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Tonight's floorwork class was a successful experiment. I received an email from one of my students saying she had injured her leg, so if there was anything we could do which wouldn't stress her quads, could we do that?
Since almost everything I do in floorwork relies heavily upon quad strength, this set me to thinking.
And yes, I did an entire floorwork class without doing any quad stuff, and yea, it was good.
We started off with my usual warm-up: four sun salutations, a bunch of Wu-style t'ai chi chu'an circular "bowing" movements, and leg/foot joint rotations to lube everything up. Then we went on to some strengthening exercises: lower abdominal squeezes, holding our backs flat to the floor while we held our straight legs a few inches off the floor, lying on our stomachs and holding our straight legs a few inches off the floor, and the Superman exercise, too.
And then it was time for dance.
I reviewed the caterpillar crawl (an undulating, travelling movement done on your back in the direction of your feet), and had them do the crawl across the floor a few times, correcting details, coaching for smoothness, etc. And then I had them roll over onto their stomachs.
First of all, I showed them a simple, very cute little movement. While lying on your stomach with your legs out straight, ankles crossed, push yourself up a little and rest your chin on the palms of your hands. Then do a series of quick, simultaneous glute squeezes. If you have a belt with lots of beaded fringe, or a coined hip scarf, this movement will send everything flying, and looks cute as heck.
Next, we did the belly crawl. It's a very powerful looking movement, with none of the subservient appearance of "crawling to the Sultan" (gawd, but I hate that one!). This one is done on your stomach with ankles crossed and straight legs held up off the floor while you drag yourself along by the arms. I typically only do a couple of these before I transition to something else, but I had them go at it for a while.
The room was filled with crawling soldiers whose legs had been shot. Heh....
I quite like this move, although I've yet to use it in performance. It requires lots of strength to pull off smoothly, and looks good in moderation.
And then I showed how to transition from the caterpillar crawl to the belly crawl. Then the class looked like a breakdance class, as the students practiced spinning around from pelvis to butt and vice versa.
I covered other transitions, too. You know how when you sit with your bum on the floor between your knees (I'll call it an M-sit), then lie back? I showed them how to "kick off" into lying into a straight position from that, with legs out straight on the floor with ankles crossed primly.
And the easiest transition of all is how to get from an M-sit to a side wedge position. You just pick your butt up and place it to one side of one of your feet. Simple.
We also worked on the wedge. I do this movement with the fingers pointed in the same direction as the feet, because it relies upon muscle strength and not upon locked joints as it does with fingers pointing away. But one of my students has a prosthetic elbow which wouldn't allow her to do it this way, so with a bit of tinkering we found an angle which worked for her without locking her joints.
And then, by way of request, I showed them the safe way to do head spins and hair tosses.
We ended the class by stretching and watching Ansuya do a floorwork routine off Bellydance Superstars Live in Paris at the Folies Bergere. My students were amazed to see they already know the basic movements of almost everything she did in that performance.
I could see calculating looks as they realized what they could do with more practice.
And that's one of my favourite things about teaching!
Next week, we'll be back to leg stuff, because I think I pretty much exhausted what I know that can be done without quads.
Since almost everything I do in floorwork relies heavily upon quad strength, this set me to thinking.
And yes, I did an entire floorwork class without doing any quad stuff, and yea, it was good.
We started off with my usual warm-up: four sun salutations, a bunch of Wu-style t'ai chi chu'an circular "bowing" movements, and leg/foot joint rotations to lube everything up. Then we went on to some strengthening exercises: lower abdominal squeezes, holding our backs flat to the floor while we held our straight legs a few inches off the floor, lying on our stomachs and holding our straight legs a few inches off the floor, and the Superman exercise, too.
And then it was time for dance.
I reviewed the caterpillar crawl (an undulating, travelling movement done on your back in the direction of your feet), and had them do the crawl across the floor a few times, correcting details, coaching for smoothness, etc. And then I had them roll over onto their stomachs.
First of all, I showed them a simple, very cute little movement. While lying on your stomach with your legs out straight, ankles crossed, push yourself up a little and rest your chin on the palms of your hands. Then do a series of quick, simultaneous glute squeezes. If you have a belt with lots of beaded fringe, or a coined hip scarf, this movement will send everything flying, and looks cute as heck.
Next, we did the belly crawl. It's a very powerful looking movement, with none of the subservient appearance of "crawling to the Sultan" (gawd, but I hate that one!). This one is done on your stomach with ankles crossed and straight legs held up off the floor while you drag yourself along by the arms. I typically only do a couple of these before I transition to something else, but I had them go at it for a while.
The room was filled with crawling soldiers whose legs had been shot. Heh....
I quite like this move, although I've yet to use it in performance. It requires lots of strength to pull off smoothly, and looks good in moderation.
And then I showed how to transition from the caterpillar crawl to the belly crawl. Then the class looked like a breakdance class, as the students practiced spinning around from pelvis to butt and vice versa.
I covered other transitions, too. You know how when you sit with your bum on the floor between your knees (I'll call it an M-sit), then lie back? I showed them how to "kick off" into lying into a straight position from that, with legs out straight on the floor with ankles crossed primly.
And the easiest transition of all is how to get from an M-sit to a side wedge position. You just pick your butt up and place it to one side of one of your feet. Simple.
We also worked on the wedge. I do this movement with the fingers pointed in the same direction as the feet, because it relies upon muscle strength and not upon locked joints as it does with fingers pointing away. But one of my students has a prosthetic elbow which wouldn't allow her to do it this way, so with a bit of tinkering we found an angle which worked for her without locking her joints.
And then, by way of request, I showed them the safe way to do head spins and hair tosses.
We ended the class by stretching and watching Ansuya do a floorwork routine off Bellydance Superstars Live in Paris at the Folies Bergere. My students were amazed to see they already know the basic movements of almost everything she did in that performance.
I could see calculating looks as they realized what they could do with more practice.
And that's one of my favourite things about teaching!
Next week, we'll be back to leg stuff, because I think I pretty much exhausted what I know that can be done without quads.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 01:45 am (UTC)From:(Men like it when women sit that way.)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 02:48 pm (UTC)From:When I was a kid, I had severely pronated feet. My doctor actually slapped me for sitting that way.
Nicely done.
Date: 2006-11-21 03:12 am (UTC)From:I wish she lived closer to you--I suspect she would love your class. Though you'd have to come up with classes that didn't involve using your hands to go anywhere, as she's got severe arthritis. But like you said: back to the floor work!
As one dancer and teacher to another: reading your blog continues to really impress me.
Re: Nicely done.
Date: 2006-11-21 02:54 pm (UTC)From:I believe the simultaneous glute squeeze move is from Morocco (the dancer, not the country).
Glad you enjoy my blog!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 07:19 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 02:56 pm (UTC)From:Or maybe I could do a floorwork workshop sometime. I just don't know how to go about organizing something like that.