Please does anyone have any ideas how one can improve their cardiovascular fitness and aerobic capacity. Even cross training exercises will be of help. (I am needing to write a paper on how the above can be of benefit to the dancer). So far I have researched:
Pilates, Yoga, Alexander Technique, Swimming, Cycling, free weights (should this be for male dancers only)? I would, as always - welcome any idea's, suggestions, ccomments, thoughts and or observations.

I'm only a parent of a dancer, but what I see in my daughter's modern classes is hundreds of crunches/sit-ups and at least 20 push-ups per class.

Hi
I am a student at ballet school and we have just finished studying a module on the benefits of cardiovascular fitness in dancers. We discussed that although dancers are often very anaerobically fit, they tend to be less aerobically fit. Therefore, we timetabled ways to fit in aerobic exercise around our dance training. We were told that swimming is the best way to do this as it is non-weight bearing, thus we are unlikely to injury ourselves, and it does not over develop any muscle groups in particular (if one was to swim a lot daily, then the shoulder muscles would over develop, but with our full dancing timetable, it is unlikely that we would have the energy!!)

Also, one of the other ballet schools in London, begins each day of classes with 1 1/2 hours of aerobics, in an attempt to increase the students cardiovascular fitness.