Stretches for Dancers Without Leaving Your Chair

The little aches and niggles of every day life can become exasperated if we don’t look after ourselves when we dance. At Arthur Murray, we want you to have fun while you dance but also to do it safely.  Below are few simple stretches that you can do while sitting down to keep your body and dance muscles happy and healthy. 

When you are stretching remember to breathe deeply, hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds and don’t push yourself too far that you might cause further damage. Remember all the stretches in this blog can be done in a chair so that we can focus on the stretch and remove other obstacles such as balance. Let’s start from the top and work our way down. Note: These stretches are not a substitution for a medical professional if you are in serious pain.

Head/Neck:

Fast head whips, spotting and poised head position can all attribute to neck soreness and stiffness in dancers (both as a leader and a follower). 

While sitting in a chair, tilt your head to the side. To increase the stretch you can lightly place your hand on the side of your head (careful not to pull) and with your other hand, flex your palm down to the floor. You can also do this same stretch by looking diagonally downward into your armpit. 

To continue the stretch, look upwards to the ceiling while interlocking your hands and and flexing your palms towards the floor. You can also look downwards and and place your hands on the back of your head (carefully not to push too much). Finally, some slow circles with the head also helps to stretch out the neck muscles. 

Shoulders:

Dancing with our arms up all the time in frame can be tiring and cause injury if we aren’t using the correct muscles. Slow shoulder rolls forward and backwards can help to release tension, these can be done with arms down by your side and eventually increase to full arm motions.

For another shoulder stretch, place one arm across your body while the forearm of your other arm gentle pulls towards you.

Back:

An injured back could spell ‘the end’ for a dancer so, we really want to take care of it. Side reaches and slight side rotations in your chair can help to stretch out your back and sides. Another back stretch is simply laying your chest in your lap and letting your arms dangle down. Remember to be careful when doing any back stretches, take your time and breathe.

Hips:

As dancers, our hips and legs are important to us. Stretching out our hips is essential as it helps to improve joint mobility and reduce stiffness. To stretch out our hip flexors, cross one leg over the other with the ankle resting on the thigh. Lightly push your knee with your forearm or the palm of your hand to feel a stretch. You can also lean forward to increase the stretch.

Feet:

Our feet, the foundation of of body, work hard everyday so they deserve a few stretches a day. Also dancing on our toes all day (with or without heels) can cause our achilles tendon to tighten. We need to help them relax and release this tension.

Rolling through our feet and articulating every part of our feet is a good way to warm up and cool down our feet. To stretch our leg muscles, straighten one leg out in-front of you making sure we have a flexed foot and are pushing our heel into the floor. Again to intensify the stretch lean forward and put your hands or you knee or your toe.

Our bodies are precious to us as dancers; So, we need to take the time to listen to it and look after it. So the next time your sitting at your desk or on the train or watching T.V. you can do these stretches while siting down to help and be aware of your body which can improve our dancing.