Improve your strength, balance, pirouettes, jumps and turnout and many other dance skills by using the floor.

You probably heard many times during your dance classes, regardless of the dance type, that in order to find the correct stance, the alignment and the direction of your body upwards you have to imagine a "string" pulling your upwards from the top of your head. For the sake of many dance skills such as the stability, balance, pirouettes, body alignment etc you have to maintain simultaneously firm connection with the floor.

I would suggest that before starting each dance exercise you reconnect with this important skill by

moving your awareness into your feet; your feet are stably placed on the floor and the floor is carrying you upwards, at the same time your feet are gently "pushing" the flood down. 


This exercise will assist the Vestibulospinal Reflex (VSR keeps your body upright), help your body to resist the gravity and maintain upright position effortlessly. By being stably "grounded" and connected to the floor you will gain extra help for your turnout, pirouettes, jumps etc.
In addition, you eventually will be able to play with this connection and give your dance a desirable quality, for example sensation of effortlessly flying above the floor or sensation of heaviness and power.

Remind yourself about this important connection as much as possible during your dance classes and eventually your body will recall it when necessary.

Good luck! and let me know here how you doing.



In one of my following articles I am going to write about how to use the floor for improving your pirouettes, jumps and for the correct alignment and turnout.
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Warm-up before a dance class. How to "wake up" your body in the morning before a dance class or any time when your body feels stiff

I often get question how to start a dance class in the morning when all the muscles are stiff and the body is not responding in the same way as usual. First of all I would recommend to be gentle with your body and have a thorough warm-up, this warm-up requires about 30 min. I am going to talk about this in one of my next posts. If you don't have half an hour before your class but fill stiff and disconnected, I would recommend an efficient exercise that will help you to reconnect with your back and spine.


Please do not perform any of these movements if you have any unhealed injuries.
Be kind to yourself, be conscious!

1 Stand straight, relax towards the floor by "collapsing" the entire body towards the floor, standing straight, your spine's "intention" is to reach the ceiling.

2 Put your attention on first vertebra of the cervical vertebrae, in the  neck.

3 Starting from there roll your spine as you would roll a piece of paper (for example) or any soft flexible material which comes to your mind, imagine its color, consistence, maybe taste, anything that will make you feel inspired, rejuvenated, relaxed, good in all possible ways.
Roll slowly vertebra by vertebra forward so the head is moving towards the floor, release your neck, keep your image in mind, keep your attention in the spine all the time, don't forget the "intention" of the spine is upwards, which will protect you from collapsing of the spine down.

4 Slowly roll up keeping your mind on the image of your spine as before.

5 When you are standing up, sense the difference.

6 Repeat the exercise if you feel you need to, do it with a different image in mind this time.

Don't push your body, collaborate with it to achieve anything and above your limits, remember your body is a living and complex organism.


Good luck! and let me know here about your progress or any further questions.

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