Your Muscles Shouldn’t be “On” All the Time
Dancers are given a lot of muscular instructions:
“Engage your turnout muscles.”
“Pull up your abdominals.”
“Activate your glutes.”
“Hold your core.”
These cues are usually well-intentioned. The teacher sees something that needs more support and tries to direct the dancer toward the muscles that may help.
But there is a potential problem.
The dancer may interpret the instruction as:
Turn that muscle on strongly—and keep it on.
That is not how efficient movement normally works.
Muscles need to respond, not simply remain contracted
Movement is a constantly changing task.
As you bend, rise, shift your weight, extend a leg or change direction, your joints move and pressure changes through your feet. Your brain receives information about your position, speed, balance and relationship to gravity.
It then adjusts muscular activity to meet the demands of that particular moment.
The muscles do not all need to work at the same intensity throughout the movement. Some increase their activity, some decrease it and others take over as the task changes.
This is one reason that a dancer can be working very hard muscularly and still feel unstable, restricted or poorly coordinated.
Consider turnout
Dancers are frequently told to keep their external rotators strongly engaged.
But turnout is not created by clenching the muscles around the hips as firmly as possible.
The external rotators need to contribute differently depending on whether the dancer is:
standing in first position
descending into plié
transferring weight
balancing on one leg
lifting the working leg
landing from a jump
When a dancer tries to hold the turnout muscles at maximum effort throughout all of these tasks, the result may be gripping, restricted hip movement or tension spreading into the pelvis, thighs and feet.
Instead of continually saying, “Engage your turnout,” we might give the dancer a movement problem to solve:
Keep the knees tracking over the toes as you descend.
Maintain pressure through the heel, base of the big toe and base of the little toe.
Keep the pelvis square as you lower in your demi plié
Keep the standing leg organized as the other leg moves.
Those tasks give the nervous system a reason to recruit the muscles needed to support turnout.
What about the abdominals?
“Engage your abdominals” may be one of the most common corrections in dance.
Again, the abdominals certainly matter. But dancers often translate the cue into pulling the belly inward and holding it there.
When that becomes a constant strategy, it can alter breathing mechanics. The abdomen needs to change shape as the diaphragm descends and rises. The abdominal wall also needs to adjust as the spine moves, the limbs accelerate and the dancer changes direction.
A dancer who is continuously bracing may look controlled while actually becoming less adaptable.
Rather than asking for a permanent abdominal contraction, try giving the dancer an outcome:
Imagine the ribs like an umbrella, opening and closing as you inhale and exhale as the pelvis remains upright.
Maintain your height as you transfer onto one leg.
Let the breath continue while you hold the balance.
Keep the trunk quiet enough for the limbs to move freely.
Exhale through the most demanding part without collapsing or gripping.
Now the trunk muscles have a job rather than an instruction to remain “on.”
And yes, the glutes
Some dancers may still hear “squeeze your glutes,” particularly when standing in first position or trying to correct an anterior pelvic tilt.
But squeezing the buttocks can tuck the pelvis, limit available hip motion and create more tension without necessarily improving alignment.
A better task might be:
Feel your weight centered over the whole foot.
Grow upward without pushing the hips forward.
Keep the pelvis stacked over the ankles as you rise.
The glutes can then contribute as part of the larger postural response rather than becoming the entire strategy.
Does this mean muscle cues are always wrong?
No.
Sometimes a dancer genuinely needs help finding a muscle or understanding a particular action. A specific muscle cue can be useful as a temporary learning tool.
The question is what happens next.
Can the dancer use that awareness within the movement—or do they continue squeezing, gripping and holding long after it is useful?
Muscles should be available to respond.
They should not have to shout through the entire combination.
The next time you find yourself repeatedly telling a dancer to engage a muscle, consider asking:
What movement task could I give them that would make the nervous system choose that muscular response naturally?
The goal is not simply to turn a muscle on.
The goal is to help the whole body organize more effectively.
To your success,
Deborah