22 February 2010

Dance The Stress Away , The Ballroom Dance Way





The child in you is equipped with handling stress whenever required. Every person has always moved their bodies more as children than as an adult. Silly expressions, funny positions of the body, the hopping, skipping and jumping ,these are nature’s way of getting all the aggression out of our system.And we all know how hyper children can at time be.

As we grow up we all forget the child in us and go about our duties diligently but we also forget to revel in the pleasure of simple movements.These rhythmic movements are really about releasing the stress and tension that’s blocking our bodies. These simple playful movements whenever executed are quite a cathartic experience in themselves. Now if we remember to behave like children we are all scorned upon or laughed at, but to totally rid your body off these blockages caused by stress we must cultivate the habit of releasing stress through some playful movements which can happen while dancing….For example dances like the Jive involve a lot of kicking movements of the feet in different directions. These are good tension relievers of the feet. Similarly this dance is based on the arm tension principle called push and pull technique which simply means that while dancing as a couple with a double or a single hand hold, whenever your partner exerts a pull , you too must pull back  and whenever your partner exerts a push, you too must push towards so that you can maintain the synergy of movement as a couple .
On this simple principle works the entire body  weight connection of a couple who are dancing and in our context these playful stretching movements do a lot in terms of stress release. As you exert pressure while pushing and stretch while pulling or on getting a gentle pull in your arm ,one can actually feel, a nice warming up of the muscles and a warmth enveloping our bodies and a smile playing on our lips…
And well who can resist a playful movement whatever the age?

But a word of cautionary advice! In our hurry to learn things or do things to accomplish a task we almost never realize to enjoy the moment. Similarly in our hurry to complete a dance practice remember to let go and feel the moment. And never be aggressive towards yourself so much, that we are not able to benefit from what we are setting out to accomplish in the first place.
So develop moderation in whatever you do and slowly take it a notch higher in terms of where you want to go, step by step and you will never feel a strain in your body or mind.

Live life dancing all the way gracefully.
Learn to dance and grace up your life.

Savvy
danceconcepts@rediffmail.com