What do your workouts consist of?Recently, instead of doing traditional stretches or warm-up exercises, I’ve been doing a special kind of gymnastics [“Improvisation Technologies”], originally developed for the dancers of William Forsythe’s company, which helps with balance. Besides that, it has a strengthening effect on your muscles. Even though during rehearsals, we try to exercise both legs, while dancing, the load is never distributed evenly. Therefore the bodies of ballet dancers have various “professional deformations.” So, what we need is not fitness but balancing gymnastics that helps the dancers prepare their bodies for a professional classic ballet rehearsal. This kind of balance can be found in Pilates, Gyrotonics, the gymnastics I mentioned earlier, or vinyasa yoga, which I’ve done in the past.

via The Beauty Secrets of a World-Famous Principal Ballerina.