Is pre-dance stretching necessary?

[QPO]

you can if you wish :-) might cost you a bit :-P

then I could probably warm up by coming to your studio and watching you 

[elisedance]

er  I was thinking of watching cornut...

[emeralddancer]

ballet stretching, yoga, pilates(sp?) are all good forms of stretching that will IMO help in ballroom.

[elisedance]

they are all ways to stretch - but that wasn't the question - is it necessary to stretch or is there a better way to wam up for dancing?

[SwingWaltz]

they are all ways to stretch - but that wasn't the question - is it necessary to stretch or is there a better way to wam up for dancing?

Go for a run? We do a couple of rounds of quicsktep in like an embrace hold before we start real practising.

[elisedance]

interesting - and thats the first thing you do after putting your shoes on - no stretching at all?

[SwingWaltz]

I find it's more important to get the body warm than doing stretches.

[elisedance]

thats what I am finding.  I do stretches in the elevator (work on the 14th and its S-L-O-W

[Medira]

There is a woman , Zena Rommett. She started a system/style for ballet dancers called Floor Barre.
It isn't really stretching in the traditional sense, but more a development of "body awareness and alignment".  She must be in her 80's now. But still teaches once  week at a studio called Steps in NYC.

Since it all  happens on the floor, your spine is always in a perfect balance. The down side for ballroom dancers is a straight ballet leg. I always just think of my muscles getting longer and more connected to my centers.

Videos are available on line--just google Zena Rommett.

I have had an opportunity to take class from her at Steps.  For anybody in the NYC-area, I would highly recommend it. (caveat: I am a former classically trained ballet dancer.  As a result, when I started ballroom, I had a lot of good ballet habits to unlearn because they were bad ballroom habits.  Now that I have that knowledge, I feel that I am more aware of the difference in movement between the non-partner dance styles and the ballroom styles)

[standarddancer]

for me, absolutely necessary, pre-dance stretching warms me up, I stretch my ankle, back, warm up my knees, etc. Not only for freer better dancing, but more important, to prevent injury. It happened to DP that one day, he started dancing without warming up his knees, he almost hurt his knee during dancing, he felt pain for his knee afterwards, he said he knows that's because lack of proper warm up. Luckily, with accupunture, he got better; after that, we always warm up and stretching.

[elisedance]

A lot of dancers would agree with you - and I must admit to doing some stretching, in particular if I have any muscle aches or spasms (as I do now BTW).  However, have you tried just dancing very gently and then ramping it up?  Could that work as well?  Perhaps its because we are older but we always start that way whether or not we've stretched and I find it works pretty well.

[Becca]

I ALWAYS stretch before dancing.  Before I go to a lesson or practice I will really stretch out at home and get loosened up, then when I get to the studio I walk around rolling through my feet and really warming them up.  I also make sure to stretch out and warm up my lower and upper back and making sure my shoulders are relaxed and loose.  If I did not do this It would be very difficult for me to produce a correct top line.

I have done floor barre before as well. In Ballet company we had a floor barre/conditioning class about every two weeks and it is wonderful for body awareness. Since I haven't done it much since really switching to ballroom, I couldn't correctly give input, but I think floor barre is so specific to ballet that It might confuse a ballroom dancer that was not previously classically trained. (unless of course the ballroom dancer in question was pretty advanced and quite sure of their knowledge and technique, and made sure not to let some of the (correct in ballet)technical aspects creep into their partner dancing.) Some technical aspects of ballet are completely opposite of ballroom technique, and taking a class to increase body awareness in ballet technique might not be the best thing for your dancing IMHO.

[standarddancer]

However, have you tried just dancing very gently and then ramping it up?  Could that work as well? 

of couse this works well too. We usually start with basic natural & reverse turn in waltz, warm up with very basic steps with practice hold, before start comp choreo. Practice basics help to warm up, and remind us basic fundamentals, balances, postures, etc.

[Rugby]

I should, don't, then regret it.

[elisedance]

However, have you tried just dancing very gently and then ramping it up?  Could that work as well? 

of couse this works well too. We usually start with basic natural & reverse turn in waltz, warm up with very basic steps with practice hold, before start comp choreo. Practice basics help to warm up, and remind us basic fundamentals, balances, postures, etc.

thats exactly what we do.  however, before that I charge around the floor backward a threat to man and beast to warm my legs up. 

Interestingly pro does not want me to strengthen the muscles before dancing but to make myself more fluid and flexible...