4006 DANCE

STUDIO PRACTICE PRESENTATION

HARRIET TAYLOR

FRONT VIEW

As you can see my left shoulder is higher than my right. Not

only is it just my shoulder but you can see my hip is too. I’m considerably more flexible on my left and I think that this is one of the reasons why. Also

my hip flexor is a lot looser on the left, so that my leg is able to

go further.

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BACK VIEW I have a weak spine. This is due to an

injury in the neck I did when I was a lot younger. My upper body strength

isn't that good either. This is also because I don’t have an amazing

core. I do try my best to work on this but sometimes it causes pain to my

back which then prevents me in carrying on.

You can see that the back of my patella (knees) are hyper extended and they

slightly bow inward from this.

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RIGHT SIDE VIEWIn this picture my neck isn’t inline with my

spine, this may be due to the injury that I’ve got now from many years ago. It’s as

if my head is slightly pushed forward and on a slant.

I do have rather large thighs, which shows that I haven’t been working my Sartorius muscles (inner thigh) over the years. I’ve

been tensing the quads too much, causing them to bulk out. As it is the longest muscle in the body, with the right methods of training I should be

able to elongate them and smallen them down.

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LEFT SIDE VIEWI have sway back knees you can really see

the over extension in my calves in this picture. This means that my patella goes

past being ‘straight’ and doesn’t lock into place until they’ve gone past a

certain point. Showing an outward curve from my plumb line in the picture.

A way for me to prevent this when dancing is by

‘Adjustment of weight, a continuous effort not possible to sustain throughout all movements’

http://www.balletdancer.org/ballet01-06.php - Ballet Physique Secrets chapter 6 ‘sway-back’ knees

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FRONT LEGVIEW

My sway back knees are my main flaw on my body. This is because I often ‘sit’ into them and don’t pull up and out like I should. Its comfy for me to

sit into them. It can sometimes work in my favour though as because I'm used

to it, I can hold positions longer, i.e. Standing with my

leg in arabesque or to second. To me, when my

knees are fully locked that’s when my legs are straight, so

when I'm told to relax the knees I feel like my knees are

bent.You can also see the true

bulkiness of my quad muscles. For me to reduce

the size of these Is to

BACK LEG

VIEW

My Current Fitness Levels

• Results from DAFT(Aerobic Fitness):• Resting Pulse – (bpm)• After stage 1 – (bpm)• After stage 2 – (bpm)• After stage 3 – (bpm)• After stage 4 – (bpm)• After stage 5 – (bpm)

• Number of Press-ups in a minute(Strength): • How long I can hold the plank(Core Stability): • BMI(Body Composition): Your BMI is• Sit and reach (Flexibility):• Grip test (Strength):

Progress/Evaluation• Since we had to do the fitness tests at the beginning of the year, my fitness levels have improved

dramatically. I think this is because I realised I needed to do something about my image and body and invested in a member ship at Adelphi Gym in the town centre. I also started going to hip-hop/commercial classes outside of university, and I’m currently looking into some new ones in contemporary that have just started up as well as continuing with my dance course and also some of the short courses that they provide.

• From assessments that we have done since the fitness tests, the main things that keeps coming back is my core stability. I have always had a weak core but with the gym and swimming that I have started doing, I have exercises that I do which in the long run will strengthen my core to the capacity it needs to be for my dance training.

• Also with weight loss, I have lost weight since I started university in September 2011. This is due to the fact of the extra exercise I started doing and the fact that I cut down on my meals and started a calorie counting via an app on my iPhone – MyFitnessPal – and having the Nike free app that connects to my trainers calculating distance, calories and much more.

• http://www.myfitnesspal.com/• http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

My Chosen Aspect - Flexibility• What is flexibility??• For me flexibility is an added bonus to my dancing. I have always been flexible but I would never stop maintaining it because there is always

room for improvement. I still can’t get into right leg splits and my right leg doesn’t go as high as my left. This is because my hip flexor is less flexible and also my hamstring is tighter.

• Why is It important/why do I need it??• I need to be flexible in my career as I feel that with any type of dancing if you are indicated to lift you leg or kick it for that matter, that it

always looks better the higher it goes, with control and strength of course. I need to keep pushing at making my right leg compatible with my left so that it evens out my work.

• Other aspects to consider – • FITNESS (STAMINA)• DIET (IF YOU WANT TO LOSE/GAIN WEIGHT)• INJURY• OVERALL FITNESS (MAINTAINING WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE)

Continue with my diet, with the work I’ve been doing and will continue to do is really beneficial to my goal weight.

Keep working on my core strength to gain upper body strength to take the pressure off my back, also make sure wear shin splint socks to prevent the pain returning when I’m running or dancing.

My Summer PlanDAY MORNING AFTERNOON EVENING

MONDAY HIP FLEXORS JOG

TUESDAY SWIM HIP - HOP

WEDNESDAY JOG

THURSDAY STRETCH BALLET

FRIDAY HAMSTRINGS

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

When it comes to my fitness, I’m going to look at it as a whole rather than just focus on one thing. With the healthy eating I started doing after Christmas, with the added exercise, has already started working with me already loosing half a stone of my 2 stone goal. As I work as well I will be constantly

on my feet over summer so will pretty much all the time be doing aerobic exercise.

I have given myself the weekends of not doing anything as when exercising you need time for your body to rest, giving the body the time needed to recover from the training and to allow adaption of the body to take place.

Conclusion

• For me, I think my main goal is to maintain the weight that I’m at now and keep working as I am doing at lowering that but maintaining my strength and flexibility.

• Also I want to look at improving my upper body strength and core stability so that it takes pressure off my back injury.

• I feel that the summer plan I have set out is a reasonable one for me to maintain. As I’m only part time staff where I work I won’t be in all day everyday giving myself me time to work on my body.

References• http://www.balletdancer.org/ballet01-06.php - Ballet Physique Secrets chapter 6 ‘sway-back’ knees

• http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

• http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/