The other day, chatting with my teacher, I mentioned I was getting a ballet barre. She got that little surprised look on her face that I didn’t already have one, ‘but at least you ordered it, that’s a start’, (I probably had that same look on my face when my resident told me she didn’t bring her stethoscope to clinic).
Well, now that I have the barre, I can understand why it’s an essential for dancers. Other than allowing for great stretches, a ballet barre helps with stability so that you can focus on the quality of your movements, hence developing the technique that gives you stability on the floor. With a grounded plié or a strong relevé, you can take your floor work to a higher level because your ankles, knees and back will be stronger. For Latin and Tango dancers, it can help with understanding and performing upper-lower body dissociation, especially when practicing in front of a mirror. A ballet barre allows you to recreate somewhat the push – pull of dancing with a partner, making you more aware of the dynamics of that interaction, so it’s a great tool for partner dancing.
There are quite a few ballet barres available, but not many good ones. When I was selecting mine, I looked for stability, so I went for steel versus aluminum because it’s heavier, and I looked at how the frame was built, mainly how the ‘legs’ were reinforced. My dance space is small so I bought a 4 foot length barre. I really like the barre I received because it is really stable. However I ended up returning it and getting a 5 foot long barre because my feet did end up hitting the base with small swivels and I could not do long swivels without stepping too far away from the barre. I was able to squeeze the 5 foot barre into my space and I definitely like it better in terms of being able to move along it more freely.
The 4 foot ballet barre is still a wonderful tool, and does allow for good practice, so I would say to get that size if you don’t have enough space for a longer one