Astonishing Arches: How to improve your Irish dance arches

Having a strong arch is one of the fundamentals of Irish dancing and is one of the things that every judge will look out for. You will know this yourself, as a dancer or parent, when you see a dancer with an amazing arch they stand out on stage in both their heavy and their light dancing. This is why we want to work on your arches, so you too can stand out on stage and create a lasting impact on the judges. 

If you want before and after pictures like this one, do these three exercises daily to improve your arches before your next Major Championship.

Exercises to improve your Irish dance arches:

Exercise one

Sit down and place something on the floor like a piece of paper, a theraband or a t-shirt. 

Using one foot at a time, use your arches to lift the piece of material off the floor with an arched foot. 

Once you have grabbed the material hold for a second and then drop and repeat

Do 10 reps on each foot daily and track your progress using videos or pictures. 

Exercise Two - Calf raises

Stand with your feet facing forward and shoulder width apart 

Stand near a wall or somewhere you can hold on to something for balance if you need it

Raise up onto your toes, slowly and with lots of control

Make sure your ankles don’t roll outwards or inwards 

Lower back to the floor, again being slow and controlled 

Repeat 10x and to make it harder, try this one leg at a time. 

Exercise Three

Sit on the floor with your feet out in front of you, with your feet and your toes flexed 

Whilst keeping your toes flexed, lower your ankle joint into a pointed position

Now arch your toes 

Next, flex your toes before flexing your feet 

Repeat this 8x a day every day 

In our MWM Gold Club, we are focusing on arching and pointing for Irish dancing during our Irish barre classes. We will do the same class, which increases in difficulty, for the next month so we can clearly see our improvement and take some amazing before and after pictures - which will increase your dancing, but also increase your confidence. 

Let us know how you get on with these exercises to improve your Irish dance arches and send us your before and after pictures.