What Dancers Know - Part 2
November 12th, 2008 Posted by David Lemberg
“Love the Pain” was my first choice for the title of this article. “Love the pain” is what dancers really know. But I was concerned about attracting too kinky a crowd and therefore kept the title informative yet generic. 
If someone pays you a supreme compliment by saying “you look like a dancer” or “you walk just like a dancer”, what they’re really saying is your body is graceful, lithe, and supple. They’re remarking on your ease of movement, your economy of flow, your balance, excellent posture, and quiet strength.
Dancers Practicing at the Barre, Edgar Degas, 1877, Metropolitan Museum of Art
In reply, you foolishly grin and mumble your thanks. I mean, can you really shout out loud and say, “YES! Thank you for acknowledging my years of hard work! All that time, all that effort, has finally paid off!”
Well, you could.
Seriously, how are dancers able to achieve all that and be all that? What are the things dancers do every class and every day that can benefit us in our health-and-fitness activities? Can we achieve comparable results? Yes, we can.
Love the Pain
Way back when, my jazz dance teacher used to tell us, “Love the pain”. Someone would have bravely – or foolishly – complained out loud about a particularly difficult exercise or dance step. Fred would turn his most withering look on the student, his eyes flashing. He’d pause for effect. All Fred’s long-time students knew what was coming next. “Love the pain”, Fred would declare loudly, making sure everyone heard. “That’s what we’re here for,” he’d continue, looking around at all of us.
It was a big lesson, and I’ve always remembered Fred’s message. When you love the pain, you keep going when you want to stop. When you love the pain, you don’t slack off. You don’t skip a day. You do the hard work.
And, surprise, when you keep going, when you do the work, you make a lot of progress. Your weight loss program begins to kick in and you discover you’ve lost 15 pounds! You notice you’ve gained some lean muscle mass thanks to your strength training program. You notice it’s much easier to climb stairs thanks to your aerobic exercise routine.
Why are you receiving all these benefits? Because you have continued, consistently, to follow your plan. You’ve learned to love the pain, both metaphorically and literally.
1/32 of an Inch
One of the exercises we’d do at the barre in ballet class was called tendu pique. Standing on a straight leg you’d slide the other foot forward on the floor as far as it would go, pointing the foot and keeping the little toe in contact with the floor.
My ballet teacher, Don, would have us do tenqu pique to the front, side, back, and side, maintaining and lengthening in each position for 32 counts – four measures of eight beats each. The goal of this 32-count tendu pique was not merely to create a straight leg, but to have the extended leg lengthen 1/32 of an inch on each beat!
“Your leg should be one whole inch longer at the end of each phrase”, Don would intone. What a concept! The length of your leg is the length of your leg, isn’t it? Well, no. What Don was requiring us to do was use the whole length of our legs. Not just to place the leg out in space, but to lengthen all the muscles and supporting tissues so the leg was highly energized and vibrantly straight. And, remarkably, at the end of the phrase my leg would have lengthed one whole inch!
This was a big lesson, too. Don was a brilliant teacher and his ballet classes were thinly disguised training grounds for becoming a self-actualized person as well as a dancer.
I want to get all metaphorical here about the 1/32 of an inch thing, but I’ll stick to what it means for fitness. Reaching 1/32″ on each beat during tendu pique means reaching energy. Not stiffening up or tightening or contracting or gripping or holding. Nothing like that. Reaching energy means seeing – visualizing – energy flowing down your leg, all the way down through the toes.
Or visualizing energy flowing down your arm, all the way down your arm through your fingers.
Reaching energy in this way creates muscular flow and balance and results in a very long line. When you’re reaching energy you’re working your musculoskeletal system to its maximum. There are no blockages. There’s only flow.
There are many implications for our fitness activities. The big idea, of course, is to visualize – to see in your mind what your body is doing during your specific exercises. When you can visualize, you can send energy. You can work efficiently and at a high level. And you’re building brain–muscle connections. Your body is getting much smarter.
So use the 1/32 of an inch approach. You’ll notice there’s more spring in your step. You’ll notice you’re a little taller. And you’ll notice your exercising has gotten a whole lot easier and you’re getting more out of your exercise time, mentally as well as physically.
We want fitness to be fun and we want our time and effort to be well spent. It’s possible for everyone to bring a dancer’s qualities of grace and flow into all our workouts, into all our lives.
Please visit What Dancers Know Part 1
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