Freshly returned from his stellar performance in Taormina, José Perez shares the secrets to his unique training routine on our proprioceptive mats: “If it hadn’t been for the enormous work we did with Human Tecar Mats, we would not have been able to withstand the strain of a very demanding hour and a half on stage. I can honestly say I derived enormous benefit from the proprioceptive mats: this kind of performance requires meticulous preparation – we need, as it were, to catch our breaths on a muscular level, and Human Tecar Mats are instrumental to achieving just that. All the more so, when you consider we were rehearsing in temperatures over 100 degrees – though I have to admit it was the sort of heat that charges your emotional batteries.
On average, I teach for an hour and a half, then rehearse for a minimum of 5-6 hours, and finally go on to working with the proprioceptive mats: this can be a half hour’s training or an hour’s, depending on how I feel and what I need to do. By the time I get onto the mats, I’ve worn myself out – yet thanks to a training session on Human Tecar Mats, I manage to overcome the fatigue and enormously improve muscle tone and balance.
I dance on the mats, so as to maximize performance. The way I see it, these proprioceptive mats are art, too: everyone ought to use them, not just professional dancers (right before Sicily, I was in Rome at Teatro dell’Opera, for three days’ intensive work with 70 dancers and Eleonora Abbagnato), but anyone who wishes to ‘train their body to be graceful’.”
