Paris Jane - Pilates and Conditioning for Dancers

PRESSPILATES AND
CONDITIONING
FOR DANCERS

PRESSPILATES AND
CONDITIONING
FOR DANCERS

Jane Paris

First published in 2021 by
The Crowood Press Ltd
Ramsbury, Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2021

Jane Paris 2021

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 837 5

Photography by Robert Gravenor, except where otherwise credited

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people, both in my past and my present, whose help I wish to acknowledge.

First, there is Margaret Durrant, my first ballet teacher, who set the ball rolling on a life spent in dance. In a cold church hall with a solid floor, Miss Durrant made the RAD classes fun and made us believe that anything was possible.

If I had not attended the studio of Ruth French in the London borough of Chelsea, I doubt I would have become so fascinated by technique. She both inspired and terrified me, and her stories of Pavlova and Karsavina brought ballet history alive. I loved the tiny upstairs studio looking down on the fashionable Kings Road and it was there that I realized how difficult ballet technique really was and the commitment and hard work it required.

Noreen Bush and the teaching staff at Bush Davies, East Grinstead, really did make school days very happy what a joy suddenly to be dancing all day! Miss Bush believed in me and the varied dance education made us all versatile and certainly developed us as performers. One of the lines in the school song was integrity our rule and I hope I have carried that ethos forward in to my teaching career.

In my Pilates career my biggest thank you goes to Avi Shoshana, who first interested me in the method and who encouraged and trained me to teach. In common with many teachers in the UK, and further afield, I owe a debt to Alan Herdman, the teacher who first brought the method to this country. He was a great help when I opened my premises in Edinburgh, the first Pilates studio in Scotland.

I have taught for many years in ballet and dance companies around the world, and during that time my friends and colleagues in The Network have provided a support system and collaborative group that has shaped the direction of my work. Some of their exercises are in this book, so thank you to Barbara Harris (Boston Ballet), Clarice Marshall (Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company and the JKO school), Jennifer Mills (Birmingham Royal Ballet), Leila Kester (Nederlands Dans Theatre and Dutch National Ballet) and Paula Baird-Colt (the Australian Ballet).

Over recent years I have worked as a consultant to the Norwegian Olympic Association at Olympiatoppen, Oslo. This has developed my work further in the field of optimizing performance and I have learnt a lot about coaching skills from Morten Braaten and the rest of the motor control department there. Thank you to all of them for their generosity in sharing ideas.

My thanks go to Kevin OHare, Director, Royal Ballet, for his support in this project and for allowing me to use Company dancers to illustrate the exercises. He was also encouraging when I wanted to work with the Norwegian Olympic Association to broaden my knowledge and experience.

Further thanks go to Greg Retter, former Clinical Director of the Mason Healthcare Suite at the Royal Ballet, for his permission to use the Pilates studio for the photographs and for encouraging me to write the book.

I must also thank Balanced Body, based in Sacramento, California, the manufacturers of the Pilates equipment you will see in the photographs. I am grateful to them not only for their permission to show their products in this book, but also for their support to the wider Pilates community around the world over many years. Even with the growth of the business from the garage of the founder, Ken Endelman, to the worldwide organization of today, they have remained a friendly and generous company. Ken continues to innovate and improve Pilates equipment.

The dancers who gave their time as my models truly deserve huge applause! In their demanding schedules they made time to make a significant contribution to this book. Marianela Nez is one of the most celebrated ballerinas in the world today and her dedication to her art shines through these photographs. Marcelino Samb was a first soloist with the Royal Ballet when these pictures were taken, but has since been promoted to principal dancer and is one of the exciting younger generation of leading male artists. Nadia Mullova-Barley is an artist in the corps de ballet with a very promising career ahead of her. Without the inspiration of the dancers of the Company, many of these exercises would not even have evolved. There is never a dull day around such talented and hard-working individuals.

The wonderful images in this book are the work of Robert Gravenor, whose input has been invaluable. As a former dancer with the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, he has a great eye for the detail required and was the perfect fit as the final member of the team. A big thank you to you, Rob!

My husband, Andy, is the best support and without him none of this would have made it into print. This book is dedicated to him.

PREFACE: A PERSONAL NOTE

I am indebted to many great dance teachers, movement educators and my colleagues in dance companies around the world for their careful work and inspiration. Over the years I have also learnt from working closely with some of the greatest performers of their generation they have been the catalyst for the invention of many new exercises.

When I was a ballet student, I was inspired and encouraged by one book in particular: it was entitled Dance! Therapy for Dancers , and was written by Beryl Dunn, who was at the time the physiotherapist for the Royal Ballet. I would like to think that my book will encourage others in the same way.

Writing this book has also brought back fond memories of my own Pilates instructor, the late Avi Shoshana, who originally inspired and encouraged me to follow this career path. He gave me his time with great generosity and led me to teaching with a flexible approach based on the individual and not following a rigid system. His focus was always on finding and doing what worked best for each participant, not on simply knowing hundreds of exercises. He felt that memorizing a list of exercises was beside the point. His work was about understanding the movement and the person and how those two elements went together. It was frustrating for me at times, as an apprentice who was keen to know more and yet more. But now with years of experience behind me, as Avi himself had, I better understand what he was trying to tell me.