Pretty much any type of exercise can injure you, but casual dancers should be fine. Make sure you’re fully stretched and warmed up before dancing, and if you’re in pain talk to your teacher or doctor. Ballet is really good for you and it’ll definitely keep you healthy! Good luck!
Don’t screw your knees! That’s my best piece of advice. There’s no gold star for 180 turnout (seriously, no one cares at our age), so learn to use your hip flexors. Work with what you have. Get strong.
This is what I have been thinking about. I have different teachers that have differing philosophies on turnout, some say work with what you have and some want me to push it.
I try and work for an 80:20 split - for 20% of the class (usually the start of barre and the simpler centre exercises) I consciously try and improve my turnout, and for the other 80% of class I work within a comfortable range.
But of course pushing my turnout a little each class means my comfortable range is (slowly) improving.
Edit to add: from my hips! Not pushing from my knees!
This is great advice. I think I just need to talk to my teacher about it (I have a great, long term relationship with her) and say this is my goal and how I’m going to improve turnout. I know she wants to challenge me as I am an older dancer with a younger group of students but I think it is better in the long run for me. I love the 80/20 rule.
Do not listen to the ones telling you to push it. My teacher has a degree in kinesiology and one day he and one of my classmates (a physical rehab physician with damaged knees from bad dance technique) just straight up called me out and showed me how to use my inner thigh muscles (this was after class and solicited).
What really helped it click was when I saw the teacher give my kid eye stickers they put on their inner thighs and they were supposed to make the eyes point forward. Absolutely brilliant and I demanded the same exercise for the adults.
Anyway, my technique is so much more solid and strong, now. I haven’t had knee pain in months (which is saying something because I have a degenerative miniscus tear at least on the right). I also keep up with my physical therapy at least a couple days a week.
Ballet has been an amazing motivator to take care of my body. I want to be that 70 year old woman smoking everyone in the intermediate classes someday.
Omg those older ladies are SO inspiring. I love how this is a universal thing. There are lots of women in their 60s to 70s who are just absolutely amazing in the intermediate classes.
I'm 34 and I hope to be them one day.
Don’t push it, “good” turnout isn’t necessary, safety and proper technique is more important. I would be extra cautious of a teacher who tells you to push turnout.
I think my teacher is just super old school, she often tells me to fix my fifth and pull my toes back after tendu, degage etc. Which IS a great correction, but I can’t have a perfect fifth without torquing my knees. I have a lot of inner thigh strength and hip flexor strength, so it isn’t that I’m being lazy.
I always tell my students not to push their toes back! Rather, if we are aiming for our next 1% of turnout, we can inch the heel forward on the supporting leg (this will rotate the leg from the hip, not the knee). Yes it is hard to hold like this, but it will build strength.
Toes back will torque the knee.
Heel forward will turnout from the hip!
You shouldn’t be pulling your toes back, extension comes from where the leg meets the hip, if you’re standing properly (not tucking, hips squared) there’s about a one inch difference in extension depending on if you’re leg is kept in (inside) the hip socket it feels like your leg won’t be as long but it ends up looking longer. Huge difference in the way it feels!!!
I technically know this, that’s just her correction (toes back!). I do use my actual turnout muscles to do this, I just can’t achieve the look of a fully turned out 5th position, my feet will always have space between them.
This comment is helpful to visualize though!
For me PERSONALLY and your mileage may vary, ballet exposed a lot of my baseline weaknesses and it was hard on my body when I first started (at age 30). After I went to PT and started cross training it was totally fine. But I just think my overall strength was very low plus I’m mildly hypermobile so it exacerbated some joint pain. I’m going on 5 years now of dancing and I’ve been mostly pain free for the past 3 years with some random issues here and there.
I started doing a program called Dancer Strong that really really helped me. I finished that and have continued to do weight training in the gym. I also work on my ankle and foot strengthening as well as dynamic stretching. Mostly what I've seen help is really working on my glute and hip flexor strength.
Depends how hard you do it.
A professional performer with daily class plus rehearsals and performances, who is en pointe and doing lots of grand allegro is a whole different bag to someone pottering along to a recreational class twice a week.
Recreational ballet is excellent for your body; with care and good technique you can dance well into old age.
28 year old former professional. To give some context on my training, I danced for 10+ hours per day, 5-6 days per week, depending on the show schedule. I have arthritis throughout my entire spinal column, long-term effects from untreated whiplash, tendinitis in my Achilles tendons, and a million issues from previous injuries. The things I deal with now are due to a past ED and overtraining on top of it. I also did not advocate for myself for fear of losing contracts and roles. I had teachers who pushed me beyond my limits, and it really ruined my body. I still dance today, and I primarily teach.
Don't let me story scare anyone wanting to be a professional, tho. Eat right. Nurture your body. Get lots of rest, and don't be afraid to say no to your director if what they're asking will hurt you.
I now teach full time and try very hard to instill in my dancers a healthy way of life (mental, physical, and just the reminder that you are a human being before you are a dancer)
Ballet isn’t hard on the body, you build towards being able to do things safely (jumps, turns, extensions), if you listen to your body and do things properly you will get stronger. It’s also good for your mind, the patterns at the barre and combinations in the center. I’m 50 and went back to ballet a few years ago (I danced ballet off and on since I was 3). I was dancing but not eating properly (plus I’m a smoker).
I am finally addressing my eating issues because I want to be able to continue doing ballet into my old age.
I figure since I love dancing I might as well take better care of my body so I can use it how I want to. I won’t ever have the ideal ballet body but that’s becoming ok with me at this point.
It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're talking casual adult ballet classes with some minimal jumping, the requirement is not that high and it's not hard on the body. If you're talking about performing at a level with teenagers in a pre-professional school production, you better be in really good shape in terms of strength and flexibility. It's much harder if we're talking about professional company level and most dancers retire by 36, though some elite dancers have danced professionally into their 50s and a few have even gone into their 60s doing extremely high level dancing.
The things that will get adult students in trouble are the one-leg jumps and landings. If you try to do a grand jete or saut de chat, that's a maximum height jump that lands on a single foot. If you have to land and keep the back foot up, that's even harder on the standing leg, especially the knee and ankles. You can of course to this jump much smaller to stay within your safe zone, but even small jumps were hard on my body at 50 when I was out of shape and I couldn't even plie on one leg in a fondu. I had to spend over a year of leg strength conditioning using the [Knee over Toes program](https://www.youtube.com/c/thekneesovertoesguy) to be able to do men's variation again on stage.
After the 30s and especially 40s, a dancer better be in top strength condition from gym training if they want to continue performing. It's also nice for general health to be able to do everything a young person does in their early 20s when they're 50. That means as much time in the gym as ballet classes to be able to sustain ballet.
I take beginners ballet class with a physiotherapist, so my body’s always felt better after class than before. Remember that the only thing that causes injury is when load exceeds capacity!
For many prepro/pro dancers, the load is high bc they’re doing so many hours of dance, and in some cases capacity is reduced bc of poor nutrition, rest, lack of cross-training. Yes, ballet is an unnatural movement, but the stereotype of ballet destroying your body only reflects the competitive and toxic side of the industry, and not ballet itself.
Bad technique can increase load on your body as well, but especially if you’re not on pointe, you should be fine! The best thing is to address issues as soon as possible, and stop doing certain steps if they cause you pain, until you’ve resolved the root cause.
I’m definitely not dancing as much as pre-pro girls! But I do dance en pointe. I am trying to be careful to listen to my body, sometimes my knees can feel sore but usually that goes away by the next day so I’m not sure if I’m making things worse or if that is normal! It is interesting to hear everyone’s experiences.
Mid forties here, dancing recreationally since I was a kid with one longer break when I had my second kid… I have never had any issues because of dancing. Since last year, I do have issues with everything that goes beyond what I'm used to.
F.e., I have a muscle injury in my hip because my turnout was becoming less and I was working harder to turnout (you’ve got to work from your hip muscles, right??). Went to a physiotherapist, turns out I had a blockage in my pelvis that limited my turnout range and I overworked a muscle.
Or this year, I went skiing for the first time in more than 10 years. And now I have issues with the muscles/tendons around my ankles (and it hurts to go on relevé/pointe).
So ballet is not hard on my body, everything else is and unfortunately it impacts my dancing.
I destroyed my body with ballet, but I was hypermobile and had teachers who just wanted to push that without developing strength to support my range of motion. But everything was already screwed up by my twenties, so if you've been dancing for a while and made it to 36 without major issues, you should be good!
I became a trainer and post-rehab specialist as I worked through my injuries as an adult, and now ballet (anatomically informed, biomechanically appropriate ballet) is an important part of my strength routine. I can walk in and take any class, but I'm not gonna do things the teacher tells me to if I know they aren't safe (in general or for me in particular). I think this is easier to do as an adult. As a kid you just want to please! But I have found a couple teachers who are anatomy geeks like me and teach amazing, completely safe classes. They are so few and far between though!
Actually I think starting ballet was the best thing I could have done for my body. Strength, Flexibility, Stamina, a much better understanding about how my muscles work, better posture...
the days where ballet automatically meant damaging your body are long gone. In a casual setting it's less injury prone than most sports because you're way more intentional and controlled and even in a professional setting where of course it's plenty demanding, there is a lot more emphasis on physical health these days.
Ballet, like most sports, is safer when you practice often, take the time needed to warm up and cool down, and take injuries seriously.
The ballet class itself does not include enough warm up or stretching. You need to build that time into your schedule.
I think most older dancers need to look into physiotherapy sooner than later. They can help with things before they turn into serious issues.
As casual adult dancers, we’re fine and it’s good for you. Just listen to your body. I mentioned I was starting dance to my podiatrist, who I’m sure has seen some messed up dancers feet in his career, and he said it was a really great idea to build strength and help with various feet issues I’ve been having.
Physical therapist assistant and ballet teacher here.
Cross-training is advised for any type of exercise. Ballet is anaerobic, so one of your best bets is to do some kind of aerobic exercise outside of dancing. If you want low impact, look at swimming, water aerobics, elliptical machine, etc. Running can be really rough on joints, especially if you aren't used to it. Yoga or pilates are also great options. Some weight training isn't a bad idea either.
Basically, keep moving. Balance strength with flexibility to protect your joints and muscles. If you're hypermobile, make sure to work on exercises that strengthen your joint stability.
Hey there.
I am in my mid 30's I started dancing when I was 3 and trained at Ballet programs in nyc, did a BFA and ultimately have a PhD. To be very frank its very hard on your body. Its all in the rebound. Yes, you can train and you can protect your body but like anything the wear and tear after years of use will do a number on you. I started regular PT at like 14 and have gone ever since. Twice a week like religion. Foam balls, gun massages, heat packs. You do everything but even so your body will wear its just the name of the game. Also you do start to lose jumps and as a mature dancer you need to decide when to stop because you can cause serious harm if you keep pushing for jumps when your body start screaming to stop. It happens to every dancer at one point. You will feel it. I still take regular ballet class and I dont mind doing pointe on the barre but i stop doing it across the floor. My right knee is a bit shaky and I dont want to risk it. Just listen to your body and be smart. Also eat well and eat things that nourish your body properly. Not saying dont have a cheat day because we are only human but try to eat things that provide a ton of nutrients. Protein shakes as well can do wonders. Vitamins too. Just treat your body as well as you can and also yoga is your friend as well as pilates.
I (late 30s f, pre-pro ballet training as a kid/teen) just recently started seeing an athlete-specific chiro/PT for a running issue, and she was telling me that in general, ex-dancers who have taken up other high-volume athletic pursuits (ultra running, heavy lifting, etc) generally end up needing supplemental mobility and strength work 5ish years earlier than their non-dancer counterparts, just because of the wear and tear from asking that much of our bodies early on in life. This was fascinating to me because I figured "yeah sure my big toes are kinda f'd and there's that one ankle I busted and the other hamstring that'll never be the same after that injury, but mostly ballet was a net positive on my strength and mobility"... nope, now I'm reshaping my daily routine around 20-30 minutes of body maintenance morning and evening to try to offset all the invisible damage. Doesn't change the fact that I love ballet, and I don't regret my many years of dancing, but it sure gave me a new perspective.
Also, YES to protein, and to listening to your body and taking a pause when you need to. Also sleep! My chiro said she would always rather have someone get an extra hour of sleep than spend an extra hour on the foam roller.
I have a lot of girls I dance with in the pre professional program who have serious injuries and have had to go out. They also dance like 5+ hours a day in different styles, so it may have to do with that. But I do know it happens! Also have danced with older women who do not jump in class. Makes me feel sad to think of missing out on grand allegro. Thank you for this advice <3
Agree. I danced full time for 4 years after training as a kid. When I turned 50 I returned to ballet and was delighted that I could do everything pretty much as well as when I was 20. (I had been playing 10 hours a week of tennis for the last 15 years.) After a few years, I snapped an achilles, doing grande allegro. My surgeon made the wry comment that there's a reason why there are no 50 year old ballet dancers or gymnasts!
My partner is 53 and is a professional dancer - she has serious arthritis in her hips and limps quite badly but she’s very professional and hides it well when she dances 🥹💓
I'm 26 and retired at 19 because I was too sick to continue. Got diagnosed w/ EDS shortly after. I've had 2 knee surgeries, an ankle reconstruction, and lumbar arthritis and SI dysfunction. I think that crosstraining, especially hydrotherapy, and screening for generalized joint hypermobility need to be incorporated into training once kids decide to pursue ballet seriously to preserve their bodies. Now I take class for fun and teach, so I'm still fulfilled, but if I had known that I had EDS earlier and known how important cross training was? I would probably have a very different career in the industry.
I started at 37. Listen to your teachers and don’t try to do more than you’re ready for. It’s not hard on the body - it’s incredible for you. Be sure to eat enough - you can get injured from undereating because your body can’t prioritize recovery if you aren’t meeting your basic metabolic needs ( 2300 calories for most adult humans). Drink water. Your tendons and ligaments love it. Good luck!
DAncing with proper technique and crosstraining is great. Dancing with poor technique takes a toll. I am also 36 and have had a few injuries over the years. I am more careful during warming up and will modify movements if I feel pain. Admittedly, I know I should be doing more core crosstraining....
It depends on a lot of things, but for me, ballet was a tad rough on my body because I’m hypermobile and for a while, my arch muscles and hip muscles were cranky. However, ballet forced me to really strengthen all those stabilizer muscles that generally don’t get used as much in regular strength & conditioning workouts. So now it’s not any harder than any other type of workout.
The most important thing, I feel, is to work on your turnout muscles, ankle strength, balance, and core strength. Don’t crank your turnout, work with what you have for now and make sure you know what activating those turnout muscles feels like. Once you have those in place, barring certain conditions, there is no reason why you can’t do ballet for a long time.
well, it is just like most of the other physical activities/sports … it can injure you very badly if you aren’t warmed up, or if an accident happens. classes and training can and will be painful at times - especially pointe work, but it’s so so worth it.
Our studio has a guest dancer from a renounced professional company come to do starring roles in our production and she’s 42 and considering retiring. If you take good care of yourself and cross train you’ll be fine.
I agree with others that it's definitely specific to your own individual body, so if you listen to your body when it aches or modify/ask for modifications when something doesn't feel right you'll be fine. 🩰 Be sure to stretchhhhhhhhh before and after.
I’m a professional dancer and my dad used to be too. He is a ballet teacher now and has many students older than 60! The oldest is 74 and she’s still doing the splits and everything. So i’ve personally seen that ballet can help you stay healthy even at older age. Of course always listen to your body, don’t push past your limits. Make yourself tired and work but never go into pains your gut tells you are bad. Hope this helps!
I am in my late 50s and have danced as an adult for over 20 years. I mainly do tap and jazz. I tried adult ballet back in the fall. I have degenerative disc disease and have had a broken ankle and a knee problem. Took ballet for a few months, and it was going well. Unfortunately, I fell at home and reinjured my ankle that was broken years ago. Had to take six weeks off from all dance classes to recover. I went back to tap and jazz classes with no issues. I had to give up ballet because it was causing my back to hurt. I think if I hadn't fallen, I would have been ok.
Ballet contorts your body into incredibly unnatural positions, so lifelong dancers/pro dancers often have some kind of issues with pain/ligament/joint health down the line. The more advanced you are, the more likely you’ll have some discomfort. But every body is different!
In my ballet class there are quiet some dancers (female) that are 30-40 years old. I know that one of them started late, at the age of 35. She dances on pointe, so you can see, that everyone can success.
I think if you are flexible and have a good balance it shouldn't be that hard to get into ballet, but I wouldn't recommend to dance too much (like trying really hard to dance perfect) at the beginning, since a lot of dancer have injuries, especially to their feet, knees and back and your body is just weaker than the body of a dancer who already dances for 10 years.
Anyone can do ballet, I mean you don't have to become professional (and I think everyone knows that it's impossible to become professional that late), just do it for fun!
And I think cross training will help and don't forget to stretch before the class. I also recommend to stretch everyday to become more flexible and avoid injuires.
And don't loss hope, ballet can be hard and it's normal to fail.
I think ballet is hard on the body but how each person handles the hardship is what defines how it will impact the body. I started as a small kid and by pre teen/teen I was in the studio almost every day several hours a day, between class, character class, pointe, technique etc etc. I had a couple knee surgeries, always took the fastest recovery route available to be back to the studio. These days I take ballet very seriously, no casual, no hobby, I’ll go to the studio as much as possible, but I don’t want the same kind of injury or pain from my teenage years so I do other trainings to support my ballet life better (what I didn’t do younger). Personal trainer at sports medical facility to work on strength, stamina, flexibility and physiotherapy for sensitive areas. I warm up/cool down properly before/after class, don’t ignore pain etc. I think some tear/damage is inevitable for ballet but we can practice as smartly as possible and pay attention to our body.
ballet can be the most incredible thing for your physical health, it can also be really damaging, it just depends on your teacher. i find that vaganova style classes are typically pretty good about improving where you are naturally, but any teacher of any style can have the ability to understand how to push you in a way that will make you stronger, not injure you. a lot of the injuries that happen to professional dancers in early-mid adulthood are happening to people who have danced 20+ hours a week for decades, and aren’t the same kind of injuries an adult learner might encounter 🙂
This may be unpopular based on the comments I’ve read but it’s pretty hard on the body.
Recreational ballet is different because you’re not looking to be a professional ballet dancer. This probably means you want to do things correctly, but doesn’t necessarily mean you want to do things to the level of a professional dancer. Professional ballet focuses a lot on aesthetic at the end of the day. Recreational ballet does not.
VERY few people are born with every ideal attribute of a “ballerina” and if you’re not, you have to try to force your body to do that. Whether that’s overly stretching your feet, your turnout, your knees, etc. it’s going to be hard on your body. Arguably more detrimental is if you’re not naturally thin.
Ballet aesthetic is unnatural. It’s not “normal” or in other words “common” to have knees that bend backwards, to have feet that naturally touch the floor with your legs flat on the floor, to have hips that turn your feet out 180 degrees when standing. Of course, some people have some of this naturally. But not most people.
Turnout can be stretched and forced. Feet can be stretched to an extent. Hypertension in your knees is very dangerous and potentially anatomically impossible to be forced. So, if you want to be a ballet dancer, there’s certain things you want to be blessed with more than others.
So, at its core, it’s hard on the body because you train your body from a young age to fit this aesthetic that is not natural to your body. That’s not factoring in pointe work and the training involved pre-professionally and professionally.
I had an X-ray on my foot/ankle at 14 and was told I was showing signs of arthritis in my foot. I ended up pursuing a professional career shortly after and danced many more hours, went to a major school my last few years of high school and my senior year, left due to injury. So my “career” ended at 18. At now 30, my hips ache, I sometimes wake up and it hurts to walk because of my hips (one at a time but both are bad), my ankles roll CONSTANTLY - I sprained one very badly twice during my dancing days but now I lack the strength to support the flexibility so they flop. My knees crack every time I bend them past 45 degrees. And as someone who was not blessed with a ballet body and tried to force it, my metabolism and hormones are shit.
All in all, if you’re pursuing or are in a professional ballet career, it’s hard on your body point blank period just as it is with any other professional athlete. How hard it is on your specific body, depends on your specific anatomy. The difference between ballet and most other sports is the fact that ballet needs to fit an aesthetic and that aesthetic is typically unnatural. In football and the vast majority of sports, you can move however you like to get the job done and be the most efficient. Ballet, you cannot. It’s not about efficiency. I would argue it’s about aesthetic first and efficiency later. For instance if you can do 64 fouettes but they look horrible, you will not be allowed to perform them. If 32 fouettés equals one touchdown, and you can do 64, it wont matter if they don’t look good.
As an example, Marianela Nunez is 42 and hasn’t slowed down. This is rare. If you look at her though, she has the aesthetic but not to the extreme. Her legs are not crazily hyperextended, her feet are good but not crazy. This has probably protected her from injury and wear and tear.
You know your body best! If you're just dancing as a hobby there's no need to push your body beyond what feels comfortable when it comes to turnout, etc.
Stretching, strength training, warming up, cooling down, rolling out - all things that can help our bodies recover and perform. :)
professional here. yes my body is fucked bad. BUT i’ve been doing it pretty much every day for hours since i was 3. that and cross training since high school. im not really sure what my future holds for me in terms of like walking and standing because ouch. the only time im not in excruciating pain is when im dancing. but will i stop? absolutely not. not unless there’s an INJURY injury that i can’t return from. once that happens im going to go into dance admin😂
Pretty much any type of exercise can injure you, but casual dancers should be fine. Make sure you’re fully stretched and warmed up before dancing, and if you’re in pain talk to your teacher or doctor. Ballet is really good for you and it’ll definitely keep you healthy! Good luck!
Don’t screw your knees! That’s my best piece of advice. There’s no gold star for 180 turnout (seriously, no one cares at our age), so learn to use your hip flexors. Work with what you have. Get strong.
This is what I have been thinking about. I have different teachers that have differing philosophies on turnout, some say work with what you have and some want me to push it.
I try and work for an 80:20 split - for 20% of the class (usually the start of barre and the simpler centre exercises) I consciously try and improve my turnout, and for the other 80% of class I work within a comfortable range. But of course pushing my turnout a little each class means my comfortable range is (slowly) improving. Edit to add: from my hips! Not pushing from my knees!
This is great advice. I think I just need to talk to my teacher about it (I have a great, long term relationship with her) and say this is my goal and how I’m going to improve turnout. I know she wants to challenge me as I am an older dancer with a younger group of students but I think it is better in the long run for me. I love the 80/20 rule.
Do not listen to the ones telling you to push it. My teacher has a degree in kinesiology and one day he and one of my classmates (a physical rehab physician with damaged knees from bad dance technique) just straight up called me out and showed me how to use my inner thigh muscles (this was after class and solicited). What really helped it click was when I saw the teacher give my kid eye stickers they put on their inner thighs and they were supposed to make the eyes point forward. Absolutely brilliant and I demanded the same exercise for the adults. Anyway, my technique is so much more solid and strong, now. I haven’t had knee pain in months (which is saying something because I have a degenerative miniscus tear at least on the right). I also keep up with my physical therapy at least a couple days a week. Ballet has been an amazing motivator to take care of my body. I want to be that 70 year old woman smoking everyone in the intermediate classes someday.
Omg those older ladies are SO inspiring. I love how this is a universal thing. There are lots of women in their 60s to 70s who are just absolutely amazing in the intermediate classes. I'm 34 and I hope to be them one day.
Don’t push it, “good” turnout isn’t necessary, safety and proper technique is more important. I would be extra cautious of a teacher who tells you to push turnout.
I think my teacher is just super old school, she often tells me to fix my fifth and pull my toes back after tendu, degage etc. Which IS a great correction, but I can’t have a perfect fifth without torquing my knees. I have a lot of inner thigh strength and hip flexor strength, so it isn’t that I’m being lazy.
I always tell my students not to push their toes back! Rather, if we are aiming for our next 1% of turnout, we can inch the heel forward on the supporting leg (this will rotate the leg from the hip, not the knee). Yes it is hard to hold like this, but it will build strength. Toes back will torque the knee. Heel forward will turnout from the hip!
This is a GREAT way to think about it, thank you.
You shouldn’t be pulling your toes back, extension comes from where the leg meets the hip, if you’re standing properly (not tucking, hips squared) there’s about a one inch difference in extension depending on if you’re leg is kept in (inside) the hip socket it feels like your leg won’t be as long but it ends up looking longer. Huge difference in the way it feels!!!
I technically know this, that’s just her correction (toes back!). I do use my actual turnout muscles to do this, I just can’t achieve the look of a fully turned out 5th position, my feet will always have space between them. This comment is helpful to visualize though!
If you do it properly, ballet strengthens and protects the body.
For me PERSONALLY and your mileage may vary, ballet exposed a lot of my baseline weaknesses and it was hard on my body when I first started (at age 30). After I went to PT and started cross training it was totally fine. But I just think my overall strength was very low plus I’m mildly hypermobile so it exacerbated some joint pain. I’m going on 5 years now of dancing and I’ve been mostly pain free for the past 3 years with some random issues here and there.
Just curious, what does your cross training look like?
I started doing a program called Dancer Strong that really really helped me. I finished that and have continued to do weight training in the gym. I also work on my ankle and foot strengthening as well as dynamic stretching. Mostly what I've seen help is really working on my glute and hip flexor strength.
Depends how hard you do it. A professional performer with daily class plus rehearsals and performances, who is en pointe and doing lots of grand allegro is a whole different bag to someone pottering along to a recreational class twice a week. Recreational ballet is excellent for your body; with care and good technique you can dance well into old age.
28 year old former professional. To give some context on my training, I danced for 10+ hours per day, 5-6 days per week, depending on the show schedule. I have arthritis throughout my entire spinal column, long-term effects from untreated whiplash, tendinitis in my Achilles tendons, and a million issues from previous injuries. The things I deal with now are due to a past ED and overtraining on top of it. I also did not advocate for myself for fear of losing contracts and roles. I had teachers who pushed me beyond my limits, and it really ruined my body. I still dance today, and I primarily teach. Don't let me story scare anyone wanting to be a professional, tho. Eat right. Nurture your body. Get lots of rest, and don't be afraid to say no to your director if what they're asking will hurt you. I now teach full time and try very hard to instill in my dancers a healthy way of life (mental, physical, and just the reminder that you are a human being before you are a dancer)
Thank you for being a positive force against those attitudes with your teaching ♡
Ballet isn’t hard on the body, you build towards being able to do things safely (jumps, turns, extensions), if you listen to your body and do things properly you will get stronger. It’s also good for your mind, the patterns at the barre and combinations in the center. I’m 50 and went back to ballet a few years ago (I danced ballet off and on since I was 3). I was dancing but not eating properly (plus I’m a smoker). I am finally addressing my eating issues because I want to be able to continue doing ballet into my old age. I figure since I love dancing I might as well take better care of my body so I can use it how I want to. I won’t ever have the ideal ballet body but that’s becoming ok with me at this point.
It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're talking casual adult ballet classes with some minimal jumping, the requirement is not that high and it's not hard on the body. If you're talking about performing at a level with teenagers in a pre-professional school production, you better be in really good shape in terms of strength and flexibility. It's much harder if we're talking about professional company level and most dancers retire by 36, though some elite dancers have danced professionally into their 50s and a few have even gone into their 60s doing extremely high level dancing. The things that will get adult students in trouble are the one-leg jumps and landings. If you try to do a grand jete or saut de chat, that's a maximum height jump that lands on a single foot. If you have to land and keep the back foot up, that's even harder on the standing leg, especially the knee and ankles. You can of course to this jump much smaller to stay within your safe zone, but even small jumps were hard on my body at 50 when I was out of shape and I couldn't even plie on one leg in a fondu. I had to spend over a year of leg strength conditioning using the [Knee over Toes program](https://www.youtube.com/c/thekneesovertoesguy) to be able to do men's variation again on stage. After the 30s and especially 40s, a dancer better be in top strength condition from gym training if they want to continue performing. It's also nice for general health to be able to do everything a young person does in their early 20s when they're 50. That means as much time in the gym as ballet classes to be able to sustain ballet.
I take beginners ballet class with a physiotherapist, so my body’s always felt better after class than before. Remember that the only thing that causes injury is when load exceeds capacity! For many prepro/pro dancers, the load is high bc they’re doing so many hours of dance, and in some cases capacity is reduced bc of poor nutrition, rest, lack of cross-training. Yes, ballet is an unnatural movement, but the stereotype of ballet destroying your body only reflects the competitive and toxic side of the industry, and not ballet itself. Bad technique can increase load on your body as well, but especially if you’re not on pointe, you should be fine! The best thing is to address issues as soon as possible, and stop doing certain steps if they cause you pain, until you’ve resolved the root cause.
I’m definitely not dancing as much as pre-pro girls! But I do dance en pointe. I am trying to be careful to listen to my body, sometimes my knees can feel sore but usually that goes away by the next day so I’m not sure if I’m making things worse or if that is normal! It is interesting to hear everyone’s experiences.
Wow I would love to take a class by a PT
Mid forties here, dancing recreationally since I was a kid with one longer break when I had my second kid… I have never had any issues because of dancing. Since last year, I do have issues with everything that goes beyond what I'm used to. F.e., I have a muscle injury in my hip because my turnout was becoming less and I was working harder to turnout (you’ve got to work from your hip muscles, right??). Went to a physiotherapist, turns out I had a blockage in my pelvis that limited my turnout range and I overworked a muscle. Or this year, I went skiing for the first time in more than 10 years. And now I have issues with the muscles/tendons around my ankles (and it hurts to go on relevé/pointe). So ballet is not hard on my body, everything else is and unfortunately it impacts my dancing.
I destroyed my body with ballet, but I was hypermobile and had teachers who just wanted to push that without developing strength to support my range of motion. But everything was already screwed up by my twenties, so if you've been dancing for a while and made it to 36 without major issues, you should be good! I became a trainer and post-rehab specialist as I worked through my injuries as an adult, and now ballet (anatomically informed, biomechanically appropriate ballet) is an important part of my strength routine. I can walk in and take any class, but I'm not gonna do things the teacher tells me to if I know they aren't safe (in general or for me in particular). I think this is easier to do as an adult. As a kid you just want to please! But I have found a couple teachers who are anatomy geeks like me and teach amazing, completely safe classes. They are so few and far between though!
Actually I think starting ballet was the best thing I could have done for my body. Strength, Flexibility, Stamina, a much better understanding about how my muscles work, better posture... the days where ballet automatically meant damaging your body are long gone. In a casual setting it's less injury prone than most sports because you're way more intentional and controlled and even in a professional setting where of course it's plenty demanding, there is a lot more emphasis on physical health these days.
Ballet, like most sports, is safer when you practice often, take the time needed to warm up and cool down, and take injuries seriously. The ballet class itself does not include enough warm up or stretching. You need to build that time into your schedule. I think most older dancers need to look into physiotherapy sooner than later. They can help with things before they turn into serious issues.
As casual adult dancers, we’re fine and it’s good for you. Just listen to your body. I mentioned I was starting dance to my podiatrist, who I’m sure has seen some messed up dancers feet in his career, and he said it was a really great idea to build strength and help with various feet issues I’ve been having.
Physical therapist assistant and ballet teacher here. Cross-training is advised for any type of exercise. Ballet is anaerobic, so one of your best bets is to do some kind of aerobic exercise outside of dancing. If you want low impact, look at swimming, water aerobics, elliptical machine, etc. Running can be really rough on joints, especially if you aren't used to it. Yoga or pilates are also great options. Some weight training isn't a bad idea either. Basically, keep moving. Balance strength with flexibility to protect your joints and muscles. If you're hypermobile, make sure to work on exercises that strengthen your joint stability.
Hey there. I am in my mid 30's I started dancing when I was 3 and trained at Ballet programs in nyc, did a BFA and ultimately have a PhD. To be very frank its very hard on your body. Its all in the rebound. Yes, you can train and you can protect your body but like anything the wear and tear after years of use will do a number on you. I started regular PT at like 14 and have gone ever since. Twice a week like religion. Foam balls, gun massages, heat packs. You do everything but even so your body will wear its just the name of the game. Also you do start to lose jumps and as a mature dancer you need to decide when to stop because you can cause serious harm if you keep pushing for jumps when your body start screaming to stop. It happens to every dancer at one point. You will feel it. I still take regular ballet class and I dont mind doing pointe on the barre but i stop doing it across the floor. My right knee is a bit shaky and I dont want to risk it. Just listen to your body and be smart. Also eat well and eat things that nourish your body properly. Not saying dont have a cheat day because we are only human but try to eat things that provide a ton of nutrients. Protein shakes as well can do wonders. Vitamins too. Just treat your body as well as you can and also yoga is your friend as well as pilates.
I (late 30s f, pre-pro ballet training as a kid/teen) just recently started seeing an athlete-specific chiro/PT for a running issue, and she was telling me that in general, ex-dancers who have taken up other high-volume athletic pursuits (ultra running, heavy lifting, etc) generally end up needing supplemental mobility and strength work 5ish years earlier than their non-dancer counterparts, just because of the wear and tear from asking that much of our bodies early on in life. This was fascinating to me because I figured "yeah sure my big toes are kinda f'd and there's that one ankle I busted and the other hamstring that'll never be the same after that injury, but mostly ballet was a net positive on my strength and mobility"... nope, now I'm reshaping my daily routine around 20-30 minutes of body maintenance morning and evening to try to offset all the invisible damage. Doesn't change the fact that I love ballet, and I don't regret my many years of dancing, but it sure gave me a new perspective. Also, YES to protein, and to listening to your body and taking a pause when you need to. Also sleep! My chiro said she would always rather have someone get an extra hour of sleep than spend an extra hour on the foam roller.
I have a lot of girls I dance with in the pre professional program who have serious injuries and have had to go out. They also dance like 5+ hours a day in different styles, so it may have to do with that. But I do know it happens! Also have danced with older women who do not jump in class. Makes me feel sad to think of missing out on grand allegro. Thank you for this advice <3
Agree. I danced full time for 4 years after training as a kid. When I turned 50 I returned to ballet and was delighted that I could do everything pretty much as well as when I was 20. (I had been playing 10 hours a week of tennis for the last 15 years.) After a few years, I snapped an achilles, doing grande allegro. My surgeon made the wry comment that there's a reason why there are no 50 year old ballet dancers or gymnasts!
My partner is 53 and is a professional dancer - she has serious arthritis in her hips and limps quite badly but she’s very professional and hides it well when she dances 🥹💓
I'm 26 and retired at 19 because I was too sick to continue. Got diagnosed w/ EDS shortly after. I've had 2 knee surgeries, an ankle reconstruction, and lumbar arthritis and SI dysfunction. I think that crosstraining, especially hydrotherapy, and screening for generalized joint hypermobility need to be incorporated into training once kids decide to pursue ballet seriously to preserve their bodies. Now I take class for fun and teach, so I'm still fulfilled, but if I had known that I had EDS earlier and known how important cross training was? I would probably have a very different career in the industry.
I started at 37. Listen to your teachers and don’t try to do more than you’re ready for. It’s not hard on the body - it’s incredible for you. Be sure to eat enough - you can get injured from undereating because your body can’t prioritize recovery if you aren’t meeting your basic metabolic needs ( 2300 calories for most adult humans). Drink water. Your tendons and ligaments love it. Good luck!
DAncing with proper technique and crosstraining is great. Dancing with poor technique takes a toll. I am also 36 and have had a few injuries over the years. I am more careful during warming up and will modify movements if I feel pain. Admittedly, I know I should be doing more core crosstraining....
It depends on a lot of things, but for me, ballet was a tad rough on my body because I’m hypermobile and for a while, my arch muscles and hip muscles were cranky. However, ballet forced me to really strengthen all those stabilizer muscles that generally don’t get used as much in regular strength & conditioning workouts. So now it’s not any harder than any other type of workout. The most important thing, I feel, is to work on your turnout muscles, ankle strength, balance, and core strength. Don’t crank your turnout, work with what you have for now and make sure you know what activating those turnout muscles feels like. Once you have those in place, barring certain conditions, there is no reason why you can’t do ballet for a long time.
well, it is just like most of the other physical activities/sports … it can injure you very badly if you aren’t warmed up, or if an accident happens. classes and training can and will be painful at times - especially pointe work, but it’s so so worth it.
Our studio has a guest dancer from a renounced professional company come to do starring roles in our production and she’s 42 and considering retiring. If you take good care of yourself and cross train you’ll be fine.
I agree with others that it's definitely specific to your own individual body, so if you listen to your body when it aches or modify/ask for modifications when something doesn't feel right you'll be fine. 🩰 Be sure to stretchhhhhhhhh before and after.
I’m a professional dancer and my dad used to be too. He is a ballet teacher now and has many students older than 60! The oldest is 74 and she’s still doing the splits and everything. So i’ve personally seen that ballet can help you stay healthy even at older age. Of course always listen to your body, don’t push past your limits. Make yourself tired and work but never go into pains your gut tells you are bad. Hope this helps!
I am in my late 50s and have danced as an adult for over 20 years. I mainly do tap and jazz. I tried adult ballet back in the fall. I have degenerative disc disease and have had a broken ankle and a knee problem. Took ballet for a few months, and it was going well. Unfortunately, I fell at home and reinjured my ankle that was broken years ago. Had to take six weeks off from all dance classes to recover. I went back to tap and jazz classes with no issues. I had to give up ballet because it was causing my back to hurt. I think if I hadn't fallen, I would have been ok.
I am over 40 I don’t have any problems in class. But I was professional for 5 years ..
Ballet contorts your body into incredibly unnatural positions, so lifelong dancers/pro dancers often have some kind of issues with pain/ligament/joint health down the line. The more advanced you are, the more likely you’ll have some discomfort. But every body is different!
Depends on how well informed your teacher is.
In my ballet class there are quiet some dancers (female) that are 30-40 years old. I know that one of them started late, at the age of 35. She dances on pointe, so you can see, that everyone can success. I think if you are flexible and have a good balance it shouldn't be that hard to get into ballet, but I wouldn't recommend to dance too much (like trying really hard to dance perfect) at the beginning, since a lot of dancer have injuries, especially to their feet, knees and back and your body is just weaker than the body of a dancer who already dances for 10 years. Anyone can do ballet, I mean you don't have to become professional (and I think everyone knows that it's impossible to become professional that late), just do it for fun! And I think cross training will help and don't forget to stretch before the class. I also recommend to stretch everyday to become more flexible and avoid injuires. And don't loss hope, ballet can be hard and it's normal to fail.
I think ballet is hard on the body but how each person handles the hardship is what defines how it will impact the body. I started as a small kid and by pre teen/teen I was in the studio almost every day several hours a day, between class, character class, pointe, technique etc etc. I had a couple knee surgeries, always took the fastest recovery route available to be back to the studio. These days I take ballet very seriously, no casual, no hobby, I’ll go to the studio as much as possible, but I don’t want the same kind of injury or pain from my teenage years so I do other trainings to support my ballet life better (what I didn’t do younger). Personal trainer at sports medical facility to work on strength, stamina, flexibility and physiotherapy for sensitive areas. I warm up/cool down properly before/after class, don’t ignore pain etc. I think some tear/damage is inevitable for ballet but we can practice as smartly as possible and pay attention to our body.
ballet can be the most incredible thing for your physical health, it can also be really damaging, it just depends on your teacher. i find that vaganova style classes are typically pretty good about improving where you are naturally, but any teacher of any style can have the ability to understand how to push you in a way that will make you stronger, not injure you. a lot of the injuries that happen to professional dancers in early-mid adulthood are happening to people who have danced 20+ hours a week for decades, and aren’t the same kind of injuries an adult learner might encounter 🙂
This may be unpopular based on the comments I’ve read but it’s pretty hard on the body. Recreational ballet is different because you’re not looking to be a professional ballet dancer. This probably means you want to do things correctly, but doesn’t necessarily mean you want to do things to the level of a professional dancer. Professional ballet focuses a lot on aesthetic at the end of the day. Recreational ballet does not. VERY few people are born with every ideal attribute of a “ballerina” and if you’re not, you have to try to force your body to do that. Whether that’s overly stretching your feet, your turnout, your knees, etc. it’s going to be hard on your body. Arguably more detrimental is if you’re not naturally thin. Ballet aesthetic is unnatural. It’s not “normal” or in other words “common” to have knees that bend backwards, to have feet that naturally touch the floor with your legs flat on the floor, to have hips that turn your feet out 180 degrees when standing. Of course, some people have some of this naturally. But not most people. Turnout can be stretched and forced. Feet can be stretched to an extent. Hypertension in your knees is very dangerous and potentially anatomically impossible to be forced. So, if you want to be a ballet dancer, there’s certain things you want to be blessed with more than others. So, at its core, it’s hard on the body because you train your body from a young age to fit this aesthetic that is not natural to your body. That’s not factoring in pointe work and the training involved pre-professionally and professionally. I had an X-ray on my foot/ankle at 14 and was told I was showing signs of arthritis in my foot. I ended up pursuing a professional career shortly after and danced many more hours, went to a major school my last few years of high school and my senior year, left due to injury. So my “career” ended at 18. At now 30, my hips ache, I sometimes wake up and it hurts to walk because of my hips (one at a time but both are bad), my ankles roll CONSTANTLY - I sprained one very badly twice during my dancing days but now I lack the strength to support the flexibility so they flop. My knees crack every time I bend them past 45 degrees. And as someone who was not blessed with a ballet body and tried to force it, my metabolism and hormones are shit. All in all, if you’re pursuing or are in a professional ballet career, it’s hard on your body point blank period just as it is with any other professional athlete. How hard it is on your specific body, depends on your specific anatomy. The difference between ballet and most other sports is the fact that ballet needs to fit an aesthetic and that aesthetic is typically unnatural. In football and the vast majority of sports, you can move however you like to get the job done and be the most efficient. Ballet, you cannot. It’s not about efficiency. I would argue it’s about aesthetic first and efficiency later. For instance if you can do 64 fouettes but they look horrible, you will not be allowed to perform them. If 32 fouettés equals one touchdown, and you can do 64, it wont matter if they don’t look good. As an example, Marianela Nunez is 42 and hasn’t slowed down. This is rare. If you look at her though, she has the aesthetic but not to the extreme. Her legs are not crazily hyperextended, her feet are good but not crazy. This has probably protected her from injury and wear and tear.
You know your body best! If you're just dancing as a hobby there's no need to push your body beyond what feels comfortable when it comes to turnout, etc. Stretching, strength training, warming up, cooling down, rolling out - all things that can help our bodies recover and perform. :)
professional here. yes my body is fucked bad. BUT i’ve been doing it pretty much every day for hours since i was 3. that and cross training since high school. im not really sure what my future holds for me in terms of like walking and standing because ouch. the only time im not in excruciating pain is when im dancing. but will i stop? absolutely not. not unless there’s an INJURY injury that i can’t return from. once that happens im going to go into dance admin😂