Gus Solomons jr includes this exercise in his warm-up, following an initial 10 minutes of floor work. The combination’s constant plié-and-rise dynamic is designed to help students find the ease and weight of the pelvis. As in Cunningham technique, the top of the body moves independently from the bottom half.

Gus Solomons jr is a graduate of MIT and danced in the companies of Pearl Lang, Donald McKayle, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. He founded two companies of his own, The Solomons Company/Dance (1972-94) and PARADIGM (1996-present), and is currently a mentor in the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab. He writes dance criticism at solomons-says.com and has been honored with two New York Dance and Performance Awards (“Bessies”) in 2000 and 2010.

Nicholas Grubbs is a BFA dance graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.