Flexible body moves more gracefully. Dancers should aim at improving their flexibility.
But how?
Here is a method that is a combination of warm-up and yin yoga.
You know properly warmed up body is more flexible. You can bend deeper, stretch further, and have wider range of motion.
Now, do you know yin yoga? It is a type of yoga with a main character of long-held pause or stretching on the floor. Let's say, you are doing forward bend on the floor ("Caterpillar pause", see picture below). Your body takes a posture. Then you hold it, counting 10, 20, 30,... then you can tell, after count 15 or 30, your body, specifically the connective tissue, starts yielding and now you are bending deeper than before. You'd feel sensation, but it should not be sharp pain or anything.
You may notice that how much power of skeletal muscles you are using to maintain your posture. In yin yoga setting, you may notice that after 30 seconds or so, your skeletal muscles tire out and begin to relax, allowing your body weight to stretch your connective tissues. It is an interesting thing to notice.
The long held minutes are a good time to quietly converse with your own body. Once you get used to yin yoga, you'd feel rushed in regular yoga.
Work on connective tissue with long held stretching, that is the core idea of the yin yoga. You do not use muscle power to pull. Instead, you use your own body weight to slowly pull connective tissue and to open joints. Since you do not use muscle and momentum, chance of injury is actually small.
After holding a posture for 2,3 or 5 minutes, you'd feel stretched, even to the point of feeling vulnerable. But as long as it is not injurious, the sensation is something you may start feeling nice, or at least something you find acceptable. And, yin yoga does work to improve your flexibility in a relatively short term, possibly in a few weeks.
Now, what happens if you properly warm up your body, then do yin yoga? Hold a posture and count for 10,20, 30, 60, 100,....3 minutes, then 5 minutes?
After the "hot yin yoga", you'd feel vulnerable sensation, because you were slowly prying your body open. But you might be surprised how much more flexible your body became after a session.
[Caterpillar pause (from wikipedia "yin yoga")]
Just in case, I put a disclaimer here. This entry is for providing an idea purpose only. The exercise may not be for you. Like any other physical activity, be careful and talk with your doctor if needed. Do it at your own risk.
