Four Helpful Tips to Create Long Lines and Extensions for an Elegant and Graceful body.

Long lines and extensions are more than a characteristic of good technique. They are one of the most important qualities if you want to express elegance, refinement and grace. A beautiful extension affects your entire body. If you were not blessed with long lines, don’t worry there are ways to elongate your body creating natural extensions that could transform your body’s lines and awareness.

I am sharing four helpful tips to help you find length while adding grace and elegance to your movement.

Feel how your body makes extensions within itself and in relation to space. Elongate your spine, lengthen your neck from the base of your skull. Keep your shoulders down and your chest slightly open. Close your eyes and visualize what happens within your body as you make this adjustments.

 Imagine your legs and arms extending and stretching with infinite possibilities. A good teacher of mine once told me “extend your arms as if they were going to the infinite”. When I teach this concept in my classes I tell my students to imagine that your limbs create lines that go beyond your visual, they stay present in the mind and have the power to be memorable, like if people could see those lines from across a stage, or a room, or a table and remember you.

 Keep your core engaged and the energy flowing during transitions between movements. It is like writing a beautiful story and in the middle of the story you forget to write sentences or some words are missing. What happens? The story losses its message. That translated to movement means that flowing transitions make your story look refined and polished.

 Use oppositional forces to maximize your extensions. For example, when standing, use the floor as resistance. Press with your feet towards the floor while projecting your heard towards the ceiling. Practice this concept in front of the mirror and explore different possibilities on how subtle changes in your posture can affect the extension and position of your spine.

This is one of the Foundational Pillars of Tangoflex: Flexibility from Within. You are not just moving or stepping, you are communicating elegant thoughts, ideas and impressions with your body and that goes deeper than any step. When the movement starts with the right intention from within, you can make your lines and extension graceful, refined and elegant. Give them a purpose. Give them a voice.