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Cadi McCarthy

We're going to start off with some warm up exercises, and each of these exercises are really strong foundation exercises that are utilized through the whole of the techniques. So whether or not you're a beginner or you're a professional dancer, these are foundation exercises are really important part of the techniques that we're going to do today.

So we're going to start off and we're going to lift our arms. 1, 2, 3, 4. We're going to contract from the belly button. This is from the Graham technique. And curve. 2, 3, 4. And then we unfold. 1, 2, 3, 4. Contract. 1, 2, 3, 4. And up. 2, 3, 4. From here we're going to contract. 2, 3, 4. We're going to release from the tailbone to a flat back. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Creating a really strong line. We release. 2, 3, 4. We reach our arm up and to second. So we contract. 2, 3, 4. Releasing from our tailbone to a flat back. 1, 2, 3, 4. We drop. 1, 2, 3, 4. Up to fifth. We turn our feet out to second to dégagé to second. From here we're going to Cunningham bounces. We bounce 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Our arms go to fifth and to second. We do three pliés in second. Plié 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4. Our arm goes to fourth and we rotate from the waist. So you have to imagine that the waist can move independently to the ground. So we're moving our waist to the corner and we can't let this hip roll forward. We have to pull that hip back as we're coming, reaching up.

We go over 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4. Our arm goes to fourth. We rotate, pulling that hip back. And we go over 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4. Our arm goes to fourth and to second. Now we're going to lunge over. 1, 2, 3, 4. It's nice and slow, feeling that we're pulling back from this thigh. So we're not coming forward this way. We're rotating back.

Nice and slow so we can get the technique. We come through a second 2, 3, 4. We rotate the other side. 2, 3, 4. Up. 2, 3, 4. To the side, opening that thigh. 3, 4. To the second. 2, 3, 4. Over. 2, 3, 4, and up. Now we do it in two counts. We go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Now we're going into Horton. We're going to reach over 1, 2, 3, 4. From here we've got to rotate the body to a flat back. 1, 2, 3, 4. We notate it back. 1, 2, 3, 4. Finding that lateral side movement. Up 1, 2, 3, 4. Really reaching. 2, 3, 4. Rotate. 2, 3, 4. Come back. 2, 3, 4. Up. In two counts we go 1, 2. Really pulling this opposite leg into the floor as we're reaching away from our body. We go 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. Up 1, 2. Reach 1, 2. Flat, 2. Reach and up.

From here we're going to lunge all the way over. Reaching really long, making sure that knee is pulling back over the middle toe. 1, 2. We curve all the way around for 2. From here, we come to a flat back. So with the flat back, we've got to make sure that our arms are in line with the shoulders. So they're not too high. They're not too low. Really in line.

And we're trying to create a flat line from the back, the tailbone right through to the back of the head. Making sure that we've got a line. So just dump through your ribs for a minute. Other way. We don't want any of these. We want to pull back into my hand, creating a front straight line, head in line. Arms in line. Sorry, guys. Kept you there.

Then we drop it again. 2, 3, 4. We try and find that line again. 1, 2, 3, 4. We release it. 2, 3, 4. We reach. 2, 3, 4. And up 2, 3. Other side. And 1, 2, 3, 4. Through the middle. 2. Nice curve. And flat back. 2, 3, 4. Down. 2, 3, and 4. Flat back. 2, 3, 4, and down. 2, 3, 4. Reach other side and up in two counts. We go 1 and 2, curve 1 and 2. Flat back, 1 and 2. And release. And 2.

We come up for 2 and down for 2. To the side and up for 2 to go over for 2. Curve around for 2. And flat back. And release. And flat back. And release. Reaching over, longest line, and up. We bring our arms to fifth. Up. Feet to parallel. Reaching forward into the flat back. Plié. Arms by your ears. Up. So don't have them low or too high.

By the ears. Up. Reaching the arms to second. Find that flat back. From here, we're going to contract like the Graham technique. Contract. 3 and release. 2, 3, 4. Contract. And release. And contract. And release. We drop our arms, we swing them up to fifth, turning our feet out. Dégagé, and close.

The students are now going to do this exercise to music. Often in the modern dance classroom, there were live musicians. And we've had a composer creating this music for us today, which is incredible that we've been able to have that composer in the space with us.

[Music plays]

5, 6, 7, 8. Contract. Flat back. Drop. Back. Flat back. Release. Cunningham bounces. 1.

2 counts. Horton side reach. 2, 3, 4. Twist. Rotate back. Up. Other side. Twist. 2 counts. Rotate. Reach. Into the middle. Flat back. And release. Flat back. And release.

Reach to the side. And up. Other way. To the side. And up. Now in 2 counts. Ready? Go. Other side. Other side. Go. 1.

And up. Feet parallel. Reaching forward. Plié. And stretch. Plié. And stretch. Opening the arms. Out. And contract. And release. And contract. And release. Contract. Release. Drop down. Arms to feet. Turn the feet out. Dégagé. And close. And relax.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So the next exercise we are going to do is based on Cunningham technique. What we're going to do is we're transferring our weight and finding a really nice curve. It actually helps with our balance and control. And really, through this exercise, we're going to be doing two different versions, a foundation version and an extension version.

So from here, we're going to dégagé, 1. We're going to lunge forward with this leg, 2, and drop our body into a nice curve making sure that our knee's heading over our toe. We're not coming forward this way. So it's really clear alignment with our front leg, and we're pushing our back heel into the ground. So creating a really strong line. From here we've got to pull our whole body up and then close to first.

Then we go to the side. Second. Reach over, over, over. We come back up. And close. We dégagé to the back. We do a high release. So we bring our arms to first. We feel like our chest is coming up to the ceiling, making sure our back knee is not rolling forward this way. Really pulling back that leg. High release and dégagé and close.

Then we dégagé devant, derriere devant. Other side. So we dégagé. We drop. We point, using the core to bring yourself up, and close. Dégagé. To the side and up and close. To the back. High release. Dégagé and close. To the front. To the back. To the front, and close. So that's the foundation version.

From here, the second version, we go dégagé. We lunge. From here, we extend into a diagonal line from the back of our heels to our fingertips. We pull up and we come back down. We pull up. We come back down to that diagonal line. From here we're going to rotate and come into a side tilt, really rotating our legs.

From here we come back to the flat diagonal line to pull ourselves up and close. And dégagé. We drop. We reach to a diagonal line. From here we pull ourselves up nice and straight to find that diagonal line again. We pull up. We find that diagonal line. We pull up. We find the diagonal line.

From here we rotate through our hips, bringing the arms into a nice lateral diagonal line, bringing ourselves back to the front to pull ourselves up, and close. So the students are going to demonstrate this exercise across the foundations to the extension. So each of the dancers today will be doing a different version of this exercise that you can watch for your class. Thank you.

[Music plays]

5, 6, 7, 8. And point. And drop. And point. And close. And point. And side. And point. And close to the back. Back. Up. And close to the front. Front. To the back. To the front. Other side. To second. To the back.

And extension. Dégagé. Here's the extension. Dégagé. And out. And lunge. Flat back. And stretch. And flat back. And stretch. And flat back. And stretch. One more. Down. Rotate. Turning out those legs. Coming back. Up. Other side. Out. And down.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So we're now going to move into some footwork and some extension of the leg. So we're going to be working with our foundations and our legs moving through the space, but also adding some curves and twists to our movement. So we're going to start with a half toe. It goes 1 and 2, with a fondu, 3 and 4. We roll through 5, pulling up, 6, fondu, 7, and 8. Half toe 1 and 2, with a fondu, and 4, rolling through the legs, and 6 and 7.

Reaching the arms to second. We dégagé 1, lower 2, flex the foot, 3, and 4. We rise up. 6. We circle the arms all the way around, out to second, lowering the heels. Dégagé and close. From here, we retiré. We turn it out to the diagonal, we dégagé divonne with a twist, and close to the side and close to the back and close to the side and close.

We bring it back to retiré, back to parallel, lowering the foot to rise up and lower. Then we'd repeat it onto the other side. But I just want to show you the extension exercise. So instead from here where we bring our leg up to retiré, to second, and lower. With the twist, the leg will come off this air into more of a glissade or a grand battement position from here. And I'll just work with one of the students. We're going to retiré from here, we curve into a fondu.

We come back to retiré. We go to an attitude position. We twist the arms, trying to create a straight line from fingertip to fingertip. We do a slight extension. We bring the leg up and over. We land in parallel to dégagé and close to repeat that on the other side. So now the students are going to demonstrate this exercise. Some will be doing the foundation and some will be doing the extension.

[Music plays]

5, 6, 7, 8. And 1, 2, 3. Rising up. Circle the arms. And divonne to the side, to the back, to the side. Retiré.

Other side. And dégagé. Flex the foot. Rising up. Circle the arm. Lower the heels. Lift. Turn it out and to the front. Retiré. Extend. Drop. Face.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So what we're going to do now is a plié exercise that also incorporates some Graham technique and some Graham floorwork. So we start by bending our knees. Our arm comes out to the side. And it's directly in line with our shoulder. From here we bring our body around into a curve. So really trying to create a nice curve shape with our body. We extend our arm up to fifth position. We bring the other arm to it, and then we rotate our body back to the front.

From here we high release, coming back. And just be careful when you're doing a high release that it's not about the ribs pushing forward this way, that we're actually trying to lift up and travel back from our sit bones. So from here, we're opening up. From there, we drop our head to the side, we pick our arm up, and we come to a second position. We plié.

From here we reach our arms over to the diagonal. We slowly, with control, slide to the floor to reach into a fourth position. From here we contract, really curving into our spine, and release. Arms are pinching down on the diagonals. We curve and we release. From here we bring our elbow down to the ground and we rotate. We're trying to go right round to see our back toe. And then from here we come back.

We bring our elbow down, rotating all the way around, and then we come back. This time, same action. We're going to bring our elbow down. We're going to push our feet into the ground. We're going to push up, really reaching around the corner. We lower our hips and we come back. And one more time, bring our elbow down. Really finding this nice, strong line. It's almost a right angle from your shoulder through to your fingers, pushing up.

We bring that down and reach back. From here we're going to rotate our body forward, and it's slightly on a diagonal. From here, if you need to put your hands onto the ground, that's fine. All we're going to extend that leg back. From there we're going to rotate, so really rotating all the way around into our hip socket, bringing our arms forward. We're going back to that position but back to the fourth position. So bringing this leg back to the fourth position, leaning forward.

From here, we rotate our feet into a nice parallel position, and our arm is going to push up into the sky, following our eyeline to our fingertips. We lower down. We drop our back knee. We come into a Graham pose. So it's a really strong pose with a really strong presence. From here we bring our hand around, we swing our legs to parallel, and we come all the way back up. So let's demonstrate that to music.

[Music plays]

Ready. And here we go. And down. Up and twist. Pick the arm up. Other arm to it. Rotate to the front. High release. Circling around. Picking up the arm. Finding second position. Plié and rotate. Lift. Good. Sliding slowly down into fourth position. And contract. And contract. Elbow to the floor. And back. Elbow to the floor.

Pushing up through the feet. And reaching forward on the diagonal. Extend the back leg. Rotate. Bringing it back to the diagonal. Two feet to parallel. Pushing up through the hips. Coming down, drop the back knee and pose. Good. Coming around. Find parallel. Rolling up.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So now we're going to do a triplet travelling exercise. We're going to show you first an introductory exercise on a triplet. And a triplet is through the Cunningham technique. So when we're doing a triplet, the most important thing is that we've got three even steps. So when we're doing a triplet to second we've got to go plié 1, step forward, 2, 3. To the side we go 1, 2, 3.

Now we're going to do a triplet turning. So we come to a second position facing the side. 1. Turn 2. Turn 3. Other way. 1, 2, 3. So let's show you a little bit faster what this introductory exercise looks like. So we'll go, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. We'll now do it to music.

[Music plays]

So the tempo goes down, up, up, down, up, up. 1, 2, 3. Ready, and, go. 1, 2, 3. 1.

So that was our foundation triplet. So the 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And now we're going to extend that into a short phrase, including the triplet. So we plié 1, 2, 3. We plié 1, 2, 3. We do a turn in parallel with the contraction, 2, 3. We then take two steps forward. 1, 2, plant 3. We curve 1, 2, 3.

We're going to pick up the front foot and the arm. We go 1, 2, plié 3. From here, we transfer. We're turning out the leg. We come into a balanced position. We close it up. We do another contraction turn to step into parallel with our arms on a diagonal. From here, we open into a high release. We come through. It circles in front of us and we push down. And that's the end of the exercise.

[Music plays]

Ready, 2, 3. Off you go. 1, 2, 3. Contract. And curve. Pick it up.

So now we're doing the third version of the triplet exercise. So this is a further extension. So with triplet, we plié 1, 2, 3. Plié 1, 2, 3. We're going to go into a turn on fondu, so in this position, but our arms will be in this position as we turn. So from here, we turn, we take two steps, and we come into a rise. We bring our arms out into a curve.

From here, we cut under into a second position. We rotate. What we're going to do is a fondu in parallel position. We extend our arms and legs. We draw up to fifth position and jump into second. From here, we turn. We're going to push up to the diagonal on rise. From here, we open the arms. They cross over, pull back into a nice sharp position. We're going to sashay forward on our right foot and hold. And now we'll do it to music.

[Music plays]

2, 3. Ready, and, go. 1.

So now we're going to show you the same exercise again, but the tempo is faster to allow those students to really extend themselves with the triplet. So there'll be a different piece of music, but it will be a much faster tempo.

[Music plays]

1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Ready, and, here we go. 1.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So what we're going to do now is an adage exercise. So we'll be doing two variations. So if you feel that you would like to keep your foot on the floor, that is OK, or the other variation is that we're extending the leg off the ground. With our extensions, we will be doing flat backs and curves. So taking the techniques of Cunningham and Horton and using that within our adage.

We're going to start facing the diagonal. We step down and up onto a rise with our arms up onto the diagonal. Or you could be on flat feet. We reach into a higher release. As we do that, we transfer back onto our supporting leg, onto a fondu and lift the leg up. It comes up and around into a fondu with a flat back. We cut under into a fifth position. We soutenu.

The arm comes over our head. We chassé forward on the same arm and leg, and we extend. We take two steps back. 1, 2. We rond and twist. We rond and twist. From here we come into a plié. Repeating this plié with a curve. From here, we transfer forward. We're trying to make a flat back with our body. And we extend our leg up.

From here, we come into a plié into second position. And we push up onto the corner, into a rise with our arms on the diagonal, our hands and feet into a nice strong diagonal line. We notate our arm up and over the top. Chassé forward, coming into another balanced position to cut into a fifth position. Soutenu, cross the arms, and stand. And now we will do that to music.

[Music plays]

And ready. 2, go. And. 1, 2. Rond. Twist. Rond. Twist. Plié. Transfer. And lift. Good. Into second position. Diagonal line. And feed it through. Good. Rotate. And lift if you want to. Good. Cut under. Soutenu. Wrap the arms. And finish.

[Music plays]

Ready, and here we go. And down. Fold, fold, fold. Big twist. Stride into the flat back. Push off the ground. Into plié. To the diagonal. And fold. And rond. Find the flat back. Go down, go down.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So now what we're going to do is a jump sequence. We'll be doing two versions of the jump sequence. One is more of a foundation. The second is the extension. So we're going to start facing this diagonal. We step forward. We're going to do a hop with our foot in retiré in parallel. And as we hop, our body folds over.

So adding it together, we want to fold over. We do two steps facing this corner. We do this again to the other side. We step over. Step, step. From here, we turn. One contraction. Turn. We're going to chassé forward on our right leg and shunt. From the shunt position, we step through. We do what's called an American swing. We're going to swing our arms over, swing our arms over, swing our arms over, coming into a half circle to bring our feet into parallel.

We're going to bring our body down, to jump in parallel with our eyes up to the ceiling and our hands in really sharp position, to drop as we land, to take two steps, 1, 2, into a staggered jump with our front foot. Sorry, guys. With our front foot in attitude and our back leg in attitude position. And as we're doing the jump, we're creating a curve with our body over our front leg. So as we're coming up, we create the curve shape as we're coming through. Now we'll do it with music.

[Music plays]

And 5, 6, 7. Go. Step. Hop. Step. Turn. Stunt.

We're now going to teach the extended version of the jump. So we're going to face this diagonal. We step, hop, with a curve. Two steps. Step, hop with a curve. Two steps. We're going to turn into a shunt forward. And three swings. 1, 2, 3. From here, we go step, turn into a rise into arabesque with our arms on a nice diagonal. And then from here, we land in a fondu. From here we do a jump, back, step, step, jump forward with a curve, a soutenu turn to go rond, rond, into a Sur jump. Now we'll do that with music.

[Music plays]

5, 6. 5, 6, 7. Go. 1.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

So now we're going to create a much larger phrase, which actually culminates a few of the things that we have done throughout the lesson. So we're going to start by bending the knees. We reach our arm out to the side so it's in line with our shoulder. Our arm comes in, does a little circle underneath. As it comes over our head, we chassé to the side and reach, creating a nice diagonal line. We come around into a curve position.

Now, from this curve position we can choose which way we can do it. We can do a straight up and to second. Or you can choose to do a single turn or a double turn. So that is up to your choice. So from here, we're going to reach up and come to second. From here, we plié. We reach over to the diagonal with our arms and really reach. From here, we then extend our supporting leg. We're going to lift that leg up. So just relax, dancers.

From here, we can either choose to come forward into a lunge position, or you can choose to go up, rotate the body, and then dive. From here, we'll join all together and we lay flat. We roll onto our backs. We do a Martha Graham contraction. So we're coming up, keeping our knees in a tabletop position. We then rotate our knees to the front, bring our arms to the side, and we contract down over four counts.

From here, we roll into a bowl. We extend our arms and our legs into a banana shape. We bring it all back in. We extend our front leg forward. It comes up and over into a split shape. Bring this leg around and then sit into a fourth. From here, we put our elbow onto the ground. We push all the way up in fourth position. We bring our body back down and we turn our body back to the front. We do a bottom spin.

From here we drop our knee, extend our leg. You can either keep it onto the floor this way, or you can extend it up and around, creating a curve shape. From here, we want to extend the leg forward and then place it onto the ground. From here, we bring our two feet to parallel. We push up. Eyes to the ceiling. We bring it back down.

We curve our legs, finding the diagonal, reaching our arms up on a diagonal. We gently hinge back, gently as far as you can go, roll. Find our parallel position and up. Thanks. We'll just do it to music. Some of the dancers are doing the modified version, and some of the dancers are doing the extension.

[Music plays]

And ready. 2, go. And.

[End of transcript]

Cadi McCarthy

I really would like to thank you for coming on this modern dance journey with us and going through some of the pioneers of modern dance practice. I really want to extend my thanks to these incredible young dancers, who were demonstrating these exercises for you. I really hope that you enjoyed our class.

[End of transcript]