How do dancers train?

I did jump right in, but at a young age.

If you're starting later, I'd highly recommend yoga. It focuses on strength, balance and flexibility - those are all integral skills for dancers.

I'll echo Adriene, she's a great place to start.

My sister danced professionally. Ballet. She likes jazzercise classes now to stay in shape. As far as training their bodies, I think most just take dance classes and practice, practice, practice their dance moves. There isn't much energy left over after that. (I have heard of some professional dancers who claimed to spend time in the gym, lifting light weights. But I seriously doubt it is very common.)

I agree that yoga might be a good place for you to start.

Most of the professional dancers that I know (Latin) don't do much or any training outside of dance but they are ALWAYS moving in one form or another. I know a couple of world-class dancers who lift weights and a couple who also run. Both of my grandmothers were professional dancers--one was a big swimmer in addition to dance, the other was generally active, but didn't do much other formal exercise.

People learn to be dancers in many different ways. As a small child, I was declared "the wrong shape to dance" by my grandmother who was a ballerina and tango dancer. My legs are very short, totally wrong for tango, and my frame size is just MUCH too big for ballet. This was evident from age 4. I did take several years of ballet and some jazz dance as an elementary-aged child. Because I was not supposed to become a dancer, I got an excellent education in music, which I think has helped me hugely in dance as an adult. I discovered other types of Latin dance (salsa, merengue) on my own as a teenager and went on from there.

So what if you have no musicality or coordination? Take a casual dance fitness class (Zumba, hip-hop, jazzercise, whatever), stand in the back where you won't annoy anyone, and enjoy it.

Years ago, I had a roommate who was (is) a dancer. Classes all day long, like 5-8 hours of dancing every day, in different styles (ballet, contemporary, contact, what have you), plus rehearsals into the evening and weekends. They definitely start young (think 5-6), as well.

BUT most dance companies and schools offer beginner - advanced classes to the public, just google "dance classes adults [your city]" (without the quotation marks) to find them.

Yoga is the worst place to start. I would start with jumping and hip movement

Usually people trying to learn to dance already know how to dance. Their energy is just dormant. So doing things like jumping, HIIT cardio, boxing, circuit training and having good sex (hip movement) will bring their energy to the right frequency.

*raises hand* I'm a dance teacher, have danced for 25 years and have been teaching for 15 years now.

How do dancers gain the strength and flexibility? Simple, they dance. For example, in a ballet class we will spend a good 30-45 minutes just at the barre. Plies, tendus, releves, etc. are all exercises to build strength and flexibility. There really isn't a substitution for gaining the mobility needed. Yoga is nice but not necessary, it uses the muscle groups differently and develops a different sort of flexibility and strength.

Do students jump right into choreography? Yes, sort of. When I'm working with a group of beginning students we go over a few steps at a time (2-3 for young children, perhaps as many as 5-6 for older students) and once the mechanics of each step have been gone over they are assembled into a combination that can be added to as more skills are developed.

That ability to make the difficult seem effortless only comes through continued training and practice. If you want to develop some of this, why not look into taking an actual dance class? Most studios have adult classes for all levels, from beginner to advanced.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Like I mentioned I can't follow the simplest dance steps to save my life, and the "act" of dancing isn't what I'm looking for. I'm looking for that control, balance, flexibility, moving effortlessly and so on.

Ahhh, sorry. If you don't actually want to dance, you can improve control, balance, and flexibility with yoga and pilates, yes. As someone above said, dancers learn to "move effortlessly" by moving in space, in all kinds of ways - that would be explored to a lesser degree in yoga or pilates. If you did want to try a dance class to work on that, though, I think you might enjoy contemporary styles. My limited experience (classes as a kid, some for fun as a grownup) tells me the movements are often more natural / accessible than in e.g. ballet. And you get to make pretty shapes and so on.