bike or rollerblade wherever you go - if you live in a town small enough, or if you don't need to go too far, consider walking or biking!
10. Instead of meeting your friends for coffee, go hiking - that'll save you the $4.95 you were about to spend on a latte, and you get some fun bonding time while working up a sweat and communing with nature.
11. Do Pilates during commercial breaks - no one likes commercials. Even a few minutes of exercise interspersed will get your blood pumping instead of being a complete couch potato.
12. Have dance parties in your own house - whether you dress up and invite your friend group over for a private club night or you're rocking out to Top 40 in your underwear, have fun while listening to great music and making a fool out of yourself.

Cheap Ideas:

1. Find a fun exercise DVD or game - there are awesome Zumba, Pilates, and Yoga DVD's on the market! Make a trip to your local Target or Walmart and pick out a few fun ones to do with your mom or best friend. If you've got a Wii Fit, have fun while working out with games like Just Dance!
2. Consider getting a gym membership - some people love gyms! If your parents don't have a treadmill at home, find a gym that's close to your home. They might be offering some great summer deals or student discounts. If you go a few times a week, it could cost you only a dollar or two for every time you go - loads cheaper than dance class. I know some gyms in the area that are offering deals that would cost me the price of two classes at my dance studio.
3. Invest in your own small exercise equipment - over the course of my dance career, I've gathered lots of handy items that help me do a full body workout at home. It's not much equipment, but I'll have them forever. Other things like ankle or wrist weights, a Pilates band or ring, and light dumbbells could also be a good investment.
4. Just take one class - if you want to get started in Yoga or Pilates and don't know how, find a great studio and take a class or two. Ask the teacher for a list of the exercises you do or for recommendations on a book or website to help remind you of how to do each exercise. Then carve out an hour or two every week and practice what you've learned!
5. Go shopping instead of online browsing - grab a friend and hit the streets or mall! Bonus points if you take the stairs instead of the escalator or if you bike instead of drive. 

To help you save money: 

1. Vow to stop drinking soda and other flavored drinks - these calorie and sugar-laden drinks can really subtract from your wallet and add to your waistline. Choose lighter options like tea, or try flavoring your water with cucumber or lemon.
2. Choose classes wisely - if you are going to take class (good idea), choose classes you absolutely need. I'd take at least two or three classes a week, with at least one of those being ballet. Ballet isn't the basis of dance for nothing.
3. Find studios closer to home - my studio is a good 45 minutes away in traffic. If you're not too attached to any one studio, I'm sure your wallet will thank you - gas is expensive!
4. Don't eat out as much - eating out is expensive and unhealthy! Make your own meals at home with your parents or friends.

I'll admit I don't take a lot of my own advice. I've only done half of the things I've listed above. But hey, I'm trying! Maybe my ideas will help you. What tips do you have for staying active on a dime?

Don't Lose Hope

I guess I'm writing this more as therapy for me (I'll dance out the rest of my frustrations tonight). But hopefully, my thoughts will help you too.

What started as an offhanded comment to my mom about how under-accomplished I feel compared to some of my college dance classmates (saw one in an ad in Dance Magazine, saw a few more on TV) ended in crying over my (lack of) future prospects in the dance field.

Facts:

1. No, I'm not the best dancer in my program.
2. No, I do not go to the best dance program ever.
3. No, I do not have that much training compared to most dancers.
4. No, I do not have an agent and have never danced professionally. 
5. No, I do not have any "real world" experience.

Since I decided to go into dance, I wanted to go to New York. First, for college, but when that didn't happen, I wanted to move to NYC after college to dance. It's so cosmopolitan and eclectic for all forms of art, and is definitely a dance mecca. Lots of dancers move to the city to give it a go. Not many of them "make it."

It's scary. I still have time left in college (thank goodness), but I'm already daunted by the idea of moving so far away from home into one of the most expensive cities in the world with one of the least lucrative job aspirations. I don't come from a family that can support me no matter how much money I'm losing on rent or how many injuries I sustain - I'm pretty much on my own. Supporting myself with dance seems unlikely, and even less likely given the fact that I'm not even the most noticeable dancer in my own college program.

There are so many times I have wished that I loved something else (like theoretical physics). But I don't, I have to accept the fact that I'm meant to dance. I have been incredibly lucky thus far with my timing and the opportunities given to me, and I am thankful for each one. Even though it's hard sometimes, I have faith that I'm a dancer and that that's okay. I may not be the best, but I'm good. Every company, choreographer, group, etc is looking for something different, and I believe that I have something that somebody will see and say 'I want to hire that.' I don't expect anything, but I also believe in my accumulated skills on and off the dance floor. And when you get scared, you should too. Just have faith, and don't lose hope. It's all part of the dance life.

Epiphany!

I literally had one of the biggest epiphanies of my entire dancing life (okay, entire life, period) in my modern class on Wednesday. The idea had started in my Pilates class on Tuesday, where my teacher used me as a model for the class. Every dancer's dream is to be used as a demonstrator for the class, right? Unfortunately, I was demonstrating for my inability, not my ability. I laid on my back on the floor, completely relaxing, while my Pilates teacher attempted to flatten my shoulder blades against my ribs. When she finished, I felt like I couldn't move: I have some pretty impressive winging shoulder blades:

My shoulders are like this, just worse. Angel wings? Photo Credit

Winging scapulae are not a freakish, crazy ability to be proud of and show off when your friends are doing crazy things with their tongues or thumbs (yeah, I did that). The wing is a sign that the muscles on your back aren't strong enough to hold your scapula down against your ribcage. If the subscapularis, serratus anterior, and rhomboids were strong enough, your scapula should glide along your ribcage, not pop off of it. All my life I've been trying to correct for this problem by pinching my shoulder blades together, which gets tiring after a while, so I stop. Problem still unsolved.

My epiphany? If I pull down on your lats (latissimus dorsi), it will automatically pull my scapulae down into place, my shoulders will float back, my core will activate, and my ribs will drop down. Aka, your back is connected to your core. Best posture of my freaking life.

For a while now, people have been trying to tell me my core is too weak. I've been doing exercises to strengthen my core and back while mobilizing my ribs and stretching the muscles that have been tightening (I've got terrible rib/back pain on the left side. Hurts to breathe). What I realized is that I'm not too weak (although the problem started because I was), the problem is that I'm not activating the right muscles. I'm not too weak, or moving too much or too little, I'm not moving right. I realized that my back doesn't hurt when I activate these muscles the right way.

Now, obviously things don't change overnight. You can't change the habits of a lifetime in half a week, so I've still got back pain. But as I near the end of this year of college, it's comforting to know that college has taught me something that no doubt will carry me through the rest of my career. I may have to spend this entire summer repatterning the way I dance, but it will increase my longevity in the industry and decrease my injuries.

Parents, studio owners, teachers, young dancers, dancers of all ages: catch it early. Don't let your student/child/friends/self get away with inefficient movement. College has been a process of unlearning everything my studio failed to teach me or hammered into me and reshaping my dancing into something malleable and efficient. Do it now!

PS: I'm at 30,000+ views! SO EXCITED.

Is Dance a Sport?

My school paper recently published an article concerning whether or not dancers should be allowed athletic health insurance coverage from the university. This brings up an interesting question that I've heard a lot in the past few years: is Dance considered a sport, and are dancers athletes?

Here's my answer: No, dance is not a sport. Yes, dancers are athletes. Let me explain myself.

Why is dance not a sport?
I defend dance as a sport sometimes because it can be competitive. There are dance competitions, it can be considered a "team" effort, and there is an audience and a "court," but dance is not essentially an athletic event. Sports have an ultimate goal, like getting a ball into a net, or scoring a certain number of points. Beyond having a biased referee, there are rules in a sport and they're followed objectively. In dance, there are no rules, no opponents, and almost everything is subjective.

How can dancers be athletes if dance isn't a sport?
People can be athletic without playing a sport. The girl next door who jogs for half an hour every day can be just as athletic as any "real athlete." Dance isn't as aerobic of an activity as many sports are (I mean, we don't run back and forth and purposefully tackle people for long periods of time), but dance requires motor skills, coordination, balance, and physicality like any other sport. Plus, have you seen the videos on SYTYCD dancers being tested at the Gatorade sports center? Dancers' reflexes and agility are better than even some basketball players. Every athlete's instrument is his or her body - there's nothing else that really does your work for you.

Should dancers be offered athletic health insurance?
Yep, I definitely think so. Dancers often have as many if not more complex injuries than athletes in sports. Sure, we don't have as many concussions as football players do (although, I've seen at least 5 concussions in my department of 100+ people in the past year, so that's debatable). But rotated pelvises, ribs, vertebrae? Sprained ankles, stress fractures, plantar fasciitis? Probably just as common in dance as in other sports.

Dance is a hybrid between a sport and an art. That's not to say there aren't others: what about figure skating? Figure skating has been an Olympic sport since the early 20th century. Ice skaters are judged in both technical capability/execution as well as artistic performance, just like dancers in dance competitions. There's little debate about whether figure skating is a sport, so should dance be one as well?

Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

Youtube Best of the Best: Updates 28

OPI - Culture of Color
Yes, you read it right. OPI, the nail polish maker. Made an ad with 4 dancers, each representing and wearing a different shade of OPI polish. In a dance battle with a horse. A horse. Yes, a horse.

Val Chmerkovskiy for Zendaya Coleman on DWTS
They added Contemporary to Dancing With The Stars! Interesting addition and pretty well done, but I don't think all the stars can keep up with this, and it might be dangerous for some.

Vinh Nguyen - Break Ya Neck
Clean, simple, but still brilliant concept, choreography, and filming.

Wrecking Orchestra - Amazing Tron Dance
I can't say the dancing is anything new or exciting, or even particularly good. But man, you've got to admire those special effects and how they use them. Fascinating.

Wayne McGregor and Mark Ronson - Royal Ballet LIVE - Carbon Life
Insider's perspective. Very cool!

Youtube Best of the Best: Updates 27

Gabe Copeland for Tap Overload - Poppin' Taps
Did I mention I'm obsessed with 'Thrift Shop'? No? Here's another clever version...tap style!

Gene Kelly - Tapping on Roller Skates
We all knew Gene Kelly was amazing, but color me impressed.

Jason Gorman - Baby's Romance
Musical and intricate, danced two different ways by two beautiful dancers.

The Royal Ballet - A Day in the Life of a Dancer
I'm sure not all ballet companies run their dancers' lives like this, but it's probably pretty close. Looks exhausting!

DS2DIO - Chachi Gonzales and Ian Eastwood in Dancers Among Us
If you haven't heard of Dancers Among Us, Chachi/Ian Eastwood, or DS2DIO/Jon M. Chu, you should go check them out.

tWitch & Allison

GOT ENGAGED! I can't even handle it.

Catch the video of the proposal here: http://www.dancespirit.com/2013/03/how-twitch-proposed-to-allison/

Tell me girls, is this how you'd want your future husband to propose if you were to marry a dancer? Do you want to marry a dancer?

When You Can't Dance...

In my previous post, I wrote on injury and how demoralizing it can be for a dancer. Sitting out is a terrible feeling. Your soul is screaming to dance and it breaks your heart that your body isn't able to facilitate that kind of movement.

I've been there. I was extremely demoralized myself when I wrote that piece. I've been struggling with a rotated vertebrae and twisted ribs that made it hard to breathe, slouch, and turn my neck to drive, let alone dance from Halloween until late December of 2012 (although, I had some pretty fabulous posture for a few months). I spent nights crying in frustration, or trying not to because it hurt to gasp for air. I didn't know what to do.

I sat out of a lot of classes. At my university, dancers who sit out of class fill out observation forms. Basically, you watch for specific things and answer questions. You write about dance and learn to develop a critical eye. I've always been a harsh critic watching dance, but a few things happened while I was watching that had never happened to me before:

1. I got to know the dancers around me. I mean really. I really watched them for the first time, without looking for things to make my dancing better or for things that they were doing wrong. I looked for dancing. Just pure movement. What came of it? I fell in love with literally every dancer around me at some point. And that made me so much more grateful for where I was and the opportunities I had.
2. I improved. Now that I'm dancing again (although not without pain), I feel that something has changed. Watching classes made me a better dancer. I notice this particularly in my modern class (strangely, the class I did not have to fill out observation forms for). When I came back to dance in late January, after 3 months having not danced a full modern class, I suddenly was on. On my leg. On my center. On fire. I absorbed so many nuances of the style and technique that I just never saw when I had to dance it just by watching.
3. My dynamic range is so much bigger. I have so many more choices now, simply because I took the time to watch. Watching other people make choices that I would never make prompts me to take risks and go where I would never go before, now that I know what's possible.

So I dare you to sit out and watch a class. Even if you're not injured. Heck, I think everybody should sit out and watch a class every once in a while. You start to see things you've never seen before, and it changes you. Since I took literally a 3 month break from classes, I've seen such a change in my dancing that I hardly recognize myself anymore. My muscles and skeleton move more efficiently, I'm more relaxed (I'm a pretty uptight, organized, anal retentive person, usually...if you can't tell already), and I'm in love with all of the dancers I know.

How did I see the change? I performed in our biggest show of the year in December, when my back was hurting so much I couldn't breathe sometimes and I depressed my navicular on opening night (leading to shin splints so bad I was limping for 2 weeks). However, I danced completely normally and characteristically of myself. In January, only a month later, I watched a video of myself dancing in a rehearsal video for a different piece. Sure, the styles were different and I wasn't in as much pain in the second video. But I looked different. I saw a different side of myself. I had never seen myself dance so freely, so relaxed. That's when I knew that taking the time off and changing my view on dance and on my injuries had made me a stronger person. Being a stronger person made me a stronger dancer, and it liberated me and made me capable of everything and anything I could think of. Sure, I'm still working on it, but I know that that break was crucial for me.

So if you're injured, please take this as an inspiration. Watch dance, but don't watch idly or critically. Watch actively, with what my sociology teacher calls "beginner's mind." Have no expectations and watch like you've never seen dance before. Like a sponge, absorb every nuance that you possibly can. You'll miss moving a lot, and I promise that it will be frustrating to sit out, all the same. But it could make all the difference, like it has for me.