Why Pilates For Dancers – Part 1

By Kevin Sateri

Being a dancer who was fortunate enough to have a prolonged career in the entertainment industry, I understood early on how important it was to be strong, healthy, and take care of my body. It was essential to be prepared physically at any given moment for any type of job or project I would be called to work upon. Often the physical demands are so intense or the movements repetitive, that fatigue and injury can be imminent if we are not conditioned thoroughly at all times.

 

I discovered Pilates early on in my dance career, and fell in love with the fluid and seamless connection it had to dance and movement. So many physical therapy and rehabilitation centers use Pilates as an essential form of exercise to properly strengthen muscles and areas of the body that are prone to weakness or have been injured.

 

Pilates is core based – every exercise stems from your abdominals and the core region of the body – and finding the power you can develop from it creates amazing results in people’s dancing abilities and strengths. When using the reformer machine, you are constantly lengthening and stretching the muscles while you are working them, creating the long, lean look that dancers are known for, without bulking up. The machines use springs instead of weights, in addition to your own body weight on the exercises. Pilates also focuses on smaller muscle groups that often get overlooked when the larger, stronger muscles take over.

 

Next time I will talk more about how regularly doing Pilates will help you have a deeper understanding of your body and how it moves in a safer, more correct way so you can have the longevity in your career that you are striving to have.