I often watch and am fascinated by gymnast and ice skaters. Secretly when I dance I imagine I am ice skating gliding gracefully across the floor. But that is another story. One of the things I find inspiring in these two groups of artistic athletes, is their flexibility, and how fluid their movements are. Flexibility comes from stretching. When you stretch, you are both lengthening and contracting your muscles allowing them to move more freely. Runners do it before races to loosen their muscles, and lengthen their stride. So to elongate our lifts, as dancers we also need to stretch.

Here is a simple stretch that will help improve your flexibility. First stand with your heels together and your toes turned out (first position), raise your arms up high above your head keeping your shoulders down (not up around your ears), and slowly with your back flat, bend at the waist until your hands and the top of your head are pointed towards the floor. Then reverse the movement bending as far backward as you can, release your neck  so that your chin is angled towards the ceiling. Add a couple of repetitions of this stretch to your work out.

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