Theresa D'Alessandro: Hi, I am Theresa D'Alessandro, the Director of the School of the Theatrical Dance and today we are showing with you the basics of contemporary dance. This lesson is torso contraction. Here Joanie is standing in a parallel second position having gravity work on her spine as well as stabilizing the leg. She is going to tuck under the pelvis, contracting up through the entire abdominal muscle group up through the neck, and then down releasing through the spine, lengthening, lengthening, lengthening and contract the abdominals, belly button is just fine, rolling through the vertebrae and lengthening out to a flat back. In this position dancer is seated on the floor and first position soles the feet together lengthening the spine in a vertical line and then begin tucking the hips under and pulling the ribs in and allowing the chin to drop to the chest and then releasing from the pelvis, rippling up through the vertebrae to a vertical spine and then repeat, tuck, tuck, tuck, rolling the pelvis back and lengthening up, up, up to a nice strong stable back.

In this position the dancer is on hands and knees, again trying to keep the spine nice and long, this time at a horizontal plain and she tucks and contracts upwards through the spine up through the neck arching as high up she possibly can and then lengthening out, out, out across from wall to wall and repeat, tuck contract, contract, contract almost as if you can lift yourself off the floor and release back out to lengthened spine and I recommend that you do at least eight of these to start warming up your spine. Coming up in our segment, we are going to show you spirals and breath when contemporary dancing.