There are so many reasons why any dancer should practice yoga. These are the Top 5:

1. Injuries are less likely to happen. Dance is physically demanding in a way that many other physical pursuits are not. Dancers are required to move their bodies in ways that are counterintuitive and likely to put stress on joints and the spine. Any dancer will benefit from maintaining maximum flexibility and strength.

2. Become more intimately acquainted with your body. It’s a dancer’s job to know how to move gracefully. Agility, strength and speed are the name of the game. While you are building awareness of your body, with all of its strengths and weaknesses, you are simultaneously building the neural pathways to help you learn to control every nuance of movement. That is priceless.

3. You will learn to breath properly. Yes, breathing is an involuntary function. Many of us don’t think about it much since the body takes care of it. Learning to breath fully is an eye-opening experience. Breathing deeply brings more oxygen into the body, which means more power to your movements.

4. Learn to link breath and movement. Your breath can be a powerful tool, as previously discussed. You can use it to empower your dance by consciously inhaling and exhaling when the choreography calls for it. A full inhale on a develope en point or an exhale as you curl the body in on itself add an extra bit of punch and power.

5. Peace of mind. Pass the peace, please. The life of a dancer is not only physically demanding, it also mentally demanding. It is not a job for the faint of heart. Competing for jobs and parts, or even competing against the dancer you were a year ago today is part of the picture. Every dancer needs to find tools to cope with that stress. If not, it’s going to be a short career.

Twyla Tharp, world-famous choreographer, in her book The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life shares an important ingredient of her method in the following words:

I begin each day of my life with a ritual… First steps are hard… It’s vital to establish some rituals-automatic but decisive patterns of behavior- at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way…”

Getting started is often the hardest part of doing something. Each of us needs to find an intuitive way to overcome the natural human tendency towards inertia. For dancers, the ritual of morning class is the automatic beginning to each and every day. But any creative endeavor requires first steps.

When something is new, it is full of unknowns. Embarking into unchartered territory is uncomfortable; we are literally making it all up as we go along. Step by step, moment by moment, we are feeling our way. But Tharp offers us a little clue for how to get going.

How much easier it is to begin with something familiar first. We get up, we do that first familiar thing, and we are already moving, already on the go. From there, it’s simply a matter of continuing to move forward. Whether your morning ritual is a cup of coffee, a run in the park, or chanting naked, embrace it. Use it in your favor. Get up, get going. Whatever your ritual is, it’s your next step forward.

Twyla Tharp’s book is a must-have for any creative person. Click here to read about it:

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

Becoming a great dancer takes a huge amount of work, discipline, dedication and sacrifice. However, there is one important factor that separates the really good dancers from the truly great dancers: passion. To be passionate about something means to love that thing with endless enthusiasm, and every drop of juice in your heart. While it isn’t something anyone can touch, it is something they can feel. When passion enters a room, it’s contagious… and palpable. It’s the thing that makes everyone’s heart beat just a little bit quicker.

While passion is exciting to others, it’s all the more important to you as a dancer. Passion is the thing that brought you to dance in the first place. Passion is the thing that will get you out of bed in the morning, and keeps you going on those grey days. If you’ve lost that loving feeling, then it may be time to do some thinking and visioning to reconnect. Ask yourself the following for some clues:

• What do I love about my life right now?
• What do I love about dance?
• What is my favorite part of being a dancer?
• What is my vision of the future?

Don’t hold back or censor yourself in any way as you answer these questions. It’s important to allow yourself to dream big, and reconnect with love for dance and your life as a dancer. After all, everything begins as an idea first. Once you get the ideas rolling, then begin to take steps.

Careful study of outstanding dancers will show you that every one of them was passionate about being a dancer. Dance is not an easy career, but if you love what you do, you can overcome any odds.

An inspirational video of Polina Semionova, Principal with the Berlin State Opera, one of the youngest dancers to achieve this particular kind of recognition:

Discipline is a huge part of every dancer’s success. One dictionary definition states that discipline is orderly, prescribed conduct, or an orderly pattern of behavior. It’s what’s known as self-control. Most things we do demand that we utilize self-control in our active, diligent participation. Work, school, even recreational pursuits move ahead when discipline comes into play.

Definitions are all very well and good, but what does it mean to be disciplined? It means showing up regularly. We’ve all heard the old adage that practice makes perfect. It wouldn’t be an old adage unless there was some truth to it. Consistently working at a thing means improvement and growth will occur. Discipline is what drives us to stay consistent.

Discipline requires developing an unwavering level of dedication. It doesn’t allow for excuses (aside from obvious things like vomit or fire), or wimping out. In a way, discipline is the opposite of insanity: by doing the same things over and over, you CAN expect different results.

Discipline is closely linked to intent. Intention lays the roadmap; discipline is what drives the bus. Setting intentions creates a concrete plan of action. Discipline drives us to stick with the original intention and succeed.

Discipline is power. Make it yours, and you will get wherever you wish to go.

There are days when every dancer needs a little helpful advice. There are other days when it’s very difficult to keep your chin up. Advice and support are within reach, in Put Your Best Foot Forward, an inspirational book written by one of the master teachers of the School of American Ballet. Crisp, colorful photographs of young dancers and swirly letters illustrate the text.

Practical advice for young dancers helps dance technique and inner well-being. Becoming a swan, for example, means moving gracefully, keeping the neck long, but it also means not letting your feathers get ruffled.

Browsing the pages is a fun journey, and a helpful part of the path for any young dancer.

Ironically, decades after ending my career as a professional ballet dancer, I am more aware of my body than ever. It sounds impossible to believe, doesn’t it? I only wish I had discovered yoga earlier, before all those years I was a dancer with no real relationship with my body because I didn’t know how to live in it fully. By its very nature, dance forces dancers to stay focused, but it’s too easy to keep the focus narrowed to a pinpoint, and miss out on other important elements of life. But dancers are human first, and it serves us to explore other avenues that may seem completely unrelated to dance, but aid in our evolution as both dancers and people. For me, and lots of other dancers, yoga is one of those things.

Deep breathing is one of the primary tools that a yoga practice provides. Although breathing is involuntary, there is breathing and there is b-r-e-a-t-h-i-n-g. Ancient yogic scriptures state that we have only so many breaths in a given lifetime, so it follows that extending each one of them will prolong existence. Even more importantly, deep, full breaths mean more oxygen to the body and therefore more power to every we move we make.

Heightened awareness of every single cell of the body is another incredible benefit of yoga. Proper placement is key in all yoga poses, just as it is in dance. But specific tips, such as aligning or stacking bones and joints actually teach us to create strength in all postures by building from a firm foundation. Each movement is dynamically conscious; breathing is linked with alignment. Check points for each pose are verbally offered throughout class and practitioners conduct an interior inspection to make sure all points are lined up where they need to be. Suddenly you know exactly where your little toe on your right foot ought to be, or if the joint between your thumb and first fingers really is pressed firmly into the floor. It’s almost as if we reclaim every last remote corner of the body, one cell at a time. It is an entirely new level of awareness of the body’s moving parts.

But the most valuable piece that yoga provides is peace of mind. Who couldn’t use a little bit more of that? Breathing in a deep and controlled manner, moving the body gently and consciously, produces this lovely, blissful effect. By keeping the mind focused on only two things (breath and conscious movement), it lets go of all other things. Laundry lists, chores, problems, anxieties or concerns all fall by the wayside for that blissful hour or so of class time. Each yoga class is a chance to go on a mini-retreat inside of ourselves and just be.

The challenge, of course, is to take everything that you’ve learned out into the world with you. Whether you are a dancer or not, a regular yoga practice provides the tools to deal with the challenges that everyone faces from time to time. This body, this lifetime, this moment can be all the more vibrant when met with true awareness.

Author: Marilyn Nelson illustrator: Susan Kuklin
Title: Beautiful Ballerina
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2009
Ages: 4-8
ISBN: 9780545089203

Written by Newberry Honor winner Marilyn Nelson, Beautiful Ballerina is a visual and lyrical celebration of ballerinas. Every page of Nelson’s flowing poetry is accompanied by bright, colorful photographs of young ballerinas from the Dance Theater of Harlem’s school. Tiny ballerinas stretch, point their toes, and mimic the older ballerinas as they fly through the air in grand jetes or balance en point. Every step captured by the camera was professionally choreographed by Endalyn Taylor, the Director of Dance Theater of Harlem. Words and poses are equally inspiring for a variety of readers, from young dancers to adult aficionados.

Life is a dynamic process. Things move and change constantly, and we do the same. Every so often along the way we are bound to trip up and make… a mistake. For some, the thought of making a mistake brings up a lot of fear: fear of looking bad or ridiculous, fear of being noticed, or fear of losing self-esteem. However, ask any group of people if anyone among them has never made a mistake in their life, and the answer will be a resounding “no”. But maybe, just maybe, they serve a purpose.

We can count on making mistakes in life, and plenty of them. But if no one is immune, then they must serve some purpose. They are learning tools. It can even be argued that they are necessary to success and growth. Each mistake we make is an opportunity to evolve. If we are willing to spend some time thinking about making changes to improve things in the next round, we will come out ahead.

Dance classes or classes of any sort are the place to experiment and try new things without fear of failure. If there is any good place to fall on your face, this is it. GO ahead, make the mistake, and then try, try again. Chances are that you won’t need 10,000 tries to get it right, like Thomas Edison did while inventing the lightbulb.

Even if you do fall on your face, it’s a chance to get up and try again. A steady pace wins the race. And really, we’re all in it together.

If you love the Beatles and ballet, then this slice of news should bring a smile to your face: Paul McCartney, ex-Beatles band member, has just been commissioned to write music for a ballet. Details are a secret at this point; McCartney only said, “I don’t know much about it,” but he is very excited to try something new and different. One has to wonder what the costumes will look like, and who the lucky dancers will be…

Looking around these days it seems like everyone (and their dog) (literally) is wearing a tutu. Age doesn’t matter; whether young or old, there’s a tutu somewhere out there with your name on it. No longer reserved for costumes or childhood dress up props, tutus are everywhere.

Those who are looking for tiny tutus can head over to FAO Schwartz, where Tutu Couture seamstresses will whip up a frothy custom creation. Karl Lagerfeld recently tried his hand at designing a tutu for the role of the Dying Swan, a role first made famous over one hundred years ago by Anna Pavlova. No matter how you look at it, tutus are vogue, and have been featured in Vogue as a part of this year’s spring collections.

It looks like tutus aren’t just for ballerinas anymore.