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Summary: Focus on breath during the modern dance side-straddle stretch warm-up exercise. Get tips for doing side-saddle stretches before modern dancing from a professional dance teacher in this free modern dance video lesson.
Views: 136 | Tags: exercises, poses, stretching, stretches, dancing, dance, modern, warm-ups
About the Expert
Chell Garcia-Trias Chell Garcia-Trias has been dancing for 30 years. As a community scholar at Columbia College Dance School, she earned a B.A. in dance and acting. Garcia-Trias... read more
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Questions & AnswersHi, my name is Chell Garcia-Trias, and I am a dance teacher in Austin, Texas. I'm going do show you a straddle side stretch. So, first we're going to sit in a straddle position. To find that you're just going to bring your legs straight in front of you, knees straight, feet flexed, and gently open your legs up to where they are comfortable. Some of you might be comfortable here, some people might be comfortable way back. That's fine, wherever you're comfortable is where you should be. You don't want to push your stretch. Now I'm going to drop down my shoulders, and reach out with my arms. I'm reaching my arms right in front of my toes, not back, but in front of my toes. And I'm going to imagine a waterfall coming out of the top of my head, and it's going to reach up and over towards my toe. And as I do that I'll rest my hand on my leg wherever it's comfortable, and my other arm will come up and over and point at the further wall. So, here we go. And breathe. It's really important you breathe the whole time. So if I'm a beginner, this might be where my stretch goes, and that's great. If that feels comfortable and you want to go a little further, just take a deep breath and reach. And keep reaching up and out. Don't let your stretch collapse. You don't want to collapse, you want to reach up and out. So I can really feel the stretch all along the side here. Reaching, you want to hold it for a little while, take some deep breaths while you're there, and when you come back up, you're going to reach out with your hand again to come up, up, up, up, up, and dropping your shoulders the whole time. So, that is the straddle stretch to the side. Like I said, it's very important you stay in your comfort level, and that you just stretch to your own capabilities. Thank you.
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