Perfect posture? Here’s three tips to improving your posture in six weeks

Having a strong and confident posture when dancing is something that every judge will look for. Not only is our posture one of the distinctive basics of competitive Irish dancing, it also is one of the ways we convey composure, self belief and poise to a judge. 

As Irish dancing has become technically harder and more athletic, it has become harder and harder for dancers to maintain this perfect posture. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon!! In fact we have three tips that will help you improve your posture in time for your next major championship.

It isn’t only our legs that need strength

Irish dancers spend a lot of time doing strength workouts for their lower body. This is really important work, but our upper body also needs strength work as well. How can we expect our posture to be strong if we don’t actively work on strengthening the muscles which are going to maintain our upper body when dancing?

The MWM Club has lots of classes which will strengthen your upper body and these classes are updated all the time. But we can recommend trying some movements that will strengthen your upper back, shoulders and triceps - Wall Slides, Skydivers and Tricep Presses.

Mobility work 

As well as strengthening our upper body, we also need to do mobility work - for example, if your shoulders don’t have the mobility to be held back (as we have them on stage), then it will be impossible for them to be pulled back when we dance. But we can work on our mobility on a daily basis - and it doesn’t require a lot of room, so it can even be done in your bedroom. Spend ten minutes a day working on the mobility of your upper body with these three moves: Simple shoulder rotations, shoulder rotations and seated chest stretch.  

Engage your brain

So, you’ve spent some time working on the strength and mobility of your upper body - but here’s a step a lot of dancers miss. Just because you have improved the strength and mobility of your upper body, your carriage won’t simply improve unless you engage your brain! As a dancer, you have to take the responsibility of thinking about your corrections, actively engaging your brain to think about your carriage. Your arms won’t magically hold themselves in place because you have worked on them at home - but they will be much more likely to improve if you think about it.

Combining your hard work at home and your mind will result in massive improvements in your carriage - ultimately helping to improve your dancing, and resulting in you looking much more confident and self-assured on stage. 

Let us know how you get on! You can get help with your carriage by working with us as a 1:1 PT client, or signing up to the MWM Club - check them out using the link below:

https://www.movewithmeg.co.uk/store