Tag: injury prevention

Discovering your sleep debt score and why it matters to a dancer

Discovering your sleep debt score and why it matters to a dancer

| September 30, 2013 | 1 Comment

You probably won’t know it, but you could already be deep into sleep debt and this silent loan shark is steadily stealing the shine off your performance. Sleep debt is caused by accumulating sleep loss over time and yes, your body does keep score – that late night I-know-I-shouldn’t-but-I’ll-have-it-anyway coffee sets you back at least […]

Continue Reading

Insider cross-training tips direct from the ballet professionals

Insider cross-training tips direct from the ballet professionals

| August 15, 2013 | 0 Comments

Do you ever have those days where you know there is so much more you can do in ballet class, but your body stubbornly refuses to cooperate? Of course you do, silly question, pushing the body beyond its boundaries is basically the definition of ballet, right? After all, there is no such thing as too […]

Continue Reading

Mind Over Body – Public talk in Johannesburg on 30 May

Mind Over Body – Public talk in Johannesburg on 30 May

| May 23, 2013 | 0 Comments

Are you injury-prone, struggling with your flexibility, weight or your health? What if it turned out that you have some hidden agendas and unconscious motives relating to your physical body? “No way” you say? Well, you may just change your mind, quite literally, after hearing this evening talk on 30 May 2013 where Dr John […]

Continue Reading

Why pro athletes care so much about sleep – and why you should too

Why pro athletes care so much about sleep – and why you should too

| April 9, 2013 | 1 Comment

Did you know that some high performing professional athletes get up to 12 hours sleep a night? Usain Bolt, widely regarded as the fastest sprinter on the planet, gives part of the reason when he says that “sleep is extremely important to me – I need to rest and recover in order for the training […]

Continue Reading

The surprising secret to activating your arches

The surprising secret to activating your arches

| March 30, 2013 | 3 Comments

When a teacher tells a dancer to lift the arches of the foot, you’d think it’s a simple instruction with no room for misinterpretation. Think again. Are you doing it wrong? Following our recent post on arches (Fact or Myth: Do high heels strengthen the foot arch), we’ll show you one surprisingly simple exercise to […]

Continue Reading

Fact or Myth: Do high heels strengthen the foot arch?

Fact or Myth: Do high heels strengthen the foot arch?

| March 20, 2013 | 0 Comments

Sorry ladies, this one’s definitely a myth, and a dangerous one at that, especially for a dancer. According to the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers have found that the Achilles tendon of women who wear high heels actually thicken over time and stiffen permanently. In fact, high heel wearers are found to have muscle fibres […]

Continue Reading