My Mind/body Prep Regimen Pre-shoot

Only recently have I incorporated a physical and mental prep before I head to the set. I’m a natural meditator, I’ve enjoyed practicing on and off for years. I’m also a trained dancer, having been in classes since I was 5. But I never really did any sort of warm-up before a modeling job. Until a few years ago that is, when I had to fly last minute from LA to Amsterdam and then drive 3 hours to Groningen for a fashion shoot, ugh. 12 hours of flying time and then a few hours in a car.

I didn’t know how I would be able to look and feel my best on set the next day. My friend, who is a dancer/teacher, suggested that I stretch out my body before the job, and it was the perfect antidote to my jet-lagged mind and body.

When I got to the set I found a quiet empty space, and did a typical jazz class physical warm-up. It’s typically around 50 minutes, but I condensed it into 20-30 minutes. I had also meditated for about 15 minutes in my hotel room that morning, which wasn’t easy since there were drunk lovers arguing loudly right outside my window all night long. Needless to say I didn’t get a good sleep on a night when I so badly needed to. However, doing my breathing meditation, and my physical warm-up helped me enormously to keep my energy up throughout the long shoot day. My body was also limber and ready for the kind of pictures we were going to be shooting. This shoot needed a model that could dance and physically move very freely in front of the camera. There were 3 male dancers in the shots with me, and it was exhilarating to essentially be a dancer on a fashion shoot. I not only modeled some cool clothes for the job, but I got to use my dancing skills – heaven!