Posted by shantha (69.210.114.16) on May 22, 2005 at 17:22:00:

 In Reply to: Practice

Posted by marie on May 21, 2005 at 23:59:01:

 hi marie...
i am a dance student at intermediate level...working on my jathiswaram right now. i am in my mid-twentie, and hence a little bit on the older side. although i am not a professional dancer...i believe i am just as commited to dance. i normally practise 3-4 times per week, besides the weekly class. each practise session lasts about 1-1.5 hours. i normally do a simple warm up consisting of yoga asanas and some other stretching exercising. i then always start off with allarripu because i find it to be a great warm up. then i work on the new pieces i am learning for about 0.5 hours. i then try to practise one or 2 old pieces, and end my session doing at least 5 adavus, just to keep them fresh in my memory and to continually improve them. the days that i don't dance, i try to hit the gym. for some cardio. and strength training exercises (normally 2-3 times per week). i find that this really helps improve my fitness which will definitely be an asset for dance. also, the elliptical machines are great for your knees - they improve the circulation in your knees, which helps prevent and cure all sorts of knee problems. finally strengthening your quads. (via strength training exercises) really helps improve patellar tracking and alignment, which also prevents several knee problmes. practising dance every single day makes my knees stiff and sore. i like to give atleast 2 days break in a week and hit the gym instead. this works out much better for me.
hope this helps.
shantha