Calling all dancers and good movers!

Hi Julia here!     My ballet teacher had a wonderful series of aphorisms which kept being called out to us! One favourite was 'make friends with the floor!'   This came into my mind about three weeks ago while I was having  one of my Pilates sessions with Brad Leeon who,as well as being a superb Pilates practitioner as an ex- dancer and with a number of other techniques and disciplines in  his experience, as we were working on balance, he said that I must keep grounded,  both  excellent and very similar advice.   The following week  we were working on my balance again and  he suggested that I should try to feel light and free. I came home in a thoughtful mood and began to think that this  was a contradiction in terms.   Keeping light and feel grounded?    So at my last lesson I discussed this with him.  Meanwhile I'd  come to the conclusion that one needed to feel grounded up to various areas of the body, so that for instance, if one was executing something lyrical from the waist  up and needed to keep the lower half of the body very still and controlled, it would be from that area right down that needed to be 'grounded'  He didn't quite agree with me and he felt that the only area of the body that should always to be kept grounded were the feet.  Surely this makes masses of sense in many respects, especially if when en pointe and  psychologically we  are trying to free the weight of the body away from our poor toes!    I leave  the thought with you - no doubt we' ll be taking this theme even further in my next session!   I'll keep you Blogged -  have a little experiment!  Cheers for now - Julia!