My second year of post-grad ballet training, I ran myself into the ground. I was bussing across town to swim laps before my morning classes and copying a friend’s intense looking core routine. My stamina got worse, core got weaker, and muscles seized up — it took me a decade to fully understand why.
I wanted to take better care of my body, and quite frankly, I needed the stress relief that movement brought me. But the misdirected effort left me frazzled and uncoordinated.
The way my brain works, I needed to understand the theory around appropriate training load, brain-body connection, and connective tissue resilience before I could apply it. So when my body and dancing fell apart, I got to work filling in my knowledge gaps.
My continuing education didn’t have much to say about adapting good training practices for adult recreational dancers. You can’t just do what teenagers in full time training or Olympic level athletes are doing — you have other stuff on your plate!
So I adapted the training tools myself, and started teaching adults that way.
Turns out — the complicated sounding protocols (when they’re truly customized for your needs) make it easier to practise consistently, care for your body, and improve your dancing — without quitting your job or spending an hour a day stretching.
Here’s a few options to dive in:
- The full scoop on periodisation for professional and pre-professional dancers
- PDF template to adapt periodisation and skills based training* for your busy life
- Private lessons — less is more when it comes to practising and improving consistently. I’ll help you refine the cues you use in class and add movement breaks that flow with your life and improve your dancing.
*You might not know which skills you want to prioritise or the stepping stones you’ll need to improve — that’s ok! I’ve got more resources planned to help you build your ballet skills in bite sized pieces.
Take it one step at a time and have fun out there,
Natasha