Class #4176

Kathy Grant Flow

20 min - Class
274 likes

Description

You will flow through Kathy Grant's creative repertoire in this Mat workout by Blossom Leilani Crawford. She starts with a warm-up to get you connected to your center so you can move with precision and control. She then adds more advanced movements to test your balance, stability, and strength.

This class was filmed as part of a donation event to benefit Campaign Zero, an organization that focuses on ending police violence in the United States. If you would like to donate to this cause, you can go to their donation page.
What You'll Need: Mat, Towel

About This Video

Transcript

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Thank you, Brett. I think they put all the bead names together. I just wanna say thank you as well to having all of us here it's been really great to go along the lines of what Brett talked about about children. I wanna share a story that Kathy Grant shared with me. You know when Kathy who was a black woman from Boston when she started dancing at the Boston conservatory of music she was the first black woman there.

And they didn't allow her to touch the bar. And eventually I don't know the full story but eventually she did get to dance with the other kids and she said it was because of the other kids. The kids complained and said, "Why can't Kathleen dance with us?" And in this time I try to pretend that I'm one of those kids. I wanna be one of those kids that speaks up and says, "Something is not right." So grab a towel I have an elephant towel too. So grab a towel a tea towel like this let's get moving and we'll move sort of quickly.

We'll do a little Kathy Grant stuff and just play around and just apply these as well. Alright so when you already grab your towel and I want you to unfold it like so so that you're gonna have it on your mat. I'm gonna put my fancy one away cause I use that for fancy things. And when you lie down on your back you're gonna have your head down on the floor. I just wanna say you know all of this just if you have any issues or any of this hurts don't do it.

Maybe just watch but it should not be painful. Take care of your body while we're doing this together. So when you lie down on your back you want your sort of bra strap department or bro strap on the towel and you're gonna rest your head down you're gonna grab onto the corners of your towel. And first just take them off with the elbows wide let's take a few deep breaths inhaling and exhale. I was really inspired by Brett speech.

Thank you Brett by the way. And Chris thank you for sharing your story as well, exhale. And on the next inhale inhale the ribs out to the sides maybe on the exhale bring those elbows slightly up and pull outwards on the towel. On the next exhale I'm gonna exhale through the imaginary hole and next on I'm gonna pull my head up. Can you then let your head relax down into the towel but still lift up right at the sternum stay here count out loud with me to five.

Say one, two, three, four, five, inhale and as you exhale, exhale through that imaginary hole at your sternum and rest your head down let's do that two more times. Big exhale to lift the head up. Let your head fall back into the towel deep in the curve at your belly count to five say one, two, three, four, five. And on the next exhale jiggle up harassing that head into the towel to lie down and just one more of those inhale. And as you exhale hold head falls back deep in the Carla the belly and count to five two, three, four, five.

And as you exhale lengthen your head back in the ten interval and rest your head down. From there you're gonna unfold your towel and you're gonna roll it into a log. So that's what I mean by a log totally fancy. I'm gonna make sure you can hear me. I'm gonna bring my microphone closer.

And you're gonna hold on to the towel just pulling out to the side about shoulder with the park try not to break in the wrist and just with a nice pull. We'll return to lying back onto your back. Reach those arms of your head and just take a moment to breathe and stretch. From here we're gonna do Kathy Grant's 10 count roll-ups. So you're gonna bring your arms up to the CRM in whole.

Pressing the legs together lift your head up give me a big exhale and stay here and hold. See that next wrinkle of your shirt. Pulling out on the towel come up just a little bit stay right there. Count to ten one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Next spot come up a little bit.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One more spot and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Go forward inhaling as you drop your head give me a big exhale with a stomach in. One more breath inhale exhale, go further forward with the stomach in and let's do that one more time rolling back slowly, pressing the legs together pull it out on the towel. Really arms overhead.

Here we go arms up to the ceiling and hold. Lift your head up big exhale hold see that next wrinkle. How I'm up to it? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Up a little bit.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Next spot. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Go forward. Drop your head reach past your toes exhale with the stomach in.

One more breath inhale, exhale, go a little further forward. Now you're gonna take your towel and you're gonna take your hands and bring them just a little to the left of the feet. And you're gonna stay on that diagonal on the toes so the legs stay together you roll back where the arms of your head and I'm in a funny diagonal. Inhale roll up. And as I exhale I go to the left of my feet.

And as you roll back you lie down and I'll give you this view. When you lie down my arms are going off to the side and let's do a few faster. Inhale up, exhale forward, roll back, like all the way down inhale up bring the towel forward exhale forward. From there let's change the diagonal let's take the feet or the hands a little to the right of the feet. Roll back press those legs lie down on that weird diagonal roll up and go forward.

Two more times. Roll back pull out on the towel to keep the connection to the toe so last one rollback lie down and come up go forward and stretch. Bring yourself back over your legs another stretch roll backwards and find a nice strong spot of your torso. Without moving the torso or the legs let's circle the towel three and two and one reverse the circles and the three and the two make your circle smaller if you need to add one from here, lower down, down, down, and breath. Under the towel let's just put it underneath our face cause I feel like it's nice to have a towel under the face especially when you go to this next bit hands underneath your forehead and rest your forehead down on your fingertips just to get a little extension in.

Pushing down into your hands lift your head up and just feel that moment is your head in line with your spine work those muscles in the back of the neck and rest down. Let's do that again. Lift your head up. And how about keep the ribs down and let's go into a little bit of extension to that upper body and rest your head down one more that's not true two more. Lift the head.

Stretch that front line of the body but you're really just stretching from the sternum up so keep the ribs down. It doesn't look like a big motion but hopefully you're stretching is fine you don't normally stretch. And one more time head up and let's go for a little bit of extension and rest your head down. From here lift both legs up together. And take it down two more times.

Lift both legs up and take it down one more time lift both legs lift the torso too clap the feet together Inhale exhale flex the feet turn out inhale, exhale. Back to parallel point the feet exhale internally rotate the legs inhale, exhale change the cross inhale exhale and rest. From there come up into six position three you have a full stretch of your belly. Good just stay there for a moment put your hands underneath your shoulders lift that whole frontline of your belly one more time. And then to there lie back onto your back and let's get ready for the next full sort of.

I did stay on your back, I don't mean it. Roll up your log roll your log again yeah. And we're gonna go for a little bit of the neck pole or playing around. We're sort of going all over the place but you know, I'm number three of six so you'll, you'll just pick and choose what you'd like as well. So in this position we're gonna start the neck pole from seating.

I'd love for you to lean your head back into your head ever so slightly. And then from there as you keep pressing back into the towel, head forward exhale please. So I'm going forward with my spine but up with my head. Start to roll backwards pressing the legs together you decide how low you go that's it for me to start. And I'm gonna go pause, pause maybe a little bit lower and maybe all the way down that pause, pause a few more times and pause, pause one more and pause, pause.

From there sit up nice and tall. When you sit up tall really lift out of that low back reach those arms up, up, up bend the elbows, twist to face me and reach up. Bend the elbows twist the face the other way and reach up. Reach those arms forward lower the torso halfway down bend your knees. Twist the knees toward me torso and towel away and center.

Twist the knees away. Towel those away from the knees. One more set twist knees and towel. One more time twist knees and towel, Come back to center exhale to lie all the way down. bring those arms over your head take another moment to stretch.

And when you can, can you lift your head on just an inch off the ground and roll to your side. Only took me twenty minutes. So from here when you are ready you're going to pull out on the towel I have my legs in one long line and just see if you can hold this position here. Begin by trying to lift your waistline up off the ground and breathe. This is enough work if you'd like to add on you're gonna inhale lift the top leg up and take it down.

Inhale up and pulling up on the towel the whole time and take it down two more times inhale up and take it down. Last one please go to your high spot stay there let's pause. Two, three, four, and pushing down and up at the same time take it down, down, down. When you can, can you point the top foot and let's just draw circles with the top leg. You can go as big as you want but you're trying to keep it kind of small and trying not to shake around or for me embarrass myself by falling on my butt.

Reverse the circles. Oh boy just a few more yes and when you're ready, you're going to just try this little trick for me. Torso, arms and legs lift up. Torso, arms and legs come down lengthening the top side away two more times torso, arm, and a leg and slowly come down torso, arms, legs, lift. If you can control the roll over to the other side and come in and you say they're resting, I'm gonna just flip my body so I can still face you.

But you're in one long line reaching, breathing and I'm trying to remember what I did on the other side here we go pulling up on the towel breathe and inhale lifting your waistline internally off the ground. I'm also reaching my top leg away from me. So I'm really trying to lengthen that top leg. Here we go inhale lift up, exhale down inhale up exhale down. I'm really reaching the top leg lifting the waistline and take it down last one please lift your high spot and stay and pause.

Two, three, keep breathing slight burning sensation in the side of the hip I hope and take it down. Still pull out on that towel point the top foot draw circles with your top leg. So you need the support of that bottom leg to really press down keep narrowing the waist and I really get that back half of the circle. Reverse your circles up and around. Two you decide how fast I can't go much faster although and that would be mildly embarrassing.

And here we go let's try this next bit. When you can torso and legs lift and take it down two more time torso, arms, legs, lift and take it down one more time torso, arms, legs stay there can you roll to the other side and maybe roll on back another set rolley pulley and roll on through and take a moment to rest. Just take a little bit of a moment to do a little bit of a hamstring stretch if you want stretch one leg up breathing the other leg can be straight or bent while you do this can you maybe straighten the leg and then maybe think of sticking your butt up ever so slightly and then maybe take the leg across the body keeping that butt on the floor. Lift your head up give yourself an extra moment of stretch. Let's do that to the other side please Breathing and then two more times stretch and just a tiny little bend.

One more time straighten the legs take your tush out. Take the leg across the body and I really think of that hip or leg dropping back into the socket one more breath. Maybe lift the head up one more exhale breathe and when you can end sitting up tall reaching the arms forward. Let me face this way so you can hopefully hear me and see me a little bit better. So here we go.

Inhale, please. As you exhale pull into the chest lower the torso halfway down when you can, you're gonna straighten the arms like you're shaving off the front of the body and try to lift the leg a little bit and down one more time lift the leg a little bit come up to your full teaser position, torso down and up. Inhale, exhale down inhale, exhale up inhale, exhale down inhale, exhale up one more time. Keep breathing and come back up stay. From here reach your arms up to the ceiling hold it there for a moment, and as you exhale, let fly all the way down, down, down, down keep that towel in your hands, open up the legs a little bit past the shoulders come up to sitting up tall and stay sitting up tall.

May stay to face to you. When you can both hands behind your neck so lean your head gently back into your hands and when you do so though no chin up you're actually tacking the chin and leaning that head back. Breathe. When you can tilt to one side, these are Kathy grads laterals they should feel really good and linear head into your hands come up to center to the other side tilt and then stretch it, stretch it, stretch it keep leaning your head into your hands to come up. One more set like that.

Tilt and stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, and up last side tilt and stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, lean your head into your hands to come up. From there reach both arms forward. I'm gonna unfold my towel. I'm gonna put it on the floor behind me sort of easiest you can kind of sneak it around on your sticky map what you'll see it's best on the vinyl so I'm gonna put my hands behind me. I'm ready to do a little thing so you're gonna slide the towel back curl our chest to lift the chin and come up two more curl for us into your hands and lift the chin and chest one more time.

Curl reverse the spine arch your back with the chin and chest from there circle the arms around grab onto your ankles. And sitting up nice and tall and breathe. I'm gonna close my eyes and just take a couple more breaths while you're sitting up tall make sure you're really lifting up on that low back and keep breathing friends enjoy the breathing. Just wanna say thank you so much. I'm gonna be handing it off to my friend Dana.

Are you ready Dana?

Comments

1 person likes this.
Really enjoying these out of studio series.
1 person likes this.
Fun Fun Fun x more Kathy Grant exercise homages please - love her!
Wendy A
Audio and video are terrible but the workout is good.
1 person likes this.
Absolutely loved it, but I love all of Blossom' s classes.   The audio and visual were completely fine ! X
audio and video were fantastic! love love love blossom's classes!!
Davita P
Loved this! Where can we see more Kathy Grant flows? I love her work but haven't had much exposure. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Super class. Great fun as always with blossom. Loved the use of the towel👌
Thanks for using a towel for a prop. We all have those.   Short fun class. I do better roll-ups if I add leg weights, and keeping them on for the class worked well.  Thanks Blossom! 
I really loved this. Thank you! And thank you for sharing her story as a young dancer too.
loved this class...thank you!  I'm back teaching real live people and this will be on the menu!

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