MISSION IMROVISATIONAL
THANK YOU!
Thank you all so much for a wonderful weekend! If you enjoyed the workshops, please tell your friends and maybe even post a little review on my Facebook wall. If you have suggestions for improvement, please feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you either way :)
Also thank you for buying merchandise! Send me pics with you sporting the shirts and I'll share it in my newsletter or on my dance page with your bio and a little note about your troupe!
Below are notes, music and handouts I mentioned in class. If you have any questions at all, please email me. I'm here for you! I'm also available for private or group Skype lessons. This is sometimes really beneficial after a couple of months to keep you on track with your growth.
My email address is pranadancecompany@gmail.com
Thank you,
DeAnna
Also thank you for buying merchandise! Send me pics with you sporting the shirts and I'll share it in my newsletter or on my dance page with your bio and a little note about your troupe!
Below are notes, music and handouts I mentioned in class. If you have any questions at all, please email me. I'm here for you! I'm also available for private or group Skype lessons. This is sometimes really beneficial after a couple of months to keep you on track with your growth.
My email address is pranadancecompany@gmail.com
Thank you,
DeAnna
WORKSHOP NOTES
ANATOMY WORKSHOPS
FINDING YOUR EDGE – remember to think about tension vs compression. Tension is muscular and will have a slight discomfort. You should be able to still maintain a steady breath for a little while and eventually the discomfort is less. Discomfort is OK! Sit with it for a few moments and see if you can ease into comfort. Pain is different than discomfort. Pain is sharp and you should back off the posture or movement.
Bones are limited in their range of motion for two main reasons:
The shape of their joint and the strength and flexibility of the muscles trying to move them. When our range of motion is limited due to the shape of the bone and/or joint….then we call this compression. Compression is good for stimulating bone growth and is generally not painful or really even felt. Even though the density of the bone can change over time, we can’t change the shape of our bones (at least not after adulthood). We can also have tissue compression, for examples some people can't physically bring their feet under your hipbones (hello thighs).
None of this is wrong....it just shows we are all different and that's a wonderful thing!!!
Understanding how to train the body properly and work through your “edge” will help you find the look you are going for by using organic alignment.
FEEL THE MOVEMENTS – Organic is how a move feels, aesthetic is how it looks. It’s important to understand this so you know when you need to change how a move feels to achieve the look you are going for. For example, not dropping your elbow to make your floreo bigger, or lifting your shoulders to make your arm undulations look bigger. Think about how to engage your back muscles to make your Egyptian arms bigger instead of opening the arms wider or moving the forearm back. Do you lack strength or flexibility to make it happen? Well then...now you know where to start in your next cross training session! :)
YOGA –There are all kinds of yoga types and teachers so don’t give up after just one class. Find the style AND teacher that speaks to you. Just like dance! Attached is the full upper body yoga and lower body class. We didn’t get to everything, but this may help you identify some postures that felt good in your body. If you aren’t sure about something then please let me know! I can always do a quick little video tutorial on how to do the posture.
I'm also available to create a customized flow based on YOUR body and your current needs!
DRILLS – Drill your moves a lot slower than normal so you can FEEL the muscles engage. We also tend to dance so fast and try to get really big moves that we don’t realize we are moving too quickly in the wrong way. “Snapping” or arms back into an Egyptian or putting too much strain on our lumbar spine (low back) in our arabics instead of thinking LIFT and release.
You’ll need to retrain some of your muscles so take it slow and be sure you FEEL each move in the specific areas we discussed and remember to relax your shoulders and breathe!
BREATH – I have a couple of blog posts on the subject so please go check them out. www.deannafreeman.dance/blog or at www.pranadancecompany.com
If you are interested in learning more about the breath, you can check out a number of books on the subject. There are three of them that I like and keep in my library:
Science of Breath by Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine and Alan Hymes
Free Your Breath, Free Your Life by Dennis Lewis
Perfect Breathing by Al Lee & Don Campbell
I think there are still some spots in our ATS® Reunion workshop Pranify and Execute
FLOORWORK AND LEVELS
SPINE - Axial extension is extremely important. Your strongest upper body posture. Engage low abdominals to bring pelvis to neutral.
LEGS - Adductor muscles, pelvic floor and abs are key. Everything is turned on, but these are muscles that not many of us work on. Remember to squeeze your (imaginary) balloon!
KNEES and ankles - strength in the muscles around and flexibility in the joint
Warm up properly to activate the muscles and be safe!
Here's a fun level drill:
Taxeem level down, reverse taxeem level up
Walking taxeem to fade
Bodywave level down, torso rotation up (in fade position)
Fade back in bodywave
Pivot and circle up
In circle facing in:
Ribcage rotation down, Head slides coming up
Here's a fun floorwork drill:
Propeller
Taxeem
Torso rotation
2 Berber walks
Mermaid turn to face into the circle
Body waves
Zipper (alternate who goes down!)
SPINS AND TURNS
SPOTTING
Practice spotting! Warm up the neck muscles first.
Try spinning drills SLOW (certainly not to Bay City Shimmy) and challenge yourself by doing 8 counts, then 10, then 12, etc to build your spinning stamina. This will be helpful if you ever come out of calibrated and then go into Arabic double turn or anything other than hip pumps and arabic steps. It will help you find your balance A LOT sooner and you'll transition smooth into your next moves.
ARMS
Please work on your arms and the feeling like they are moving through taffy or quick sand. Engaging your latissimus dorsi muscle to help ADDuct the arms (bring them down toward the body from overhead) will really help. Don't just move the arms around without intention. The arms are what your audience SEES, not your feet. Make them count! :)
FINDING YOUR EDGE – remember to think about tension vs compression. Tension is muscular and will have a slight discomfort. You should be able to still maintain a steady breath for a little while and eventually the discomfort is less. Discomfort is OK! Sit with it for a few moments and see if you can ease into comfort. Pain is different than discomfort. Pain is sharp and you should back off the posture or movement.
Bones are limited in their range of motion for two main reasons:
The shape of their joint and the strength and flexibility of the muscles trying to move them. When our range of motion is limited due to the shape of the bone and/or joint….then we call this compression. Compression is good for stimulating bone growth and is generally not painful or really even felt. Even though the density of the bone can change over time, we can’t change the shape of our bones (at least not after adulthood). We can also have tissue compression, for examples some people can't physically bring their feet under your hipbones (hello thighs).
None of this is wrong....it just shows we are all different and that's a wonderful thing!!!
Understanding how to train the body properly and work through your “edge” will help you find the look you are going for by using organic alignment.
FEEL THE MOVEMENTS – Organic is how a move feels, aesthetic is how it looks. It’s important to understand this so you know when you need to change how a move feels to achieve the look you are going for. For example, not dropping your elbow to make your floreo bigger, or lifting your shoulders to make your arm undulations look bigger. Think about how to engage your back muscles to make your Egyptian arms bigger instead of opening the arms wider or moving the forearm back. Do you lack strength or flexibility to make it happen? Well then...now you know where to start in your next cross training session! :)
YOGA –There are all kinds of yoga types and teachers so don’t give up after just one class. Find the style AND teacher that speaks to you. Just like dance! Attached is the full upper body yoga and lower body class. We didn’t get to everything, but this may help you identify some postures that felt good in your body. If you aren’t sure about something then please let me know! I can always do a quick little video tutorial on how to do the posture.
I'm also available to create a customized flow based on YOUR body and your current needs!
DRILLS – Drill your moves a lot slower than normal so you can FEEL the muscles engage. We also tend to dance so fast and try to get really big moves that we don’t realize we are moving too quickly in the wrong way. “Snapping” or arms back into an Egyptian or putting too much strain on our lumbar spine (low back) in our arabics instead of thinking LIFT and release.
You’ll need to retrain some of your muscles so take it slow and be sure you FEEL each move in the specific areas we discussed and remember to relax your shoulders and breathe!
BREATH – I have a couple of blog posts on the subject so please go check them out. www.deannafreeman.dance/blog or at www.pranadancecompany.com
If you are interested in learning more about the breath, you can check out a number of books on the subject. There are three of them that I like and keep in my library:
Science of Breath by Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine and Alan Hymes
Free Your Breath, Free Your Life by Dennis Lewis
Perfect Breathing by Al Lee & Don Campbell
I think there are still some spots in our ATS® Reunion workshop Pranify and Execute
FLOORWORK AND LEVELS
SPINE - Axial extension is extremely important. Your strongest upper body posture. Engage low abdominals to bring pelvis to neutral.
LEGS - Adductor muscles, pelvic floor and abs are key. Everything is turned on, but these are muscles that not many of us work on. Remember to squeeze your (imaginary) balloon!
KNEES and ankles - strength in the muscles around and flexibility in the joint
Warm up properly to activate the muscles and be safe!
Here's a fun level drill:
Taxeem level down, reverse taxeem level up
Walking taxeem to fade
Bodywave level down, torso rotation up (in fade position)
Fade back in bodywave
Pivot and circle up
In circle facing in:
Ribcage rotation down, Head slides coming up
Here's a fun floorwork drill:
Propeller
Taxeem
Torso rotation
2 Berber walks
Mermaid turn to face into the circle
Body waves
Zipper (alternate who goes down!)
SPINS AND TURNS
SPOTTING
Practice spotting! Warm up the neck muscles first.
Try spinning drills SLOW (certainly not to Bay City Shimmy) and challenge yourself by doing 8 counts, then 10, then 12, etc to build your spinning stamina. This will be helpful if you ever come out of calibrated and then go into Arabic double turn or anything other than hip pumps and arabic steps. It will help you find your balance A LOT sooner and you'll transition smooth into your next moves.
ARMS
Please work on your arms and the feeling like they are moving through taffy or quick sand. Engaging your latissimus dorsi muscle to help ADDuct the arms (bring them down toward the body from overhead) will really help. Don't just move the arms around without intention. The arms are what your audience SEES, not your feet. Make them count! :)
HANDOUTS
| discover_your_ats®_handout.pdf |
| yoga_for_upper_body_ats.docx |
| yoga_for_lower_body_ats.docx |
MUSIC
I mostly use Spotify for playlists. Below are the playlists I made for the weekend. We didn't use all the songs, but there are some gems in here! I hope you enjoyed the music. Thanks for getting out of your comfort zones!
YOGA PLAYLIST
ANATOMY UPPER BODY
ANATOMY LOWER BODY
LEVELS AND FLOORWORK
SPINS AND TURNS
YOGA PLAYLIST
ANATOMY UPPER BODY
ANATOMY LOWER BODY
LEVELS AND FLOORWORK
SPINS AND TURNS
And here are three songs I've slowed down a little for drills:
| baycityshimmy_slow_edit.mp3 |
| festival_of_spring_slow_edit.mp3 |
| obama_ayub_slow_edit.mp3 |