Mats are a Dancer’s favourite accessory. We lay down before we get on our feet and get going. But there’s some serious work going on as we prepare our bodies to take on our practice and it is as much of a ritual as the practice itself.
The reason it has come to be a ritual is for both: Its ability to tune Dancers into their Dancing day as well as be a rehabilitative and preventive measure from injury.
The Junoon Method has incorporated a very deep learning of Floor Barre, courtesy Alice Crawford, who has taught it to us in phases, for different levels and functionalities and ultimately, to ensure our curriculum builds the strongest Dancers.
Floor Barre has been seen as an essential that strengthens and sculpts muscles safely and effectively, improving technique, core strength and posture, as practitioners lay down on a mat, replicating (or nearly) movements they would perform standing up. It switches on the correct muscle groups and primes them, carefully, for a practice of Classical Dance.
Why do we begin on the floor?
1. When we’re on the floor, it keeps us from twisting and turning and basically going out of alignment. So, it helps with alignment.
2. Because we’re lying on the floor, it takes the stress off our joints.
3. It helps to develop key muscle groups and get our technique up to scratch while lying on the floor, so when we stand up, we’re going to feel loose, stretched and great.
In the words of our mentor, Alice Crawford, a disciple of the famed Maria Fay, a pioneer and author of the Floor Barre method, “Whilst it does warm-up all areas, it focuses on Classical technique, keeping in mind posture, placement and alignment to get each part going for your Classical Ballet practice. Not forcing…just working, mobilizing, phasing into movement…”
Dancers amid or returning from injury find physical and psychological solace in this method of training because it gives them the feeling of dancing (which many must crave when out of commission as a result of injury), the confidence to move as well as the satisfaction that comes from movement. The Floor Barre, in many ways, is medicinal for a Dancer because it is gradual, low-impact and yet puts a Dancer at work as they attempt to improve and move as strong and gracefully as they would when they are upright.
Inevitably then, there is much to be gained from Floor Barre as far as muscle-control, body posture, turn-out, extension, suppleness and stamina are concerned.
Junoon is grateful to have access to and be able to pass this rich tradition of technique, training, caution and wisdom to anyone aspiring to a quality education in the Classical Arts.
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