So a local group is having a free seminar… the connection between Ballet and Dressage, and how ballet training helps us become better dressage riders.
I saw a brief presentation last year and have my doubts… but… I know so little about ballet it’s hard for me to say…
comments?
Well, I have no real ballet experience, but it seems that you need a great deal of strength (core/back/legs), flexibility, and balance for ballet. All of which would seem helpful to dressage riders. If they’re talking about needing to be on pointe, that’s not realistic time or ability wise for most riders.
my concerns are the muscles used… and if the “wrong” ones are strengthened…
not sure about the connections between Ballet and the rider… For me its more the horse that can be connected to Ballet.
I did ballet and loved it for the workout factor. I can’t say that it hurt my riding because I only did it for a year. I don’t know that it helped my riding , either.
In ballet position is obviously important…but it focuses very much on turnout from the hip which doesn’t really go with the toes forward positioning in a dressage saddle.
It is an excellent whole body workout and is also very good for body awareness. I enjoyed the Barre work but actually wasn’t as interested in the dancing.
Can’t hurt to check it out, but you might like yoga just as well.
I’ve always explained dressage to non horse people by saying it’s like ballet on horses. It’s about learning ti use their body and do things they can naturally do and control it through strength and balance so that very difficult things look like they take no effort at all.
As a rider, I see the same thing. The better you are, the easier it looks to have complete control of all of your body parts combining relaxation, strength, and suppleness.
Personally, I found ballet to be more of a detriment to riding than a perk. Ballet encourages long lines in the body, and dancing en pointe encouraged that muscle memory in me which would sometimes make it challenging for me to remember to let the weight run through my heels. I also found that I carry more tension and rigidness in my body from ballet because of the posture and lengthening the dance form requires.
On the flip side, I found bellydancing to be far more beneficial to riding. The hip isolations are amazingly useful for sitting trot, the isolations in general help increase my body awareness and control and also allow me to ride a fussy horse a little easier if he needs multiple aids going on at once.
I still dance both. I find that on ballet days I need to put more focus into what my body is doing though because it kind of wants to default back into ballet mode.
I take several classes in ballet, jazz and tap. The ballet is beneficial for my posture as my trainer was always saying “shoulders back and down”. The plietes help with my hip flexers which are tight. The tap and jazz help me relax and take my mind off everything horsey. I did like the belly dancing classes but there really isn’t time for everything.
I think it’s useful to have other fitness elements in your routine not just riding, though I’ve dropped them all in favor of barn work!
If the seminar is being given by someone who teaches both ballet and riding I would definitely go because there may be interesting observations on rider biomechanics that apply beyond the ballet focus. I went to an excellent clinic a few years ago given by a riding instructor who was also a Pilates and yoga teacher with kinesiology training. There is much less sports mechanics info out there on riding than some other sports and much of the traditional riding instruction blurs what’s really going on with the body.
Though IME the usefulness of dance classes correlates to how much natural ability you might have. For someone like me who is not super flexible or graceful, anything that gets me to stretch and move in rhythm is useful. But the finer points of ballet will be lost on me as I will never get to that point in the curriculum!
Salsafit or zumba was a great fit for me. Also I did bellydance for several years and totally agree with how it unlocks your hips! On the other hand I certainly saw other beginner students who couldn’t do a shimmy isolation because their hips were somehow locked to their torsos. I expect they would have trouble riding. Maybe riding coaches should teach shimmy to their beginner students!
Dancers in the other hand have a natural head start if they go to learn riding.
I imagine that the benefits of ballet will be posture, rhythm, fitness, and awareness of body in space, as well as getting used to dancing to classical music so you can better develop a classy free style soundtrack!
Thanks all. The seminar is not about ballet as an additional workout routine, but rather how ballet positioning and muscle use is similar to dressage and can help you ride better. I have my doubts… It is taught by a dance instructor who rides but I am not sure at what level… (I do yoga and pilates and find both very helpful.) I’ll probably attend, but with a skeptical eye.
I did ballet and loved it for the workout factor. I can’t say that it hurt my riding because I only did it for a year. I don’t know that it helped my riding .
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