How to Cool Down from An Irish Dance Practice--Essential Practices to keep in mind EVERY TIME

After the intensity of an Irish dance practice the last thing you may want to do is hang out at the studio and stretch, but the most important work of your day could take place in the five minutes you take to cool down. Not sure how to cool down properly after an Irish dance practice/competition/performance? Read on!

Stay Warm

Unless you live in the tropics, the temperature inside your dance studio is probably nice and toasty compared to that of the rainy outside. You are also probably nice and toasty, coated in a lovely layer of sweat from your hornpipe endurance drills. But shocking your system by jumping from your warm studio to the great outdoors without changing clothes is not good for your body. Bring a pair of stretch pants and a sweatshirt to thrown on as soon as you are done dancing. You want your muscles to stay warm as you stretch them. This is a good rule of thumb for long days of dance as well. If you are not dancing, cover yourself up and keep your muscles warm—especially your legs! This helps avoid injury and helps you dance your best each time.

Cool Down

The worst thing you can do for your body when you just worked it out is plunk down on the floor and sit. Your heart needs to gradually calm down and slowly return to a normal speed. Once your cardio is done for the day, walk around the room, do some releves, swing your legs, do some standing stretches. After you feel your heart rate slow, you can relax.

Stretch

After practice is the best time to stretch your muscles. You always want to stretch when you are the warmest—because there is more blood flow to your muscles, they are nice and flexible and ready to accept lengthening. Stretching fatigues your muscles though-- dancing after you push your stretches is not a good idea. Use your stretches as a way to cool down your body and unwind from class or practice. As an Irish dancer, you should thoroughly stretch your hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes, hip flexors and calves/achilles, both to increase flexibility in those areas and make sure they don’t get too tight.

Though it may take a few extra minutes at the end of a hard day, your body will thank you for giving it time to cool down properly. Remember, these tips are essential not just at practice, but at competitions and performances as well.

Image courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Five Steps to a Great Warm Up

All Irish dancers know the feeling of wanting to jump into the studio, run steps, drill new rhythms or figure out that workshop material you got last week. You also probably know the feeling of not wanting to practice—dragging yourself to the studio for an early morning rehearsal. Whether you can’t wait to start dancing or need a little push, warming your body up properly can make all the difference. Use the tips below to start crafting your own routine.

Foam Roll

Using a foam roller is a great way to warm up your body before any exercise, but can be particularly crucial for dancers because we work the same muscle groups on repeat. Starting with your calves, use the foam roller to hit all the major muscle groups, pausing when you feel anything that is extra tight or sore. Don’t forget to spend extra time on your calves, shins and quadriceps; muscle groups that are especially prone to fatigue in Irish dancers.

Increase Blood Flow to Important Places

To help your body warm up properly, you want to encourage blood flow to the parts of the body you are going to use in your practice. Start with your feet and toes, working up to your knees, hips, core, shoulders and head. I do this by pushing my feet into the floor (think prancing), rolling my ankles, bending my knees, swinging my legs to get at my hips, twisting from my waist and rolling my head and shoulders.

Raise Your Heart Rate

To get your body ready for more intense cardio, start moving! You can crank some great music and jam for a few minutes, lightly jog in place or around the room, or slowly start walking through your steps. To get your heart rate up faster, involve you arms. Bring them up and down over your head while you jog or dance.

Active Stretching

Stretching before you start really dancing can be a great way to truly prepare for a practice session, but make sure you aren’t slowing your heart rate way down, or sitting in a stretch for too long. Active stretching means stretching that doesn’t fatigue the muscles, it rather wakes them up and gets them ready to work. Stretching as part of a warm up should be done with your body off the floor—this is not the time to sit in your splits and stretch as hard as you can. I lead my classes through lunges and calf stretches, balances on their toes, and squats in second position to help them wake up their muscles.

Target Specific Movements

This part of your warm up will probably be different every time you practice, depending on what you’re focusing on that day. Some TCRG’s give their students a set of drills they expect them to do every time they practice—this would be a great place to use those. Some students know the movements they should be breaking down from each step they are doing. Because your body is still warming up, start your drills slowly, focusing on correct placement and technique. As your body feels warmer and the movement improves, you can add speed, music and more gusto.

A great warm up is essential to any dancer’s success. Warming up before your own practice is essential to avoiding injury, dancing your best, and establishing a routine that works for your body. Once you have yours down, you will look forward to it’s comforting routine, it will help put your head in the game for performance and competition and will help you make the most out of those precious practice sessions.

 

Date a Girl Who (Irish) Dances

Inspired by all the wonderful "date a girl who" posts-- if you like this, please check out the original work. My personal favorite can be found here: http://sandiegoballetdancecompany.org/date-girl-dances-steffi-carter-san-diego-ballet-dancer/

Date a girl who Irish Dances.

Date a girl whose instruments are leather and fiberglass. Date a girl who intentionally makes noise, whose goal is to be the loudest and clearest. Date a girl who isn’t afraid of being noticed for being too loud.

Date a girl whose art speaks  loudly and clearly at times. At times it flows lightly and travels across the room. Date a girl who dedicates years to moments of performance. Date a girl who has taught her body to create sound that is rhythmically perfect. Date a girl who waltzes seamlessly between dancer and musician.

Date a girl who sparkles. Who glimmers under the lights, who can hold her own in a costume, in a wig, who won’t be swallowed up by the immensity of a garment. She can be extravagant, and understands the power of a great outfit. She is not weighed down by this knowledge, offstage she lives in stretch pants. Jeans won’t fit over her calves.

Date a girl who grew up in bars. Who impressed the St. Patrick’s Day revelers. Whose most cherished mentor showed their love and appreciation by yelling critique. Date a girl who cares enough about something to hear all the criticism. Who is willing to make a change by doing something different. Who is willing to do it all with no guarantee of success.

Date a girl with strong legs. With toes that can spring her feet off the floor with no momentum. Date a girl who flies with every practice, who seeks that feeling in every step. She’s strong enough to go it alone sometimes, but is always better off with you there. After all, she wants you to fly with her.

When she falls, she falls hard. It’s the breaking of bones, or worse, the spraining of extremities. It’s the landing from a perfect leap, the attempt at doing one more beat than she thought she could do. It’s the crushing, embarrassing falls, no fall is graceful in Irish Dance. It’s slipping off pointe at a pivotal moment, it’s falling, legs splayed, mascara running, wig askance. Date a girl who can get up from this moment and attempt to fly again.

She is a little rough around the edges, cruder perhaps than most, she did grow up dancing in smoky bars, drinking with her dance teachers and hanging out with Irish musicians, after all. She loves to eat. A lot. After all, she’ll burn it all off. She’s not afraid to have a beer before a dance, though holds her performance to the highest standard. She has an unquenchable need to move. To do more, more, now. To sweat, to create, to learn. When this moment is over she will lay on the couch. She will read. Binge on TV. Eat potato chips, french fries and drink wine.

Date a girl who longs for more, for Irish dance is never finished. There are endless possibilities, and she will seek to find them all. Date a girl with unharnessed energy, who can at times move with wild abandon, to whom traditional pursuits aren’t enough. She will seek more for you, and for you together. Don’t let her be bored, and never let her stop.

Date a girl who cries on St. Patrick’s Day because she missed a chance to dance. Who can’t sing, but lilts steps with wild abandon, as if you understand everything she is saying. She wakes up and dances in the kitchen, while in waiting in lines, while waiting for the bus. Date a girl who understands the importance of keeping up tradition, who listens with rapt attention to ballads sung in bars, and participates in drinking songs as if in a religious fervor.

She will commit to you, even if there is no guarantee of success. Give her adventure and she will give you more. She will give you song and endless energy. She will strive for perfection, and if not perfection, she will strive for moments of breathtaking performance. She is fearless. Irish Dancers see human bodies performing incredible feats of speed and precision and tell each other they can do it faster, louder or bigger.

She lives in extremes. You will have to adjust the temperature, she will turn the heat up all the way when she’s cold, get too hot and turn on the AC until she freezes and starts the process over. The middle is not her road.

You will have to take care of the finances, the plane tickets, bookings and plans. Take care of the details of all your grand adventures. She will be too busy thinking of them.


Did I miss anything? Feel free to add a comment below!