5 Tips to Have a Loose Hip

I just love a loose hip! I love to watch how the hip goes everywhere with ease and control. This is something I focus on a lot as a dancer and as a teacher. If you too want to have a loose hip, here goes my 5 tips for you:

1. Don’t use your quadriceps (upper leg) all the time, only when you want to intensify movements. The same goes for abdominals and gluteus. If you are contracting them all the time, you will be always doing strong/tense movements. Instead, try to use more your calf muscles (bottom leg), pushing your feet against the floor, that way you will have wide isolated movements, and still have a loose hip.

2. Let your knees free as well, don’t be always flexing them nor have them stretched all the time. In order to be ready to move your hip and intensify it whenever you want, keep your knees ready for the action. Only stretch your leg when you are moving on the stage with classical movement as turns, chassez and arabesques, and when you are only using your upper body – arms, shoulders, hands and chest.

3. When you move your hip, keep your body weight back, on your hills, so your legs are free to move and, consequently, your hip. Switch your weight to the front when you want to be airier or work on relevé.

4. Dance with your knees a little bit out (hills a little bit towards each other) like in ballet (but not as much), and also with your coccyx in (without contracting abdominals or gluteus). Do this and you will feel your hip much more loose - it helped me a lot with my Egyptian shimmy.

5. Work on stretching your hip joints, so you have ease moving it. There are tons of stretching exercises for this, you can do them as a warm-up before starting dancing. Check out Yoga positions for this.

What do you think about these tips? Would you add more?