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How Fitness and Dance Are Related?
My own way into fitness started with injury rehab, many years after I started dancing. After several months off the dance floor, while actively doing rehabilitation exercises, I discovered upon my return that my balance, posture, and pivoting technique had dramatically improved. And it all happened without a single dance drill! That episode not only prompted me to start fitness certification and shifted my professional career but also made me reconsider the dance training that I was taking myself, as a social Argentine tango.
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With roughly 30 years of amateur dancing, I have experienced many dance styles, solo (ballet, Brazilian samba, flamenco, belly dancing) as well as couple's dancing (Ballroom, Brazilian zouk, fusion). For now, I call my home Argentine tango spending most of my practice and teaching with this dance. In my private practice, I combine dance instruction and dance drills with targeted muscle training.
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Fitness for Dancers
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Despite variations in the dance styles, all of them require exceptional body control. Specifically, Argentine tango requires superior balance, the ability to manipulate the axis, as well as the ability to relax some muscles (like the arms, shoulders, and the free leg) while engaging other body parts (core and mid-back muscles). In my work, I use dance drills, fitness excercises, and the Progressive Ballet Technique approach.
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Photo: Josseph Amado
Progressive Ballet Technique (PBT)
PBT is a fun, powerful, yet gentle method to improve posture, build a stronger core, and improve flexibility and mobility. Despite being initially created for ballet dancers, it has huge benefits for dancers of other styles, as well as for wider public who are looking for ways to build core strength and improve joint flexibility in a novel and playful way.
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Areas of Focus
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With Argentine tango dancers, I focus on the following aspects:
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Strengthening the core and balancing the work of the abdominals and the back muscles
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Strengthening the lower part of the body and gaining better control over hip, knee, ankle, and foot joints
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Correcting tension and stiffness (i.e. shoulders, hips, knees, etc.) by loosening the muscles and/ or engaging the dormant muscles that are underactive
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Coaching on healthy movement patterns to reduce pressure on sensitive zones (lower back, knees, and feet).
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Training Toolbox
Dependig on specific demands and physicality I use Core, Balance, Flexiblity and Stretching, Resistance Training, corrective excercises, Progressive Ballet Technique, and plyometrics as needed.
Photo: Josseph Amado