Health and Wellness Spotlight: by Laure Redmond
The Road to Stretch Appeal
When I moved from New York City to Portland in 1997, my career was in transition. I had closed my boutique fitness studio on the upper west side of Manhattan, the fitness products I endorsed on QVC were getting less interesting, I had just sold my book, Feel Good Naked and needed to write it and I fell in love with a Portlander who had two small children.
Although I had fifteen years of experience as a fitness instructor, dancer and weight trainer, I decided to take a break from teaching to devote my time to writing my book and working with women one on one, as well as exploring the movement industry as a student looking for new, inventive ways of moving and grooving. After my book was published in 2001, public speaking, conducting workshops and teaching my Self-Esteem Saves You program to teenage girls monopolized my time. Along the way I began to develop Stretch Appeal.
Stretch Appeal is a program or practice as I prefer to call it that combines movement and basic dance with isometric muscular contractions, balance sequences, basic Yoga, Pilates inspired floor work and deep relaxation. My methodology embraces the notion that stretching means to awaken, to move, to warm up from the inside out; ultimately to activate the body's small and large muscle groups from different angles, while keeping the heart rate up in order to achieve a lean, strong, defined and happy body. The moves are tailored to the beats and rhythms of popular music, which inevitably becomes a contagious motivator for the group at large. It is a huge thrill to witness in others their own body/mind transformations that evolve through this regular practice.
BodyVox's reputation as an international touring dance company that uses athleticism and adventure as an approach to movement and theatre, not to mention their brand new studio, made it a natural fit for Stretch Appeal.
Something magical happens each time we all come together and it's never the same, but it's always one step closer to the very heart and soul of this vessel we call our bodies and for that, I am grateful.
BodyVox's reputation as an international touring dance company that uses athleticism and adventure as an approach to movement and theatre, not to mention their brand new studio, made it a natural fit for Stretch Appeal.
Something magical happens each time we all come together and it's never the same, but it's always one step closer to the very heart and soul of this vessel we call our bodies and for that, I am grateful.
BodyVox Dance Center
1201 NW 17th Ave.
503.229.0627
503.229.0627
