Passion, Expression and Dance Classes
Working through the pain
Written by Jill Lister-Martin, 3rd April 2011
Before I begin, let me tell you I'm not a doctor, physio or anyone with any formal qualifications in healing injuries, but it is something very relevant to my life as a dancer and dance teacher because I have to tread the thin line of knowing when to push myself and educate my students to where the line is. The problem is, is that there is no exact line.
I have injured myself this week. It was probably silly, I'd been for a run, was feeling fantastic and felt motivated to do some weights. It didn't hurt at the time, sure my shoulder was clicking when I did it, but bits click don't they? It was later that night the pain set in, and 5 days later it's still sore.
Ok, we all know the immediate action for an injury is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. But what happens when life has to still go on and you can't rest? Fortunately the school holidays are only a week away, so I can stop teaching and look after it then, but in the mean time what do I do? What does a dancer do when they have an injury but need to perform that week? So I'm resorting to what most dancers do, drugs (Nurofen that is). It raises the question, when do you get to the point in your life that you take medication to work through the pain.
I think it goes in stages and it begins when you learn to stretch. I still struggle to help my fairies understand that there is a difference between stretching and hurting. I'm not forcing them to stretch beyond their capabilities, I don't even touch them. It is just as an introduction to the idea of stretching at the end of class by sitting on the floor, have a big yawn and we touch our toes with straight legs. "It hurts" is almost a weekly response I get from someone. I just say it stretches, not hurts but I know it is a concept that's hard to grasp.
With my older students I tell them we need to be intelligent dancers and know what is a good pain/stretch and what is bad. You begin with learning to push yourself for results. If you lift your leg in an arabesque and fight do it the best you can every time, it will get better and easier, and your arabesque improves. If you never push yourself you never improve. For the non dancers, it's like when you are trying to improve your fitness by running. You get tired and your legs/lungs hurt, but you look ahead and think I'll just make it to that pole up ahead. You might really struggle at first, bargain with yourself that maybe you'll make it to the tree a bit closer, but in the long run it makes running easier next time. No pain, no gain right?
That's when it starts to get messy. Back to my question, when do you reach the stage where you start medicating to get though pain? Obviously dancers who medicate to get though pain don't consider themselves recreational dancers, they have a goal and want to keep going. But what age do you consider yourself serious? If you decide that you want to be a dancer at 12 does that mean it's ok to start medicating? Is it a worry for a 12 year old to have a dance bag that resembles a pharmacy? I know that I definitely didn't know the difference between Panadol and Nurofen as a kid. Due to my good luck and lack of injuries, I don't think I actually realized that Panadol and Nurofen were different products until I'd left home to study full time. I just thought they were different brands of the same thing.
If a student has so many aches and pains they need to self medicate it raises other issues. Why are they in so much pain? If they have so many injuries is dancing the right vocational path for them? Or is it a way for students to say they are tired or don't want to be there.
The problem is that there are so many types of injured student. There are legitimate injuries and there are the injuries that miraculously disappear when it's time to do their favourite exercise or dance, or the injuries that suddenly appear when a parent walks in the room. The worst injured student is the' boy who cried wolf'', students who have so many injuries and problems that miraculously go away when it comes to something fun. How do you know when to let them sit out, and when to encourage them to keep going? And worse still, what if one day they do have a legitimate injury but you don't realize and you push them to keep going?
What is the one thing all aspiring ballerinas dream of? To go en pointe. We've all seen the images of bleeding toes and hideous blisters. Not all pointe work is pain and suffering like we've been led to believe, but it can still hurt. Luckily by the time students get to pointe work they are dedicated and educated enough to be able to understand their own pain tolerances and how to get through pointe work. Maybe I need to add "being able to suck it up and keeping going" to our list of pointe work eligibility requirements. Seriously though, I think that pain tolerence is a form of emotional maturity, and emotional maturity is certainly important for pointe work.
It is proven in studies that dancers have a higher pain tolerence than non dancers, so to end this post I'll add an interesting excerpt from Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
If you would like to know more about Jill or Aspect Motion School of Dance, visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com or call (03) 98215885.
Classes are held at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
Before I begin, let me tell you I'm not a doctor, physio or anyone with any formal qualifications in healing injuries, but it is something very relevant to my life as a dancer and dance teacher because I have to tread the thin line of knowing when to push myself and educate my students to where the line is. The problem is, is that there is no exact line.
I have injured myself this week. It was probably silly, I'd been for a run, was feeling fantastic and felt motivated to do some weights. It didn't hurt at the time, sure my shoulder was clicking when I did it, but bits click don't they? It was later that night the pain set in, and 5 days later it's still sore.
Ok, we all know the immediate action for an injury is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. But what happens when life has to still go on and you can't rest? Fortunately the school holidays are only a week away, so I can stop teaching and look after it then, but in the mean time what do I do? What does a dancer do when they have an injury but need to perform that week? So I'm resorting to what most dancers do, drugs (Nurofen that is). It raises the question, when do you get to the point in your life that you take medication to work through the pain.
I think it goes in stages and it begins when you learn to stretch. I still struggle to help my fairies understand that there is a difference between stretching and hurting. I'm not forcing them to stretch beyond their capabilities, I don't even touch them. It is just as an introduction to the idea of stretching at the end of class by sitting on the floor, have a big yawn and we touch our toes with straight legs. "It hurts" is almost a weekly response I get from someone. I just say it stretches, not hurts but I know it is a concept that's hard to grasp.
With my older students I tell them we need to be intelligent dancers and know what is a good pain/stretch and what is bad. You begin with learning to push yourself for results. If you lift your leg in an arabesque and fight do it the best you can every time, it will get better and easier, and your arabesque improves. If you never push yourself you never improve. For the non dancers, it's like when you are trying to improve your fitness by running. You get tired and your legs/lungs hurt, but you look ahead and think I'll just make it to that pole up ahead. You might really struggle at first, bargain with yourself that maybe you'll make it to the tree a bit closer, but in the long run it makes running easier next time. No pain, no gain right?
That's when it starts to get messy. Back to my question, when do you reach the stage where you start medicating to get though pain? Obviously dancers who medicate to get though pain don't consider themselves recreational dancers, they have a goal and want to keep going. But what age do you consider yourself serious? If you decide that you want to be a dancer at 12 does that mean it's ok to start medicating? Is it a worry for a 12 year old to have a dance bag that resembles a pharmacy? I know that I definitely didn't know the difference between Panadol and Nurofen as a kid. Due to my good luck and lack of injuries, I don't think I actually realized that Panadol and Nurofen were different products until I'd left home to study full time. I just thought they were different brands of the same thing.
If a student has so many aches and pains they need to self medicate it raises other issues. Why are they in so much pain? If they have so many injuries is dancing the right vocational path for them? Or is it a way for students to say they are tired or don't want to be there.
The problem is that there are so many types of injured student. There are legitimate injuries and there are the injuries that miraculously disappear when it's time to do their favourite exercise or dance, or the injuries that suddenly appear when a parent walks in the room. The worst injured student is the' boy who cried wolf'', students who have so many injuries and problems that miraculously go away when it comes to something fun. How do you know when to let them sit out, and when to encourage them to keep going? And worse still, what if one day they do have a legitimate injury but you don't realize and you push them to keep going?
What is the one thing all aspiring ballerinas dream of? To go en pointe. We've all seen the images of bleeding toes and hideous blisters. Not all pointe work is pain and suffering like we've been led to believe, but it can still hurt. Luckily by the time students get to pointe work they are dedicated and educated enough to be able to understand their own pain tolerances and how to get through pointe work. Maybe I need to add "being able to suck it up and keeping going" to our list of pointe work eligibility requirements. Seriously though, I think that pain tolerence is a form of emotional maturity, and emotional maturity is certainly important for pointe work.
It is proven in studies that dancers have a higher pain tolerence than non dancers, so to end this post I'll add an interesting excerpt from Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
QUOTE
"In
one study… researchers measured pain threshold and tolerance levels in
fifty-two dancers from a British ballet company and fifty-three
university students using a standard method called the cold-pressor
test….
The results were striking. On average, female students reported pain at sixteen seconds and pulled their hands out of the ice water at thirty-seven seconds. Female dancers went almost three times as long on both counts….
What explains the difference? Probably it has something to do with the psychology of ballet dancers – a group distinguished by self-discipline, physical fitness, and competitiveness, as well as by a high rate of chronic injury. Their driven personalities and competitive culture evidently inure them to pain: that’s why they are able to perform through sprains and stress fractures, and why half of all dancers develop long-term injuries….
Other studies along these lines have shown that extroverts have greater pain tolerance than introverts, that drug abusers have low pain tolerance and thresholds, and that, with training, one can diminish one’s sensitivity to pain…."
The results were striking. On average, female students reported pain at sixteen seconds and pulled their hands out of the ice water at thirty-seven seconds. Female dancers went almost three times as long on both counts….
What explains the difference? Probably it has something to do with the psychology of ballet dancers – a group distinguished by self-discipline, physical fitness, and competitiveness, as well as by a high rate of chronic injury. Their driven personalities and competitive culture evidently inure them to pain: that’s why they are able to perform through sprains and stress fractures, and why half of all dancers develop long-term injuries….
Other studies along these lines have shown that extroverts have greater pain tolerance than introverts, that drug abusers have low pain tolerance and thresholds, and that, with training, one can diminish one’s sensitivity to pain…."
If you would like to know more about Jill or Aspect Motion School of Dance, visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com or call (03) 98215885.
Classes are held at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
Finding Inspiration in the classroom- fake it until you make it
Written by Jill Lister-Martin, 24th March 2011
Sometimes it's incredibly difficult staying motivated and keeping up the enthusiasm when teaching dance classes. Especially when it's 38 degrees and your students are hot and tired from school, or when it's just one of those weeks when everyone is sick and away so nothing is working to plan. It's fine to have these days occasionally, but what do you do when you're stuck in a rut?
It's a question I've had to ask myself this week when one of our teachers came to me with the same problem. What do you do when you don't feel like a good teacher because you don't feel good about doing it.
First of all, all dance teachers need to be performers. I'm not talking about donning the false eyelashes and treading the theater boards, I'm talking about being able to fake enthusiasm until both you and your students believe it. Different classes need different styles of performance, you need to embody the style you're teaching. A jazz teacher needs to be super enthusiastic, punch out all the movements and teach students to have a glowing smile and pizazz by leading by example. Sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities when I go from a fairy ballet class where I could easily step into the role of a playschool presenter with my overly sweet smile and encouraging but firm voice to a senior contemporary class where I suddenly start throwing myself around the room, yelling, grunting and wooshing to get the dynamics across- maybe those two aren't actually that different. But you know what I mean.
Even as teachers we need to keep learning so that we can pass our knowledge onto our students. Whether it be a short course in the syllabus we teach, watching other peoples classes who inspire you or dragging your own, sore and getting too old backside into a class with someone else. We all need to be driven by something. There needs to be some seed of motivation, no matter how small. Decide what the plan is for the next week/month etc and research something new to bring to class. For example we are talking about posture this week, what are some interesting ways to discuss posture with students? Do you bring a plumb line into class, or put tape on students shoulders so they are aware of how often they stoop forward? Do you need to photograph or video them so they understand that they way they think they look, looks nothing like they way they actually look. Google it. Find pictures or examples of videos.
If you take a step back and realize all of your choreography is the same from one item to the next, expand your movement vocabulary. Do a totally unrelated dance style. After doing a few Zumba classes (of all things) I'm starting to get fresh ideas for our ballet of Aladdin at the end of the year. After seeing a documentary on dancers, find at least one thing that you can implement in your own classes. It might be something that you already knew but needs to be dusted off again. Find someone who has focused on a particular area and see what they have come up with. I've recently come across Vicki Attard's My Pointe dvd and it has helped change the entire feel of our pointe class.
To quote Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Throw something new in the mix. Feed your mind and soul by getting out and watching a performance when you can.
Are you tired and unmotivated because you, yourself are unfit. Have you eaten enough good fuel during the day to get you through 5 hours of classes? As a dance teacher your body is an invaluable tool. What would you do if you hurt yourself? How would you demonstrate? The ballet teacher sitting on a stool, stamping the ground with a cane and sucking on a cigarette is a thing of the past. We need to be healthy inspirations to our students, and when we're full of energy it's contagious. And that is the most important to reason to fake your enthusiasm until it's real, if you create an illusion of energy, your students will pick up on it and bounce it back to you. Try smiling genuinely at a student and soon everyone is smiling. Being selfish and doing something you know makes you feel good is completely justifiable when it helps boost your mood in the classroom- go on, buy that new top and wear it to class.
Now I've done my spiel I need to get ready to go to class, and find the motivation to put everything I've just said into action. Wish me luck!
If you would like to know more about Jill or Aspect Motion School of Dance, visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com or call (03) 98215885.
Classes are held at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
Sometimes it's incredibly difficult staying motivated and keeping up the enthusiasm when teaching dance classes. Especially when it's 38 degrees and your students are hot and tired from school, or when it's just one of those weeks when everyone is sick and away so nothing is working to plan. It's fine to have these days occasionally, but what do you do when you're stuck in a rut?
It's a question I've had to ask myself this week when one of our teachers came to me with the same problem. What do you do when you don't feel like a good teacher because you don't feel good about doing it.
First of all, all dance teachers need to be performers. I'm not talking about donning the false eyelashes and treading the theater boards, I'm talking about being able to fake enthusiasm until both you and your students believe it. Different classes need different styles of performance, you need to embody the style you're teaching. A jazz teacher needs to be super enthusiastic, punch out all the movements and teach students to have a glowing smile and pizazz by leading by example. Sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities when I go from a fairy ballet class where I could easily step into the role of a playschool presenter with my overly sweet smile and encouraging but firm voice to a senior contemporary class where I suddenly start throwing myself around the room, yelling, grunting and wooshing to get the dynamics across- maybe those two aren't actually that different. But you know what I mean.
Even as teachers we need to keep learning so that we can pass our knowledge onto our students. Whether it be a short course in the syllabus we teach, watching other peoples classes who inspire you or dragging your own, sore and getting too old backside into a class with someone else. We all need to be driven by something. There needs to be some seed of motivation, no matter how small. Decide what the plan is for the next week/month etc and research something new to bring to class. For example we are talking about posture this week, what are some interesting ways to discuss posture with students? Do you bring a plumb line into class, or put tape on students shoulders so they are aware of how often they stoop forward? Do you need to photograph or video them so they understand that they way they think they look, looks nothing like they way they actually look. Google it. Find pictures or examples of videos.
If you take a step back and realize all of your choreography is the same from one item to the next, expand your movement vocabulary. Do a totally unrelated dance style. After doing a few Zumba classes (of all things) I'm starting to get fresh ideas for our ballet of Aladdin at the end of the year. After seeing a documentary on dancers, find at least one thing that you can implement in your own classes. It might be something that you already knew but needs to be dusted off again. Find someone who has focused on a particular area and see what they have come up with. I've recently come across Vicki Attard's My Pointe dvd and it has helped change the entire feel of our pointe class.
To quote Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Throw something new in the mix. Feed your mind and soul by getting out and watching a performance when you can.
Are you tired and unmotivated because you, yourself are unfit. Have you eaten enough good fuel during the day to get you through 5 hours of classes? As a dance teacher your body is an invaluable tool. What would you do if you hurt yourself? How would you demonstrate? The ballet teacher sitting on a stool, stamping the ground with a cane and sucking on a cigarette is a thing of the past. We need to be healthy inspirations to our students, and when we're full of energy it's contagious. And that is the most important to reason to fake your enthusiasm until it's real, if you create an illusion of energy, your students will pick up on it and bounce it back to you. Try smiling genuinely at a student and soon everyone is smiling. Being selfish and doing something you know makes you feel good is completely justifiable when it helps boost your mood in the classroom- go on, buy that new top and wear it to class.
Now I've done my spiel I need to get ready to go to class, and find the motivation to put everything I've just said into action. Wish me luck!
If you would like to know more about Jill or Aspect Motion School of Dance, visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com or call (03) 98215885.
Classes are held at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
Heralding the success of the adult ballet class
March 16th 2011, by Jill Lister-Martin
I thought I would use this first post to share my excitement at how well adult ballet is doing.
Starting out as the problem of how to find a place for older beginner students, we slotted adult ballet in on a Monday night at the seemingly late hour of 8.30pm. It was the earliest night we finished, and I hoped some pilates parents would stay on for the next class. The time hasn't deterred anyone, and from what I have been told, suits most people to put their kids into bed first.
I had hoped the class would take off, but past attempts at adult classes have told us that parents are great about making an effort for their kids, but don't make the same effort for themselves. And to be perfectly honest, even on my nights off I'm just as happy to crash on the couch and mindlessly waste the precious 'free' time I have. I'm so exhausted from chasing my own children, let alone chasing other peoples in fairy ballet, trying to stay upbeat after my second Zumba class for the week (which idiot scheduled fairy ballet and Zumba on the same day? Twice a week? Oh yeah, me), rolling around the floor for contemporary classes and trying to remember to demonstrate ballet exercises on alternating sides, that the prospect of doing a regular scheduled class falls into the too hard basket.
But drag themselves to ballet each week, my faithful class does. They are quite a wide ranging bunch too. We have quite a few mums who danced when they were kids, and you can see the shaddow of training still embedded in them all these years later. We have some absolute beginners, like John our drama teacher, who I suspect might not be able to see his feet while standing upright, but will put his legs up on the barre to stretch with the rest of them. Even my husband keeps threatening to come, but due to work and babysitting cancellations has not got there yet. (Maybe teaching family members is a post for the future)
I can't actually tell you how many are in the class, it just keeps growing. For the first time in the 5 1/2 years I've had the school, new inquiries for adult ballet is actually out numbering fairy ballet interest. Where have all these people come from? Frustrated ballerinas/ballerinos dancing in the privacy of their own living rooms now have a place to dance together.
Looking at them I couldn't even hazard a guess at the age range. And with their mix of leotards, leggings, track pants and tutus they are a motley looking bunch, but they are there, and they're having fun, being beautiful and exercising without it feeling like hard work. They are surprisingly good, and Adult Ballet, I'd like you to know, I'm pretty darn proud of you.
Classes are run at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
For more information call (03) 98215885 or visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com
I thought I would use this first post to share my excitement at how well adult ballet is doing.
Starting out as the problem of how to find a place for older beginner students, we slotted adult ballet in on a Monday night at the seemingly late hour of 8.30pm. It was the earliest night we finished, and I hoped some pilates parents would stay on for the next class. The time hasn't deterred anyone, and from what I have been told, suits most people to put their kids into bed first.
I had hoped the class would take off, but past attempts at adult classes have told us that parents are great about making an effort for their kids, but don't make the same effort for themselves. And to be perfectly honest, even on my nights off I'm just as happy to crash on the couch and mindlessly waste the precious 'free' time I have. I'm so exhausted from chasing my own children, let alone chasing other peoples in fairy ballet, trying to stay upbeat after my second Zumba class for the week (which idiot scheduled fairy ballet and Zumba on the same day? Twice a week? Oh yeah, me), rolling around the floor for contemporary classes and trying to remember to demonstrate ballet exercises on alternating sides, that the prospect of doing a regular scheduled class falls into the too hard basket.
But drag themselves to ballet each week, my faithful class does. They are quite a wide ranging bunch too. We have quite a few mums who danced when they were kids, and you can see the shaddow of training still embedded in them all these years later. We have some absolute beginners, like John our drama teacher, who I suspect might not be able to see his feet while standing upright, but will put his legs up on the barre to stretch with the rest of them. Even my husband keeps threatening to come, but due to work and babysitting cancellations has not got there yet. (Maybe teaching family members is a post for the future)
I can't actually tell you how many are in the class, it just keeps growing. For the first time in the 5 1/2 years I've had the school, new inquiries for adult ballet is actually out numbering fairy ballet interest. Where have all these people come from? Frustrated ballerinas/ballerinos dancing in the privacy of their own living rooms now have a place to dance together.
Looking at them I couldn't even hazard a guess at the age range. And with their mix of leotards, leggings, track pants and tutus they are a motley looking bunch, but they are there, and they're having fun, being beautiful and exercising without it feeling like hard work. They are surprisingly good, and Adult Ballet, I'd like you to know, I'm pretty darn proud of you.
Classes are run at 28 Freeman St, Ringwood East, Victoria, Australia
For more information call (03) 98215885 or visit our website www.aspectmotiondance.com
