Do you practise with ankle/wrist weights? If not (yet), I highly recommend it! I occasionally use very light (0,5kg) wrist weights for practising ballet port de bras (arm pathways) as well as for working on fluid arm and wrist movements in bellydance. I use them in the warmup of my streaming/ downloadable bellydance instructional DVD… Read More Wearable Strength
Good dancers possess strong bodies, courageous hearts, and intelligent minds. Classical Ballet Technique – Gretchen Ward Warren. This book is an absolute treasure for anyone learning or teaching ballet. 416 pages filled to the brim with technique tips, explanations and crystal clear pictures of every possible ballet movement, transition, position and jump. It helped me figure… Read More Classical Ballet Technique
I’ve always considered myself extremely lucky in the teacher department. To each of the teachers in my life I owe parts of my current Self. They have contributed to my growth, happiness, knowledge, skill set, inspiration, love of learning, love of movement, love of music, love of language, and love of life. Their teachings as… Read More Free to Move
We already re-shape our world by creating every day. So why not do it consciously? And, while we do that, let’s make of it the best we can. Sing, write, dance, speak, draw, move, capture, practise – go and create something today. Inspired by Todd Henry’s Daily Creative Podcast on creating daily (very meta!) and this… Read More Create
A change in perspective can widen your world. The same goes for exposing yourself to new sensory input, learning a different language, encountering something you’ve never seen/heard/smelled/tasted/felt before, traveling to a new-to-you place, asking different questions, or finding a way of moving that is slightly unfamiliar to you. Try taking in your environment from a… Read More Perspective
“You don’t point your feet. You lengthen them to the end of the extremity. It is not static. You need the energy flow.” The Pointe Book: Shoes, Training, Technique – by Janice Barringer and Sarah Schleßinger. This book covers everything one needs to know (and more!) for learning or teaching to go on pointes. From… Read More The Pointe Book
Speed, Precision, Control. These are the 3 key elements of practising Haidong Gumdo, or Korean Sword Art. At the heart of each sword movement, all 3 need to be in balance to work well. Which – in a way – translates to the skills of life itself. What good is moving fast if you don’t… Read More Cutting the Maple Leaves
What is strength? And …can this even be done? These were the questions I asked myself this morning, finding myself about to perform 1111 wooden-sword cuts. ‘A Thousand Cuts’ is a sword endurance exercise where Haidong Gumdo (Korean Sword Art) practitioners are asked to do 1000 repetitions of ‘Jeong-Myun Begi’, the basic straight cut, while… Read More A thousand, one hundred and eleven sword cuts.
All is fluid – The Universe is Change. Life is Opinion. This incredibly inspiring gathering of inspirational thoughts by the Stoics is my daily morning journaling companion. The Daily Stoic – 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday.
Stacey Nemour, my favourite flexibility teacher, has just launched a wealth of online courses and streaming DVDs on flexibilitymakeover.com I’m very excited to be trying out her Dance! Flexibility Makeover Power Pack (starting today – eek!), as her previous online course series was already amazing. It got me safely(!) down into front splits for the first… Read More Flexibility Friday
