Dance Dissection:

Extensions Front & Side

Ever find yourself drooling over the girl with the développé à la seconde right up to her ear? Not only do you envy her line, but you are dumbfounded as to how she does it with seemingly little effort (while you squeeze every last muscle in your body to the max struggling just to stay above 90 degrees)?

Well, let's break it down shall we?

There are a bunch of factors that affect the height of your front & side extensions...some of which you have control over...and some of which you can't change no matter how hard you try. That leg-to-your-face développé you've been dreaming about and killing yourself for might just be absolutely impossible for you. And here's why you shouldn't hate me for saying that.

Once you learn about your unique body’s limitations (many of them being genetic that you have no control over), you can stop beating yourself up for something that is impossible and start working on things that are actually within the realm of your possibility to change.

The truth is, there are probably a lot of things you can improve on with your front & side extensions but you’ve been so focused on the impossible that you never get around to them. And it’s not just a matter of working hard, gritting, and grinding through to make improvements. It’s about working smarter - retraining your body on not only a physical level but also sometimes on a neurological and mental level, too.

• Perhaps you've been cued wrong through the years, and what you've been fighting for is anatomically impossible?
• Perhaps it's a strength issue?
• Maybe it's flexibility or stabilization that you need to work on?

Knowing the unique physical limitations that you can't change helps you make peace with your body. And having a road map to focus on enhancing the stuff you can change - including strength, flexibility, and neurological stuff - can be game-changing.

That's exactly why we started our Dance Dissection meetups. Catch our next workshop where we'll be breaking down the details of your front & side extensions. Those of you who came to our arabesque & penché workshop know that this is not a boring lecture but an interactive discussion with Q&A, exercises & stretches you can take with you to help you level up, plus a little food & drank (because why not party on a Monday night?!). It's designed to be a chance for us professionals to get together and elevate our game now that we are no longer in a school environment that provides constant feedback and lessons.

In discovering the things you can’t change, you can start to strategically focus on the things you can control…some of which you may never have considered while you were so obsessed with the elements outside of your genetic potential. Understanding why it is impossible for your body to do certain things takes away the huge burden of expectation and frees you up to express your artistry in your own way.

Side Note: This workshop will be filmed and eventually available for purchase online for the out-of-towners. If you are interested, please subscribe to the mailing list here so you can get access to it when it is released. The Arabesque & Penché workshop was meant to be filmed, but we had trouble with our recording equipment (big fail on my part! Sorry!). We hope to do the workshop again in the future and make it available online then.

Photo credit: Rachel Neville Photography