We can never give our dancers enough core building exercises as the core is the source for strength, flexibility and balance. It’s surprising how many young dancers face a disconnect when it comes to utilizing their core in their technique practices, so it’s important as dance teachers to incorporate exercises which activate the center and help build that strength. We don’t, however always have to give students the same old crunches and sit-ups with a million repetitions. The three exercises below are all a fresh take on core activation, warm us up quickly and can be added to your center warmup while demonstrating the many different ways we can achieve a strong center!

Good luck!

See you in the dance studio,

Jess

#1 Grand Plie Oblique Stretch: Have dancers take a grand plie second position with their arms up behind their heads. Slowly, have dancers keep the arms there and lean laterally over to the right side while maintaining the plie position; aiming to get the elbow to the knee in the “crunch” position. Come back up to center and repeat left. The aim is to activate the oblique muscles and center. As a progression, have dancers extend the arm to the floor on the side where they are crunching and bring the arm back behind their heads when they come back up to center. Start with 10-15 repetitions and increase from there.

#2 Ankle Reach: Have dancers start standing. C-curve roll down slowly and walk out to a high plank position. From here, have dancers extend back into a downward dog position while tapping the ankle and then resume a full high plank position. Repeat other side. You can vary this exercise with same hand to ankle or opposite hand to opposite ankle. Start with 20 repetitions. Increase from there.

#3: Spider Man Crunch to Bear Crawl: Have dancers start standing. C-curve roll down slowly and walk out to a high plank position and “Spiderman Crunch” on the right. Push back to a bent leg “bear crawl” position, extend back to plank, walk the feet forward or back to the hands and roll up (for a progression, add a little parallel jump and reach at the end!) Repeat whole variation on left side from standing. Start with 10-15 repetitions and increase from there!

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