Dancer's Training, a background

This week made me think of how dancers need to train in order to improve their speed and power through training and conditioning.  I come from a martial arts background; I developed my love of dancing from Shotokan Karate.  When I was younger, the strictness of Karate helped me with disciplining myself, the hard movements of punches and kicks gave me a foundation for popping.  Throughout these classes with Carla, I have wanted to go back to my martial artist roots and develop strength and flexibility through old movements.  The Martial Artist’s Book of Yoga has helped my combine my martial arts with Yoga, which in turn has allowed me to envelop foundations to help strengthen certain poses and sink lower into plié’s and stances in Carla’s sessions: “Transitioning in yoga is similar to combining various martial arts stances in fluid fashion, whether you pair kicks with hand strikes, or move from a mount position in grappling into a scarf hold.” (Chou, 2005, p. 22)  

While grappling with the new techniques that we are learning during the lesson’s I had a flashback to how my body was aligned during my time studying karate.  My alignment has changed considerably throughout my time studying at university; compared to when I was a martial artist: “Alignment when performing yoga poses is similarly important: when you’re properly aligned, there’s no break in energy flow and often the pose is easier to hold.” (Chou, 2005, p. 24)

I am happy with my progress so far in the routines and understanding Carla’s choreographic intentions.

I hope that my training will pay off!