you
Welcome to Scottish Ballet Headquarters. I'm Kate and I'm going to take you
through our short exercise routine today which is designed to stretch and
strengthen. This is a specialised introduction to floor-based ballet
exercises. I'm joined today by Scottish Ballet professional dancers Luke and Lucy
so let's get started. Alright, sitting up nice and tall, we're going to roll the
shoulders up, around and down. Just relaxing, opening and down and then shrug
the shoulders right up to the ears, scooping the fingers along the floor and
let the chin drop down, back up and shrug the shoulders up, reaching the fingers
out, turning the head to the right and again, shrugging up and reach the arms
along the floor, nice and easy in the neck and shrugging up and reach out to the
right and taking the right arm up, lifting tall, bending over to the side and
just curling around to the front, back up tall, left arm. Breathing out and lift last time.
Come up really tall, lift through the whole spine, nice and easy, right on top of
the sit bones and we'll turn to this side, laying down on the floor. We're going to
bring the right leg and cross it over the left and pulling the knees towards you
nice and gently again, breathing as you do it and then turning the right leg out,
put the hands through and pulling the left knee towards you, keeping the spine
nice and long, changing legs, crossing the left over the right and pulling them in
with a little pulsing if you want to, nice and easy, turning the left leg out and
extend the right leg along the floor and little hip circle with the left going
around and change direction. Just relaxing the hip, letting the leg rotate inside the
socket and change legs, pulling the right knee in and circle and change
direction. And just pull both legs in, curl up into a little ball and as you
exhale, stretch the legs out, reach the hands above your head and just walking the
legs out of the hips as you bring the arms around, down the sides and place
them on your hips. Legs in parallel, long spine, pelvis is in neutral, no tucking or
arching of the spine and we're going to keep the feet pointed, bending the legs
in, extending out and flex and pointing in, really scooping in the tummy muscles
all the time the stomach should be working, nice and easy, shoulders and turning
the legs out this time, reaching the legs away from you. We're reversing, taking the
legs up the side, close and extend along the floor, keeping the spine really long
and stretch the legs out, we're going to do a poor de bras, taking the arms up to
fifth, bring them down and out to a little demibra, up to fifth, keeping the shoulders easy. This
time we take the arms up to fifth and we curl up, reaching the legs away from you
and head down and up, keeping the ankles together, bring the hands back to the hips
and bend the legs in, with the right leg we're going to take the foot to
couture pied, extend along and out, flex, it just comes off the floor, keeping the
hips soft, feeling as if the legs are getting longer every time you extend them
out, stomach scooping in and articulating through the feet, bring the right leg in
and change to the left, couture pied, I extend out, keeping the leg through the
top of the head and a little bicycle, extending out with a flex, long leg as it
goes down, pointing in, flex and reaching, making sure that the pelvis is still in
neutral, change to the left, flex, go through demi-point, long, long legs, easy
shoulders and bend both legs in, we're going to point the feet, take the arms to
a fifth and pour de bras, stretching the legs as you bring the head up, flex the
feet, point bending them in, extend out, really scooping the stomach muscles, careful
not to tuck under and bring the head down, hands back onto the hips and just
turning the legs out, walking them out of the hips as you turn them out, keeping
the pelvis neutral again, we could do couture pied, turned out, extending
davon, flexing the foot point as it comes back in, check that you're not
rolling in the pelvis, change to the left, heel reaching out, so the leg is
scooping away from you in the hip socket, we do the same thing now with the right
leg out to second, couture pied, extend through the heel, flexing as it goes to a
little second, reaching through the left leg, so it's working as well, change to
the left foot, bend it in, extend through the heel to second, make sure you keep
breathing, stomach pulled in, good now do the same thing with two legs, bending
them both into little frog, extend, flex the feet out a little second, point as
they come together, lengthening through the spine all the time, still using the
feet, and we do the same thing again but with the poor Dabrat, arms up to fifth,
and bring the head up as you extend the legs, keeping the tail long, again
checking you're not tucking, very good, bring the legs together, back to
fifth, parallel, bend the legs in, hands on the hips, just recheck that you're
long through the spine, the stomach's pulled in, and we do a developing with
the right leg up, flex at the top, and lengthening the leg down towards the
floor, pointing in, reaching, using your stomach muscles to stabilize you, and
reversing, flexing as the leg comes up,
and left leg developing up, flex at the top, using the foot on the way down,
keeping the hips facing up towards the ceiling, stomach engaged, and reverse
flexing up,
good stretching both legs out, we're going to turn to this side, turn to our
left, both legs are turned out, both feet are pointed, and we're going to bend
the right leg in, extending out, flexing through the heel, and really important to
keep using the stomach here, one hips staying on top of the other, and then we
are going to develop a up, flex at the top, and down,
and reversing, flexing as the leg comes up,
scooping the leg away from you, very good, and turning on to the other side to face
the other way, yeah facing this way, and keeping one hip on top of the other,
bending the leg in, and scooping out through the heel, stomach in, easy shoulders,
and long thighs, and working from underneath the leg, into the devlopie, and
extend up through the heel, and long leg down, keep the bottom leg working, and
legs in the leg as it comes down, and reversing, flexing up, point, and sliding
it down the bottom leg, keeping the ribs engaged,
lovely, good, and then turning on to our stomachs, let's turn it this way, so we're
going to have the hands above the head here, and make sure that the shoulders are
pulling down the back, imagine that you've got your arms in fifth position but
the palms are facing on the floor, the legs are turned out, stomach is lifted,
and we're going to just extend the right leg along the floor, and changing to the
left, and think of it lengthening out of the pelvis, stomach stays in, now we
extend the leg out, we flex, and point, lengthen down, and reach, flex, point, and
down, again, keeping the stomach lifted, easy shoulders, and we're going to repeat
that, but we lengthen through the top of the head, pulling the shoulders down,
flex, point, and down, and change, it's more important how long the leg that
pulls out from the hip, and how high it goes, reaching through the heels, very
good, and we're just going to push yourself back onto your knees, stretch
out the back, the head relax on the floor, easy shoulders, come on to your feet, and
we're going to do a little hamstring stretch, so the feet are slightly apart,
we're going to stretch the legs, and stretch, and you can scoop your tummy up
as you stretch the legs, last time stretch, and keep the stomach pulled in,
we're going to slowly roll up through the spine, keeping your stomach muscles
working, and we're going to just turn the legs out, just do an easy first
position, let the shoulders open, and we're going to take the arms to fifth
position as we plea, bring the arms down, up to fifth and rise, and plea, using the
stomach all the time, keeping long through the spine, good, out to second, same arms
to fifth, plea, rising up, think of the arms coming from your back, really
lengthen through the spine, it's time to stay up and slowly lowering down, we're
going to reach the right arm to the side, and lift up, and over, to the left, lifting up
through the spine, keeping the stomach muscles working, just slowly walking the
legs in, keeping them slightly apart, take the arms up to fifth, and we're just
going to go over, bending the knees, rolling up, using the legs, using the
stomach as the arms come up to fifth, and bending, rolling through every part of the
spine, shoulders down, last time, leave the arms hanging down, and rolling up, good,
out to fifth, and over, up to fifth, and over, up to fifth, and over, up to fifth,
