Creating a Foundation

Hi today I have my 10 year old daughter. I have three kids and this is my middle child Stella. And she is an aspiring ballerina and it is about time that we start working with her. I teacher occasionally at home in our living room, but I want to give you just a glimpse before her. She starts her ballet class. It's important to lay down a solid foundation and it only helps them get better and stronger and more balanced in their work. So this is going to be just a youth class for a ballerina working on getting her ready to take a class. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and start.

My daughter's name is Estella Estella. Go ahead and pull your belly in and lower yourself down to the messages. Sit Down, bend your knees. Good. Sit down. Good job and lie out long. Good. And reach your arms up that way and reach your legs this way.

And imagine like you have four bungee cords, like pulling you in opposite directions, like just reaching. Can you make that arm longer than that one and that leg longer than that leg? And get you to, yeah, just really rejig it's strategy and good job. Now pull yourself together. Just lie down there and center yourself on the Mat. Do you look center, bend your knees. Put your feet flat. Good. All right.

So when you work, one of the things that's hard for you is slide over just a little bit. Lift up your head and look at your body. Do you look like you have a nice rectangle here, like an ice box or do you look off centered? Okay. Center yourself. It's always important visually that you can get yourself. Good. Nice, good. So you're your lower back.

Likes to arch a lot and get really tight. So we're going to try to not have a tunnel under our back when we work and we're going to try to pool our belly in and yeah, we're, there's one sneaky snake, Alex, our brother. He doesn't let sneaky sneak go under his lower back. He's pools in and squishes that tunnel down. That's awesome. Good. So pull in, don't let sneaky snake in and bring in the right knee and hug it.

Good job. Hug It. And then keep that tunnel closed and bring in your left knee. Nice job. Good. And now give me your legs and pull your belly into that tunnel. Good. This is almost like the teaser position for them.

And then using that belly, lift your head up and look at it. [inaudible] reach your arms long like this is a beautiful pool of water and I want you to make little waves pumped. Little splashes, good in with the air and exhaling. Good. Feel Yours, Tommy, can you, oh, that's nice. Start holding your legs on your own. Your Tummy. Ooh. Take another breath. Close that tunnel for sneaky snake. I'm going to let go of your legs.

You've got to hold it on your own and don't let sneaky snake, yes. Oh yeah. Pull and get balanced. See How you're wobbling. And one more. Exhaling. Pulling that hug your knees into your chest, hugging. That was so good. All right, let's stretch out that back a little better by sitting up. Good. And make your back into the letter c with your shoulders being the top of the letter and your hips being the bottom. And that's a beautiful letter.

C and grab underneath the knees. Put your hands and make a small letters. C like squished down. Yeah. Now use your belly to make a big letter. C like blow. Yeah. Stay into a capital c and roll away from your thighs with your body.

So go down with your lower back. Good, good, good. All the way down to your head and come back into a capital c. Stay nice and even good. The staying even super important for them and squeeze your bottom and roll back. So if you use both sides of your body together and come up, then you're going to stay more balanced.

When you have to bounce on one leg roundup, use your belly. Ooh, that was good. So keep this line straight as you roll back that. Let her see. Yes. Good. And coming up head to your chest, scooping in round, round, round. Let's go ahead and straighten your legs. And I want you to imagine that your, you are a party blower. You know when you're at a party in and go and that blows out. That's your back.

And so I'm just about to blow the party blower and you're gonna roll out and it has to roll right back up. Curl into yourself. There you go. And rolls out. That's it. And it curls under, under me and rollout. Rule Out. You like to go to the right. Did you see that? And Curl under me. Don't go only do the round round. Don't Bonk your head. There Ya go. And one more. Staying under me. Staying even. Ooh, that was really even and under me curl.

Look at that strong stomach and go all the way down again. You're a party blower. You just rolled out parties over. All right, Ben, the right ven both knees. Bend the right knee to your chest and hug it. That sneaky snake crawl through. No, he's gone. Good. Straighten that right leg up to the ceiling. Good.

And this is a great preparation for, um, all of your work. You don't want to use this leg, relax it. I could lift it up and you want to keep your bottom on the mat, but how much can you stretch? Stretching is good for your ballet class, right? Put your hands behind your leg, turn it out a little bit so your hips are square and pull it up to you as much as you can. Good. Again, don't use this like to help relax this guy. Good. All right, now arms by your side.

Now you're back in school. Can You keep your bottom on the mat? Oh, there you go. And this leg you're gonna pretend your belly is a ship and it can drop anchor. So you're going to drop anchor into the mat. Bomb it sunk. And now this legs like a pencil and we're going to draw a circle on the ceiling. Nothing else moves, but the pencil, it circles one a little bigger too.

A little bigger. Three and just the pencil circles on the ceiling. No hips. One more. And we're going to go the other way here. Crossed this like all the way up to your nose. Down.

Cross all the way up to and I was good. Down all the way up. Turn out that leg. Yes. Two Woo. One more. Pull it all the way up. How high up to your nose can you get and hug in that knee. Hug It. Good. Put that foot down. All right. From your belly. Pull in this.

Good for you. Hug it the right legs. Trying not to work. Straighten did. Just hanging out. Yep. Right. Left leg up and stretch it. Put your hands behind your thigh. Okay, good. So if you stretch yourself while staying square, you'll get a really good stretch. Instead of like turning your body to help get some more stretched legs down by your side. Arms by your side. Drop. Anchor your ship. Right?

We just dropped anchor into the, to the mat and we're going to draw a circle. Small Circle. One a little bigger too. A little bigger. Three good. Love it for keeping that nice turnout. One more on your own. Go the other way. One, two, a little bigger. Three, a little bigger. Four. How big can you make it cross all the way. That way? Yes. Ooh, I liked it.

Hug in that knee. That was pretty fancy. But that foot down. Good job. And we're going to do a little rolling, which might be like all wonky, but it's good for you. So lift up your head and sit up. Ooh, that was good. And now bring your knees to you. Good. Actually, let's stay right here. Put your hands underneath your knees and make yourself into a tiny little c and then a big letter c. Oh, stay right there in that big letter c and use your belly to balance as you lift up one foot and then the other. Okay. Bye Bye.

Come up. Hold with your feet up off the mat. Hold in your belly and exhale. Woo. Good job. Imagine you're like a tire rolling down the street. Try to balance without your feet touching two more XL balance. Yes. What? Great Tummy muscles. One more balance and rest on your feet. Good job. All right. Lied, but don't stop. Ooh, what do you think happened there? Yeah, so let's use your left side. Yeah. Ooh, that was a lot better. Good. All right.

I want you to lift up your head and hug your right knee in just your head, not your whole body. Lie Down again. So leave your body and just your head comes up all the way up. Head more. More. Yes. Good. Stay there. Shoulders down. [inaudible] bring this knee in. Hug It. See, I love uni. Good. Now reach this leg long and use your belly to your left knee.

A little sad. Will you hug it until you love it? To switch. That's it. And sweat. Good job. Good. And switch. Now think about and switch when you do all your Arab Basques and how you need to really use down the middle of your body and squeeze that leg straight. And one more set. Good.

And Hug both knees in and you love them both. Good. Rest your head down. Hey, doing good. All right. Lift up your head and try to think of a turtle crawling into its shell. Their head disappears, right? Put it between your knees. Hands Underneath on top of your ankles. One each there.

Okay. And to let go. You gotta be a turtle. Yes. Timber come back. So what side is stronger if you went to what side? Ooo, let's use the other side is the, oh, that's good stuff. Come on back. There we go. Get like a turtle. And now we're going to s reach your arms up to the ceiling and your legs forward. Not your head goes down. Stay upstate. Oh Huh.

And get back into a turtle and curl up a little bit more. Okay. And reach your arms up as your legs go out and Ooh, that was good. Nice turtle and reach. I let go. It's all you legs together. Good and scoop. Okay.

The sneaky snakes. Trying to get that turtle. So as you stretched on, let's sneaky snake. Good and Scoop Ben. Love it one more like that. How's that powerhouse looking nose? Diggy they can up hide, hide, hide and relax. Good job. Sit Up. Good. We're gonna open the legs a little wider. Good.

And show me just here and sit up. Tall. Good. No hands. Say Look Mom. No hands. Good. Yes. And you're going to flex your feet and you're gonna bring your, reach. Your arms like this. Good. Try not to overdo the elbow right there. Nice. Beautiful. Now do you have two bones in your bottom?

Did you find them there? Go do sit bones. Sit right up on them. Good. Beautiful, nice back. And pretend you're a puppet on someone who's pulled you up to the ceiling. Take a big breath. Nice, nice posture. Astella and exhale.

Bring your head to your chest and roll up and touch the crown of your head between your thighs on the mat. That is beautiful. I love this seeker of you're getting really ready. And now roll up. Oh, they just pulled you up like a puppet again. Rural up in, you're like a puppet arms straight ahead. Pull your belly in. That's it. And big breath. And exhale. Touch the crown of your head down right between your thighs. If you can. Nice. And roll it up like a puppet. Lift up with your belly. Yes.

One more. Exhale down. Very beautiful. Good. And rolling up. Oh, don't do your head first. Roll up through your whole back and then your head. Good. All right, now I want you to work on balancing. So I'm going to sit right here. You stay there. Okay. And I want you to bring your legs together.

Good, good. And I want you to think of right through here. And it's like a bowl of soup. And we're going to tilt our bolt soup this way. We're going to go woo. It's going to tilt. Scoop. Yeah. Good. Stay there. And we're gonna like go fishing. Catch our heels and real in our heels. Pull them in towards us. We're fishing, we're pulling in that fish. Good.

Now I want you to put your hands like this straight and on top of your ankles. Good. Now you gotta lift up your head a little bit. Thank you. And beyond the ball of your foot. Oh. And hold your belly in and you're gonna straighten your right leg. So I'm going to do the opposite leg for you. So right leg goes up, hold and bend. Good.

Hold your stomach. You don't want to be like woo. Seasick on a boat. Uh Huh. And she went down. Yes. Watch that box. And Dan. So if you keep your shoulders in line with your hips using your belly, you're gonna. Yeah. And we're going to scoop your belly in. Let's do the right. Very good and down and scoop in and left.

Excellent. And Dan. All right, here's your focus. We're going to do both legs, scoop in, and because one day you're going to be balancing on something super tiny and you're going to need to know how to balance and bring them down. You did it. Try not to go too wide. We're going to go up. Hold your belly, make sure you don't fall when you're balancing on point. And that's the next exercise. Astella roll on up. Grab onto those legs.

Joseph Polis was quite a genius. He always knew what the exercise next exercise was. All right. One more time. Hold your balleon hold. Bring your legs together. Bring your legs open. Bring them down. Dan, you did that. So good. I want to have a little more phones.

Do it one more time. Stomach. And let's take them up together. Open and down. Come back up. Nice job. All right, good. Very, very good. Alright, now we're gonna do seal. So come to your front of your mat. It's almost the same exercise, but you're gonna have to be a seal and he has flippers.

So your arms are going to go down. I'm going to scoot back. You stay where you are. There we go. And your arms are underneath. Good. And now tilt that bowl of soup. We're gonna dump it behind us and balance hold. And there she went. Come on back up. You can do it. You can pull on your feet.

Yes. Good. Alright, so just to, just to take your feet off the mats. All we're doing and that's good. Uh Huh. All right. So if you do it with your upper body, you're going to fall, so called your Bellion. Remember that letter C and we're going to clap our flippers together. Earth, earth, earth. And now we're going to roll back and reach our flippers behind us like this and come back up and balance where we're back up and we're balancing on a rock and we're oh, art, art and go for it.

Lower belly and up and hope or hurt. Two more. Three more actually in with the air. And exhale, you're staying more centered. Very good. And one more and back up. Good. Go Up to three. One more. Just kidding. Inhale. Just hang on the last annex, Hale. Oh, this is hard for you.

The knees apart is very hard. So feet together, reaching back. Now come up with your head with me. Lift your head up. Yup. Now Cross your ankles. Let go of your hands. Feet. Give me your hands. Good. And we're going to now, um, do a little bit of stretches. Okay. So, um, lets go ahead and lie on this side of your body. So we're going to lie like this. Good.

And I want you to think you're a beauty queen and just rest on your hand and then bring your feet quite a bit forward. Oh, straight leg. So good. All right and we're going to just lie down this. That's it. Good. So now our box is on its side. Hold the belly and lift this leg up and you're going to swing it forward and swing it back. You're striving to do an Aribel risk and lift it forward and Arabesque and forward. And from here, yes, and forward.

And Go back for an Arab best. Good. And swing it. Stretch out the hip. I'm going to let go and I want you to try to keep this balanced and just have fun swinging that leg for right now. Swing. Have you ever seen one of those things that go dick talk? It's called the pendulum Dick and talk and one more Dick and talk. And now take it forward all the way.

And we're gonna put it here on the floor. I know. And now you're going to put this hand here and this hand here on the mat and I'm going to help you. You're going to lift up into a split, but I'm going to help you to stretch. But you gotta to put your hands. You got to use your weight. Use Your hands to push up on the, there you go. And now I know you're not going to go into a split because you're working on them, but you're going to stretch. Try, try, stretch. Don't take it more than you want to. Yeah.

So take it where it's comfortable. And now you're going to bring this leg over here. Does it hurt your foot? Okay, we're going to lie on here now. Good for you. You remember how we were lying on this side. Now we're going to lie on the other side, I'm hoping is the other side.

Take your elbow right here. Lie on the map and lie. Nice and straight. Your whole body. Take this leg straight too. Ta-Da. There. And this is going to be flat and this is like a kickstand. How's it? Are we on the other leg now? Okay, so we're going to lift it up a little bit and you're going to not move your box as you swing the leg forward and swing it back. Woo.

Good job forward an Arabic desk. Good and forward and Arab ass. Good. Yes. And when you go back, try not to always try to show the knee up towards the ceiling a little. Yeah, but from the hip. Don't let that hip go back. Keep the hips stacked. Two more fo. Oh, you got it forward and back. Forward and back. And one more.

Yes, very good. Reached the legs together. All the way forward now. Now do you want to do it on the mat instead? Okay, so put your foot on the mat. But this hand here and you gotta put the right hand right here. It's hard. Huh? There you go. I'm going to lift you up cause I can, there you go. Getting your foot is that more comfortable now? And then work on your split and then when it's time to have a little fun.

So stretch she [inaudible] and then you want to take your left leg all the way back around. You're gonna take it around to finish and then take it all the way over and stretch forward. Good my dear. Can you cross your legs and I'm going to help. I'll help you. Okay. We're gonna push off to stand up. Do you want to give it a try? Use those back of the legs and give me a hug. Come on, lift up and give me a hug.

That was really good. That was good. Let's have some fun with some leaps and bounds. Now getting our energy up for class. Okay, so we're going to go into the corner of the room. Okay. Astella. So I want you to [inaudible] run diagonally across the room and jump and split and do as many as you can until you're on the other side. Ready and go. Have Fun with it. Use your belly to lift up. Touch the ceiling, and go.

Really lift up high. Yes. Up to the ceiling. Yes. Good. Let's do what? Going back again. Ready and leap. Nice. And lift. Good. And how about leaping to the center and then trying some Russians. Come on over. You're going to leap. Whoa though. Go back. You've got to have energy for class. So you want to have, take all you got and then just leap. Give me two leaps here and leap.

Good. And one more. Good. Now come on back to me here. And do you want to do it on a cushy mat? Okay. And I used to do these all the time. So you gotta, you gotta show me up here and you're gonna lift up and touch your toes. Okay. Ready? Think of lifting. One, two, three, lift. Yes. Okay, one more with mom. One to use your powerhouse to lift. Ooh, that was good.

Now on your own given all you got one too, and lift. That's it. Now I want you to get loose cause I will now see how I'm just like bending at the knees and letting my hips go. Super Bright. Get Your Co. We're gonna on the count of three, we're going to touch the ceiling. Okay? Yeah. One, two. We're going to do three times two and here we go. Go down and then go. And then down to the ground and then, and the last one, get it down and then nice work. You ready for class? Yeah. Okay. Good job.