Nature Nurture

It is always a wonderful idea to integrate Nature and all it's glory into your home and classroom! A fun way to do this for a movement class is this little exercise I use very often, usually to transition students from our warm-up circle. I learned this exercise from my good friend Ms. Sarah Turner, who is the Creative Dance Director at the Episcopal School in Manhattan.

A few things to consider:

I almost always plant my "roots" in 1st position in this exercise, whether or not it is a Ballet class, as it helps to develop the students sense of balance. Sometimes I will let them choose to be Trees vs Flowers (boys usually tend to be trees), and if the class is geared more towards Yoga than Ballet, I will have them balance in Tree Pose instead of Passe. BREATH is a big help! Remind them to breath in and move their working leg on the exhale. This will also help to calm what I call the "balance sillies" (when students just give up and fall over or overreact to their imbalance instead of continuing to try). There is also room to add a moment of guided meditation in the beginning when the "seeds" are sleeping in the ground.

I hope you enjoy this exercise, my Ballet Friends love it every time!

-KB