Good posture is more than standing up straight in order to look your best.
It goes beyond concepts like alignment, natural curvature or grounding.
To help my students find the correct posture I use the definition: “posture is space”.
What does this mean?
Lets take the upper torso as an example: when you open (raise) your chest it expands: you create space in the front part of your body. If you do this as you are reading this post you will realize how "spacious" your chest feels now. Keep this position and notice your back. Probably it has contracted, to allow your thorax to expand. This means that your upper back has now less space than before. Try the opposite movement now: create space in the upper back, allowing your shoulder blades to move apart. You have expanded your upper back but now your thorax has contracted, resulting in less space and mobility in the upper torso.
To find the correct posture we need to create equal space everywhere in the body: front, back and sides. Think of a balloon.
The exercise that we did just now with the torso can be done with any other body part (for pelvic aligment, for example) as well as for the entire body as a whole.
Try this in your next dance practice: search for that unique, optimal position where you feel that your body is filled with air. Make the necessary adjustments to your posture to make sure that each body part is fully occupying its own space.
Extra benefit: practice the “posture is space” approach and your will notice a boost in your confidence: you will learn that your body is entitled to extend naturally, comfortably and to its fullest. Simply take up more space!
