Adolescent Dancers Need to Learn the Skill of Strength

A recent study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research “examined the relationship between maximum strength and measures of athletic performance and movement skill in adolescent girls.” The findings indicated that:

• Strength was positively associated with improved sprinting, jumping, and movement quality.

• The strength group in the study was “significantly” faster than the other groups and performed better than the weakest girls on “all other tests.”

The strength coaches and progressive-minded dance medicine experts are reading this and saying, “well, yes, of course.” But there still exists a wide gulf between what we know now to be obvious—adolescent girls who dance ought to be strength training—and the actual praxis of the people who purport to care for dancers.

What we’ve been seeing in the team sports world for a while is that the most elite players have access to quality strength training, strength training facilities, and strength coaches. In the dance world, where a big part of what separates the elite from the average is merely the ability to survive a cruel process, the idea of long-term athletic development has yet to really take hold. This is not just a shame, but shameful, and reflective of the lack of respect shown to the girls who sacrifice their bodies to create art.

I can’t tell you the number I’ve times I’ve heard at this point that a young dancer’s grande jeté has gotten better and easier as a result, not of practicing endless grande jetés, but of just getting stronger. When you’re stronger, doing things is easier. And when things are easier, the artist has the space to focus on expression and performance.

The piles of research are incontrovertible at this point. I could probably write a blog post a month extolling the virtues of strength training for adolescents based on a new study. So we gotta be real blunt with this: if you’re training adolescent female dancers and you’re not giving them access to quality strength training, then you can’t really say that you’re caring for them.

You’re not caretaking their instrument.

You’re not caretaking their artistry.

And you’re definitely not caretaking their longterm health.

Are you really comfortable with that?