Dancers should consider themselves as athletes and, therefore, should make sure they take good care of their bodies and minds. Below are five simple steps for dancers to keep themselves in tip-top shape to perform at their best…. Sleep brings restoration to your body, providing memory consolidation, putting new information in a precious place where you can recall and use later. It is recommended that a person gets 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night some recommend teens to get at least 8 hours. Dancers lead an active lifestyle so it is equally important not to skip meals. It is easy to fall into the habit of getting to class just in time, or just a little bit late, and not take the time to do proper warm up. Properly warming up increases blood flow to all the muscles and allows you to perform better and avoid injuries.
Professional dancers give their all during a performance. So how do they do it? What are their secrets for taking care of their body, for recovering from an exhausting role and for having enough energy for the next day? How do you help yourself recover after long and physically demanding performances? What are your secrets to recovery? Photo by Paul Kolnik. Drink lots of water.
And if you watched A Chorus Line as a dancer, chances are your heart dropped in your stomach when the character Paul San Marco injured his knee toward the end of the play, effectively ending his career. As a dancer, you can only go as far as your body goes, and when your body breaks down, putting it back together is a huge—though not impossible—feat. How else will you nail your choreography or master that new move? But that straight leg scorpion requires flexibility, and the grand adage requires strength and endurance. And this requires some outside training to build your muscles. Unfortunately, dancers often face a ridiculous amount of pressure to have a certain body type. And that pressure has sent many dancers down the dark path of not eating enough. But between practice and strength training, you burn a lot of calories, and if you want to sustain those activities, you need the calories to back them up.
Why is it important to take care of your body as a dancer? Dancers are relentless. It can make us train to the point where it becomes counterproductive. Implement these simple habits and exercises into your every day — you'll look, feel, and dance with more vitality than ever. An easy estimate of how many calories a dancer needs to consume on daily basis is calories per kilogram of body weight for females and calories per kilogram of body weight for males.