ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with strength building, extension, coordination, and flexibility. It focuses on proprioception, timing, force, and energy. Using the wall for warming up is beneficial in a number of ways. It gives the student a good amount of time to get a feel for the wall. Because each dancer will have a different height and weight with varying ratios of, for example, torso to leg length or distance from shoulder girdle to pelvis, the spatial movement relationship for each dancer will vary. The dancer will begin to experience a very specific internal understanding, and later, dialogue, so that they learn to move, balance and thrust with personal specific, distinctive parameters. Warming up on the wall also puts the dancer into the aerial experience immediately. They are thrust into an environment with gravitational forces that are at odds with usual posture and movement and are being required immediately to redefine their spatial relationship to it.
