Modern Dance Lateral Stretch Variation

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Chell Garcia-Trias, and I'm a modern dance instructor in Austin, Texas. I'm going to show you a variation on a lateral stretch that goes a little bit deep. So the first thing I'm going to do is take my legs into a easily wide second position, so it's a little wider than normal; take my legs pretty far out so that they're about, oh three or four feet apart, so that when I bend my knee, my knee is right over my heel and I feel nice and stable. I'm going to reach out with my arms, I'm going to drop my shoulders down, I'm going to take deep breaths, and then I'm going to reach up and over with my left arm, and up and over with my head, and I'm going to rest my elbow on my right thigh, so here we go. So I'm resting my elbow on my thigh; I'm using my arm to open up my thigh a little bit, I'm dropping my shoulder into my back, I'm reaching up and out with my arm and my hand. I feel a really deep stretch all along this side of my body. I'm pushing from my fingertips all the way through my toes, and I also feel a stretch in this hip, so I'm stretching, stretching. When I'm ready to come up, I reach out with my hand, my left hand; out and up, out and up, and then I bend the other knee, and I come up and over to come to the other side; resting my elbow on my thigh, opening up that thigh. Reaching; pushing from my toe all the way to my fingertips; stretching in that side, and dropping my shoulders. There's a lot to think about, and you can constantly be readjusting in this position. When I'm ready, I reach out, and up, and over, to come back to standing. So that's a great way to get a nice deep lateral stretch, and to open up our hips in modern dance."