Using a Crissy doll as a model for pulling up (& my holiday schedule!)

Hello beautiful dancers!

If you're not of my generation, you probably have never heard of a Crissy doll. She was a red-headed toy, about a foot high, with a button in the center of her body that, when pressed, allowed you to lengthen her hair from the top of her head. A knob at the back would retract it. This is what she looked like:

So why am I mentioning a forty year old doll? And by the way, I had more than one of these dolls as a kid. I kept cutting her hair off and expecting it would always be replaced, as if she had a never-ending supply of hair in her tiny body.

Many times when I ask dancers to pull up, they hunch their shoulders up to their ears or they expand their rib cages. It can be a difficult concept to grasp and sometimes you need a visual image. Some common images are:

--Press your belly button to the back of your spine
--Imagine the top of your hip bones connected to the bottom of your rib cage
--Drop your tailbone as if it were weighted down

To this list, I add the Crissy doll:

Imagine yourself as a Crissy doll with a button in the center of your stomach and hair that can be pulled from the top of your head. 

Picture that button being pressed in and your spine being pulled up through the top of your head like Crissy's long red hair. 

center of Crissy's doll's stomach

It can be helpful to place yourself within that doll's stiff body. Crissy wasn't a soft-bodied doll like a Raggedy Ann or Cabbage Patch Kid. Instead, she was like a large Barbie: plastic with a soft head. I don't want you to always be stiff and unyielding but it can be a good visual aid when you find your center sagging.

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE REMINDER: All of my classes are as usual through the end of the year, except NO CLASS on Christmas Day. I will be using holiday music for my classes from 12/18-12/23 if you want some fun non-traditional music to dance to. I am also thinking of holding an open-level class at 10:30AM on New Year's Day to start 2018 with a fun morning of ballet. Email me if you are interested so I can reserve the studio!

Happy dancing and Happy holidays!