Contrary to popular belief, stretching is not itself a way to warm up the body. Good ways of warming up, apart from what your teacher will do at the beginning of the class, include brisk walking, gentle swings of the arms and legs, and basic calisthenics that stimulate blood to surge into the muscle tissue, making it pliable and safe to stretch. It is important to breathe as naturally as possible during stretching, and to extend the degree of stretch only very gradually with each exhalation. Finally, it is wise never to extend or hold a stretch beyond the point of very mild discomfort. The mild pain signals that the tissues are lengthened to their limit on this occasion.

To increase flexibility, you need only to maintain your natural breathing, hold the stretch for 30 seconds or so, and then back off. One or two repetitions of each stretching exercise are plenty for one session of work. As individual needs vary, your teacher will not always be able to provide ample time for stretching during each class. You need to make sure that you find time to stretch after each class, or after a full day of class or rehearsal. Ask your teacher for advice on stretching as well as for particular stretches you can do to improve your flexibility.
 

The warm-up is not just to make the body feel warm, it is to wake-up the muscles to enable them to be more easily stretched. Jogging alone will not do this. Exercises in a warm-up must focus on the muscles that are going to be used in the class or dance that is to follow.

It takes the body from a resting state to an alert, ready for action mode. This should be done immediately before any movement or dance activity making the muscles longer, more elastic, therefore allowing joints to move more easily and consequently prevent injury.

A good warm up consists of gentle movements that do not over exert or over stretch the body. Stepping - jogging - marching to a steady rhythm. Isolated movements of the shoulders, hips, knee and ankle joints, arm swings, knee swings, ankle circles, gentle stretches, and exercises to improve posture and balance. Rotation of joints.

The length of time the warm-up takes will depend on age and fitness, your teacher will advise you of the correct and most beneficial time allowance for you. The older and fitter you are the longer your warm-up will be. If you are young and less able, then a shorter time allowance will be needed.

Stretching

Active : Belonging to the family of moving stretches: eg. lifting the leg in a controlled way and holding it there. Very difficult to hold for more than a few seconds but nevertheless regarded as a stretch.

Ballistic.: A moving stretch that is not really a stretch at all, it is a bouncing action and not a good way of stretching. What occurs is that with every bounce there is a pull on the muscle fibres and given the speed of the action, this makes the stretch reflexes cause an involuntary tightening of the muscle fibres and cancels out any possibility of a long term lengthening of the muscles. This type of stretch if attempted at all must be done when the muscles are very warm.

Dynamic. : A moving stretch but a natural stretch, of the type you would do as you wake in the morning. The benefits of this type of stretch should never be under estimated. To gain benefit from this type of stretch it should be performed with so many repetitions without bouncy or jerky actions. Always stop stretching when muscles are tired because a tired muscle is less elastic and working a tired muscle will make it have a short fibre memory, then it will be harder to stretch the muscle the next time you try.