Ballet Exercises Stretch Routines

by Anneke

Ballet Exercises Stretch Routines: -

Hi Odette,
I was just wondering what is a professional ballerinas stretch routine? like what stretches would she do daily and in which order?
Thanks!
Anneke x

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Reply by Odette

To: - Ballet Exercises Stretch Routines

Hello Anneke,

Thank you for your queries, I'm always happy to help!

Ballet dancers love to stretch so it's a great question to ask.

Stretching is an important part to any dancer, whether professional or student. It's beneficial for all dancers to stretch along with their ballet class to feel the length through their muscles and stretch any tight muscles.

As a dancer, I always made sure I stretched my quadriceps, calves and glutes as these are the main muscles which often get tight for dancers.

The order of these stretches aren't crucial but, for example, I always liked to stretch out my calves after lots of jumping and petit allegro to ease my muscles.

There are also ballet stretches to increase flexibility. These would be stretches like the splits or shouldering the leg where you take one leg and hold it high to the side to get a deeper stretch.

Dancers tend to do these sort of flexibility stretches during and after class. I always liked having a nice stretch after barre where I'd shoulder my legs, do the spilts... any stretch that lengthened my body and let me feel more loose and free ready for centre work.

After class is the ideal moment to do deeper more intense stretches because this is the time when your muscles are most warm. The warmer your muscles are, the more pliable they are to stretch.

Stretching should always be gentle with a relaxing sensation to ease the muscles.

It's something that can't be done in a rush so all professional ballerinas provide some time to stretch and loosen the muscles!

All the best

Odette

ps. To become the best dancer you can be, learn the Seven Secrets ..... go to my 'Seven Secrets of Ballet' page