Short Motion Studios

Epsom salt is a chemical compound that has proven itself for having many uses.  One such use that people have discovered for Epsom salt is for promoting good health.  Why has Epsom salt come to be associated with healthy living?  That is because Epsom salt has magnesium, and magnesium is a very important element in making sure that our bodies are functioning as they should.

By what ways can we use Epsom salt to help keep our bodies in tiptop shape? Here is a list of a few things we can do with Epsom salt for our health.

As bath salts. Epsom salt was first used as bath salts. A good soak in a tub filled with warm water and mixed with two cups of Epsom salt is great for detoxifying the body and relieving stress.

As a foot soak. The feet are often the most abused parts of our bodies, and it is not surprising when we feel pain in our feet.  Soaking the feet in warm water mixed with half a cup of Epsom salt can take the pain away from the feet.  Doing so also helps reduce the appearance of varicose veins and helps treat athlete’s foot and other fungal ailments commonly afflicting the feet.

As a facial scrub. Epsom salt can be an effective agent in cleaning and exfoliating the face. Exfoliating the face is necessary because it sloughs away the layers of dead skin cells from the face and allows newer, healthier cells to emerge.  This is easy to do; all that needs to be done is to mix a pinch of Epsom salt with the facial scrub and massage it onto the face.  Afterwards, rinse it off.

As a body scrub. Just like the skin on the face, the skin on the body also needs to be exfoliated. But other than that, massaging Epsom salt all over the body can also promote better blood circulation, soften the rough parts and help in making the skin tone look more even.  Just rub Epsom salt on your skin and rinse.

As a hair cleanser. The shampoo, conditioner and styling products that we use on our hair often leave remnants on each strand, leading to product buildup.  When product buildup happens on the hair, it can be hard for the nutrients supposedly supplied by shampoo and conditioner to be absorbed by the hair.  To clear the hair of product buildup, mix Epsom salt with your shampoo and rinse thoroughly.

These are just some of the uses Epsom salt has that can help promote bodily health. Having some Epsom salt at home is always handy.

A beginner’s dance class can have a funny feel to it. There are the dancers who’ve been there for months and seem like pros. And then there are always the first-timers and you can feel their nervousness in the air.

When walking into a beginners dance class for the first time it can take the warm-up to really settle and start to feel more comfortable inside the class. Sometimes you won’t even be able to do the warm-up and wonder how you’re gonna cope once the dancing actually starts!

The good thing is that most dance teachers are quite sympathetic especially in their beginners dance classes. They’ll spend a lot of time breaking down the moves and going through things with enough time and repetition to make sure you get it.

Many times there’ll be parts of the dance routine that you won’t be able to do perfectly. At these points a beginner can become a bit discouraged and think they’re useless when they’re really not.

If a beginner takes a class and struggles to get most of the moves they’ll walk away either thinking they’re completely useless or that the class wasn’t for beginners. This is a misconception. Very few dancers can just go into a dance class and get it perfectly if they’ve danced for months let alone in their first class.

Also a beginner’s class is not meant for dancers in the class to be able to get it perfectly at first attempt. It is meant to cover quite a lot of material so that a beginner can become a better dancer. Also if you ever watch an elementary or intermediate dance class you’ll notice that it can be quite complicated and fast.

The beginners class needs to provide some sort of preparation for that next level so that a dancer who wants to progress to higher levels will have the opportunity. A beginners class should cover the basics, the foundations upon which everything else can be built.

It can help to think of piano grades or belts in martial arts. You can’t expect to be able to play a grade 1 exam piece on a musical instrument at your first practise session. Grade 1 may be the lowest grade but once you’ve achieved that grade you can already play a bit.

With dance classes, once you can successfully pull off the moves and routines in a beginners dance class you can dance a bit. So go start your dance classes and when you come to bits you can’t do, realise what a good dancer you will be when you can and practise till perfect!

It seems that street dance is becoming more and more popular in the UK. Lots of dance styles have had their turn in the spotlight over the years and it looks like it is the turn of street dance at the moment.

But what exactly is street dance? And what can you expect to learn in a street dance class in London? The London scene is very different to many other countries and it’s worth exploring.

Street dance classes often teach street dance routines which loosely take dance moves from a variety of dance styles which may include hip-hop dance, locking, popping, street jazz and jazz amongst others. It can also include acrobatics when danced in dance troupes and can fuse with other styles very different from street dance such as contemporary too.

In fact looking at the term more closely, ‘street dance’ is more an umbrella term encompassing all these dance styles and many more. Different people have different opinions on what constitutes street dance. For example some people would also put dance styles such as the breakin’ and the crip walk under the street dance categories whilst others would not.

So if you see a dance class advertised as street dance you can expect to learn dance routines which are very similar to hip-hop dance and including elements of the other styles, but not necessarily to hip-hop music. Whereas most of the time a hip-hop dance class will have routines to hip-hop or R&B music for the most part.

There are other clues for what you might expect form a street dance class in London. Sometimes ‘street’ will be followed by another name. For example ‘street jazz’ would combine street and jazz, ‘street locking’ would be lockin’ and ‘street urban’ would be similar to hip hop dance or urban dance.

The term ‘street dance’ is popularly used in the UK and a number of other countries. So if you decide that you want to start going to some street dance classes it’s helpful to know what style of street dance you want to learn.

Dance styles which might fall under the street dance category such as popping, locking and hip-hop dance will often have dance classes which are just called by their names instead of ‘street’ something.

If in doubt about a street dance class in London, take a class so you can find out whether it’s general routines you’ll be learning or a specific street dance style. Many times you’ll find you’ll enjoy a dance style that you weren’t even planning to learn!