Maria Fay's Floor Barre

This book is a record of Maria Fay's Floor Barre system.

It is also an account of how it evolved during the author's long and varied career as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and coach.

She has worked with numerous renowned classical and contemporary companies and vocational schools in Europe and North America in the field of classical ballet and character dancing.

In the process of doing so she became constantly aware of the existence of too many critically injured dancers.

She observed that their healing progress was often hindered by not knowing when and how to start practising after injury, long illness, pregnancy or even after a holiday.

She was also horrified to see how many dancers had to suffer from chronic injuries which they carried from their student years through their entire dancing life.

She became convinced that many of the traumatic and acute injuries might have been avoided with the use of a corrective and preventative exercise regime specifically devised for the dancer's finely tuned and delicate muscle tone. Gradually she invented many new exercises as well as adopting some suitable ones from other movements such as Yoga and Pilates, and tried them out on injured dancers.

She insisted on practising them in a specific order and with the correct breathing techniques.

The results proved to be remarkable. Experiencing the beneficial effect on their own bodies as well as improvements to their general technique (turn-out, extension of the legs, pliability and stamina) these dancers encouraged and urged Maria Fay further to build up a complete system and publish it in a book for the benefit of the whole dance community.