Modern Dance Warm-Ups:Side Lunge Leg Swing

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 leg swings to the side with lunges. So, first of all, we are going to do these in first position. So, in modern dance we do do first position, much like ballet, but we do not force our turn out so much. So, we are going to bring out feet together, our heels together. Bend our knees. Open up your toes and straighten. The next thing I am going to do is just a leg extension. A swinging leg extension. So, I am going to push through my foot. Push through my heel and all the way through my toe to come up. So, you can do a few of these. Just leave your arms dropped to the side if you like. You could do the other side. I am really going to keep my foot tracking the same angle that my feet are already in when they are in first position. So, I am not trying to go directly to the side. Now, when we add the lunge, we are going to swing our arms out to the side when our legs go to the side. Out and lunge and drop our body to the side and cross our arms. And then, we are going to push back and back to first. So, swing out. Arms out. Lunge. Drop to the side. Reach out. Arms out. Back. Again. Out, lunge, drop to the side, out, and back. You really want to push through your hips that whole time so that you are moving within your hips and you are not kind of falling all over the place. You will know if you are doing that if you are able to balance on your standing leg when you come back up through the lunge. So, that is the way that I would do some leg swings to the side with lunges in modern dance."