ballet & fencing

[slowgraffiti515]

this summer I decided to take up ballet again. so what im wondering is...

what kind of effect, if any, will ballet have on my fencing or vice versa?

[remise]

Ballet has been a wonderful asset to my daughter. When she was a beginner, my daughter's opponents had trouble hitting her...even though she had not learned to parry yet...because of her footwork from ballet. Dance also teaches balance, which is another plus to have in fencing. As long as you don't advance with a pointed toe, you'll be ok.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Negative side effects include: Improved grace, increased endurance, stronger leg muscles, improved muscle control.

Not too bad of a drug.

I remember FOTL mentioning to me that Simon Gershon got some footwork ideas from studying ballet. The exact extent of which I couldn't tell you.

[RITFencing]

They say if you can dance, you can do anything. I know that ballet builds strength, endurance, flexability, agility and body control/awareness. I concur with DFP; doesn't sound like too bad of a thing.

[DHCJr]

Louis the XIV, promoted both ballet and fencing. Look at the 5 positions of ballet and look at some of the various positions of fencing, attention, en garde, etc.

[foilhag]

I did ballet for about 8 years as a child and in my early teens. I started fencing later. I think ballet generally helped my fencing with regards to balance, footwork and flexibility. However, I had a persistent problem when lunging that I attribute directly to ballet: when lunging, I would want to point my back foot. This would result in the back foot coming off the ground during the lunge (it would turn into a bit of a leap), and I would end up in a quasi arabesque. This problem would happen more in bouts, but not so much when I was just doing footwork.

It took quite a bit of work to drill out this problem.

[DragonFencing]

One of my students does the same thing lifting the back foot up on the lunge. Time to put the leg irons (weights) on!

[foilhag]

Re the back leg lifting when lunging...

For me, what helped the most was to do drills/lessons that forced me to recover from my lunge quickly and then back up i.e. the lunge was not the end of the phrase. If the back leg was up, I would get stuck or be too slow.

[Fencing Mom]

If you're female and you don't mind putting on boys' clothes, you'd be a shoo-in for the parts of Mercutio, Tybalt, and, of course, Romeo

[Phaeton]

As an actor it was mandatory in my studies to take a series of dance and movement classes, spanning from ballet to modern to yoga to random stuff a movement inspector wanted me to do for credit. I think that any dance or movement awareness helps one in most every aspect of their life, and fencing is no different. From my experience with dancers I know, they tend to have much higher physical awareness and control, and of course are usualy very strong individuals, especially in their core, because strength is vital for dance, and especially ballet, the technical basis for all western dance.

Ballet should have no long term adverse effect on your fencing, and no visible immidiate effect on it either, but going through a disciplined understanding of how ones body works, and using as a medium of expression is going to be beneficial. Heck, even some football players are told to take ballet classes to help with agility.

Take the class, enjoy it, and any immidiate technical weirdness will be outweighed by self knowledge and conditioning in time.

[cfaustus]

We have incorporated ballet center work into the salle warm up and have seen positive results over the past couple of years.

I first introduced it to help uncoordinated individuals gain a modicum of grace.

It has definitely helped in that regard, however I have also found that it helps teach people footwork faster because they really begin to get a strong sense of their body and how positioning the body differently can effect one's movement.

Pick up the New York Ballet Workout. It comes in both Book and 2 DVD form. If you have a little ballet background you can start with the book. If you are new to ballet get the book and the DVD's.

Some basic exercises I use in the salle are:
1) turn from parallel to 1st position (10 X)
2) port de bras (10 X)
3) demi-plié(10 X)
4) Plié Relevé (10 X)
5) tendu (8 X each side)
6) grande plie from 2nd position (10 X)
7) grand plie from 2nd - slide to releve (8 X each side)
8) Fondu/Coupé Passé (8 X each side)

Once these are learned, we can go through these in a little over 10 minutes.

We precede these with footwork, then stretches (many again taken from ballet). After the center work we do strengthening exercises (10 push ups, 10 regular crunches, side crunches (10 each side), 10 lower ab crunches, then 7-10 hindu push-ups). This all takes a little more than half an hour.

I would be happy to discuss other exercises and tips on doing them to maximize fencing.

[cfaustus]

interestingly, quite a few of my students also have an interest in/aptitude for swing dancing...

[fencingfrog]

a few of the fencers on my team do ballroom dancing, and they aren't that bad!

[slowgraffiti515]

i did pick up the new york city ballet dvd. but i only bought disc 2. i heard alot of bad things about the first disc. although the second one is supossedly building from the first, i figured that a few years of yoga, some past ballet experience, and knowing some french would make dvd 2 a better choice. i havent gotten through the whole disc yet but i think it was definatley worth the investment. if you have no experience in ballet though, it might be frustrating at first.

maybe ill buy the book tonite...^_^

[sabrebelle]

I don't know how accurate this information is, but my cousin (who owns a dance school) got very excited when he found out that I fence. He said that ballet was developed based on fencing footwork, and it certainly seems plausible.

As for fencers studying ballet -- I think that the cross-training challenge and increased body-awareness is good for anyone, anytime, and maybe especially fencers.

[luv2fence]

Is there a type of Ballet dancing practice,
or other dancing practice, where shock
absorbing shoes can be worn?

In pictures of Ballet, it seems like the feet
would take a beating.

Rubber soled shoes would not allow a slide,
required for dancing.

Please clue me in here.

luv2fence

[fixxmyweapon]

feet don't take a beating at all unless you're on pointe (i doubt you would be if you are just starting off). i danced seriously for ~10 years before i picked up fencing. i still dance with a low commitment company at school. it deffinately helps being flexible in fencing. that's really about the only benefit i have noticed. i guess being graceful could have some impact on fencing. there are a lot of steps that can strenthen your calf muscles and your quads though which is super helpful for working out. doing develope's is a great way to strengthen your quads. there is a lot in ballet that can help your core as well.