HERITAGE WORKOUT

Dance Positions

Standing Position (Stance)

Stand with your feet and legs together and your arms hanging at your sides. Your legs should be straight, but do not lock your knees.
Tighten your buttock muscles (squeeze them gently together). Then, starting from the bottom of your spine, concentrate on tightening each vertebra all the way up to your head. Imagine the pole running up your spine. You are sliding along it toward the ceiling, getting taller as you straighten. If you inhale as you straighten your back, you should feel as though your body is getting lighter.
Pull your shoulders back gently and let your arms hang straight down from them. If you have a seam on the side of your shorts or pants, your arms should be hanging just behind that seam now.
Fold your thumb into the palm of your hand. Curl your fingers gently over your thumb. Make sure you do not hold your fingers and thumb too tightly, or your hand will go numb. However, your fingers should touch your thumb during your whole exercise or dance, and your hands should stay touching the sides of your legs.
Leaving your heels together, rotate your legs from your hips and turn your toes away from each other until they are at about a 45 degree angle. This is called turnout. Make sure you are turning your legs out from your hips. You can check this by bending your knees slightly. If your knees are bending over your toes, you are turning your toes out from your hips. If your knees are not in a line with your toes, then you are turning from your lower leg, which will put damaging pressure on your knees. If at first you are not very flexible in the hips, try turning your feet only slightly out, and gradually turn out more and more with each class.

This is your standing position. You should always start in this position before doing dance exercises or your actual dance. If you have trouble staying in this position, practice it on your own.

Foot Positions

The position of your feet is one of the main things that an adjudicator looks at when judging you at a feis. These exercises should help you improve your pointing, and turnout, and hopefully you will also end up with much better marks!

Crossing Your Feet

Start from your standing position, checking to make sure your stance is correct.

Place your right foot in front of your left foot, keeping both feet turned out. Your right heel should be touching your left toes.

Your feet are now what the Irish call *crossed*.This means that your feet are one in front of the other, with your legs together so that no space shows between them.

Try crossing your feet with the left foot in front now.

Pointing Your Toes

Start in your standing position, checking to make sure your stance is correct.

Cross your feet with the right foot in front, making sure your feet remain turned out.

Slide your right foot forward several inches so that your right heel is in a line with your left arch. Your weight should now be entirely on your left foot (your back foot). The exact distance you want your feet apart depends on your height and balance, which is different for each person, so experiment to find the best spot for you. Make sure your toes remain turned out from your hips.

Keeping your leg straight and your toes on the ground, slowly lift your right heel as far as you can, using mainly your calf muscles and rotating your hip very slightly up as your heel rises. You may need to slide your right foot forward or backward somewhat to keep your leg straight as you do this.

Now, use the muscles of your foot to curl your toes. Your weight is still entirely on your left foot, your back foot. Ideally, then, you should now be standing with your weight on your back leg, with only the tips of your front toes resting on the ground. Make sure your toes are still turned out. (You know they are if you can see your front heel in the mirror).

The muscles of the arches of your feet are what control your toe point. To strengthen them, you can sit with ankle weights attached around your feet, or sit with your toes under the bottom of a chair or couch (or other heavy object). Make sure that whatever your toes are under is not heavy enough to damage your toes or feet. Leaving your heels on the ground, raise and lower your toes, lifting whatever object they are resting under. Repeat numerous times.

Repeat your toe point with your left toe.

Dance Positions | Dance Exercises | Improving Turnout

All of this information was freely provided by Ariel Bennett T.C.R.G. of the Heritage Irish Stepdancers. "Please let everyone know that they are welcome to download and use the information with our blessing. If they would like to print it for widespread use or post it on a website, etc. all they need to do is write us at info@heritageirish.com and ask for permission (which we grant freely)."

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