Movement 3 Ballroom Dance

Catalog description

This beginning level of Horton technique for beginners, lays the foundation for all that follows in the more advanced levels. The basic warm up is taught: flat backs, primitive squat descent and ascent, lateral stretches, release swings and deep lunges. The shapes that will be used throughout the training in Horton technique are emphasized: the T positions, stag position, cross lunge and coccyx balance. When Lester Horton created this technique in the 1940's he designed many of the material into series of studies which concentrate on training specific areas of the body. These studies stretch, lengthen and strengthen the body. Many of the beginning level studies focus on the Achilles tendon, the abdominal muscles, and movements that lengthen the spine and the hamstring muscles. Simple combinations of movements, that include turns and jumps, are taught to introduce musicality and dynamics to the beginning dancer's vocabulary. Performance qualities are emphasized at the very beginning of the dancer's training.