One thing dancers struggle with sometimes is finding their center. You’ve injured yourself or gained a few pounds, and the result is you can’t quite balance.

For some insight into this issue I’ve contacted professional ballerina and University of Florida dance professor, Isa Garcia-Rose.

Lets start with before even entering the studio, is there anything you do that helps with your balance later?

“Stretching is very important before you come into the studio. If your body is prepared for class you will have a better class. I personally eat light before dancing. My stomach does better that way.”

Ok, so once you’re at the barre, what techniques do you have for finding your center?

“Using proper alignment and proper turnout helps with balance. Also pulling up through lower abdominals and engaging your core are a must.”

Is there a visual you tell your students to imagine when trying to find their center?

“I use a little Pilates thinking for finding my center. I think of pulling up my belly button slightly up and slightly in. Then I also think of bringing my belly button over my base of support, could be foot, hand, whatever is holding you up.”

Once off the barre and in the center, many dancers loose their center, what can they do to avoid it?

“Yes! You must apply everything you have done at barre to center work. Hopefully you will get as strong in center as you are at the barre.”

Overtime does it get easier to find and keep your center?

“Yes, it will become second nature to find your center and proper alignment. Like everything, practice will help you improve in every way. The more you do it the better you will be at it.”

For a dancer who struggles with finding their center constantly, what might help?

“Strengthening your core and engaging your abdominal muscles are the most important things to do as a dancer of any level.”

How do you recommend they strengthen their core?

“I personally believe in Pilates ab work. I am Certified in Stott Pilates and I think it is a very safe way to strengthen and exercise.”

Animation is defined as a sequence of images that when shown in succession create an illusion of movement. However, in dance, what styles make up animation?

Well there are many heated discussions about this,  in my opinion it is a combination of popping, tutting, dimestops, waving, gliding, and strobes. Either way, animation is a style under the large umbrella of popping.

The styles brought to the technique depend on the dancer’s vocabulary. They can bring anything to the table, the idea is to imitate the stop-motion illusion of movement like in cinemas.

The dancer uses short, quick movements to create the effect of long continuous movement, similar to flipping through a book of images.

Animators utilize textures to differentiate movement, like doing a smooth move into a hard hit.

A couple famous animators in America are Fik-Shun and Cyrus. Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer is part of Dragon House, a hip-hop crew that stormed So You Think You Can Dance one by one. Cyrus made it to the Top 4 of the dance competition. Fik-Shun was also a contestant on SYTYCD, known for his animated faces. After a long road competing in Season 10, Fik-Shun won the competition. Both of these dancers tell a story on stage and that’s what makes them such skilled animators.

Animator Fik-shun dancing at World of Dance after winning the NBC show “So You Think You Can Dance.”

How do I become an animator?

Well, that’s where YouTube tutorials come in. Many animators have taught themselves so it can be done. If you want more in-depth teaching, many dancers have websites with hour-long tutorials.

Apocalypse Dance Crew, a street dance crew at UF, performs at VISA talent competition.

Camila Gonzalez does a ponche in the Danza Fall Showcase.

There is a constant discussion about the best method to train a dancer: in the streets or in the studio. With the help of my fellow dancers I have come to a consensus.

There are many positives to being raised in a studio. First, you have a teacher. Something that can easily be taken for granted. Second, you get space and time to practice daily on your craft. In addition, you learn techniques clearly and distinctly, and how to apply them.

“As a studio dancer technical training is more prevalent compared to a street dancer,” said Choreographer of Coral Springs Academy of Dance, Kellie Drexel.

As for a street dancer, they have an amazing drive that many studio dancers loose growing up. They must want to learn and grow in order to continue, commonly learning via youtube videos and mimicking others. They have such a genuine essence about them since they must learn on their own.

“One of the pros of street dancers is their raw energy and feeling in their movement,” said University of Florida dancer, Vernie Wade.

Street dancers are also known for their ability to perform for the simple fact that they often must attract an audience.

“Studio dancers are akin to a more predictable stage setting with an audience who chooses to attend said event. Whereas street dancers thrive in a more impromptu venue, whether it be a sidewalk, club, etc.  in which the audience decides whether or not to provide support,” Drexel said.

Another strength many street dancers hold over studio dancers is their ability to improvise on the spot.

“A lot of studio girls struggle with free-styling, I too found that challenging because I didn’t start that way growing up,” said Maile Suganuma, UF dancer.

Strengths come in practice, and most street dancers grow up improvising instead of learning choreography, so most are strong in that category. However, the same is to be told for studio dancers keen ability to pick up choreography quickly.

Whichever side you come from, there are clear benefits from both. And so, the point these dancers have made is that no type of dancer trumps the other, they are equally impressive in their own ways.

“Regardless of whether a dancer is considered street or studio each brings a unique quality to this artistic sport,” Drexel said.

What to eat and when to eat it can be one of the most difficult things for a dancer. It’s all about maintaining the perfect figure, right?

Contrary to common belief, most dancers don’t starve themselves to look thin. Many are eating a lot, just making sure to eat the right foods. Here to offer some guidance on nutrition for a dancer is Laura Acosta, a UF Professor on Dietetics.

Dancers in the past are known for starving themselves to stay competitively-skinny, often relying on smoking in order to suppress their appetite. What happens to one’s body in this case?

Starving and smoking are both extremely detrimental. Starving, when extreme, can cause muscle loss, slow down the metabolic rate, and induce an unhealthy state called ketosis.  In this starved state, the body is not going to be able to perform at its peak, and the dancer’s ability to perform optimally will suffer.  Long-term starvation can cause amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle, potentially leading to loss of fertility), osteoporosis (severe bone loss), and even heart failure.

What should a dancer survive on, then?

A balance of all the food groups: grains, protein foods, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and healthy fats, with a variety of wholesome foods from each one. While limiting processed, sugary foods that provide calories, but little-to-no nutrition.

What about when a dancer just got out of a six hour rehearsal?

Interestingly, chocolate milk has been shown to be an excellent post-workout snack, as long as the athlete is not lactose-intolerant.  It contains ideal amounts of carbohydrate to replenish glycogen – the storage form of carbohydrate in the body, found in the muscles and liver, and protein to promote muscle protein synthesis and repair.  Furthermore, because the protein is coming from milk, it will contain a substantial amount of whey protein, the type of the protein that is considered the most effective in rebuilding and repairing muscles.

What about when a dancer gets out of rehearsal at midnight?

Chocolate milk could work here as well, for a late-night snack. Other ideas might include, cottage cheese with blueberries, greek yogurt with honey, hummus and pita chips, a protein bar or smoothie, or a peanut butter sandwich.

Say a dancer wakes up late for ballet and needs a quick breakfast on the way, what should they eat?

This can be tough, because while some athletes tolerate food right before a workout, others may find it makes them feel nauseated or sluggish to exercise with a full stomach.  So this is going to be very individual for each dancer, and will take some trial and error to figure out.  A good rule of thumb, however, would be to avoid a high-fat meal/snack immediately before workouts, as fat will stay in the stomach longer and potentially cause uncomfortable fullness during exercise.

What should a dancer drink?

It depends.  Water is great for short workouts and rehearsals lasting less than an hour.  However, if the workout or rehearsal is going to last longer, Gatorade or another sports beverage are more ideal, as this will help to replace electrolytes lost in the sweat, and also provide a source of carbohydrate (the body’s fuel of choice for high-intensity exercise).

How often each day should a dancer eat? 

There is no “rule” for this necessarily, but eating several times a day to keep energy levels high, and spacing meals appropriately to ensure fuel is available for workouts and rehearsals, are important considerations.  For many athletes, this will mean eating somewhere around 4-7 times a day.

 Alan Auyeung performing at Florida Invitational Step Show 2017.

The spotlight was on him and in that moment he strutted forward and commanded the stage, giving a look no one in the audience could forget.

Dancer Alan Auyeung is a 25-year-old pharmacy school student at the University of Florida. He hasn’t always been a dancer, in fact it wasn’t until he began college that he got started.

His first time dancing was in his sophomore year of college with a group called UFFSA, or UF’s Filipino Student Association. After being in a few shows with them he got hooked. One of his favorite shows to perform in was Def Talent Jam, a dance competition held around Halloween time on campus.

Alan didn’t stop with UFFSA. In 2012, he helped co-found a dance crew on campus named Anomaly with a few close friends of his. He also joined an all-boys crew named Apocalypse and has been performing with them for years now.

He has choreographed for many organizations at UF as well. From sexy burlesque pieces to edgy, textural pieces, his choreography is well-known on campus.

“Alan is Jesus. He just shocks me every time with his level of ability,” said Kristen Torres of Anomaly Dance Crew.

The crews consider Alan a dinosaur because he has been dancing at UF for so long. Alan says the reason he continues to dance is for much more than the fun of being on-stage.

“I definitely can be very introverted and struggle with social anxiety sometimes so it’s amazing to have an outlet where I can be confident and strong,” he said.

Alan dancing an end-of-class solo during one of his classes at UF.

He also says it helps him to de-stress when his life gets too much to handle.

Now, in his last year of pharmacy school, he teaches classes on campus and bonds with the crews as much as possible. For the first time ever this semester, both of his crews collaborated for a show. Anomaly and Apocalypse performed together at Florida Invitational Step Show with him by their side. After not performing with the crews for a while, Alan decided to be a part of history and take part in their set. Alan not only danced side-by-side with them on stage, but mentored them along the way.

With all of the success he has had with dancing at UF, Alan continues to remain humble, reminding his crews that they must realize that there is always room to improve and that focusing on the critiques is how to grow best. Above all else, he is grateful to dance for what it has given him.

“It has truly transformed me into a stronger, better person and given me the skills I need to be successful in areas even outside of dance,” he said.

For Alan, dancing at UF is only the beginning. He plans to move to Los Angeles soon, one of the dance capitals of the world. There he will pursue his pharmacy career, but also get to learn from the best-of-the-best. He doesn’t plan to pursue dance professionally, however he will take any opportunities given to him.

“I am just really excited to take classes from amazing dancers that I’ve followed over the past years,” he said.

No matter what, I’m sure we will see Alan teaching a class on campus again in the future. He encourages those who are curious about dance to take a class and see what happens.

“It can be intimidating, but in one way or another it is rewarding in the end,” he said.

This is a dance blog. Strictly about anything and everything going on in the dance world. It will include controversial topics that have been hushed in the dance community.

I am a classically trained dancer. I began dancing when I was just two years old and I have continued it through my college career. I began teaching dance in high school as well as choreographing pieces. I grew up as a “studio dancer” in a strict environment, and I am now the captain of an all-hip-hop crew called “Anomaly” so I am the ultimate meeting of two worlds. For that reason I have a point-of-view that most don’t have access to. Dance is a huge passion of mine and that is what led me to create a blog dedicated to the art.

I will discuss a wide range of dance-related topics, from nutrition to the hottest choreography. I will interview locals in Gainesville about the scene here, as well as in Los Angeles, the current mecca of dance. The blog will reflect it’s name of being “on the real” by addressing topics that are not usually talked about in the dance room.