Summer Ballet Technique Maintenance: Preventing the Dreaded Slump

Springtime is my favorite time of year to teach---all the hard work that everyone has put in month after month has built up to amazing accomplishments. It's so fun to help students recognize and celebrate their growth.

But I also know that many of my students will lose some of their progress over the summer. Vacations and rest are important (and fun, too!) but I wish we could have the best of both worlds where we get vacations and then can pick up right where we left off. (I also wish dishes washed themselves, so I'm used to disappointment 😉)

The summer slump is real, but there are definitely things we can encourage our students to do to make it a gentle slope rather than feeling like a free fall.

The Science Behind the Slump

Of course I did the research to see what, besides "out of sight, out of mind," contributes to loss of progress. When our dancers take an extended break from regular training, their bodies naturally respond in ways that affect their technique:

1. Muscle memory needs refreshing: Just like when you haven't played a piece of music in months, the body forgets the precise pathways of movement. This is the "out of sight, out of mind" part but it's out of muscles.

2. Body awareness gets fuzzy: That carefully trained sense of alignment and placement—which we work so hard to develop—begins to fade without regular, challenging feedback.

3. Physical changes occur: Especially in growing dancers, strength and flexibility shift during breaks, sometimes dramatically.

   
   

I saw this firsthand with Olivia, one of my dedicated 12-year-olds. After working all year to gain control of her hyper-mobility, she returned in September with her posture all over the place again. Her frustration was heartbreaking—and very simple maintenance conditioning could have helped.

A Summer System That Actually Works

Instead of just telling students to "practice over summer" (which rarely works!), there is key guidance you can give students. Here are the essentials to transform "I'm going to practice" to "I practiced!":

1. Set Clear, Doable Expectations

Rather than vague, hopeful instructions, I now provide specific guidelines for how often students should try to fit in maintenance conditioning during their vacation periods:

• Elementary: 2-3 times weekly

• Intermediate: 3-4 times weekly

• Advanced: 4-5 times weekly

Giving these guidelines not only helps students release the pressure of practicing perfectly every day, it's also helpful for parents. Many moms and dads often try to create structure over summer breaks and this information helps them create habits for their family that work.

2. Focus on What Really Matters

We need to keep it simple. Stability & flexibility are the name of the game. I ask students to:

• Practice core stability exercises appropriate for their level (mostly plank variations)

• Maintain or slightly improve flexibility in key muscle groups. I've created a downloadable pdf with my stretching list, the link for that is below.

3. Provide Practical Tools

Give students concrete resources they can actually use:

• Printed maintenance calendars with specific exercises are my go-to, but they do sometimes get lost

• Printed maintenance calendars with a copy on the studio website if families need to print a new copy

• A google doc parents and/or older dancers can access to record their dancer's progress. Sure, involving the parents is an added step but a tool is only useful if it aligns with families' online safety choices.

Don't forget to have a plan to recognize and reward students who keep up with their conditioning! Whether it's a shout-out on your studio social media each month or a photo board of everyone who met their goals on display in the lobby in the fall, it's a big deal to maintain commitment and discipline to fill that calendar.

Changing How We Think About Summer

The biggest shift that's helped both my students and their parents is how we frame summer practice. It's not a total vacation where we forget about dance for 12 weeks. Becoming a dancer is a process and summer is part of that process. Sure, we might reduce class hours, but even when we're traveling, sleeping in a tent, or toasting marshmallows it's important that dancers also protect their hard-earned progress.

Plus, when we preview that early September will include efficiently reactivating muscle memory, students are less discouraged when we spend the first couple of weeks reviewing what they've already learned. And the students who maintained their foundations consistently through their summer practice report feeling stronger and more confident when classes resume.

My approach now includes a planned two-week "restoration period" in the early fall, which acknowledges the reality of some regression while efficiently rebuilding technique. This planned approach is an opportunity to reinforce fundamentals while celebrating the maintenance work students did accomplish.

The results speak for themselves: students feel more confident, classes progress faster, and we accomplish so much more throughout the year.

Would you love to say goodbye to frustrating Septembers? Download our free Summer Stretching Guide and give your dancers the gift of maintaining their progress while still enjoying their summer break!

What's your biggest challenge with summer technique maintenance? Share in the comments below!