Pilates can condition your body and mind like a dancer’s

I started doing pilates while dancing as a student in New York City at the School of American Ballet during the summer of 1988, and it is still the only kind of cross training I do. I’ve tried yoga, I’ve tried running, I’ve tried weight lifting, but none of them have stuck.

 

Pilates has been used by dancers as a method of improving technique and helping to rehabilitate injuries for decades. In fact, famous clients of Joseph Pilates include Martha Graham and George Balanchine, two of the most influential people in American dance history. Because of this, generations of dancers have studied pilates since the 1940’s.

 

So, what makes Pilates so useful to dancers? And can these concepts be applied to others?

Tracey Carboneau of Bouand DanceCompany

 

When Joseph Pilates worked with students, it is said, that he worked with everyone as an individual and, in fact, he had many of his students that were dancers work in a parallel position versus in a turned-out (externally rotated) position. His logic, likely, was to try to counter the work that dancers normally do (often in an externally rotated position) and provide more balance to the muscles fibers of the legs that get overworked by always being shortened in one way. So, while it may be assumed that the idea of turning out the legs is what makes pilates useful to dancers, on the contrary, it seems it is the idea of balance that is more important.

 

I remember when I first started doing Pilates it felt strange and awkward, to try to keep my legs in a parallel position. In fact, I had to look down at my feet sometimes in order to see if my feet really were in that position. I started to feel new muscles working- my adductors felt sore in a new way, and my quadriceps were really weak in parallel positions, especially when asked to jump or balance in a deep lunge. And strangely, my turn-out improved, and I felt stronger while dancing then ever before! I remember thinking, at the time, how odd it was that my legs would get stronger, be able to go up higher and externally rotate more easily by working on the opposing muscle groups.

 

Today, I find this is true with clients. If I focus on creating balance in their overall movement, they find improvement happens in their other activities. For example, if I work with someone that is a golfer, I try to provide them with a workout that balances their body. In other words, if he or she always hits the ball from one direction, I make sure they do a lot of spinal rotation in the other direction when they do pilates, and, inevitably, their golf swing improves!

 

Another reason, I believe, that pilates is such a useful training system for dancers, is that it asks the dancer to do movement that is efficient and full of ease. Just as with dancing, one must condition him or herself in a way that does not create the look of strain. This is untrue in other training systems, like weight lifting, where, often, the focus is on how much weight can be lifted and power, versus the quality of the movement that is being created. Even a male dancer that has to lift his partner has to be able to do this with ease and grace. This means that the power he has in his body must be gained using technique that is, simultaneously, coordinated, rhythmic and expressive. For a dancer, having power exclusive of these other factors is meaningless.

 

Scott Trumbo and Cate Powers of Bouand DanceCompany

Consider this same concept for other athletes, and the same is true. The greatest basketball players, golfers, skaters, swimmers and runners, all share this same quality. Their movement looks utterly effortless, coordinated and beautiful when done well. Granted Michael Jordan isn’t paying attention to the same kinds of details on the basketball court that Mikhail Baryshnikov is paying attention to in a ballet, but I would bet that the level of concentration, attention to detail and skill is equivalent. If a dancer is unable to execute his or her pirouettes well, he or she is going to think about changing any number of things to correct the problem. Perhaps the way he or she is taking his foot of the floor is effecting the direction of the turn, the dancer will have to consider this change and then work to integrate it into the mechanics of the turn until it becomes natural to do. The same way that a basketball player may need to alter the timing of his throw or how he or she releases the ball from his hands in order to consistently throw the ball in an accurate direction.

 

What I realize as a pilates teacher is that the idea of training your body to be able to do things with precision and ease is a skill that everyone can use. I believe, human beings were designed to use their body that way. In a pilates class, I ask my students to do the same thing I would ask of myself as a dancer: to pay attention to the quality of the movement, the rhythm, dynamic and genesis of it.

 

With this point of view, an exercise like “Footwork” on the reformer becomes quite demanding. A student not only has to think about the placement of his or her feet, but the timing of the movement, the alignment of the knees while they bend and straighten, the position of their back and the recruitment pattern and quality of the muscles that are at work to either stabilize some parts of the body or create effortless, coordinated movement with others. Finally, can all these things be integrated so that the movement is done as efficiently and easily as possible.

 

Pilates, for me, will always be a remarkable conditioning method, because it conditions me like a dancer. It incorporates all the subtle distinctions of training my body as an artist that must take care with the placement of my hands, feet, eyes and head while incorporating the power and control of an athlete that must jump, turn and have fluid, exquisite control.