Having a strong core is vital to most dances we
learn. The core is what keeps us from being able to do spins without falling
off, hold our pose, and do isolations. It is also where the center of gravity is, and joins our upper body to our lower body anatomically. If your core is strong, you're likely to be able to hold yourself together for complex techniques, and you can have better dance lines in general because you're able to control your extensions.
I personally have a few set routines to do core
exercises and strengthen them, and so far, I have felt that my dance techniques have
looked better because of my ability to hold the core and position them in awkward angles if the choreography calls for it. But in order to improve
and feel more grounded and secure as you turn, flat back forwards and backwards,
dip and do aerial patterns, it’s important to keep training them.
Many dancers I know recommend doing crunches to
5 minute long songs, and even planking for one full minute, and then going on
the sides to work on the oblique muscles respectively. But sometimes it’s
better to have more dynamic exercises in order to utilize your body to its
maximum potential and mobility.
Some of these exercises include lifting your
legs into a cycling motion as you crunch, lifting your elbows to touch your
knees in the process. Then, you can speed up this exercise, but it’s important
to keep your legs straight out as much as possible throughout the exercise. The important aspect here is to maintain that power in each set of exercises you do.
There are programs out there that provide more
dynamic exercises too. A good example would be the Six Pack Shortcut system. I’ve
tried one for my chest and back muscles and the burn is insane, but it’s
vital to work on the back muscles along with the core so that poses like the
back attitude and arabesque can look nice and well aligned.
Mike Chang is great at explaining the exercises
and you can do these pretty quickly, but you must make sure that you’re really,
really pushing yourself as you’re doing the exercises. If not, you won’t get
the results as quickly as expected.
Make sure you stretch those muscles out when you're done with the exercises. As dancers, we should aim to develop lean muscles instead of bulky ones. That way we can look really graceful and petite, yet surprise people by our strength.
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