Cross-training for Dancers: Just Punch Someone in the Face
Let me start this by saying I've done a lot of yoga.
I start with that statement because though I've done everything from hot yoga above a Georgetown juice bar to YMCA yoga with my dad to Yoga Nidra in an unheated Foggy Bottom studio in mid-November to daily 6:15am Bikram yoga for a full semester in Dupont Circle to Corepower in Santa Barbara, all the yoga in the world never measured up to going ham on a fellow student with pads on after a day of bad pirouettes and shady casting drama.
I've been wanting to get into martial arts for a while, especially since I have absolutely no experience in it from childhood, i.e. I never did karate as a little kid, an activity that seems quite common among my friends (I grew up in suburban Bellevue, WA as a mixed-race kid). I did do fencing--something that I loved and abruptly stopped after studying abroad (and right after I'd finally bought my own equipment. Gosh, I miss it).
I first tried Krav Maga in New York--there was a school just two blocks from the Joffrey NYC dorms and I figured that it would be so easy to pop over there for classes after dance days.
I tried Wing Chun Kung Fu next, mostly because I fell into a YouTube rabbit hole that started with Summer Glau and went to martial arts actresses and then went to Michelle Yeoh (who studied at RAD London btw!) and then led to me watching her film, Wing Chun and discovering a school in Midtown where I could learn that technique.
About a week after I'd tried both techniques, I had a chat with a teacher at Joffrey who told me to stop martial arts. I realize that I could have done what I did a lot of at Joffrey: ignored a teacher; and went ahead with my new pastime, but I was also scared, intimidated, and couldn't really decide between the two styles.
And at Manhattan's prices, I couldn't do both. But in October 2017, I found a Groupon for Muay Thai at Gracie Barra Santa Barbara, a school best known for its Brazilian jiu jitsu.
I'd recommend Muay Thai to ballet dancers for a couple reasons, and not just the one where it's good for getting your aggression out. Firstly, it's good for endurance and stamina--you work nonstop for minutes on end, kicking and punching, rather than just a short burst of a 30 second petit allegro. Secondly, your teacher might be impressed by your hip rotation, and that will allow your kicks and knees and teeps to be stronger and with a greater range of motion than the average beginner. Thirdly, ballet dancers (particularly women) don't often use upper body strength. We normally aren't lifting our friends above our heads and though our legs are powerful as all get out, we often neglect the arms. Can't do that when you're punching and throwing elbows and grabbing another student around the back of the head to knee them more efficiently! You'll wake up to sore lats and that will in turn make it easier to engage them, and you'll eventually be floating through your pirouettes with amazingly supported arms.
The last reason I'd recommend Muay Thai is that it takes the ballerina out of you. No one cares how high your leg goes just as long as it hits with force. No one cares about your feet as long as they're moving. The guys at Muay Thai have no idea about how stressful learning the corps part of Paquita is and they don't want to hear you talk about it. Your teacher doesn't care how pretty you look as long as you're using the correct form for kicking your sparring partner.
So sure, I can do Lilac Fairy and keep my face serene and my arms flowy and try my best to get my pirouettes suspended so it looks like I'm dancing through honey, but after a day of that, it sure does feel great to be dripping sweat and kneeing a guy in the ribs.
I start with that statement because though I've done everything from hot yoga above a Georgetown juice bar to YMCA yoga with my dad to Yoga Nidra in an unheated Foggy Bottom studio in mid-November to daily 6:15am Bikram yoga for a full semester in Dupont Circle to Corepower in Santa Barbara, all the yoga in the world never measured up to going ham on a fellow student with pads on after a day of bad pirouettes and shady casting drama.
I've been wanting to get into martial arts for a while, especially since I have absolutely no experience in it from childhood, i.e. I never did karate as a little kid, an activity that seems quite common among my friends (I grew up in suburban Bellevue, WA as a mixed-race kid). I did do fencing--something that I loved and abruptly stopped after studying abroad (and right after I'd finally bought my own equipment. Gosh, I miss it).
I first tried Krav Maga in New York--there was a school just two blocks from the Joffrey NYC dorms and I figured that it would be so easy to pop over there for classes after dance days.
I tried Wing Chun Kung Fu next, mostly because I fell into a YouTube rabbit hole that started with Summer Glau and went to martial arts actresses and then went to Michelle Yeoh (who studied at RAD London btw!) and then led to me watching her film, Wing Chun and discovering a school in Midtown where I could learn that technique.
About a week after I'd tried both techniques, I had a chat with a teacher at Joffrey who told me to stop martial arts. I realize that I could have done what I did a lot of at Joffrey: ignored a teacher; and went ahead with my new pastime, but I was also scared, intimidated, and couldn't really decide between the two styles.
And at Manhattan's prices, I couldn't do both. But in October 2017, I found a Groupon for Muay Thai at Gracie Barra Santa Barbara, a school best known for its Brazilian jiu jitsu.
I'd recommend Muay Thai to ballet dancers for a couple reasons, and not just the one where it's good for getting your aggression out. Firstly, it's good for endurance and stamina--you work nonstop for minutes on end, kicking and punching, rather than just a short burst of a 30 second petit allegro. Secondly, your teacher might be impressed by your hip rotation, and that will allow your kicks and knees and teeps to be stronger and with a greater range of motion than the average beginner. Thirdly, ballet dancers (particularly women) don't often use upper body strength. We normally aren't lifting our friends above our heads and though our legs are powerful as all get out, we often neglect the arms. Can't do that when you're punching and throwing elbows and grabbing another student around the back of the head to knee them more efficiently! You'll wake up to sore lats and that will in turn make it easier to engage them, and you'll eventually be floating through your pirouettes with amazingly supported arms.
The last reason I'd recommend Muay Thai is that it takes the ballerina out of you. No one cares how high your leg goes just as long as it hits with force. No one cares about your feet as long as they're moving. The guys at Muay Thai have no idea about how stressful learning the corps part of Paquita is and they don't want to hear you talk about it. Your teacher doesn't care how pretty you look as long as you're using the correct form for kicking your sparring partner.
So sure, I can do Lilac Fairy and keep my face serene and my arms flowy and try my best to get my pirouettes suspended so it looks like I'm dancing through honey, but after a day of that, it sure does feel great to be dripping sweat and kneeing a guy in the ribs.
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