How to Stretch before Dancing Ballet

Video Transcript

"Now we are going to start stretching and what we are going to first do is splits. And if you can't go all the way down in your splits yet, some people like to stretch before they go in their splits. So first you can do kind of a stretch like this to get this nice and limber. And then, stretch back and get your hamstring nice and loose. And then once you feel like you're good with that, try to slowly go down into the splits. If you can't make it all the way down yet, that's ok. So once you are in the split just go forward, touch your toe get a nice hamstring stretch. And then if you'd like you can put your back foot up like that and that gives you a nice stretch in this area. And then you are going to want to go to the other side, and you are going to do the same thing, stretch forward first, kind of get into it, stretch back, and then slowly slide down into the splits. Same thing go ahead and go forward. Pick your back foot up like that and then we are going to do a center split. You are just going to kind of move forward and just go as far down as you can don't worry about it if you're not far down yet. Just get a good stretch; then go through into what I like to call the "froggy". This is a froggy stretch, you're trying to get your back feet as close to the ground as possible, while still keeping your pose on the ground. This is a really good stretch to stretch your turnout before class. So, in ballet you want to make sure that your legs and your hamstrings are really stretched out because we work with our legs a lot. So it?s really important to stretch all that out and try and do your splits before your class."