Welcome back to the Dare To Dance Book Club! If you haven’t already, start by reading this post which introduces the book club and gives my thoughts on “Ballerina Body” by Misty Copeland. Today I want to talk to you about one of my most precious books, “The Ballet Companion” by Eliza Gaynor Minden. I…
Tag: advice
How to Catch Up in Your Dance Training
As you may know, I started my dance training much later than most. I took my first ever ballet lesson just before I turned 15. I danced a few times a week at local schools, and I didn’t start serious ballet training until I was 21. If you’re not sure how huge a difference that…
Self- Care Tips for Dancers
Dance is incredibly demanding, especially at a serious level. As dancers, we not only give an incredible amount of mental and physical energy to what we do, but what we do also informs the rest of our lives. You can’t keep dance and life separate, because when you dance, it IS your life. When every…
Dance and Nutrition Part Two: Things I Learned from Visiting a Dance Nutritionist
If you haven’t already, start off by reading Part One to this post, where I outline my story with dance nutrition, and how I came to visit dance nutritionist Zerlina Mastin. As promised, here are the things I learned! 1. CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY! Dancers, say it with me and rejoice! It’s OK to…
An Adult Beginner’s Guide to Ballet: Part Three- Things to Know Before you Start
So, quite some time ago I began a series of posts called “An Adult Beginner’s Guide to Ballet”. I work a lot with adult beginners and wanted to answer some of the most common questions people have when beginning ballet for the first time as an adult, or taking it up again after a long…
18 Things to Start Doing Today to Make You a Better Dancer
Hi there! I’m sorry that this is my first post this month, I’m currently smack-bang in the middle of my audition season, and I’ve never been so busy! I’ve had 3 auditions so far (one earlier today!) and I’m starting to get in the swing of it; I’ve got about 5 left, depending on call-backs….
Things Dancers Can Learn from Olympians
With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in full swing, everyone’s attention is on these extraordinary people who have achieved the unachievable. These are people who have devoted themselves to a goal and reached excellence- seeing people’s dreams coming true as they win medals for their country is surprisingly emotional and incredibly inspiring. I found myself thinking-…
Overcoming Setbacks
The dance industry can be tough- physically, mentally and literally. Setbacks and disappointments are part of this journey. No one can be successful all the time- as a dancer, you need to learn how to deal with these challenging times, and not allow them to derail your progress. I’m going to talk a little…
Physiotherapy
For this week’s blog post, I thought I’d share an amazing physiotherapy appointment I had a few weeks ago. I’ve had problems with my left Achilles for years now. I’ve found a way to keep it under control to an extent; Biofreeze before class, Voltarol after, keeping legwarmers on, stretching and rolling out my…