Tumbling vs Dance
Dancing Smart Newsletter
November 25, 2005
Announcements
Happy Thanksgiving weekend! I hope each and every one of you had a delightful day with family and friends.
Watch your mailboxes for the announcement of a new product that will soon be posted on the website – just in time for holiday giving! I will be offering a few beautiful dance posters, designed especially for my newsletter subscribers. More information to follow in next week's newsletter!
Question of the Week
I'm a senior at a Performing Arts high school. I have been taking ballet for two years, and I started to take tumbling classes with a gymnastics instructor 3 nights a week. One of my jazz teachers advises against these classes, she says that tumbling would create bad habits. I enjoy the classes a lot and I actually think my dancing had improved since I started the classes. So, my question is whether gymnastics is beneficial or harmful?
Thanks, Stephen
Deb's Answer
Good question, Stephen! I was both a dancer and a budding gymnast in high school, (ranked 7th in the state on balance beam one year – although I won't tell you the year), chose to focus on dance in college, although I did a 3-year stint with coaching competitive gymnasts. In general, I believe that each discipline helps the other. The current trend in choreography is towards a very athletic dancer. Dancers need to be flexible and strong. Handstands and partnering in unusual lifts are easier for the dancer who has explored moving their body in gymnastics.
When I first lived in NY it seemed like a large number of male dancers I met came from a gymnastic background. That was more acceptable on a high school level, and they made the switch over into dance in college. A few of the girls that I coached in gymnastics did the same.
Both activities require a high level of technique and physical prowess. They don't need to be in conflict with each other but can complement each other if your body tolerates both activities.
Since each dancer's body is so unique, there are going to be some backs that will not tolerate the hyperextension that gymnastics asks for. Gymnastics requires greater upper body strength, certainly a good thing for a male dancer to work on. Could you do pilates or weight lifting to build up strength? Yes, of course, but if exploring gymnastics is fun and you feel that your dancing is improving through tumbling classes – then that is your experience.
There are so many ways to train for dancing, and each person will find what works best for them. Dancers are cross training now. How you decide to work on your strength building, flexibility, balance (it's hard to balance out of a flip!), is more a matter of personal preference than a rigid set of guidelines one must follow to become a professional dancer. Dance is a creative art form and as such allows for much personal exploration into the modalities that inspire you. I encourage all my students to have a solid anatomical understanding of technique and training in order to take any style of dance class and work as deeply as they can within that style. Every teacher has something unique to offer – I believe that I am the product of many teachers' efforts – and it is my responsibility to integrate that knowledge into my dancing. Learn as much as you can from everyone and remember that a dancer needs more than just technique. I'll end with a quote from Ted Shawn. "Dance is the only art in which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made."
On with the dance,
Deborah