Today in Class....

It felt like a perfect class today.  Maybe it was my new leotard but it just felt great and I am feeling stronger and stronger, especially in the stomach work (my weak spot). Esther is getting ready to push me out of the training nest.  I have my guinea pig next week and will teach her a full class, watched by Esther's eagle eye.  Then...off to start my own classes! Gulp!

I am not going to give you an exercise today.  Instead I ask that you hop over to the 'The Tilt!' page (in the sidebar at the left) and have a try at that crucial movement.  Happy tucking!

See you next week....I'll let you know how it goes!

Today in Class....

One of the great things about the method is that it is about working with your unique shape to make it strong, shapely and supple.  It doesn't matter if you do not naturally have a dancer's physique. It does not matter if you are not very flexible.  All you need is the desire to work hard and your body will transform into one that is lifted, toned, energised and with strong muscles that will hold and support your bones, joint and organs...and beautiful.  In class there are women of all different shapes and sizes, all ages, all abilities (and there has even been the occasional man!), all of us giving a couple of hours a week to ourselves and our bodies, trying to be the best we can be. Class celebrates each of us for who we are.  As Esther said last week, "we don't want all our tomatoes to be regimented!"  Nor do we want our bodies to be.


Hear, hear.

Today's Exercise:

1. Sit with your hands on the floor between your legs, your knees bent, feet on the floor.
2. Slowly extend your legs out straight, keeping them off the floor, until fully extended, toes pointed. You will be balancing on your sitting bones.  Make sure your pelvis is tucked into the tilt position. Feel the effort you need to exert to keep the top half of your body from leaning back too far and to keep your bottom half off the floor.  Aim for your legs to be about 6 inches above the floor.
3. Slowly raise your right leg up and lower your left leg until it is just above the floor.  Hold.
4. Lower your right leg and raise your left leg until they are even.  Hold.
5. Now lower your right leg until it is just above the floor and raise your left leg. Hold.
6. Bring both legs back to being even again. Hold.
7. Repeat entire sequence.

This is one of what we call the escape/no escape exercises.  It works deep into the core muscles of the abdomen, especially the low ones that are sometimes hard to work, as well as using the entire system of muscles in the torso, legs and even the arms. Comprehensive, hey?!  Keep the motion slow and smooth for maximum benefit, maintaining the tilt to protect your back.

Happy New Year!

Hello....

Hope your 2012 is starting off bright!

So good to be back in the studio.  Esther was full of energy after the break and class
was a vigorous!  Lovely to meet Margot's daughter Lydie...Esther does love to stir it up, goading us to be competitive and trying to stoke up little rivalries....sometimes we are all like school girls!  Great fun though....and it does get us working our hardest (and yes, I almost always rise to the bait...and yes, Lydie is a natural!).

It seems that most of us who are regulars to class (some could say devoted) have a certain determination and drive.  We seem to thrive under Esther's whip and want to be our best.  Funny how some of us just get hooked....

Esther and I were speaking today about how the exercises are about empowering women to feel sensual for themselves, to feel good about themselves. She said Lotte loved to know that she was firm and toned and that she would please her lovers...and be able to enjoy them more for being in such great shape!  It was about more than that, though.  It was about being strong yet feminine, having a body that you were the master of and that served you well, and the confidence that comes from that.  How wonderful to enjoy having your body, to feel great walking down the street, putting on clothes,  just moving.  Grace, suppleness, strength: the dancer's joy in her body can belong to us.  It can be ours with just a little dedication.

What a wonderful gift.

Today's exercise:

                                                         

1. Stand sideways to barre, outside leg lifted, knee bent to the side and toe pointed at the standing leg.
2. Fold the lifted knee across the body towards the barre.
3. Open your leg out to the original position then stretch your leg keeping your thigh high, really feel the stretch, toe pointed.
4. Bend your lower leg in again and start at the beginning.  Across-back- stretch-bend. Repeat ten times.
5. The last time hold the leg out in the stretch position.  Really feel the stretch.  Hold it there.  Now teensy little bend-stretch, bend-stretches.
6. Repeat on the other side!
7. Well done!
Put your hand on the top of your thigh as you do this and boy, will you feel the muscle working! Make sure you keep your hips square and centred.   The work you do to keep your standing leg and hips in the correct position is as important as the work your 'busy' leg is doing! This is a big part of the effectiveness of the method - the small but intense work your muscles do in the tension between where your body wants to go and where you are telling it to!