A History of Stretching and Flexibility |
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Stretching and flexibility has always been a fundamental requirement for ballet and related sports, such as gymnastics, synchronized swimming, figure skating, and cheerleading. However, over the last few decades, the type and quality of movement that audiences (and judges) have come to expect and appreciate have changed in important ways.
Pre 1960
During the time of England’s most famous ballerina, Dame Margot Fonteyn (the 1940’s through 1960’s), the word “virtuosity” brought to mind amazing grace, balance on point, triple turns, and incredible leaps. In her prime, Dame Fonteyn never had to hold a develope higher than her chest, or an arabesque much higher than 90 degrees. |
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1960s to 1970s
When George Balanchine became the best known choreographer and started producing ballerinas such as Allegra Kent and Suzanne Farrell in the 60’s and 70’s, higher arabesques, more arched backs, and 180-degree jetes became the norm. A few of his ballets (such as Agon) actually featured the virtuosity and lines that his flexible dancers could achieve.
In the late 70’s, skater Denise Biellmann re-popularized the spin that became known as the “Biellmann”. The following excerpt from Wikipedia describes another flexibility move introduced in the 80’s by skater Nicole Bobeck:
“She had a lasting impact on ladies' figure skating because of her signature move, a spiral with the free leg extended very high. Television commentators including Dick Button and Peggy Fleming were so complimentary of Bobek's spiral that it was widely copied by other U.S. skaters...setting off a fad for extreme flexibility moves in general.” |
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1980s to 1990s
In 1984, Rudolf Nureyev promoted an 18-year-old ballerina with a gymnastics background, Sylvie Guillem, to be the youngest-ever etoile in the Paris Opera Ballet. Sylvie stunned audiences with her incredible 180-degree developes, over-split leaps, and over-arched feet. After the turn of the millennium, the young soloists (Zakharova, Osipova, Vishneva, etc.) all have high developes and arabesques, split jumps, and flexible backs.
In the late 80’s, a new sport called “rhythmic gymnastics” came on the scene, and later became an Olympic sport. Flexibility has always been an important component of artistic gymnastics, but in RSG, it seems that each new generation of rhythmic gymnasts strive to develop more extreme flexibility as the most important aspect of competitive differentiation.
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In gymnastics, skating, and acro sports, most of the elite competitors have a good background in ballet as part of their required training regimen. As audience expectations and standards for competition has increased the required level of flexibility for higher levels of performance, it should be clear that the usual weekly stretching classes offered at ballet studios or gyms should be supplemented by “overstretching” sessions that will maximize the full range of motion that top competitors and performers need to achieve virtuosity (or even in some cases, competitiveness). Remember that in order to achieve a perfect split jump, you need to be able to oversplit! | | | |
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A History of Flexibility
