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Why Do Gymnasts & Ice Skaters Take Dance Classes? By Ms. Geneva

Throughout my 12 years of teaching in different parts of the country, I have had serious gymnasts and ice skaters in my dance classes at every single studio I have taught. I find it extremely fascinating how dance can provide a deeper level of training for them and help them perform better in their field.

In Texas, I taught at a studio across the street from a gym that trained Olympic gymnasts such as Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin. Having young students in my ballet class train across the street, all the other days of the week, made me wonder if one day one of my ballerinas would be an Olympian. I've also had ice skaters who would practice at 5am every day before school and then take dance a few nights a week tell me how ballet helped them in their competition routines. I love being motivated by my own students! Here at Dreams Dance Academy we have quite a few gymnasts and ice skaters take our classes. Ballet, lyrical, jazz, you name it! There are many key elements that gymnasts and ice skaters can benefit from by taking dance. Here's a few!  

How does dance help gymnastics?

  1. Posture/Alignment: Holding the core in tight to create a long spine needed for balance and strength. Gymnasts have to use high arms with high shoulders and often accentuate a curvy spine. Dance helps control all of that intense core movement.
  2. Feet: How to use the feet properly to their fullest extent, as gymnasts have to point their feet all the time too! Notice the male gymnasts have wonderful straight lines from the hips down to the ends of their toes while doing the rings routine. Also notice the women have to constantly keep their toes pointed in the parallel barre routines as well.
  3. Bending the knees: Softening the landing on flips, preparing for multiple turns, taking off for jumps all begins with the focus on bending the knees that is taught in dance. 
  4. Elegance on floor routines & balance beam: It is very obvious to me when a gymnast has wonderful dance skills by watching their floor & balance beam routines. Rolling on the ground, connecting movements together with grace, dance portions in the routines (even down to the final pose), high kicks, and pirouettes all show off their dance skills & training.
How does dance help ice skating?

  1. Upper body: The use of their arms in skating is very similar to ballet even with how they hold their fingers, alignment of their shoulder blades, and use their neck.
  2. Preparing for take-off and landing: In the prep for take-off for jumps/turns, the control of core, use of legs, form in the air, and landing in arabesque are all movements learned in dance.
  3. Turning: Ice skaters turn fast and often do not spot their head (that would probably cause whiplash). However, the form used in their turn and doing turns off the ice is important to practice in order to rely on their own body to hold them up. 
  4. Presentation/Artistry: Just like dancers, ice skaters need to show emotion on their face & let the emotion take over their whole body while skating. This will drive up their score and make them stand out as true performers. There is nothing more glorious than watching an ice skater perform Swan Lake with so much passion that it leaves the audience in tears. As it should! In lyrical dance classes we even do exercises where you have to dance like a particular emotion (angry, sad, joyful, etc.).  Ice skaters have said this helps them figure out how to emotionally connect to their performances on the ice.
Ms. Geneva Aboites, DDA Instructor  https://www.dreamsdance.com/team-bios

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