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Unless someone like you cares5/19/2023 I need to listen to myself because I know my body best and speak up when I know that something is wrong. There have been plenty of instances where I have been in pain but merely brushed it aside because someone told me that it was not a big deal. When conversing with non-dancers such as parents many people assume that what you deem pain is just ordinary dance soreness which is not the case. This article brought out many good points although specific ones stuck with me such as the prevention point and the point on listening to our own pain. The key to staying uninjured is to take care of one’s body so that it has the resources to keep itself healthy. Ending with the most important point in the blog Vogel stresses the importance of prevention before rehabilitation. This is simply because dancers have a natural drive however that drive can also make a dancer go back to work before their body is truly healed, so to get multiple opinions on an injury. Vogel discusses that as dancers one needs to allow for others to asses their injuries because they tend to lose perspective on the matter. It is like a well oiled machine and with one missing piece the whole machine could go down. Just like anything else with the body when one part is broken or injured something has to do extra work because of it. As a dancer one should know their body better than anybody else and needs to know when to accept the fact that their body is in pain and needs to be looked at. Vogel begins with the point that most dancers tend to forget which is to never minimalize your pain. In this article Deborah Vogel focuses on the importance of listening to our bodies and not taking pain for granted. Improper care of an injury can take a dancer out for the rest of the year so learning when to take action with an injury is essential. The topic of injuries is a tough one simply because it can weigh so heavily upon a dancer and their future career. I assume that I will most likely have a more enjoyable experience dancing as well if I attempt to being connecting my movement to my breath. I discovered though the article that utilizing my breath more will allow me to push through that fatigue in pieces and provide me with a stronger endurance. While yes the audience and music can be a motivation it is just a fact that my body is going to get tired and yet I know no way of stopping that fatigue. Another moment that I need to remember to incorporate breath and once again forget to would be any sort of high energy jazz piece. I become so focused on the steps and sequence that I ignore the most important thing which is my breath. It is almost like if you think on one topic too hard than you exhaust it which is what I believe occurs in my body in ballet class. It is almost ironic because the fluidity that I am attempting to achieve is being restricted due to worrying over just that. Specifically in ballet class it appears as if I almost hold my breath and unknowingly to me contract all of my muscles making me appear stiff and tight. Also if one is ever in need of discovering how their breath works or want to work on their breathing patterns to best place would be to lie on their back and place their hands on their ribs and belly, making sure that both move in harmony.īreath is something that I know I need to use more of yet forget to do quite often. One should embrace the pause because that is the body’s way of releasing gases and preparing itself to take another breath. Something that no one tends to know is to not rush the pause the pause meaning the space between the inhale and exhale that seems to be ignored. This is because when movement is restricted all of the surrounding muscles tense up making it difficult to breath. If one small area happens to become restricted such as the ribs then expect to have difficulty breathing. The breath incorporates everything from the torso and pelvis to ribs and diaphragm. The science behind the breath is that essentially one’s breath is like a pump flowing in and out of the body. When caught up in the fast paced movement of a piece the tendency is to go go go but never to breath which is why many dancers are caught out of breath by the end of a number. A point that every dancer knows but always seems to forget is that the breath can be used to not only help manage fatigue but to help maintain endurance as well. If one walks around breathing incorrectly then they can expect to have a poorer quality of health. As Vogel stated in the very beginning of her post the quality of breath equals the quality of health and they go hand in hand. This article was chosen because of how essential breath is to a dancer and how easily it is brushed aside.
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