Warming Up

Making an effort to arrive early for ballet class gives you the opportunity to warm up.
There are some convincing reasons to support why a dancer should bother with making this a habit.  The body will adapt to the exercises quicker.  This leads to ease of movement, better coordination, and allows for full flexibility sooner rather than later.  Injuries are also less likely to occur during activity when the body has been given a warning of what's in store for it.  I think all dancers will agree this is a great benefit.
It's important to realize that warming up doesn't mean stretching.  Both should be done before class, but warming up should proceed stretching.  A warm up involves moving around to elevate the temperature of the tissues.  The result of an effective warm up should include smoother use of joints and a raised pulse.  Only then is it safe to stretch.
Your warm up should be aerobic that doesn't last longer than five minutes.  You can also incorporate some modified moves that resemble what you'll be doing in class. Cluing the body into what you'll ask from it later on will make attempting those movements easier.  Focus on finding correct alignment and placement while warming up.  Use the warm up as a way to listen to your body.  Let it tell you what's happening on that particular day.  Things change in a short amount of time, and one area that was perfectly fine the day before might be tight the next.

Cooling down is just as beneficial as warming up.  My next post will be based on that topic.