Summer details are now online. Check out the schedule page.
Wobble Board Classes
Strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet. Decompress the posterior ankle.
Try your pliés and relevés on a large wobble board and you won't soon forget the muscles it recruits or the whole-body equilibrium to which it guides you. With practice, you learn to melt away unnecessary tension so the toes and seat take you up and down while the ankles and knees respond intuitively and the spine grows spacious. Then, when a movement such as fondu developpé in center floor isn't going well, you think level the board and—even though you're not on the board—your nervous system activates the muscles to restore your balance.
Feel better while you dance. Feel better after you dance.
I've worked with hundreds of students, from beginner to advanced, who have shared overlapping experiences of how the board helped them understand with their body the concepts of dancing from the floor up and creating a plumb relationship between the center of mass and the supporting leg or legs. Despite its name, using the board in ballet class is not about wobbling. The rigid structure touching the floor at a single point contrasts this practice from the memorable yet questionably-beneficial Bosu Ball activities you may have seen on social media. For those working on ballet technique with a wobble board (under careful supervision only), this is the model I recommend.
Fitterfirst 20-inch Professional Balance Boards
The company has been a pleasure to work with and everything I have bought from them has been excellent, lasting quality.
Strong feet prevent injuries elsewhere
For our purpose training ballet dancers to
- find the posterior kinetic chain,
- access the deepest turn-out muscles, and
- explore the 3D spiral of the foot,
the large 20-inch model is important because it allows us to stand in sixth position with the toe joints at the midpoint of the circle and still have the heels in contact with the wood without overhang.
The large size of this board also offers enough room for most people to stand in first (or a tiny second) position on the bisecting line of the circle without the toes spilling over the board's edge.
For more information, please contact me.