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Ballet/ballet for gymnastics

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Expert: - 11/16/2008


Question
Hello, I am a competitive gymnastics coach and I am looking for some basic excercises for my girls to incorporate into their training.  They need to develop nice turn out and leg strength specifically for the required dance done on beam and floor.  Gymnastics has been incorporating more ballet and I would like to start my little ones off correctly.  Please help!

Answer
Specific exercises are tough to give.  I used to do gymnastics, so I know that the girls already are getting tons of conditioning.  This, obviously, is very important.  Dance-wise, the best thing might be having them take a ballet class a few times a week.  Important exercises include adagio, an exercise where the leg is held up in the air for a long period of time to build strength.
Also, the girls can do releves (calf raises) to build leg and foot strength.  
Ideally though, a full ballet class would be most helpful.
I'm sorry I couldn't be more specific!

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Connie

Expertise

I can answer lots about ballet, specifically the Vaganova syllabus. I'm still training, but both my parents were professional dancers, so most answers will be coming from them, not me. :) They're the experts. Obviously, questions about difficult technique, etc, would be better answered with someone else, but if you're just becoming interested in dancing, or are having problems with basic steps, like pirouettes or plies, then I may be able to help

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I've seen ballet since the age of 0, because of my parents, and I am training to become a professional dancer now.

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