My name is Kathryn Boren.
I'm a dancer at American Ballet Theatre.
I started when I was about three years old,
which is really young but probably by around age seven,
I decided, "Yeah, I'm doing this seriously."
You know, when you're young
and you're just dancing all the time,
everything's - it's very easy
for your body to adapt.
As I started aging and becoming more aware
of my body and the aches and pains
and the strengths and weaknesses,
I started to experiment with how I could make it easier
in the studio, injury prevention, longevity, all that.
And so I started really getting into cross-training
and fitness.
I found out about Dogpound through a friend.
I've known Nigel Barker, the photographer, for many years
and he was one of the OG Dogpounders
and he introduced me to Kirk Myers,
the creator of Dogpound.
And we just, we hit it off.
He offered to train me.
He trained me once and he was like,
"Wow, I could learn so much from working
with a ballerina, like what kind of things you need,
how I can help you, how you can help me."
And then from then on, we just really got into it.
So it's been about three years.
The guys would have such great ideas
and exercises that nobody else could do,
but they're like, "Maybe she can do it."
And I would take it and I'd be like, "Yeah, this is great,
but let's change it like this or like that,"
so it could more beneficial for ballet
or just incorporating ballet moves.
So then once that got started, fire just went off
and I was like, "Let's see how crazy,
how intense we can get."
Of course staying safe and all that.
I find that a lot of body-weight-bearing exercises
are really beneficial for ballerinas.
I do a lot of core exercises.
That's one of the most important things I feel like
in ballet technique.
We have to be able to control everything
from our center and have that stability.
I've always had a very hard time building muscle in my legs
so I've tried to really focus on that,
keeping them strong, stable,
a lot of ankle stability,
which I feel was really important for me.
When I was younger, I had very, very mobile,
flexible ankles and it's a dangerous thing
when you're doing a lot of pointe work.
The training's just made me so much stronger
and so much more in control of my body
and I know my body so much better now
so I know what it's capable of and how I can push it
and how far it can go
and I know I can still be in complete control of it.
We work really hard in the studio
and we get a lot out of our classes and rehearsals,
but there's a lot that we don't target
or that we could be adding to our technique
and our foundation.
So, I think it's so important
to add just a little bit extra in there.
I mean, it gives you a great edge
and I think it's really important.
I've definitely built a lot more muscle,
which has always been something very hard for me.
I've always had a very lean physique
and it was hard to build muscle
no matter what exercises I did or how much I ate.
So, I feel like that's just made me a much
more grounded, free dancer.
I don't usually go too heavy on the upper body
or when I do, I use very light weights just
to keep the ballet physique.
There is a certain way that we have to train
in order to maintain the ballet physique and aesthetic.
We don't want to bulk up.
I've come to find people think we don't eat.
People think we're just like the movie "Black Swan,"
which we are not, I promise you.
We're fun, normal people.
We just have a very serious day job.
I think people just think ballerinas can be stiff
or rigid, cold, and I wish we could break that stigma
and I think that with social media these days,
people are being able to see us behind the scenes
and in the studio being goofy, being backstage,
eating a lot.
I see a lot of food posts, but yeah.
I'm a mouse, duh.
Duh!
I will rest once a week.
I don't like to stay away from class
for more than three days at a time.
It's just not good for the body or for my sanity.
I recover, I get a lot of massages.
I think cryotherapy has been really, really beneficial.
I spend hours on my roller at home
on my living room floor.
Ice baths, Epsom salt, all the good things.
I'm a certified personal trainer now.
So, I started training some of the dancers in the company
and that's been such a cool experience.
I think anything that challenges stabilization,
you're gonna get the most out of the exercise.
My friend Rhys who's a great trainer
and a great friend of mine at Dogpound,
we've always tried to come up with the most crazy exercises
or the most viral videos.
And so we took the slide board out in the rain
and I got on it and I was like going down into the splits
and then coming back up,
which is killer for your inner thighs,
which is great for dancers.
But yeah we shot it within five seconds,
and I was totally drenched,
but we got a cool video out of it.
And yeah my thighs got a great workout.