The contemporary dance class

I love dance and ballet, but I don't think I would take dance classes if I didn't hope it would improve my skating. I wanted to take ballet to help me figure out my posture and to teach me arm movement.  As I searched for beginner ballet classes in the park district list and I couldn't find a ballet class to fit my schedule, I took a contemporary dance one instead. I thought the contemporary dance was a beginner class too. But no...

It was an all level artist in residence class! In return for using the park district space, a dance company was allowing guests into their an hour and a half warm up/ training time.

The space is beautiful and very romantic. It's a big room in an older building with one side top to bottom windows facing the lake Michigan. The opposite side is top to bottom interior windows and french doors and the connected room has top to bottom windows too.  Another side of the room has top to bottom mirrors and the floor is soft rubber. There is a soft and inspiring feeling to it, and of course, a little intimidating.

The class is half the time conducted by a member of the company and half the time by guest professors from Columbia College. Did I say a little intimidating?

We always started with half hour to 45 minutes on the floor. The purpose is to warm up the hips, pelvis, and spine while bringing awareness of alignment, uneven use of the sides, asymmetries of the body. This is called the Feldenkrais Method. Read more here if you are interested: http://www.feldenkraissf.com/some-feldenkrais-basics/

Next we moved on the floor linking different moves, going in different directions. There were steps, weight shifts, swipes on the floor, turns, pirouettes, something going around from standing to knees on the floor and standing again, that one of the instructors called spirals, and lots of "around" movement of the upper body. It could have been all part of a show. I couldn't really follow much but I felt inspired being between the dancers.

What I found interesting it's how much skating is embedded in my way of moving. In skating we initiate the movement with pushing the feet underneath the hips. Then we control the movement with very delicate shifts of the weight alignment. In dance the weight is transferred quickly with every step. I felt I was lagging behind because I wasn't remembering the choreography, but also because I wouldn't commit to the quick weight shifts, so I was often off balance. Also I turned easily towards left (as I spin and jump counter clockwise in skating) but not so much towards the right.


I think for a beginner skater like me, ballet is a more useful tool to learn about alignment, posture, and arm movement. But contemporary dance classes would work very well for more advanced skaters.