Core training has existed since long before the word “fitness” arrived at its current popularity and status. One of the chief formal proponents of early abdominal strengthening was Dance.

When it comes to our fitness routines, there is plenty of scientific evidence to support why we should work the core muscles. Weights, balls, bands, cables, videos, articles, photos, or specialized gear, whatever approach you choose doesn’t have to be complicated.

In the beginning…

Dancers have long known the built-in benefits of core training. As an additional advantage, dancers have developed a meticulous curriculum. Aerobic, plyometric, flexibility, and strength exercises are all part of the learning process. Even in its earliest parade-like court forms of ballet’s 15th and 16th Italian Renaissance origins, balance and stamina were essential to the presentation. Today, you need only attend any modern version of The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, or Swan Lake, for instance, to observe core strength in action.

Balances on pointes and demi-pointes for men and women. Sugar plum fairies, swans, and lovers lifted on high by their princely men whose rock-hard abs have no rival, except for their lovely female counterparts. Both with core power that not only keeps them on their toes but supports feet-glued-to-ear elasticity. The endurance factor alone sets these athletes apart from all others as a ballet dancer’s movements are intense and exact to a very high degree. Jumps, plies, dives, turns, and leg lifts of every sort, all work directly from the core.

The new wave

Los Angeles choreographer and Align Ballet Method dance teacher, Michael Cornell, a former company member of BalletMet, Ohio likes to describe ballet as free-standing Pilates. 

“If you have ever taken a ballet class you immediately realize that it is all about the core. You can’t help but improve your overall core strength and posture if you take ballet a couple of times a week.”

Nike has recently been promoting dance via some of its popular YouTube videos with femme power hip hopper, Sofia Boutella. Showcased are dance battles between ballerinas and hip-hoppers, promoting its Nike Dance for Women athletic line. All feature the powerful core of these performing arts athletes.

Ballet Barre, Yoga Bootie Ballet, Pilates Dance workouts, specialized core training for dancers, and other kinds of dance off-shoots are popping up everywhere, and in every form. Everyone is joining the dance bandwagon well beyond the days of Flash Dance and the original Fame, now revived. And it’s also clear that dance is bringing back the fun to core fitness.

Finally

Whether you’ve been dancing for a lifetime or for the first time, dance is an experience that incorporates the core with ease and perfection with real, stress-reducing, body-slimming benefits.  And it’s just plain fun. Anyone can do it!

Finally, dance will make you smart. According to recent Scientific American MIND articles, by developing the core muscles and staying mentally engaged, the body develops its own body-brain intelligence and a level of awareness in three-dimensional space and coordination. A double plus for focus and cognitive functioning.

Photo by Michael Zittel

Copyright © 2009 Gia On The Move. All Rights Reserved.

Written exclusively for Gia On The Move. No part of this Gia On The Move publication, writing, video, or audio may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Copyright infringement is a crime. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Gia On The Move Permissions Coordinator”. For more information please review our reprints and permissions page.