Our (slightly
flaky,
new-agey) dance teacher announced one day after warmup that she had something
amazing to
share with us. Something that she'd discovered only a few weeks before, but was having a
huge effect on her own
movement and control. Then she whipped out the
anatomy coloring book.
The psoas major is a muscle that goes from the middle-lower part of your spine, through your pelvis, to the top of your femur. It's hard to detect because it's so deep, but it does a lot of work, lifting and rotating your legs (which are heavy from the muscle, even if you're a skinny thing). Also, because it's so deep, it's hard to stretch or strengthen, but she was right: once you get the hang of it, it changes the way you look at movement. Until, of course, you lose that knack.
Probably about 45% of the class actually could feel what she was going on about. The rest just nodded.
this has been my first contribution to the Human Anatomy project. Get bodies into Everything! Bodies are good!