- Strengthen your body!
- Stretch muscles and become flexible!
- Find your balance!
- Understand your muscles' and body's work!
- Stay in shape!
My "Body Therapy" classes include elements based on the technique of Pilates Mat, Hatha Yoga and Choreography that were tailored specifically for tango dancers. My classes will help dancers to be protected from possible injuries or uncomfortable movements during long tango workshops, all night milongas and to be prepared for more challenging figures in tango such as: high boleos, volcadas with a displacement, deep colgadas or whatever your tango teacher will ask you to do. We will pay a lot of attention to our twisting movements in tango by training twisting and bending postures in our classes, and we will practice stretching exercises (cool-down and warm-up).
I believe that only regular exercises built in a progressive, repeated system might have a result for your body and for your muscle memory.
For best results I separated my program "Body Therapy for Tango Dancers" on two parts "Body Therapy on Feet" and "Body Therapy on Mat".
Why do I include Hatha Yoga in my program?
ReplyDeleteMany social tango dancers at the some point of their dancing experience understand the importance of their ability to stretch and be flexible. In my own experience Hatha Yoga is the best way to achieve this king of ability. Also Hatha Yoga will help us to focus in our presence during the dance and enjoy our dance as it is. Other words Yoga gives us a calm, focused mind and a strong and flexible body. It also gives you a sense of unity and harmony that will work great in your tango.
Several words about the Hatha Yoga.
Hatha Yoga is often called "the path of the body" or "classical yoga". Hatha Yoga is a sequence of asanas, or poses, that train the body, soul and mind. Hatha means "power" and "strength", but it also has a more esoteric meaning. In Sanskrit, HA means "solar" or masculine energy (yang), and tha means "lunar" or feminine energy (yin). Yoga refers to the unification of these twwo fundamental universal energies - the expanding energy of the sun and the contracting energy of the moon. These two forces can also be defined as two different directions; one of them goes out of the body, and then other goes into the body. These same energies keep the planets and the bodily organs in place. HA is forceful and makes us robust, strong, focused, vigorous, firm, and productive. THA makes us noble, extroverted, sensitive, loving, and capacious. According to classical physical yoga philosophy, you must discipline the body before you can achieve a disciplined mind. When we practice asanas, the masculine and feminine energies in all of us are combined and balanced. (pp.15-16.Ulrica Norberg. Power Yoga).
Quick reminder. I do not teach Hatha Yoga as it is, but I include some asanas from Hatha Yoga in my "Body Therapy for Tango Dancers" that seem to me the most important in order to create our dancing body and flexibility.
Why do I include Pilates on Mat in my program?
ReplyDeleteThe Pilates method is very helpful in building the strong abdominal and core muscles. These two are the most important for dancers as they create our balance stability and help to prevent a pain in the lower back. In dancing Tango the lower back pain appears commonly to the women.
Several words about Pilates.
The Pilates method was invented by gymnast Joseph H. Pilates more than 80 years ago to help rehabilitate bed-bound patients at a hospital in England during the First World War. To enable patients to regain strenght, Pilates attached springs to their mattresses for them to pull and push against for resistance. When he moved to NYC, he brought the method with him. At first, injured dancers would come to Pilates for help. He put them through a series of exercises in a machine he called the Reformer. In the 1960s he devoloped a series of exercises that could be performed on mats, without any machines, and accomplish the same benefits of improved body mechanics.
What is so important for us as the dancers in this method?
The Pilates method involves a series of exercises that place intense concentration on our deepest layer of the abdominal muscles. It also help us to form a strong abdominal muscles that will improve our balance and coordination. In addition it helps strenghten and stretch the entire body from head to toe. This unique system will create long, lean, toned muscles similar to the muscles of a dancer.