Health-and-Fitness online information.

Anybody here dance six days a week?"

I get a laugh whenever I ask this of the students at San Francisco Ballet School. As dancers progress in their training, the time spent dancing escalates with the demands of rehearsing and performing, which can add up to underperformance and fatigue over time. Although dancers differ in their individual responses to lengthy dance schedules and the decreased sunlight, dehumidified air, and hot stage lights of artificial environments, how they manage nourishment during intense dance periods will leave telltale signs. They need to know how to balance the right foods and fluids to look and perform their best.

At the end of a dance class or a performance, are you wired or tired? Some dancers report an inability to eat during intense performance schedules. Are you refreshed when you wake up? Are your legs and back tired? Is your voice pitch getting lower as the week progresses? How are you sleeping? Some dancers say they find it difficult to sleep during times of intense training or mid-performance season. When fatigue sets in from long, sometimes tedious rehearsals, what you think you look like may not match the image you're making in the eye of the beholder; dancers onstage are very transparent to the audience. Those who do well and perform effectively pay attention to their physical needs.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:30 AM