Standing in place, align your feet with the big toes touching and the heels slightly apart and the outer edges of your feet running parallel to each other. Keep your feet, ankles, knees and hip joints relaxed and spring-loaded. To sustain upright balance, slip into the position of at-ease and ready, sensing your posture as if falling up towards the sky.
When practicing Closed Stance, play with moving at different speeds while sinking and rising through the three planes: high, middle and low. Use your core and upper extremities to support you in moving down and up and vice versa. As you lower, point your tailbone backwards, generating the movement from the balls of your hip joints. As you rise, press your feet into the ground.
Stand with the intent to be powerful and still!
Benefits:
Increases stability in the foot, leg, thigh and buttocks
Builds strength in the whole body
Enhances dynamic ease in the ankle, knee and hip joints
Improves posture
Closed Stance
Dance Through Life – Action Item
Closed Stance is a useful practice for sensing both the stability and the instability of our vertical design. When we stand with our feet together and heels slightly apart, outer edges of our feet parallel, we have narrowed our base as small as possible. Standing in closed stance in this way, without tightening our legs, spine releasing upwards along the vertical, breathing, we can sense subtle movement and instability in a forward direction, a readiness to go. Simultaneously we can sense rootedness where we are. This week, play with how stability is directly related to a willingness to allow natural instability in Closed Stance. Chris Freedman | Studio 206 Charlottesville, VA
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