Accelerate Dance and Fitness

Need help with pirouettes? Check out my profile to view more tips! This series helps with dancers who struggle to spot. Breaking down the spot can often reveal where the challenge truly lies. Is it the head, or the eyes? Give it a try and see if it helps!

In case no one told you, these things are not normal! I never realized they were all connected until my brother, who was an ultra marathon runner told me these were symptoms of an imbalance of electrolytes, a common problem in ultra marathon runners. I started adding electrolytes to my water daily and ALL of these symptoms disappeared. I like Nuun tablets because they’re quick and easy, but sometimes I add citrus fruits and salt to my water too!

***disclaimer*** this is not meant to be medical advice. I am just sharing my lived experience in hope that it will help others. Please consult a nutritionist for nutritional advice.

If you’re not convinced, here are two more reasons to work on the supporting side first!

First, that leg is supporting the weight of your entire body! If the muscles aren’t working in balance, it will become inefficient and can lead to muscular imbalances or even restricted flexibility of your passe leg.

Second, once the supporting leg is truly stable, you’ll be able to adjust the working leg without the supporting side moving in response.

It’s always fun for me to track progress of my students! Sometimes we see progress in all sorts of unexpected places just from working on building a stronger base of support first!

Want time to slow down and work on things like this? Join me for my summer classes! In person classes meet once a week in the mornings and run from June 1st through August 7th. Drop in for a class or two or register for the summer to really see progress! Link in bio to register!

Giving your dancers lots of strengthening work with a theraband? Be sure to check what their feet look like pointing without the theraband too! We want to see the toe “knuckles” pop and see long, not crunched, toes! This can help ensure foot intrinsics are working and reduce the risk of ankle tendinopathies (such as the FHL or FDL tendons).

Still planning your summer? Join me for semi-private classes or private lessons where we work on flexibility, strengthening and ballet technique. Classes are available for ages 6-8, 9-11, 10-12 pre-professional level and ages 12 & up. Virtual private lessons are also available and virtual classes are coming soon! More information available at www.acceleratedance.com or email me at [email protected]!

Thank you to my beautiful students who are a part of this video





And Rylie

Injured and wondering why physical therapy isn’t helping? This was me as a dancer! I was constantly in physical therapy to try to manage my aches and pains, but they just kept coming back. Here’s what I learned over the years as to why.

1. They’re treating the symptoms not the problem - for example, maybe you’re being treated for a foot injury, but the problem isn’t actually your foot, but a lack of stability and support from your core, pelvis or hips.

2. You’re dancing above the level of your PT - still doing simple slow movement through range in your PT, but doing acro tricks in class? Your pain might not be going away because you are still working in a range of motion or at a speed you can’t control. Always keep your dancing one step behind your PT and don’t be afraid to take your time coming back from injury.

3. You haven’t learned to apple the concept to other areas of your life - maybe you have great habits while you dance, but you never learned how to sit well and sitting at school for 8 hours throws you off? Until you understand what movement patterns led to the injury and correct those, your body will default to what it knows and the injury will return.

It may take time, but I promise you it is possible to overcome recurring injuries! Email me at [email protected] if you want help with this!

Always love working with this beautiful dancer ! We have been working together for several years, focusing on proper muscle engagement in order to reduce compensations. Here, we are using a PBT exercise where she is having to quickly organize her body, stacking her spine and pelvis, and then has a chance to self correct and see how she did at the top.

She mentioned to me that her biggest correction in classes has been “closing the rib cage”. It was so fun to look back and see just how much better placed her ribs were with far less tension!

So excited for her most recent casting as Gamzatti in La Bayadere with American Classical Ballet. Congratulations on all your hard work this year. I am so happy that your casting continues to reflect that hard work. Have an absolute blast performing in Barcelona!!!