Dates for the 2017 East Bay FeisThe East Bay Feis will be held on the weekend of October 28 and 29, 2017. Stay tuned for more details. You can also find information for the Feis at its website, www.eastbayfeis.com
Our Summer Leap Contest Winners! Each will receive a $20 Gift Card to Target! Congratulations Dancers!!
by: Kathi Hennesey
In the last issue of this newsletter, I reviewed the importance of hydration. Another critical area for getting the most out of your Irish dance class is a proper warm up and cool down. Like hydration, this is a “before-and-after” package. In this issue, I'll focus on pre-class warm ups. First of all, warm ups and cool downs have very different goals, so they're structured differently. The purpose of the warm up is to prepare the body for Irish dance movement patterns. We want to gradually get our heart rate up, increase our blood flow to the muscles, and activate our nervous system. As Irish dancer and coach, Lauren Early points out in Reaching New Heights, we're firing up the fast twitch muscle fibers to increase muscle speed and contraction times. Warm ups also help release fluid around the joints, which makes motion easier for the dance moves. An important aspect of warm ups is injury prevention. A body that is properly warmed up is much more able to withstand the stresses of Irish dance movements, which include leaps, jumps and less strenuous, but very repetitive motions. A less obvious, but still valuable part of warm ups, is the mental preparation. A warm up session is a kind of ritual for the dancer to get prepared and to get focused on what they have to do in class. During warm ups, we're leaving the outside world behind and getting ready to reconnect with the dance class learning process. We start thinking about our steps, what we've been working on and where we want to go. Proper warm ups for Irish dance class involve dynamic stretching, where the muscles are stretched through continual movement. The muscle is not stretched and held; we want to gradually loosen and warm up the muscle while taking it through its full range of motion. We also want to engage several muscle groups at once and get the muscles working together. This builds strength and power for dance class. Examples of good warm ups are exercises of a steady rhythmical nature involving joints of the body, such as gentle knee bends, arm swings – with or without torso twisting - skipping, light jogging or marching in place. Whatever your choice, it's important not to overstretch the muscles at this point. A favorite warm up of Lauren Early is standing leg swings. While holding the wall or a barre, the motion of swinging your leg back and forth prepares the hamstring, as well as the glutes, hip flexors, lower back, and all the surrounding stabilizing muscles in one exercise. A note about dynamic stretching vs. static stretching. Dynamic stretching involves movement. Static stretching is used to increase the range of movement with the body at rest. Static stretching is often done as floorwork or barre work. An example of this is sitting on the floor, stretching to touch your toes and holding for a certain period of time. Another common static exercise seen in Irish dance class is using a wall for balance, standing on one leg and pulling the other leg up in back (holding the foot or ankle) to stretch the large muscles above the knee. First, this tends to target one area with little connection to other muscle groups. Secondly, while you're doing this, your heart rate and blood flow will decrease, which is the opposite of what we need to prep for class. Also, numerous studies have shown that static stretching reduces your muscle strength for an average of sixty minutes. So if you've been doing static stretches before Irish dance class, you'll want to make a switch to dynamic stretching for your warm ups. Remember, the key to dynamic stretching is movement involving multiple muscle groups. There is a place for static stretching, which is during your cool down, and we'll cover that in more detail next issue. Dancer's tip: Schedule extra time for dance class warm up and cool down activities to maximize your class time. Think of it as a package deal! Our May, June and July newsletters can be found in the Members Portal of our website. Please contact us if you need the password. The newsletters are also emailed out, so if you are not receiving them, please check your spam and junk folders.
The East Bay Feis is pleased to announce the following musicians will be providing the music at the feis:
Cormac O'Se Brian O'Sullivan Seamus O'Sullivan We hope to announce our adjudicators shortly. While we are always proud of our dancers' accomplishments in Irish Dance, we are also very proud of all of their academic accomplishments as well! With that said, we would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all our 2016 graduates as follows:
We would like to recognize all the dancers who are graduating this year, especially our three High School Graduates, Charlie Ayotte, Jason Kelly and Atilla Tang. We have enjoyed watching these three young men grow up within the McBride School for many, many years, and we are so very proud of them. We wish them all the very best, and much success with their future studies in college. We would also like to Congratulate all our dancers who are graduating from Kindergarten and heading into Elementary School; all our dancers graduating from Elementary School and entering Middle School, as well as all our dancers leaving Middle School to start new adventures in High School. Finally, we would like to congratulate our two 2016 College Graduates: Kristina Williams and Tuleagh Innes-Gawn, both of whom are graduating from the University of California, Davis! We know that they are ready to take on the world, and we wish them all the best with their future endeavors and careers! McBride Pride for you all!! With the arrival of summer heat, we'd like to remind our dancers – and parents – how important it is to be properly hydrated by making sure you're drinking enough fresh, cool water. Good hydration is important year round, of course, but it's especially critical during the hot summer weather we experience in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Proper hydration for dance class is a “before-during-and-after” activity. Drinking enough water before dance class is one of the best ways for a dancer to ensure a good energy level. The recommendation for adult athletes – and Irish dance is very athletic – is to drink two to three cups of water a couple of hours before the sports activity, then one cup 15 minutes beforehand.This amount would be reduced for children, but the same time pattern can be followed (if any parents have questions on specific amounts, we recommend asking your child's pediatrician or family doctor). Besides enhancing energy, proper hydration has also been linked to better mental alertness, focus and concentration. So you can see how important hydration is for making the most of dance lessons. While starting dance class well-hydrated can do wonders for your energy, it's important to take regular water breaks during the lesson. Make sure water is on your dance class checklist along with shoes, socks and other necessities. After dance class, drinking water can help with feeling fatigued. Also, because water helps flush out toxins, it's good for reducing muscle soreness. Dance parent tip: One of the best ways to encourage your children to drink more water is to drink more water yourself. Think of ways to make fresh, cool water more available for the family, like keeping a container in the fridge (fruit infused makes it more appealing) or making sure everyone has water available when “on the road.” Help your family make healthy habits. Also, don't wait until you or your dancer(s) are feeling thirsty to reach for some water. By the time this happens, the body is already dehydrated. Make sure you're all drinking enough water during the day. Keeping hydrated is easy when you plan ahead and is so important for the confidence, success and well-being of all dance students. * This article offers health and fitness information and is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health or your dancer's health, you should always consult with a physician or other health-care professional. |
McBride School of
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