Technique Tuesday; Wake Up Your Sense Of Balance. {How's Your Posture? A Post That Made Me Really Think About Mine}.

Wake up your sense of balance.

Below is an exercise I do during the beginning portion of every Balletone class that I teach;

Stand barefoot in parallel (toes forward), feet hip width apart. Ladies, think about where the actual hip bones (anterior superior iliac spine) align over the feet and not where current hormone fluctuations are telling you where your hips are. Am I the only one who has to be reminded of this during PMS?

Now focus on how the weight is displaced through each foot. Strive for a triad through each foot;
padding under the big toe, padding under the fourth toe and pinkie toe and the heel.

Once you feel the triad, next focus on lifting the insteps of each foot. I always find that when I place focus on my insteps while in this stance I automatically feel my core engage, my inner thighs engage as well as my glutes firming up. I find it a pleasant and well balanced feeling.

Now for some balance stimulation. Gently shift your weight to the front, or ball of your foot. Now shift weight towards your heels. Alternate for 10-20 seconds, finding a natural rhythm in your body. Each time you shift your weight forward to the balls of the feet focus on the toes spreading and "catching" your weight as opposed to curling under and gripping.

Re-center over your triads.

Now shift side to side on your feet, without letting the insteps collapse. 10-20 seconds.

Re-center.

Let's combine the two directions. Start by making a sort of square. Shift the weight forward, to the right, towards the heels, to the left. Try a few more squares.

From your "squares" start taking your shifting into little circles (I sometimes refer to this as the Zombie Stance). After a few rounds of circles, start to spiral the little circles inward until you are re-centered on the triads of the feet.

Do everything to the left (or opposite direction). Start with squares that evolve into little circles. Little circles that spiral back to your starting position.

One of the main benefits I find from this little exercise series is how it wakes up and energizes my core. Bringing together the focus of the mind and the body. Simple enough to do just about anytime of day. Just be barefoot and not in a situation that will freak out co-workers.

A post that gave me some enlightened thoughts about my posture.

I have always fancied myself as having very good posture, what with being a 30 + year veteran of dance and all. But alas, that doesn't make me immune to bad habits and room for improvements. Especially as I age and work through chronic trouble spots of pain and tightness.

I came across this post by Mama Sweat. In it there is a link to a simple test. Tried it. Quick and the dirty is that one factor of posture problems is the jutting out of the ribcage. Somewhere along my dancing youth journey I learned how to draw my ribs in and down (an earth-shattering realization since I had already spent almost a decade dancing with a "sway back"). So for about the last 20 years I have been fairly conscious of my ribcage placement, always with an eye for refinement. Seek and ye shall find. I did the simple back against the wall test. Oh yeah, what I expected. Nailed it. Good posture wins again. But wait! After taking a number of steps away from the wall...what the Hell was that? Did my ribcage just slip into a wee bit of a jut? Dammit, I believe it did! Up against the wall again. Ribs in place. Walk away from the wall, ribs in place. A few more steps and I could start to feel the urge to release that cartilage cage into a bit of a jutted out position.

So what's a little jut? It's not like I want to walk around like I have a stick up my ass all day. Well, it can be a big deal. And proper ribcage alignment does not necessarily result in the ramrod stance of a schoolmarm.  But ribcage alignment does effect the alignment of the entire body. Case in point, I noticed that when I was up against the wall I could feel a release of tension in my perpetually tight lower back. What signaled my wayward ribs was the feeling of tension returning when I walked away from the wall.

So this ribcage alignment of mine will definitely be getting a closer look.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin

Technique Tuesday; The Pinned Butterfly.

A visual that I rely on quite often when teaching classical technique is the "butterfly pinned to the mat".

 

How can this apply? And why do I gotta pin a poor butterfly?

First we must become the butterfly (or bug of choice). Just for pretend. Don't worry, nobody is getting pinned in a display case.

Imagine that you are standing in first position


image credit

Now imagine that a pin is running through the front of each shoulder, where the arm connects to the torso, through to a mat or imaginary wall.
Now do the same for the front of each hip, where the leg attaches up into the pelvis.

Because the arms and legs are not "pinned", but rather where the connect to the center of the body, the limbs are mobile. The limbs are mobile but the torso is not.

The concept of the "pinned butterfly" is to illustrate how the core, including the ribcage and collarbone, can be stabilized through movements.

Try it! Imagine you are pinned to a mat in the spots mentioned above. Now try bringing your arms to a position where you would hold an imaginary beach ball, while keeping those shoulders "pinned".
You can try the same for the legs. You don't need to do anything crazy. Just pin those hips and allow some movement in the leg without letting "the hip go".

Next week I will give a videoed tutorial of this concept in action.

Thanks for hanging out and reading.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin.

Bump That Step Up; Use Your Head!

The human head holds many things. A brain, thoughts, dreams and in my case, lots of choreography and dirty limericks. The human head also holds the ability to work as a mace. A ball on the end of a chain (spine). Just like trying to control the weight of a kettle bell during a swing, our heads have a considerable amount of weight that our bodies, preferable our cores, have to try and control. This can be used to our advantage when we want to bump up the heat on a step.

Let's take the basic Salsa step used in the Zumba format.

The following video progresses from the basic Salsa step to one with a little more umph. Then further progresses to a more challenging version that uses the weight of the head to increase the work that the core must do.

Take a look...

The next time you feel free and easy with your Salsa step, throw in some sass and use that head!

Switching from Zumba to Balletone- here is a post that I was trying to put up a few days ago, but Blogger was being poopy. So I put it on my other blog
welcome2mycave.wordpress.com. A perspective on balancing.

Thanks for hanging out.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

Dog-Split Yoga Series.

I saw this yoga series in the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of HEALTH Magazine. It was created by yoga expert Kristin McGee.

*Disclaimer; as with all exercises on this blog, attempt at your own risk. Be sensible and know thy limits, whether those limits be from a permanent condition or temporary. Stay well and healthy.

But first, before attempting, warm-up those wrists. Do some wrist rotations. Gently stretch the hands both backwards and forwards. If you have problems with your wrists that make weight-bearing wrist exercises difficult and painful, perhaps sit this one out.

Work within your own range of movement.

Engage your core and keep it engaged throughout the series.

Start from a downward dog position.

Inhale as you do each knee position and the one-legged plank.
Knee to nose, knee to outside shoulder, knee to opposite shoulder.

Exhale as you go into each dog-split.

The article recommended doing the series once each side. Depending on your goals for a particular  workout session you can do it more than once each side, maybe a couple of times. In doing so you can possibly increase your flexibility within a session of the series. Although just doing it once each side is a pretty good workout!

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

Taught My First Balletone Class...

...last week. What is normally a teen/adult beginning Ballet class w/ an emphasis on fitness that I teach on Wednesday evenings, got a make over as a Balletone: Sole Synthesis class.

What is Balletone?

It is a fitness program that uses dance-conditioning methods of ballet training, as well as principles from pilates and yoga to build strength, flexibility, core strength and cardiovascular conditioning.

Here's a video snippet with the owner of Balletone, Shannon Fable.

So that's a little of what it is. How is it different from some of the formats or movement methods that it incorporates?

Ballet;
Balletone is done in the center of the room, no barre exercises, where as a traditional ballet class would employ both. In ballet training there is a great deal more verbal explanation, demonstration of a combo, execution of the combo by students, then back to more explanations and demos. Stopping and starting. Because many aspects of ballet technique can be somewhat challenging and precise, time is needed to adequately explain. That's not necessarily a negative, at least I don't see it that way. Its just a reality, one that has to be weighted against what one's goals are.

Balletone utilizes many of the foundations of ballet; maintaining proper alignment while executing plies, tendus, lifting the leg front, side or back (arabesque) in a turned out position, passes and lunges. As well as engaging multiple muscle groups in a sustained, lengthening manor, coupled with full range arm movements. All while staying in constant motion. That's why it great for seasoned dancers too!

Pilates;
Balletone is off the mat. It is started from a standing position. Barefoot training and awareness is an important aspect of the Balletone program, regardless of which format (Sole Synthesis, Standing Flow, etc.). Keeping control of the core, while sustaining the recruitment of engaged muscles through movements is a key concept in pilates. This key concept shines in Balletone!

Yoga;
I've taken just enough yoga to know that it is no joke when it comes to strength, control, flexibility, physical and mental endurance! I'm falling madly in love with it! There seems to be an endless supply of challenges gracefully and politely waiting for me to peel back the layers of. While at the same time providing me with an opportunity for introspective thought in both body and mind, and a chance to replenish. Whew, yoga and I just had a moment...

In the Balletone: Sole Synthesis format, the yoga-inspired movement sequences provide a shift in movement and intensity, but not a rest. An important opportunity is provided to stretch and further internalise to prepare for the next set of challenges.

Cardio;
 You are constantly moving at a low-impact, mid-range intensity (hills and valleys of exertion) throughout a Balletone workout. Mid-range cardio is a cardio intensity level often overlooked.Think something between a brisk walk and a Zumba class. Invigorating as well as challenging.

What kind of footwear does one wear for Balletone? None!

Interested? If you are in the Chico, Ca. area come check out my Wednesday 6:30pm Ballet-Fit class (perhaps soon to be Balletone exclusively) at Kinetics Academy of Dance.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the dance that is life!