Archive for 52 Moves

Nia Nudge: Rock Around The Clock

Base Move
Rock Around The Clock
Say it: “wow”
 
Standing with your feet hip-width apart, rock around the outside edges of both feet, moving in a circular motion from the front to the side, to the back and to the opposite side. Reverse directions.
 
Move from the ground up using the strength of your feet and the mobility of your ankles to create small rolling actions that mimic a hula-hoop. Read More→

Nia Nudge: Sumo Stance

Nia-Nudge

 Base Move
Sumo or Riding Stance
Say it: “stable”
 

Stand in place with feet parallel and your knees slightly bent (as if riding a horse). Keep your feet, ankles, knees and hip joints relaxed and spring-loaded. To sustain upright balance, slip into the posture of holding the reins of a horse. Sense your head moving up and away from the torso with the spine relaxed. 

 

When practicing Sumo Stance, sense the inner and outer arches of your feet connected to the earth.  Play with moving at different speeds and moving 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. Read More→

Abs and The Three Body Weights, Three Planes, Three Levels, Three Intensities: Three, March, Cha-cha-cha!

Danced Opal this morning with a focus on Abdominals. It was actually an Abs Class. Students looked terrified, but after looking at an image of the four distinct groups of ab muscles (transverse abdominal, the internal obliques, the external obliques, and the abdominus rectus) and a brief discussion about what each group does, both in terms of movement for movement sake (ex: “moves the spine laterally”) and in terms of functional movement (ex: standing up from sitting or shoveling snow”). The tension eased.  Then, the whole routine sort of fell into place with a pelvis, chest, head focus.  Opal wins the prize (nominated by me) for routine with the biggest aerobic bang for the buck. I forgot how intense Opal is. Read More→