{Teacher Spotlight: Getting To Know Your Favorite LM Teachers}

We're celebrating another fantastic Liberated Movement teacher in this installment of our teacher spotlight. You love love LOVE her class and just can't get enough Ballet. You follow her blog onthewaytothebarre.com, but did you know THESE fun facts about Sarah? 

1. What is your nickname?  Some people have called me “the dude” as a take-off on my last name. Although my last name is actually pronounced to rhyme with “ow” like in the word “endowed”.

2. When is your birthday? May 6^th is my birthday—“When the lilacs bloom”, my mother used to say.

3. Where is your hometown? I grew up in Hilo Hawaii, one of the fifth rainiest cities on the planet.  Unofficial mildew capital of the world it is known for its lush rainforests and waterfalls.  There are no lilacs there.  But we have lots of other flowers.  My favorites are Plumerias, Pakalana, Pikake…

4. What is your guilty pleasure?  I love all kinds of soup, tea, fruit and vegetables.  Guiltily, I love bacon and sausage, and recently have a thing for chicken flavored ramen.  My all-time favorite guilty pleasures are hawaiian food: lau-lau and poke.

5. What is your favorite place in New York City and why?  I love Central Park, particularly the fountain by the lake in the center, and the path by the lake near 72^nd street.  I also love the walk along Riverside drive from 59^th into the 100s.  And I love Inwood Hill Park.  Any place with a view of the water is great. I guess I am a nature girl at heart, but each time I come back to the city from being away, I see all the tall buildings, and I feel like I’m home.

6. Who is your favorite dancer or choreographer? Alessandra Ferri was a phenomenal ballet dancer.  She retired in 2007, but she didn’t just dance, she expressed the primal beauty of her soul in each extension of her leg and foot, each extended arm and finger… And we share the same birthday. 

7. What 5 words best describe you? Passionate, enthusiastic, emotional, free-spirited, goof-ball.

8. What is your favorite movie? Oh man, so many favorites.  I’m going to go with Zombieland.  Not a dance movie, I know, but I think someone already said Singing in the Rain.

  9.  What is your favorite quote? I have so many. This one:

 “Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'”―The Talmud

 And this:

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” ― William Faulkner

10. What is your favorite Liberated Movement moment? A friend of mine who grew up in Hawaii and now goes to NYU came to my ballet class. I get very excited when I teach and sometimes I slip and say a Hawaiian word.  Her laugh when I shouted to the class “squeeze your okole” was priceless.

{Benefits of Ballet}

We just read this great article on the Benefits of Ballet. Some of the benefits you might see from attending Ballet class:

• Self Confidence "By the end of the class, as skills are combined in a performance, the dancer realizes that what she now can perform is beautiful. The confidence developed is useful for both children and adults. When we accomplish something that previously seemed very difficult, it helps us develop the confidence that we can overcome other obstacles in our lives."
• Connection to Others "Recent research indicates that when a person performs an action while another person is performing the same action, it activates “mirror neurons” in the brain. It is speculated that these mirror neurons may play a role in helping us understand the behaviors of others and in learning new skills by imitation."
• Focus and Concentration "When taking a ballet class, the student needs to be aware of where he is in relation to others, where he is in the room and how his body is moving. There are many specific movements of the hands and feet that are learned. This requires memorization and learning how to sequence movements."
• Stress Relief "Through ballet, you will learn an outlet for emotional expression. By using your body to express emotions, it helps to integrate the mind and the body...Through the integration and expression of emotions, we are able to move through emotional distress, and possibly through the causes of chronic pain and other dis-ease."
• Other Benefits "Increased flexibility, better posture, toning and strengthening of muscles, sweating out toxins, and many more."

There you have it! Pretty powerful benefits all for an hour of class. Be sure to check out open level Ballet with Sarah Doudna, Wednesday from 7-8pm!

{Animated}

Nothing beats watching dancers. Seeing their muscles, their grace, the energy reaching through their pointed toes and fingertips. I love seeing the sweat on their skin and their panting chests at the end of a performance. While there is really nothing comparable to seeing dancers move in the flesh, there is something so beautiful about this video and the artists' understanding of movement.

Artist Ryan Woodward animates incredible works of art. While his whole repertoire is impressive, I think it is his sketched dances that are the most amazing to watch! Who would have thought you could express so much about how dancers move through animation? To really knock your socks off, watch his Google commissioned snippet of Martha Graham. He seriously nailed it.

What do you guys think? While nothing compares to watching dancers and a live performance, this sure is beautiful to watch!

{Happy Birthday to... us!}

And what a busy 3 years it has been! Today Liberated Movement celebrates its 3rd birthday. Three years ago today we held our first ever Masala Bhangra class, followed by the wonderful news that Liberated Movement was about to exist for all. When that first class made enough to break even with a little profit, our founders knew this could work- and the rest is history! A great big thank you to all of our amazing students for helping Liberated Movement to exist. Without you beautiful dancers we surely wouldn't be here! Thank you for dancing, learning, growing, sweating!, and getting LIBERATED with us! 
Here is to many more birthdays of bringing affordable, accessible dance to all! 

{Get SMART}

As if we need another reason to head to the studio...

Amazing! Let's work our brains and get dancin'!

{Petite Mort}

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre recently posted this video online of their performance of Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián. Words can't express how beautiful is- so you have to watch!

Beautiful! and with that, TGIF!

{Sleep & Food}

An article recently mentioned at Well + Good NYC pointed out research on sleep from the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Some people rarely get a full, deep sleep, but this article shows that eating the right foods can make having sound nights of shut-eye possible. In short, the results prove that very short sleepers consume the most calories, while the longest sleepers take in the fewest.

"...people who get the ideal seven to eight hours of sleep per night have more well-rounded diets than those who sleep too much (9 hours or more) or too little (six hours or less)."






While there are still some questions as to why this is true, Michael A. Grandner, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author on the study, speculates that “Diets with less variety may not give people the nutritional coverage needed to support healthy sleep”.

The study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to evaluate the eating and sleeping patterns of a group of men and women. They found:

• certain sleep patterns are associated with different intake levels of specific nutrients and of calories overall
• people who sleep less than five hours per night drink less tap water and consume less lycopene (an antioxidant found in orange and red-hued produce like tomatoes and watermelon) compared to normal sleepers. 
• those who sleep five to six hours per night take in less vitamin C and selenium, a mineral found in nuts, meat and shellfish that may protect against cancer. 

Here is what Grandner suggests the best diet for sleep probably looks like:

 “A good sleeper's diet is most likely one that has a variety of different types of foods, with more complete nutritional coverage, and not too much high-calorie food.”

Bottom line:

For a good nights sleep,  remember to: drink lots of water, watch your calorie intake, eat a variety of fruits and veggies for nutritional coverage, eat some tomatoes, and eat foods high in vitamin C and selenium such as nuts, meat and shellfish. 

Sleep tight!