Modern Dance Warm-Ups: Figure 8 with Hips

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Chell Garcia-Trias and I am a modern dance instructor in Austin, Texas. I am going to show you how to do some figure eights with your hips to warm up your hips in modern dance. So, first I am going to take my legs a little bit more than hips width apart. And, I am going to have them in parallel position. I am going to bend my knees, so that my knees are just gently resting right over my toes and then, if you feel at the top of your legs, you can feel your sits bones. I am going to pretend there is flashlights on those, and they are pointing towards the ground. And, I am going to try to make figure eights with those flashlights on the ground. So, that I am going to open up my hips. And, I am going to do a little figure eight. Figure eight. Figure eight. So, right now I am bringing my hips back and to the side and forward. Back and to the side and forward. And, you can do those as fast or as slow as you want. I would advise doing them slowly while you are getting used to it. And, you definitely want to switch directions so that you are loosening it up each way. And, you are really making nice, big, figure eights on the ground. Once you start doing those quicker, they will have a little snap to them in the back. So, that is the way that I would do figure eights with my hips, just to warm them up and loosen up and isolate that part of your body so that you are a little bit warmer for your modern dance routine."