warming up

[Guest Xia]

I've been thinking lately that I need to get better about warming up before class. It seems like a lot of teachers (those who don't jump directly to plie, at least) have the students do warm-ups that are harder on the body than I'm reasdy for, or incomplete. My favorite system so far was one I encountered several years ago, that involved ~10 min of light work at the barre, but I really don't remember enough of it. Any ideas on how to find a something that will work for me? The things I used to do when I was younger just aren't adequate any more.

[Victoria Leigh]

XIA, as an adult it's probably best for you to discover on your own what your body needs to do before barre in order to be ready to get the best results from the class. I would recommend gentle floor stretching, primarily for the feet and hamstrings, some forward/side/back stretching standing up, quad stretches, calf stretches, and some head/neck/shoulder releases to get everything going.

[Cabriole]

XIA, the warm up you may be referring to is one we learned back at Harkness, sometimes called 'The Hoop'. David Howard used to do a version of this when he had is own studio and classes were a bit longer. There is a version of this included on 2 of his class videos: Take a Master Class with David Howard, Inter. A & B. It is missing some of the pieces of The Hoop (at least as I remember it), but it may guide you in the right direction.

[Victoria Leigh]

Cabriole, the pre-barre warm up used at the Harkness School was called Therapeutic Barre. I have never heard of the term "the Hoop", but they might be one and the same thing. David Howard was trained in this barre. I don't know how much of it he uses, or the changes he has made, as I have not seen his videos. But the Therapeutic Barre is the one I use, and have talked about in some other threads on Ballet Alert. It is a very well developed series, which runs about 7 to 8 minutes, and gently warms up every major muscle group and joint in the body. Some of the exercises are not, however, used in beginning level classes. There are shorter versions, with several exercises omitted, for students not on the upper intermediate to advanced levels.

[Cabriole]

Yes, Victoria, I did know this from Harkness as the Theraputic Barre and by the time David had left, it became known in his studio as The Hoop (in reference to his views on 'arcs' to create lines, etc.). I don't believe he retained it in it's original form. Thank you, I will indeed check the other threads on this as, I believe I am 'missing' a piece or two. The portions that David has included in those two videos are (it is not included on any of the videos produced by Bodarc), I think, very safe for beginners, though there is NO discussion, it is simply 'follow along'.

[Victoria Leigh]

Cabriole, you won't find any descriptions of the exercises of Therapeutic Barre in the archives. There are lots of stretches we have talked about here, and I have described a few that come out of Therapeutic, but it is much too long and too complicated to do it in written form, and no one should try to learn it that way either. It needs to be taught!