Month: February 2018

The Way to Healthier Bones

3 Tips to Safely Return to Dance After Injury

Bone stress is not uncommon for dancers. There’s a lot of wear and tear that happens to our body from our active lifestyle, combined with the high impact that some dance styles offer. With proper nutrition, healthier bones are in order.

How to Keep Your Dancing Bones Healthy

When it comes to health, a lot of things are considered important, but somehow bone health is often neglected. As a dancer, this is one of the most important health topics you should pay attention to, after all, healthy bones support your body and your craft.

For some reason, bones are not always seen as being live tissue, but it is, and good nutrition is what’s going to keep them strong and healthy. When you’re nourishing your body the right way, you prevent stress fractures.
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Because you are in constant movement, as a dancer, your body burns lots of calories and it needs to be replenished after physical activity. You’ll need balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbs.

Calcium is beneficial to bone health — Spinach is a good source of calcium.

In the dance world, spending long periods of time without eating or consistently not eating enough is not something new, yet is certainly not something healthy or recommended at all. This bad practice can decrease bone strength as your bone mineral density becomes compromised. In women, another important thing to consider when it comes to bone health is the hormonal factor. Decreased menstruation or the absence of it can be detrimental to your bones and require medical attention.
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Vitamin and mineral intake is essential. You’ll need calcium, Vitamin D, C, K and phosphorus to support bone health. You can find all these elements in food. Protein is also important but do not overdo it, as too much of it can actually be counterproductive to bone health over a long period of time. Some good protein sources other than meat are beans, seeds, and whole grains.
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And if you’re trying to increase your calcium intake, include foods like collard greens, spinach, kale, soy milk, almond milk, beans, eggs, tuna, and almonds.

Power Through Your Next Dance Class in Colorado

Now that you know how to keep your bones healthy and strong, start making those changes and put them to the test in your favorite dance class. Stronger bones are essential to better dancing.

Hearing Loss: The Neglected Dance Injury

Unlike other industries, there are no guidelines meant to protect hearing in dancers but there are steps you can take to prevent damage.

How to Protect Your Ears Against Hearing Loss

Did you know that construction workers and musicians have higher rates of noise-induced hearing loss than the rest of the general population? It’s never been a secret that constant exposure to loud noises can be harmful to your hearing but since dancers don’t really consider music to be noise, this concept is often overlooked or not even considered in the dance community.

The music that you listen to every day, the music you choreograph and dance to, might be damaging your hearing without you even noticing it. But let’s be real. It’s only logical that years of exposure to super loud music has some sort of impact. After all, it’s not uncommon to crank up the volume during dance class just so that everyone’s energy goes through the roof. The same way, it is not uncommon that we turn up the volume to our favorite song while we drive, but that habit could have serious health effects.

How Much Noise Is Too Much Noise?

A whisper is 30 decibels and a standard conversation is about 60 decibels. We are safe from harm up to 85 decibels which is how much noise a vacuum cleaner makes, and from there on we are under moderate and high levels of the danger of suffering permanent hearing loss.

Protecting Your Ears

There might be no official guidelines, but here are some things you can do to keep your ears safe:

Measure the decibels on your smartphone. There are many apps that do that. Pick one and run the test. Anything over 100 dB should be a sign of alarm.

Turn the volume down. Make sure you keep the sound between low and moderate danger levels.

Get yourself some nice earplugs. Hi-fidelity earplugs are a great option. They will minimize the decibels but you’ll still be able to hear just fine.

Give your ears a break. Let your ears recover for about 18 hours.

There’s no time to waste when it comes to protecting your health. The next time you’re in a dance class, consider these tips and do what you can to keep your hearing intact.

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Superfoods for Better Health and Better Dancing

These foods are jammed-packed with health benefits that will reflect on the dance floor.

Superfoods to Make You Thrive

Good nutrition is essential to support the body’s proper functioning. For dancers, food is also meant to replenish the body from the daily wear and tear of dancing, provide good quality fuel to keep going, promote efficient recovery and improve performance, among other things. This is certainly something that cannot be obtained from burgers and chips. Dancers need more substantial food to achieve the desired results and cover the body’s needs. In addition to consuming a healthy diet, including superfoods in it is greatly beneficial.

What Are Superfoods?

For a while now, you probably have heard this term being thrown around a lot. Superfood here, superfood there, and it seems like a good thing. But what is it really? Foods that are nutrient-rich and provide great health benefits are often be called ‘superfoods’. They are mostly plant-based but they also include some dairy and fish.

Improve Your Endurance with These Superfoods

These superfoods are said to improve endurance in athletes. Including them in your diet should be easy and not take a toll on your grocery budget.

Chia, Flax Seeds, and Hemp

These seeds might be tiny but they are packed with nutrients, like omega-3 fatty acids that protect your cardiovascular system. They also reduce inflammation, provide a little protein, protect the brain and nervous system, and could prevent stress fractures thanks to the amount of calcium in chia seeds. And it doesn’t stop there. The dietary fat in these seeds helps build new tissue that promotes the body’s ability to repair itself after exercise.

Turmeric

Turmeric is great to minimize inflammation and helps the body combat oxidative stress caused by pollution, stress, and chemicals.

Moringa

This plant, apart from having anti-inflammatory power and fighting oxidative stress, helps minimize soreness after an exhaustive dance class, rehearsal or performance, and boosts recovery.

Compliment your diet with these great foods and make the best out of your next dance class or performance. Come dance with us in Colorado at Bella Diva Dance.

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Become a Strong and Injury Free Dancer with Cross-Training

Pamper Your Body to Improve Your Dancing

Spending time training your body outside of a dance studio can save you pain and time in physical therapy.

Cross-Training to Minimize Your Chances of Injury

As a dancer, you can maximize your physical potential while minimizing your chances of becoming injured by doing one simple thing: including cross-training as part of your routine. Why? Well, not only does cross-training help you improve your cardiovascular endurance, it can help you improve your muscular endurance and muscular strength, too. Sounds like a killer combo, doesn’t it?
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The thing is, even though dancers are considered artists and athletes at the same time, and dancing is a very strenuous activity, it is not so tough on the cardiovascular side. Conditioning is something that dance alone is not so great at. It might sound crazy since you can be out of breath after one dance class.
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However, dance is more an anaerobic type of activity, meaning that are a lot of starts and stops during a dance and even though they might consume a lot of energy, this frequent pausing does not exactly promote cardiovascular endurance.

Another thing that happens during dance is that a lot of the same muscles are used over and over during a certain type of dance, whether you’re doing ballet or belly dance. This does not allow us to improve the strength of other muscles that might not be critical for that type of dance.

So, How Is Cross-Training Going to Keep Me Injury Free?

Training outside of dance allows you to improve overall capabilities, including cardiovascular endurance by getting your heart rate up, muscle endurance and muscular strength. If your muscles are burning during your workout and then you are left out of breath and feeling sore, you did something right. As you increase your stamina and build strength, you will be less prone to injury. Cross-training can also generate more body awareness, and as a dancer, that gives you an edge. Additionally, hitting the gym can serve as a time for meditation, a moment for you to relax and have fun while taking care of your body.

At the beginning, you might feel out of your territory but you don’t have to go at it alone. Hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions until you become familiar with your routine is a great way to get yourself on the right track. Start small and find something you enjoy doing, whether it’s swimming, running, or going to the gym. As you get into it you might start feeling ready to add on other complementing activities to support your dancing.

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Your Dancing Body is a Blessing

How to Outgrow the "Weakest Link" Mentality

The hardest worker often goes unnoticed.
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A moving body is a blessing we should be grateful for.

Being Able to Move is a Gift

As a dancer, you probably spend a lot of time looking at yourself it the mirror, not in a I’m-in-love-with-myself kind of way but in a am-I-doing-the-right-moves kind of way. It’s part of a dancer’s life. However, sometimes spending so much time staring a ourselves in the mirror, combined with the pressure of society and their idea of beauty, it is easy to start scrutinizing our body, looking for every single flaw we can find, to then be hard on ourselves for not being or looking a certain way, and that should stop. Allowing those thoughts into our minds is a self-destructing practice that has no business in our life.

Your body allows you to move beautifully and paint pictures with those movements that can even touch the hearts of others.
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That machine that is made out of flesh, bone, and skin is constantly giving you endless opportunities to create beauty, whether in the form of dance or otherwise. Sadly, we don’t often realize this and we treat it like it did us wrong, like it owes us something.

Being Grateful Changes Everything

If you haven’t realized how lucky you are to have a functioning body that allows you to do so many things, it’s time. The moment you start being grateful for your body and what it can do, you will stop worrying about what it can’t do or what it doesn’t have. When that happens, it’s like a switch goes off in your head and it has a waterfall effect in your life. Being grateful leads to loving your body and loving your body leads to better choices; better nutrition, better sleep, leading to better mood and improved wellness, and the list goes on. These healthier choices will have a positive impact on your dance performance, your technique, your artistry, making you a better dancer.

Positive thinking is a habit just like negative thinking is.
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Make a change in the way you think about yourself and your body. Start small and be patient with yourself. Next time you’re in a dance class in front of a mirror, challenge yourself to find one thing you love about your body and make that a habit. You won’t regret it.

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Dance for the Teenage Soul: Benefits of Dance for Teens

Beyond A Hobby: How Dance Benefits Teens and Teaches Them Skills For Life

For many, being a teenager goes hand in hand with depression, low self-esteem, and low confidence.

At Bella Diva Dance, we ensure that our dance instructors work with our young people and teach them not only the skills of the art but values of teamwork, self-respect, how to communicate well with each other, how to deal with setbacks, and how to overcome their fears by celebrating self-expression and creating a culture of body positivity.

Bella Diva Dance founder and director Caitlin Brozna-Smith comments, “Through the process of connecting with our instructors and learning new skills, taking a few risks along the way by putting themselves out in front of an audience, we have seen our students’ self-confidence grow, their sense of joy in life increases.”

Dance is movement, and movement is essentially a process of ongoing change. Moving with one’s whole body, with and against gravity, one learns to both resist and yield, to feel both one’s strength and one’s vulnerability, to experiment with new qualities of action and reaction. This is what it means to be an ethereal being having a human experience.

As dancers know, dancing and moving rhythmically with other people creates a powerful sense of “with-ness” and community, which naturally combats experiences of depression and anxiety.

Join Us At the World Dance Junior Ambassador Showcase

When: Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Where: Broomfield Auditorium
3 Community Park Rd., Broomfield, CO 80020

Time: 7-8:15 PM, Doors open at 6:30 PM

FREE to the Public

Bella Diva Dance is curating a World Dance Junior Ambassador Showcase to be featured at the Broomfield Free Community Series at the Broomfield Auditorium Wed. Feb. 7th from 7:00-8:15 PM. This performance is FREE to the public to attend.

The performance will feature up and coming preteen to teenage youth dance performances, and showcase the power dance has to create confidence through self-expression and sense of community for this age group.

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Tips to Minimize Cramping

Training Your Memory to Learn Choreography

Proper hydration and adequate consumption of certain things can keep you from getting cramps.

No More Muscle Cramping with These Tips

It is no secret that hydration is key to proper body functioning and a relevant part of a dancer’s performance. Even when you’re not thirsty, water intake should not be neglected.

Why Is Hydration So Important?

Your body needs water to work properly. Muscle composition in a healthy body is over 70% water. Water intake doesn’t only depend on you drinking water out of a glass or bottle, you can eat fruits and vegetables that are high in water, or add smoothies and soups into your diet. It’s always good to remember that by the time you are thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. With dehydration comes lack of balance and fatigue, and you might even experience lightheadedness and headaches.

Your Body Needs Electrolytes

Electrolytes are essential to several bodily functions. The ones our bodies need the most are potassium, sodium and chloride, supported by magnesium and calcium. Electrolytes are there to support your muscles during certain actions like when they contract and release. When your body lacks those electrolytes, you are likely to experience muscle cramping. An average person rarely lacks sodium in their diet but other electrolytes are often neglected. However, if you find that you are prone to muscle cramping, you should definitely be mindful of including them through various dietary sources.

5 Potassium-Rich Foods

Avocado
Bananas
White beans
Coconut water
Acorn squash

5 Calcium-Rich Foods

Cow milk or almond milk
Broccoli
Kale
Chia seeds
Figs

5 Magnesium-Rich Foods

Dark leafy greens like spinach, kale or collard greens
Nuts and seeds
Beans or legumes
Meat or fish
Dark chocolate (hooray!)

More Tips to Avoid Muscle Cramping

Avoid foods or beverages that cause dehydration, like alcohol and caffeine.
Stretch and foam roll to keep your muscles flexible.
Make sure you follow a balanced nutrition plan.

Follow these tips and increase your chances of perceiving the benefits in your next dance class. Happy cramp-free dancing!

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Ball for All: Calypso Carnival

Come have a good time at a Carnival celebration full of history, culture and more.

A Night of Caribbean Flavor for All in Denver

Where: McNichols Civic Center Building
144 W. Colfax Ave, Denver 80202
5:30-10:00 PM

Tickets: $150.00

The Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI) is bringing back the magic and will be hosting their 4th annual Mardi Gras themed gala: The Ball for All – Calypso Carnival on February 10, 2018 at the McNichol’s Civic Center Building, Denver, CO. This year’s theme is Calypso Carnival, where you will enjoy the history, culture, entertainment, and magic that is Carnaval. The fabulous evening will include Caribbean inspired food stations, tropical classic cocktails, a second-line parade, the celebrated Inclusiveness@Work awards, samba performances by Bella Diva Dance, and finally dancing the night away with members from live Brazilian band, GINGA.

Additionally, this event will celebrate the work being done in our community and will recognize organizations and individuals who are advancing diversity and creating cultures of inclusion with the Inclusiveness@Work Award. The gala provides an opportunity for those in the corporate, legal, government, and nonprofit communities to gather and celebrate our shared mission of diversity and inclusiveness. The event is open to everyone over 21 years of age and there will be an open bar.

Get your tickets here!

Live the Beauty of Samba in Colorado

If you’re a lover of Samba, you can’t miss this event. Bella Diva Dance will be present to infuse the night with the flavor of this wonderful dance. And if you’ve always wanted to Samba but haven’t given it a try, this might be the time! Beyond the hip rolls and the technical footwork, you’ll learn not just to dance the Samba, but to feel Samba. Come dance with us in an inclusive environment where all that matters is the love of dance. Contact us for more information.

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