Are you living for everyone else in your life except yourself?

Now is a great time to include yourself in your life.
Connect your body, mind
and spirit so completely
that you will never be bored.

Modern dance gets you into your body and keeps you in the moment in a very special way. Its concepts will enchant you and call up your imagination to add your own personal meaning to your movements.

Just as your body feels different to you every day, so do the movements suffuse their magic in a different way each time you do them.

In the spirit of child's play and discovery I invite you to join me in experiencing the pleasure of sculpting your body while moving with awareness.

What's so special about modern dance?
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Exactly how will it help me look and feel 10 years younger?
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Modern Dance is the most organic of all techniques, working through our natural movements and our own individual energy. Everyone is born with a unique structure and way of moving, and everyone's flexibility is different.
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As modern dance is a tried and true exercise system designed to lengthen and strengthen you from tip to toe — you will, in time, develop a dancer's body — becoming more lithe, and feeling a new freedom of movement.
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With every breath you take, your body processes exercise in its own way and moves to its own internal rhythms — Cultivating your individuality is at the heart of the modern dance technique and that is one of the reasons it keeps you so engaged.
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Importantly, the technique is a fusion of art and science that focuses on the individual characteristics of your own spine, joint, and muscle formation — and you learn how to work enjoyably and safely at all times.
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All you need is you — no need to wear ear plugs and use music to keep you engaged while you exercise — above all, modern dance is never boring, and it adds power to all your other activities, whether running, biking, golfing, walking up stairs, or doing chores around home.
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Because the movements are natural, and never forced, you can build them seamlessly and joyfully into your everyday life to maintain a feeling of freedom and well-being.
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Not only does modern dance help you
develop a torso that is beautiful, powerful and lean, it also helps you lift your weight out of your legs,protecting your hip and knee joints while adding spring to your legs.
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As we are all built differently, some with tighter or looser joints, longer or shorter torsos, hips turned in or turned out, these classes will guide you in adjusting the exercises to suit your physicality.
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To an observer, everyone in the class appears to be doing the same thing, but in reality each student is working in accordance with their own individual physicality.

Why is this better than going to the gym?
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Consider one big difference. . .wearing socks and the reason for it. . .
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Martha Graham, mother of modern dance, was one of the dance pioneers who understood the value in working without shoes, and we still work that way today, for much more than stylistic or esthetic reasons.
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Feeling the floor beneath your feet, you get vital feedback into your nerves and muscles. This feedback helps you prevent injury, achieve better balance, and re-align and improve your arches — it also helps to reshape and sculpt your leg muscles.

What about Pilates?
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Think of modern dance as "Pilates plus." Martha Graham was a student of Pilates in her early days as a dancer, and she learned a lot from him about the proper use of the body.
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Ms. Graham absorbed those principles -- and bringing them to a totally new level she made her technique a much more fascinating, creative, and compelling activity.
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•. . . Signing off for today, and I will be adding to this story from time to time.

Wondering what modern dance can do for you?
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A private introductory class is a good way to start feeling the difference, and get the basics down pat.

The basic principles of modern dance develop your body for all movement --improving your abilities in Dance, Sports, Martial Arts, Yoga, and other systems including Aikido, Capoeira, Kick boxing and on through the alphabet to Zumba.

If you would like to set up a private class, please email Ettie:
etsteg@gmail.com
or leave a message at:
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The Whole Works®
212 575 0765.
Please be sure and say your phone number twice and s-l-o-w-l-y, and mention the best time to return your call.
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In the meantime, get out of your head and into your body, take your shoes off, and dance with me.

Ettie Steg is a modern dancer and personal trainer
who is also NESTA certified:
Pilates Specialist
Biomechanics Specialist
Core Specialist