Barre has become a term synonymous with a type of workout that is often known as a blend between dance and yoga. However, barre the activity came long after dancers began using the barre itself to work on specific skills related to their dancing.
Ballet dancers use a Barre during a rehearsal in order to work on flexibility, strength, and targeting specific muscle groups. Barre helps dancers to be able to hone different skills in the lower body by keeping the upper body immobile.
Barre is a highly effective means of learning new skill sets and strengthening existing ones for dancers. Although barre as an exercise class has become a well-known fitness trend, dancers use a barre every day. In order to understand why dancers use a barre, we will first look at what a barre is and why it is so effective. Below, we hope to help you uncover what skills dancers learn from the barre and what age children can or should start using it.
What is Barre?
A barre is a wood or metal bar that is fastened to walls or is freestanding. It is positioned horizontally at a height even with a dancer’s hips or mid-torso. A barre is used for additional support while warming up, stretching, or learning new techniques. A barre is integrated into ballet classes, and ballet dancers use a barre often.
Why is a barre so effective?
Barre is effective for dancers because it forces dancers to focus solely on their lower body. Ballet dancers use a barre to work on balance, flexibility, and strength exercises. Often, the barre is worked into their daily rehearsals instead of it being an additional class.
Flexibility
The barre is ideal for flexibility because it helps dancers to localize specific stretches by isolating body movements. Using the bar, a dancer can hold her upper body completely still to focus on a stretch in the lower body. For dancers, stretching is an essential tool that helps to prevent injury. By using the barre for stretching, dancers can warm up their muscles, which helps prevent tearing or pulling of muscles in the legs.
Technique
It is more important for a dancer to be able to complete ten techniques correctly than one hundred techniques incorrectly. From pointing of toes to where a dancer’s hands are placed and more, there many tiny movements that go into each technique. A barre helps a dancer to perfect these.
Attention to detail is critical for dancers. Perfection is highly sought after, and to be a professional or competitive dancer, it is essential to have each move practiced perfectly. Incorrect timing, feet position, or other things that might seem less important to a bystander are crucial to a dancer. Because the barre allows dancers to isolate certain areas of their body, they can repeat single motions repeatedly and focus attention only on their feet to get movements correct.
Ballet dancers place all of their weight onto the balls of their feet or their toes in order to be able to rotate their legs properly. This process is learned a the barre. New dancers spend many hours practicing how to move on the balls of their feet. After they have mastered the balls of their feet, the barre also allows them to practice how to do certain techniques on their toes.
The barre is sometimes thought of as a side activity for dancers, but in reality, it is imperative to a dancer’s training and is used often to hone technique. Both new and experienced dancers benefit from the barre and use it often to enhance their work.
Strength
Strength is a huge aspect of any sport. In order to be a better, more competitive dancer with higher stamina, strength is going to be a part of that goal. A dancer relies on his or her legs to complete many of the skills necessary for dancing. Continuing to work on strength in the legs will help dancers balance as well as the ability to stay on the balls of their feet and perform increasingly tricky moves. The barre increases strength by allowing them to use the barre as an isolating force. The ability to do continuous repetition on the barre provides an excellent way for dancers to do sets of leg strength training activities.
At what age should a child start using a barre?
The barre is an excellent tool for many dancers, but new dancers or young children need to learn how to do skills without the barre. While the barre is a perfect tool for children to learn how to do new techniques or sequences, they can quickly become reliant on the barre. Young children should not begin to use the barre until age 8. Dancers under to age of 8 are traditionally not advanced enough in their dancing before the age of 8 to successfully use the barre. While age 8 is not a hard and fast rule, it can be a good measure to know when a child is ready.
Once you introduce a child to the barre, it is important to continue to practice foundational skills away from the barre. In particular, young children can become dependent on the barre for balance. When working on the barre, it is always a good practice to make sure children have time to balance the balls of their feet or do other fundamentals off the barre. This will help maintain balance so that a child does not become reliant on the barre to complete dances.
Because younger dancers have less coordination due to their age and general physical ability, it can become easy for them to need additional help balancing while learning new moves. It is perfectly acceptable to use the barre as long as you are making sure to have them also practice their skills away from the barre.
Should Dancers take a Barre class?
When you hear barre, many people think of the workout class. Barre ( the workout class) is a combination of yoga and pilates and is used as a full-body workout. It has become increasingly popular in the last few years for its health benefits. You may be wondering if dancers do or should take a Barre class. The answer from many dancers and dance teachers is no. While it does have great health benefits, the activity and movements are often very similar to what a dancer is already doing during a dance rehearsal.
A dancer would most likely see a greater benefit from doing cross-training as a secondary activity instead of sticking with something similar. Instead of taking a barre class, many professional dancers will opt to run, swim or do another activity that works for different muscle groups. Cross-training helps to provide overall strength and physical fitness, which can help to improve a dancer’s abilities overall.
Ballet dancers use the barre to hone their skills, do isolated movements, and perfect each individual’s movement. While dancers do not usually attend barre classes, their work on a barre during dance helps them to improve balance, technique, and strength. The barre can be a useful tool for young dancers, but it is important to make sure that they do not become reliant on the barre for balance.
