Can you do “the splits?”

Splits are a topic on most young dancers’ minds. I know when I was a student the ability to sit in a split seemed pretty important. Of course, flexibility and range of motion are certainly fundamental elements in dance. However, when it comes to stretching and splits some dancers place intense emphasis on achieving the ideal static position, forgetting that this type of flexibility is only part of the picture. They compromise the health of their instrument – the body – as they push to extremes to get results, and get results fast.

How fast is fast?

When it comes to stretching, “fast” is a very relative term. Online I’ve seen students inquiring how they might achieve a split over one weekend. Those offering branded stretching regimens that promise or imply fast results are usually talking weeks or months, but most correctly point out that results will vary depending on a number of factors. What are these variables?

• 

  Image via Wikipedia

  Joint anatomy and physiology

• Elasticity of ligaments and tendons
• Gender – While a male has the same potential for flexibility as any female, differences in bone structure, muscle mass, and chemical make-up, often mean that women generally encounter fewer obstacles in achieving a certain level of flexibility or range of motion.
• Age – As with gender, the potential to perform a split is there no matter your age but flexibility declines in adulthood, meaning that maintaining or increasing the degree of pliancy requires more effort for an adult than a child.
• State of mind – Don’t write off the degree to which your mindset plays a part – science doesn’t. Discoveries and investigation continues to determine the brain’s role in stretching, and several flexibility programs directly address the issue.

As enticing as improving your flexibility over a period of a few days or weeks sounds, research tells us extreme stretching methods and overstretching can be counterproductive to gaining flexibility.

How?

A mechanism called the stretch reflex sends signals to a stretched muscle, causing it to contract in order to limit lengthening and protect the muscle from tears. Entering a split too swiftly or aggressively strengthens the contraction, working against gains in flexibility (this is one reason ballistic stretching or bouncing is discouraged). Instead, easing into and holding a stretch is recommended. This maintains the length in the muscle to a point that it “gets used to” the increased length and respond by reducing the level of the reflexive contraction.

So the longer, I hold it the better, right? Actually, holding a stretch for very long periods of time (several minutes or longer) can cause damage to connective tissues, as does stretching without warming up the body. This damage requires time to repair and will actually slow progress in improving flexibility.

Are oversplits safe? Nothing is inherently wrong with working toward oversplits… gradually, progressively, just as you would work at achieving other splits. However, I would suggest proceeding with even more awareness and care. There are a few things I’d like you to consider when it comes to oversplits but look for these in their own post very soon.

When Is the Right Time to Stretch?

I think it is pretty common knowledge among dancers these days that one should not stretch “cold.” However that habit of walking into a studio or green room and settling into our favorite stretch or straddle is a hard one to break. I’m guilty myself.

What you may not know is that there are different kinds or ways of stretching. A split is considered a static passive stretch, meaning you are holding a stretch using your body weight or some other external force (as opposed to a static active stretch, like lifting your leg in arabesque, during which the stretch is held using the agonist muscles). Rather than warming up with static passive stretching, it is recommended that you begin with dynamic stretching, performing movements that address a joint’s full range of motion. Some basic examples of dynamic stretching can be found here. These are a good starting point for a warmup but a dancer would likely want to continue with dynamic stretches that are moderate (or milder) versions of the work (in class or on stage) to follow.

The best time for splits or other static passive stretches are after the body has been completely warmed up. During cool down after a class, for example.

What are some signals that I’m overstretching?

1. If you’ve warmed up thoroughly and there is still pain, or
2. If you experience muscle cramps or spasms, you may be stretching too aggressively.
3. If you have pain during or immediately after the stretch, you may have a serious tear (you will usually feel some soreness from a minor tear the next day – if this occurs try to improve your warmup method). Tears usually result in some loss of flexibility. Light stretching can counteract this following a minor tear but be very careful not to overdo it.
4. It may go without saying that if you hear a sound, like a pop, while stretching this is not a good sign. Stop immediately, follow the RICE method, and see a medical professional.

How Can I Get My Splits?

The answer isn’t exactly cut and dry. Everyone seems to have their own method and below I’ll point you to just some of the freely available and anatomically aware advice online. There are paid programs too but I can’t vouch for any of these because I’ve not tried them. Plus there are plenty of books on the subject. I welcome your thoughts on any programs or resources you’ve tried!

Splits and Flexibility Resources

• How to Improve Your Flexibility Safely Into the Splits – Lisa Howell (Lisa also has a Front Splits Fast program)
• Stretching and Flexibility – Brad Appleton
• Working Toward The Splits – Atlanta Martial Arts
• The Beginner’s Guide to Flexibility – Martial Arts Planet forum

Safe stretching is a huge topic with sometimes conflicting research. I couldn’t possibly cover it all in one or even two posts. The advice above, I hope, will help you determine if your current method or one you are exploring is a reasonably safe and healthy way to increase flexibility. Be wary of “too good to be true” claims and YouTube demonstrations from fellow students, please!

©2009 Dance Advantage. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Guest Post: Keeping on Your Toes — Preventing & Soothing Aches, Pains, and Muscle Strains
2. A Jeté That’s Truly Grand
3. Introducing the Iliopsoas

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I’d like to have you try a short exercise.

Look over the questions/suggestions below:

• Do any images or pictures come to your mind? What are they?
• Does the song cause remembrances of something, someone, or somewhere? If so, what?
• In what environment, if any, does the music place you?
• What kind of feelings does the music evoke?
• If you had to pick a color to represent this work, what would you choose?
• Give three adjectives that describe the work.
• Which instruments do you hear?
• Describe the tempo, the rhythms, the melody or musical quality (thundering and aggressive, or soft and soaring for example)

Now grab a pencil and paper or close your eyes…

Listen to one of these clips:

(don’t worry, you can try this with both if you want)

As you listen, quickly jot down (or think about) your responses to the questions above.

How did you do?

Did you find the exercise easy or difficult? Even if you didn’t particularly like the song, I’m sure you were able to answer some of these questions. In fact, you may not have needed much prompting to visualize during the music.

I’ve used this exercise with students before (usually in preparation for moving to the chosen selection). What I’ve noticed is that when listening to music, the students easily observe and express their reaction based upon what they’ve heard coming through the speakers. With very little prompting, they come up with vivid ideas, even without the benefit of lyrics as clues to the song’s intention. The natural instinct to experience music with their minds and hearts, as well as their ears, seems second nature for most. When viewing art in a visual medium, such as dance or painting or sculpture, it seems the process is inhibited. Perhaps it is harder ot let go of preconceived notions or expectations regarding the art form.  Perhaps it is more difficult to allow oneself to visualize or expound upon something that is already very visual. Whatever the problem, I’ve discovered that students, rather than simply letting the art affect them, get hung up on “What does it mean?” “What is this about?” “Am I the only one who doesn’t get it?”

It seems to me that the art of dance would prove more accessible if people viewed dance like they listen to music.

What do you think?

©2009 Dance Advantage. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Ballet, One Exercise at a Time
2. Dance Advantage Theme Music?
3. Help! My Child Doesn’t Listen to the Dance Teacher!

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Twitter is a great way to discover emerging websites, services, and businesses within the dance world. It was on Twitter that I first encountered DanceSignUp, a web-based application designed to bring together dance competition organizations and dance studios to simplify many of the tasks that are cumbersome when it comes to competitive events, like registration, scheduling, payments, and communication. (Click here to visit DanceSignUp on Twitter) A lot of work goes into preparing for competition season. So, with a sneaking suspicion that you might be interested in something that could help streamline the process, and because I see a lot of potential in this this newly developed site, I chatted recently with Bret Robertson. His design company, Honu Studios, is responsible for bringing DanceSignUp to life.

Bret, you are a web designer and developer. Do you dance, too?

I’m proud to say I don’t dance, and if you ever saw me try you would be proud that I don’t dance either. My wife does hula and my business partner Brian and his wife took a dance class over the summer. Overall, we enjoy watching much more than we actually participate. We have a respect and appreciation for those who dance and dedicate themselves to the craft.

What has been like to find yourself in the “world of dance?”

It really amazes us how large the dance community is. Whenever we mention DanceSignUp to someone we’re surprised how often the response is “Hey, I used to compete” or “I’m a teacher”. We think it’s great that many are so enthusiastic and willing to share their passion for the art form. We’ve met some really great people, thanks to social networking sites like Twitter, who have been really encouraging and helpful with great advice and a wonderful spirit. We look forward to meeting more, as we feel like we’ve just started to scratch the surface.

Even I feel sometimes that I’m scratching the surface of a very large community, one which I’ve observed has grown tremendously online since I began Dance Advantage a year and a half ago. The culture that surrounds dance training and education, in particular, is broad and varied. Competitions are currently a big part of that culture, which brings me to your project and how it serves the dance community.

In a nutshell, how might the competition registration process improve for dance teachers and studio owners who register for competitions through DanceSignUp?

The biggest improvement is centralized management, everything is in one place.

Studios maintain only one roster of students for all the competitions they want to sign up for. Age eligibility is automatically calculated as are routine prices, so there’s no math involved! All registrations, schedules, and payments for every dance competition are kept in one place. There’s no longer the need to copy or print off each registration form for each routine then try and remember where you put each one six months ago when you registered. We also make it easy to change a routine in case a dancer gets hurt or needs to be swapped out, there is no need to call or email the competition.

Finally, we make payments for studios, groups, individuals, and competitions really easy. We’re using Amazon’s Amazon Payments service. The great thing is that most people already have an Amazon account so there’s no need to open a new one. Plus, neither DanceSignUp or any competition sees your credit card information. Amazon is known and trusted and completely PCI compliant. If the issue of a refund does come up, they can be issued just as easily in full or in part by the competition back to the studio’s account.

Without actually exploring your application, it can all sound pretty complicated. Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Studio owners/teachers can add students to a single roster (complete with details on their age). Then when registering for whichever competitions are of interest, dancers can easily be pulled from the roster to routines which are then submitted for registration. And studios pay the competition’s fees through Amazon, all from DanceSignUp. You must be charging a service or convenience fee, right?

No, teachers/studios don’t pay anything to use DanceSignUp. They only pay competitions to register routines within the application.

We do charge the competitions a small fee for each transaction. A transaction can include one or more routines. We looked at two pricing models, subscription and pay-as-you-go. Ultimately since dance seasons don’t last the entire year the subscription model didn’t seem too practical being that there are months where registrations may not be submitted. With pay-as-you-go small or large competitions have a level playing field, neither pay anything until they have registrations coming in.

I have had the opportunity to explore the site, and one of my favorite features is the “Coming to Your Area” section which appears on a studio’s dashboard when they login. Can you tell me more about this?

Sure, the “Coming to Your Area” section shows a list of upcoming dance competitions that will be hosting events near you. This is a great way to learn about new competitions, maybe sign up a few small groups, and check them
out.

The cool thing about this feature is that it levels the playing field, so to speak. It gives the smaller competitions a chance to compete with the larger ones. Now, we understand that there might competition and politics in the dance world. Naturally, you have large competitions and small competitions, large studios and small studios. It can seem like an uphill battle for smaller competitions to get their events out in front of studios and for smaller studios to make their mark at larger competitions. With “Coming to Your Area” there are no large or small competitions, just competitions.

We’ve talked about the advantages for studios but what are the benefits for competition organizations that get involved?

The benefits for competition organizers are numerous. The biggest of these are the savings of time and money. We eliminate the need for paper since everything is online. We’ve even done away with the need for Copy and Paste. On the registration side, you will no longer have to deal with illegible faxes, or attached email PDF’s coming in from all over the place.

Payments are handled securely and immediately online and give studios or individuals the option to pay with any credit card. No merchant account is needed, competitions only need an Amazon Business account. All payment records are kept for reference along with current event and season totals. Routine scheduling is quick and easy, routines can be sorted and ordered by any criteria. So if you want to view Small Group routines only, you can. Once scheduled and posted the schedule is completely online and available to studios, teachers, and parents. We’ve even formatted the schedule for mobile devices like the iPhone so that it can be followed in real time during the event.

Finally, we understand that event programs are a fun keepsake but often are a pain to produce; especially when last minute changes come in and a deadline is looming. To remedy this, we’ve created the ability to export an event’s schedule that can easily be imported into your page layout application like Adobe InDesign or given to your graphics person.

For brevity’s sake we’ll just stick to these, but there are numerous small benefits and advantages, and many more in the works.

Speaking of what’s up your sleeve, I’ve got some other stuff going on at the site too. I’m pretty sure I saw that you are offering desktop wallpapers on your blog. What other fun things are you planning to add to the site?

“Fun” can be subjective; we find code fun, so for us it’s all fun. We do offer desktop wallpaper which is hopefully more fun than code; it’s just our way of expressing our creativeness and giving back to the dance community. We’re planning on offering a new wallpaper each month and would love to hear from the dance community through picture submissions. Otherwise we’ll have to resort to pictures of us dancing. Details can be found on our blog about how the images will be used, how credit will be given, as well as where to send them.

We’re also thinking about doing some giveaways, maybe something like a discounted fee event. And also bringing in some guest blog posters to write about what’s happening in the dance community.

Above all, I’ve found DanceSignUp easy to use. Like other familiar “Web 2.0″ applications, there’s a drag and drop feature and cool little windows pop up. Studios can also subscribe to a competition’s season feed, which means they can sort of “follow” them to easily discover when new events are added. Plus studios and competitions have their own profiles. They can “see” each other in a way that perhaps isn’t possible when dealing with a paper trail or other online registrations. Do you envision this going further? Will studios and competitions be able to rate or talk about the different venues? Will there be opportunities for teachers to offer feedback regarding competitions? Interact profile to profile? Hmmm, am I getting ahead of myself here?

We absolutely envision DanceSignUp going further. It is a web application which means it’s web-based software so there’s no downloading or updating that needs to take place on the user’s end. Consequently, updates can happen frequently, at any time.

Without giving too much away about our future plans, I can say that venue comments or ratings has been discussed and has a good possibility of showing up in a future update. One upcoming feature that we’re excited about involves enhancements for the judging process itself (for example more immediate posting of scores, and the upload/download of judges notes, as opposed to the old cassette tape system). In an effort to keep the application focused and simple we don’t have any plans to integrate any “social” features. Mostly because there are sites that do that already.

The site is fully functional right now but just went live in September. I’m sure you are looking for feedback from studios as well as competitions. Sign up is free so it’s easy to go in and look around. Can folks contact you with feedback or get support?

Absolutely, we’re completely open to feedback and looking for companies to collaborate with on existing and potential features. We’re constantly tweaking and adding features which is why we look forward to hearing from our users. We want to talk with competitions and studios. We want to find out what they want and need and build off of that.

Support is offered in several ways. Once you have an account we have a support ticket system that allows users to submit requests directly. We also have a growing library of help articles and screencasts that will walk a user through step-by-step how to do something. Finally, we have a special Twitter account to announce software updates and system status.

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As I mentioned, DanceSignUp is brand new. There are advantages for both competitions and dance studios to use the service but organizations from both sides have to come to the party. Currently, Bret and the folks at DanceSignUp are making connections and spreading the word. You can be a part of that by sharing the site with colleagues and competitions. I encourage you to visit DanceSignUp.com and have a look around. If you have thoughts or suggestions, you can contact Bret via the site or simply leave comments below.

©2009 Dance Advantage. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Taking Your Website into Your Own Hands — Danceregister Web Services
2. A Master Class for Studio Owners
3. Role Reversal: What are the Pros and Cons of Dance Competition

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I love holidays in the dance studio and Halloween can be especially fun. Below is a list of songs and albums that may inspire you to get a little ghoulish in your classes this year. The categories just give an idea of which groups the songs could be used for, however, feel free to mix and match or go on your own little witch hunt for music – many popular Halloween tunes have been covered by multiple artists. If you have a song or album you’re just dying to share, let us know about it in the comments below!

Creepy Kid Stuff

• Monster Boogie – Laurie Berkner
• Spooky – Lazy Town
• Clownfoot – Jo Jo’s Circus
• Witch Doctor – Alvin & The Chipmunks Soundtrack
• Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley (original)
• Doin’ The Zombie – Chubby Checker

Mickey’s Monster Bash – DisneyIncludes a Disney Monster Mash, This Is Halloween, and Sound Effect/Instrumental tracks	Boo Cackle Trick or Treat – Sue SchnitzerSome sweet, original tunes for young children
Halloween Songs and Sounds Pooh, Tigger, and other Disney friends get scary

For More Grown-Up Ghouls

• Thriller – Michael Jackson
• Spooky – Dusty Springfield, or try Imogen Heap
• I Want Candy – Bow Wow Wow, or try Melanie C
• Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
• Witchy Woman - The Eagles, or try Kristen Chenoweth (from Bewitched soundtrack)
• Black Magic Woman – Santana, or try Fleetwood Mac
• I Put A Spell on You – Creedence Clearwater, Fame Soundtrack, Marilyn Manson, etc.
• I’m Your Boogie Man – KC and the Sunshine Band, or try White Zombie (still has the disco beat!)
• The Boogie Monster – Gnarls Barkley
• This is the Night or Do the Hippogriff or Magic Works – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the “Weird Sisters” band in the movie include members of Pulp and Radiohead)

Nightmare Revisited – Various Artists (including Marilyn Manson’s version of This Is Halloween)

Hair-raising Hip-Hop

• Addam’s Groove – MC Hammer
• Halloween – Arsonists
• Every Halloween – Insane Clown Posse
• Scary Story – Will Smith
• A Nightmare on my Street – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

Bone-chilling Ballet

• Great Pumpkin Waltz – Vince Guaraldi Trio
• Resurrection Waltz – Hellraiser Soundtrack
• Estasi Dell Anima – Zombieland Soundtrack
• Tubular Bells (Theme from The Exorcist) – Mike Oldfield
• O Fortuna/Carmina Burana – Carl Orff
• Theme from Halloween - John Carpenter
• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach

	Sleepy Hollow Soundtrack
	Dracula – Philip Feeney
	Dracula – Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet

Alarming Alternatives

• Raining Blood – Tori Amos
• Halloween – Dave Matthews
• Halloween or Spellbound – Siouxie and the Banshees
• Halloween – Misfits

©2009 Dance Advantage. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Five Favorites: Music for Children’s Dance Classes
2. Richard Maddock Music — CD Review and Giveaway!
3. A Celebration of Dance Moms

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In a recent article on the iliopsoas muscles, I skirted discussion of the perpetuated myth that dancers can lift their legs “from underneath” or use their hamstrings to raise the leg in battement. Synchronously, a related question appeared on the Dance Advantage Interactive forum and Dianne over at the Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes blog kindly pointed dancers to my iliopsoas post in her article Still Trying to Lift Your Leg “From Underneath?” . I’m not sure my post made the point blatantly enough, however, and I’d like to take a moment to clarify.

In classes, I’ve heard teachers talk about a grand battement “coming from underneath.” This can sometimes lead to confusion about which muscles do the work in grand battement. Working muscles contract or shorten to create movement of the bones. Because the hamstrings are at the back of the leg, it is impossible for them to be doing the work of lifting the leg in a grand battement to the front or side. Instead your quads and iliopsoas, as hip flexors (or hip creasers), are responsible for this.

Now, it is possible to OVERwork or create unnecessary tension in the quads. This is not conducive to getting the leg higher in grand battement and can hinder the height of the leg. Learning how to release and let go of excess tension is important. I believe most teachers talk about the grand battement “coming from underneath” to try to encourage less effort. In my classes, I typically try to encourage this release by asking students to imagine energy or breath flowing down the spine, the back of the leg, and out from the toe in a “J” shape as the leg lifts in grand battement. When the focus is on this rather than pulling the leg upward, I find most students let go of some of that excess tension.

Note that the language in the phrase I’ve repeated above, “coming from underneath,” could easily be interpreted by students as implying that the muscles underneath the leg (the hamstrings) are responsible or must be used to lift the leg. It seems to me that this may be how the myth of lifting with the hamstrings gets passed along.

As for “extension,” or raising the leg above 90 degrees, when the ilopsoas is engaged and allowed to do the work of creasing the hip and stabilizing the spine, there is a sense of release for the quads. In addition, as the leg gets closer to the body (as it nears the head), the hip flexors or quads fight less against gravity – it’s the same reason that it is easier to hold a heavy box overhead than out in front of you – gravity always pulls straight down on whatever you are lifting. Perhaps people who experience this sensation of release assume (based on what they’ve heard about these miraculous hamstrings) that they’ve found a way to leg the underside of the leg take over?

Deb Vogel has an article on her blog that may also help bust this myth: click here

I won’t bust any other myths in this post (this one is enough to digest for now). But, I want to ask…

What are some other long-held myths or impossibilities you’ve heard passed on during the training of dancers?

©2009 Dance Advantage. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Introducing the Iliopsoas
2. A Jeté That’s Truly Grand
3. How and Why to Strengthen the Inner Thigh

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