I belong to a dance formation group, and some of our rehearsals are long and intense. I know I should do proper warm up and stretching before such intense activity, but I just don't know what would be appropriate. So rather than to do the wrong thing, and risk injury, I have been doing nothing at all.

I have picked up some books on stretching, and some of them list the combinations of stretches by sport; that is, which stretches to do for baseball, which stretches to do for hiking, which ones to do for equestrian, etc. But nothing is ever listed for stretches that are appropriate for dance. >

Can anybody suggest a text or resource for such a regimine?

Thanks for your help

-Lawrence

I believe the was referring to is "Stretching" by Bob Anderson. It has stretching exercises for dancers.

Blair

a book that had a stretch routine for different sports, include gymanstics and ballet. Would you're book include anything like that, those regimes would be pretty similar to what you'll want?

The one I have has a brown cover, with hand drawn illustrations inside. Including, a diagram of a man in a a ski cap labeling the different body parts.

I always meant to use it. Especially, in the morning when the old calves are screaming at me after a good evening lesson.

"Angelina's Ballet Class"
Katharine Holabird,Catherine Kanner

"The Little Pilates Book"
Erika Dillman

"Dance Kinesiology"
Sally Sevey Fitt
these all have been helpful to me..give them a try!

I think it was Peter Martins who put out a book of ballet stretches and exercises called "The New York City Ballet Workout", or something very similar, which would be helpful.

I'd recommend taking a few Pilates or Yoga (Iyengar) classes, which will give you a good idea of what are effective and safe stretches. It is always better to have some instruction.