Don't get me wrong - I love technology. Maybe not ALL of it, but... The fact that I can sit at my computer and simply communicate with thousands of people I never could have reached otherwise - it's an introvert's heaven, I tell ya!
It DOES however, cause an awful lot of us to neglect our bodies. Due in large to hours spent slumped in various chairs and couches in front of screens, lower back pain is now the single leading cause of disability worldwide (according to the Global Burden of Disease 2010).
Countering the effects of work with an activity that reinforces good poise is now more important than ever. Let's look at how ballroom dancing measures up:
Transcript:
Announcer: Technology. With every advancement, mankind becomes ever more adapt at navigating the challenges of today and the future. But these steps forward come with a cost. As a result of less physical activity, combined with increasing amounts of time slumped in front of computers or handheld devices, bad posture is on the rise, along with it's crippling cousin, lower back pain.
But despite back pain's debilitating effects, there is hope. Increasingly, average Jills and Joes are turning to ballroom dancing, lauded by many for it's positive effects on poise and posture. This education video explores how you too can harness the power of ballroom dancing to live your life upright and pain free.
Me: Hi guys! My name is Ian Crewe. I'm an instructor at the Joy of Dance Centre in Toronto Ontario, and the creator of Social Ballroom Dance, where you can learn your dance, at your place, on your schedule.
Today, we're talking to a number of experts about posture in ballroom dancing, how to do it correctly, and how you can use it to improve both your dancing and your daily life. But first up, WHY is good posture important?
Noel Miller: Good posture is important because it allows you to use your joints properly. So the more your posture is off the change in your bony structure causes continuous wearing. Now, instead of doing a movement that was positive to the body becomes negative.
And this is why posture is so important, because it's an indicator that these things are off and has been off for some time because now it's visual - I can SEE it that the posture is off. It's a sign that changes have been underway.
Emily Tench: Posture number one I would say is a method of injury prevention. So as a dancer there is so much risk involved even if you are doing something simple. A repetitive movement, doing the same thing over and over with poor posture will slowly develop into chronic issues in your body, say pain in your lower back, or pain in your knees, or pain in your ankles or maybe in your neck.
And it won't necessarily come across as an injury. And it's maybe not an injury, but more of an overuse that causes pain. And really good posture is primarily a way to avoid developing pain in your body and avoid developing injury.
Olé Burlay: Posture is important for everyday life, and I do believe that many of our students come to learn so they can improve on their posture. So, that's why we have the students, and that's why we're trying to do the first thing, and the first thing, and the very first thing in the first couple of lessons is to put two people together in a comfortable position. To be able to do the things that we teach.
Me: Right. So they need to have that posture before all the movements of ballroom dancing become possible.
Olé Burlay: That's right. Because the centres of two partners, because ballroom is a couple dancing. So when those centres are related properly, it can go around connected, it can go linear, sideways. So we need that posture to do the moves that we teach. That's the importance of good posture.
Announcer: Clearly, good posture is vital to overall health, yet many might ask: "What do I have to worry about? How can bad posture affect ME?"
Noel: Generally, these normally happen with arthritis of any joint. This is because of bad posture, either by bad habit or by overuse. So the most important thing is maintaining your body, so that you don't fall into this overuse situation.
So other than arthritis these kind of things, then you get joint aches and pains generally, or cramping in the leg or lower foot or back, or muscles fatiguing quickly. So at the point of after pain, there comes a point where it becomes weak again. So you try to pick up a cup and it drops out of your hand, because you don't have the strength - the muscles are too overdone to even hold something.
So those are some other kinds of issues you might see as well.
Announcer: Now you're no doubt convinced of the importance of good posture. But, how does ballroom dancing help to improve that posture? One of our correspondents decided to try a short class to find out.
Me: Alright so, if I was a total beginner coming into your ballet class, what are some initial tips you would give me, to get me started thinking about correct posture?
Emily: Right. So, let's place you just in front of our camera here, and I'll just get you to place your feet side by side parallel... No, that way.
Me: Oh okay. I'm the trouble kid in the class.
Emily: And you would just look at yourself in the mirror, and assess what's going on in your body. But the first thing I will say is just look straight forward and... Drop your chin, relax it.
Me: Ha ha ha! I'm a terrible student.
Emily: I know this about Ian. Oh... There we go. Then... Ohhh! Wow that was nice! So we got a little more height there. Then the other side is, if we had a tail, it's a tiger's tail. And your tiger tail has to go straight down. Right? It's not a happy puppy, it's not a sad puppy, it's a tiger. So you want to think that - he's tight again.
Me: Ha ha ha!
Emily: So, you're floating up with your helium balloon, and then at the bottom - yeah, you have a tiger tail releasing. Then we'll do a parallel plie, so bend your knees... Good, and then come straight back up again. Very nice. Now to make it a little bit more vibrant, we want a sense of lifting up through the back, and at the same time, lifting up through the front, but breathing. So, lungs... Turn your whole body.
Me: Oh, okay. And I've got to breathe through all this, huh?
Emily: So, you want wide breath... Yeah. So you see how my hands are going in and out... Ooh, that's quite good. Yeah. So, there's your breath with lift and ease. Good, and like, the feeling of an hourglass, right to the side please? Your arms out, back to here, floating. So this hourglass feeling is coming up that way, so you're really rising together. Now can you, without doing anything, push the floor away... Not with your bum.
Me: Hehehehe.
Emily: Relax your tail.
Me: Well I was thinking I had to push down with my legs.
Emily: Yes, but your legs are straight.
Me: Ah.
Emily: Ah. So, energetically push, as if you were about to rise.
Me: Okay, so the balls of my feet.
Emily: You're about to rise, but you're not rising. So you're pushing down, while you are floating upwards.
(Switch to Olé)
Me: So, if you have a complete beginner coming into your classes, what's some of the first things you would tell them about having correct ballroom posture?
Olé: Well first we need to align the head, the shoulders, hips, and feet.
Me: Right, right, just making sure the blocks of weight are centred over each other.
Olé: So there's no such thing as "good" and a "bad" posture - there is so much in between. And I think we should start from the point where the student's posture doesn't overwhelm learning the steps. So, it has to be introduced - it doesn't mean the students will be able to practically do it at the time of the lesson. But, you plant it, and you reinforce it over the period of time. And as I said, many people can relate to parts of the body that kind of align like a pyramid - one on top of the other. And when we move, that pyramid sometimes sometimes gets crooked. So one part falls off the other part, and this is when it's impossible to dance. So even telling that much - introduction of the body parts is a great way to start introducing posture.
Announcer: You now know that ballroom dancing can play an important role in keeping our back healthy and happy. But, can ballroom dancing contribute to the problem?
Olé: There are some, in international standard, that can hurt follows if they do many hours a week and if they do it professionally, because of misalignment of the neck and the side of the body. They are reclining over to the left...
Me: Always keeping that chest open and that corkscrew off.
Olé: Yes. So that's something you would not need to do as a person walking off the street. But is will introduce the muscle tone, that will cause the muscle to help you keep your posture in everyday life. But that is the only one that actually might give you some problem. There is a Latin, international Latin that has very balletic intensity in the lower back, and if we don't move the hips in the right place, in the right direction, that can give you lower back ache as well, but again, if not done correctly.
Me: I'm occasionally guilty of this as well.
Olé: That's the two things I can think of.
(Switch to Emily)
Emily: Anything that brings your body into an extreme position, if you are not strong enough to do that movement, or if your are not flexible enough, or if you don't have the understanding of how to maintain good skeletal alignment - so have good posture - any movement could potentially injure you.
So in ballroom dancing for example, you've got many degrees of your frame, and so you are going slowly up and backwards, but if you don't understand how to use your core, or how to extend upwards through the upper back, your thoracic spine, you'll end up putting a lot of stress on your lower vertebrae, and they're pretty susceptible to injury.
(Switch to Noel)
Noel: Mostly I've heard from other teachers that, in ballroom dancing, there's not a huge emphasis on stretching.
Me: Right.
Noel: Right, and this leads to postural issues, because when you have someone coming in who wants to enjoy dance, they are pre-exposed already to life. Life has happened before they met you, therefore there are already imbalances. So if they continue to express this imbalances, either by the shoulder being up, moving the shoulder blades out of the centre position more to the side - we call this winging of the scapula, or movement away from the centre of the spine - and then we have some different issues with the shoulders and traps starting to take over, pecs tightening, this kind of thing.
Another thing that I find is tightness of the calves. Everyday life we have tight calfs, most likely, by the age of... heh, sixteen, now just keeping more understanding that you have to maintain, keep it stretching. And sometimes, there's a point where the muscles won't stretch through traditional... you know, point your toes, put your foot against the wall, get that nice stretch against the wall.
Me: Right.
Noel: Sometimes that won't be effective. So at this point generally you have more cramps, you've got to stretch it out and they stop, before they finish their routine. And this is an indicator to the teacher, hey, you know what? Maybe we should do a little more stretching, and if stretching doesn't work, maybe we should seek someone who has a little more input on this issue.
Announcer: Despite these obstacles, it seems correct technique is the best way to protect ourselves. Still, many might remain skeptical: How does what you learn on a ballroom dance floor help you with your posture in your everyday life?
Emily: I like to sometimes talk about your head, like it's a hot air balloon, and if your spine is a chain of little mini balloons dangling underneath your hot air balloon. And your pelvis is the basket underneath the hot air balloon. So there's energy from the fire, from the core drawing you upwards, but it almost has a better sensation, you get a better result if you just feel this whole area is floating upward in opposition to the pelvis, which is weighted downwards with sandbags or something. You know, something's holding you down. And instead of trying to force yourself into certain positions, that is a more natural, relieving way to allow the body to hang in a really nice neutral alignment.
Me: Okay, and we can use this when we are walking around, sitting in our desk, or pretty much anywhere.
Emily: Yeah, yeah.
Announcer: There you have it - the experts agree that with proper training and application, ballroom dancing can help transform how you hold yourself, and so counter the effects of back pain. So remember: An investment in ballroom dancing, is an investment in a high-quality life.