The Not So Obvious Benefits of a Warm-Up

“Why do dancers warm up?" This was the question today in my elementary dance classes. Some students said, "To get our bodies ready and to not get injured." While others said, “to get hot," " to feel more comfortable and to get more stretchy.” These are some of the reasons my students gave when I asked them why dancers need to warm up.

While warming up before the lesson, practice or performance is important, I propose that warming up has more benefits than the obvious.

First let’s define what a warm up is exactly.

A warm up is a series of movements that increase or raise the internal body temperature. In a dance class it is usually accompanied by music and can vary in its execution from style or genre of dance. And its purpose is to prepare the mind and body to perform with greater range of motion and eliminate the risk of injury.

But, beyond its main purpose, I believe warm ups have other benefits, especially within the educational setting.

Coordination is Strengthened

Coordination is performing different movements or using different body parts at the same time efficiently and affectively. In my classes we focus on right and left side movements of the body as well as cross lateral movements that develop coordination. Twisting, crossing, tapping across the mid-line of the body is an excellent way to build coordination. Also, using the upper and lower body together is great for building coordination. The purpose of these actions is to encourage the right and left sides of the brain to communicate with one another and in turn be able to perform more complex movement patterns and combinations.

Musicality is Developed

Musicality occurs when a dancer is sensitive to the music and is able to move in connection with the quality or dynamics of the music. Listening to different kinds of music, moving to the beat and the rhythmic patterns in the music and shifting with the changes in dynamics in the music all encourage students to develop their musicality. In a warm up the teacher is modeling how to move to the music so students can see what musicality looks like.

Community is Built

Community is a valuable benefit of any dance class and the feeling of fellowship with others dancers develops at the beginning of class with the warm up. With the shared goal of completing the warm up exercises, and the excitement at the start of the dance class, the students and teacher are building community even before the lesson begins. Students know that we all do the warm up and we move together. Even if the warm up movements may be individualized, the purpose is all the same, to prepare the mind and body as a collective.

*Ideas for warm-up music: K-6

• Action Dance Song by Kate Kuper and Neal Robinson ( my students ask for this one!)

• Nursery Rhymes

• Eric Chappelle Brain Dance Music

• Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) Instrumental Track Karaoke

• Wait by HGHTS-(feat. Sajan Nauriyal)

• Nana by Polo & Pan

• Shabba-Ajanku-African Dance Time, Vol. 9

Thanks for stopping by!

Alison