Stretching - for dancers - Alternative Therapies, part 2 - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, Dec, 1997 by Marian Horosko

Warning: Dancers should always warm up before the first class of the day, before rehearsals and performances, and especially before stretching. The warm-up period should last fifteen minutes for those under thirty years of age; thirty minutes for those over age thirty.

Stretching exercises executed on the floor to correct and rehabilitate injured areas and to relieve imbalances in the muscular system are an alternative to conventional therapy. Teacher Emilietta Ettlin explains her class.

"Most dancers do not understand," says Ettlin, "that injuries can be caused by weaknesses in muscles that cannot do what is demanded of them." Throughout her dance career in the Basel and Stuttgart Ballets, Ettlin has never had an injury because, she claims, of faithfully doing the exercises she now teaches:

"I first encountered the Boris Kniaseff floor barre as a child in Switzerland. It was then brought to Paris by Jacqueline Fynnaert. That's one reason I believe that those young dancers in the Paris Opera school are so strong."

There is an admitted resemblance to the the floor barre system, and the choreographic work of Daniel Meja, but emphasis on the working of the inside thigh muscles ("insufficiently developed in most dancers," Ettlin says) and the use of the resistence of the floor to build flexibility and strength are unique to Ettlin's class.

She admits that it takes several classes to understand what she wants, especially to understand how to use the muscles in opposition to the working area. Her work is new to most dancers.

Class starts off innocently enough with a slow basic warm up ballet barre on the floor emphasizing lenthening the leg muscles. The class gradually develops with vigor and rhythm to the point where most pupils progress in small but perceptible gains. "Not so small," claims Ettlin. "There is a dramatic increase in flexibility as students eventually learn that correct placement puts less strain on muscles, releases their energy, and increases their length." Strength follows.

Ettlin is indefatigable and her small frame flits through the classroom as she places a hand on a student's inner thigh ("Here. Here. Work here"), aligns a spine, straightens a knee, or demonstrates a stretch by hurling herself on the floor as if it were a comfortable mattress. The classwork increases in intensity and difficulty, but there is no embarrassment or despair in the dancers who cannot yet reach their goals. She is encouraging and supportive. In her slight Swiss-German accent, she is coaxing and humorous as she continually reminds her class that there is dance in every exercise and pleasure in knowing that the most uncomfortable stretches will eventually show a result. No, painful positions are not encouraged, just individual awareness of how far muscles can be stretched at the student's natural and present level.

But Ettlin does despair when she sees dancers run into a classroom and immediately start stretching at the barre. Another despairing moment occurs when she sees a student, pull, yank, or bounce a leg into an incorrectly placed high developpe a la seconde--that current and false estimate of accomplishment and talent. "Arriving to the top of that developpe position," she tells her class, "should be a flowing and stable dance movement of continuous energy, without a dead stop when the ultimate height is reached. And the only way that can be achieved is when all the muscles, especially those of the standing leg, are involved and in balance."

Ettlin, who has taught at the English National, Stuttgart, and Bern ballets, Ballet Nacional de Mexico, and Zurich Opera Ballet School, finds the same mistaken beliefs about stretching everywhere. "You don't stretch to be a dancer," she admonishes. "You stretch to be able to dance better. I like to teach students to use only the muscles they need so that the body is not worked hard unnecessarily. Dance should look easy, controlled, with no tension in the body or anxiety in the dancer's expression. I teach to get those results."

Recommended: Stretch and Strengthen by Judy Alter, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2 Park Street, Boston, MA 02108. A classic.

Emilietta Ettlin and Daniel Meja both teach stretch classes in New York City at Broadway Dance Center.