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.

 

Footstorm

A new era of Irish dance is born! This show looks like the perfect combination of technically amazing Irish dancing, and creative entertainment. Based on the trailer it looks like an indulgent blend of Riverdance style grandeur and science fiction (yes, science fiction irish dance). I don't know what more I could ask for, and I hope to check it out when we're on tour in April. I will let you all know how it is!

Because Irish Dancers are People Too.

I have recently achieved my childhood dream, well, the most important one anyway. It was to live with the girls I danced with, have a dance studio in our house and spend most of our lives practicing, talking about and planning ways to do more Irish dancing.

It happened organically, we started an Irish dance company (another dream come true!!!), got to know each other quickly via arguements about dance technicalities and started trying to make money Irish dancing. Three of us needed new spaces to live, we needed a place to practice and voila! the Seattle Irish Dance House was born.

Irish dancing has always been a personality defining trait for me, if I didn't live it, I'm not sure what I would live. People seem to be facisnated by it; they wonder why we do it, how we do it? They wonder if we all have Irish dance fetishes (we don't!) They stop in the middle of the sidewalk, mouths hanging  open to watch us practice. Some think it's too easy to even be considered dancing, (for example: http://www.youjustmademylist.com/?p=950), some think it's physically impossible and we must be magical creatures. The truth of the matter is that non-Irish dancers are either very uninformed, misinformed or just plain curious. This is a blog about our lives (like many blogs are) but we happen to be Irish dancers.