In Belly Dance we often hear about the importance of grounding, in order to build a strong, beautiful posture.
Teachers might tell you – and indeed, correctly – to “connect the feet to the floor”, to “grow deep roots into the ground”, to “spread the toes and feel the floor underneath your skin”, to “bounce and feel the body weigh”.
All these instructions are useful and help you grounding.
But grounding is not enough to keep a good posture.
When the feet, legs and lower back are grounding what happens on the other end of the vertical axis? The head, the shoulders and the upper back should not “sink into the floor”.
So, what do they do instead?
They grow taller! They connect to the sky.
We imagine that the crown of our head (the top of the skull) touches the ceiling.
While our feet grow roots our heads aim for the stars!
Look carefully at the image on the post.
- Your lower body is the chair: your feet are stable and your hips are wide and well anchored.
- Your upper body is the balloon: your head is light and moves away from the ground, with easiness.
- Your spine is the string of the balloon: it is pulled upwards by the head and downwards by gravity.
Keep this image in mind for the next time that you practice or teach posture.
Observe how a correct body posture makes dancing technique much easier!
