Adult Dancers: The Barre Crawl

The ballet definition of the Barre Crawl: When you are so sore and tired from barre work that you have to crawl out of the dance studio.

I grew up watching the movie “The Turning Point” as a dance student; I watched it repeatedly, enamored with Leslie Brown’s dancing and the other dancers and their ballet performances; ingraining the ten-second coaching session of Don Quixote from Madame Danilova to myself.  

But a scene I never understood as dance student nor pre-professional, despite all the warnings, was the one of Anne Bancroft explaining to Shirley MacClain’s character that "she hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out how the body revolts."  To truly understand this, is to dance as an adult; especially if you danced seriously and took time away from it at all, or in Ms. Bancroft’s character’s case, continued on, a current long-term career dancer on the verge of needing to retire.  And Ms. MacClaine’s character, a ‘has-been’/could have been great dancer, but gave it up for marriage and family when she unexpectedly became pregnant, was able to take the facts of life of getting older with a grain of salt, as it was and is, just normal.  What you or anyone else won’t realize until that re-entry into the studio is that statement about the body rebelling against you, couldn’t be truer. 

Whatever the situation, as I stress here, either coming into the dance studio as an adult dancer for the first time, or returning, you will feel some awkwardness at best; and some pain, to be realistic.  Here we discuss what to expect at the barre:

The Snap, Crackle, Pop

No, I'm not talking about making dance friends by bringing in a plate of Ballerina Bones (& Joints) (Rice Krispies Treat Pops ballet style), I'm talking about  PLIÉS.  That first grande plié can be a rather audible experience.  Your hips, knees and ankles may make loud protests at putting them through the barre exercises.  Although this may seem embarrassing, this becomes a rather comical symphony if you are in an adult class, with several other adult dancers, especially in the colder climates. Because everyone is making the sounds and everyone feels what you feel, there is a certain camaraderie to the adult dancer snap, crackle, pop. 

Two tips: 

1) laugh it off, I can't emphasize enough that this is natural and will happen.  It will happen your first class, your first few classes and may always happen if you are over "that certain age."  

2) Do not force turnout.  Remember, you are either training your muscles for the first time, or re-training, to attain proper turn out.  As an adult, you have zero justification to force turnout and your chances of injury are that much higher even if you try to force it.  It's not worth it.  Do the work, slowly and steadily... it will come.

The Death Grip

Barre work is designed to slowly warm up the body through micro-muscle work while building the blocks of technique.  What's amazing, however, is how much you work your hand grip muscles at the barre when first returning. 

That 'death grip' happens usually without you ever noticing until a few hours after the class or after the exercise as the blood comes rushing back to your fingers while awaiting the next exercise.  It happens.  As I say it's mostly an unconscious thing while you learn balance (or, regain your balance), but try to be cognizant of it.  As a first tip, I always teach students (of any age) to regard the barre the same as you would a dance partner.  It is less likely that you would have a death grip on flesh as opposed to wood, so try to remind yourself that death gripping the barre is not only inappropriate to your "partner," but it will also disservice you.  Because once you leave the barre for center and across the floor work, your work at the barre will be almost completely nullified if all your weight and muscle memory was focused on your death grip.  The second tip is to always keep your thumb over the bar.  This helps to mitigate the death grip positioning.  The other thing to note with the barre hand is that it is mobile.  Move your hand to the lower barre (when available) when taking a port de bras forward, (this engages the core muscles more and keeps your back in better alignment), let go of the barre here and there to strengthen balance and feel where your weight is truly residing.

Feeling the Earthquakes

With barre work, we alternate from slow work to quick work back to slow work and back to quick work, slowly building from micro muscles to macro muscles. 
With this order of things combined with adult dancer syndrome, we tend to tense up all our muscles during the quick exercises and push beyond capacity on slow exercises, which results in 'the shakes.' With this change over, the muscles switch the workload over and between different muscle fibers, which is in part responsible for the shakes.  If you have never experienced the shakes, it can be a little scary, because your body is not doing a) what is normal and b) what is within your control.  Do not worry. Muscle shakes are natural for a new exercise routine of any kind, not just ballet.  Dehydration is another cause of muscle shakes.  Be sure to keep a water bottle with you during class and re-hydrate continuously.  Even though you feel like something is horribly wrong, 9 times out of 10 if you push through it, you will be fine.  That being said, if you really feel that the cramping is unbearable or even that "off," simply stop the exercise, shake it out, massage or stretch the muscle(s) giving you concern and re-hydrate.  It's fine to stop, stretch and re-group at any point that you need to do so during class.  If you are in an environment where you feel this is not the case, find a different studio (but just be sure that is at the directive of the studio or teacher and not your own insecurities).

The 7th & 8th Positions

As you go through barre, you will undoubtedly work through first position, second position, fourth position and fifth position.  Many adult classes utilize the sixth position (parallel position) at the barre to assist with stretching and cambrés.  And we all know of that elusive third position that never really sees its way into a studio.  Occasionally, every dancer may experience the 7th position, a.k.a. the Barre Crawl, but... 

the 8th position is reserved for the Adult Dancer ONLY. 

*Student Model Credit: Elliana F. and fellow dancer.