Cynthia Erivo and the C-Curve

By Jenna Pastuszek

If you missed The Color Purple's recent revival on Broadway, please do yourself a favor, STOP  EVERYTHING, and watch this Tony's performance. 

This lady is ON FIRE!!! What's her secret? One word: CORE. Without pelvic floor/abdominal  support/general engagement of the CORE (the abs, the obliques, the hips, the butt, the  hamstrings, the inner and outer thighs, etc.), creating this much power and sound, in a safe and  consistent way, is impossible. She uses a few "tricks" during this Tony's performance to check in  and re-engage her core at certain times throughout the song. She alternates lifting one leg. She  plies into her standing leg. She drops her heels. She sinks down into a squat while extending  one arm forward (in fact, she sings most of the song from such a low grounded position that the  camera man has trouble following her!). If you follow Cynthia on Instagram, you know she takes  her fitness (and vocal training) seriously. TRUE STORY: she *casually" ran a half marathon once  before a two-show day and also just ran the NYC Marathon (singing the National Anthem  before). SHE IS A SUPER HUMAN. 

To activate your inner Cynthia, you need to activate that lower body support. 

One way to do this is to take a Pilates class! Pilates is an exercise class completely devoted to  strengthening your CORE. Here are three pilates concepts to consider when attempting to  deepen your connection to your core: 

The C-Curve 

According to Exhale Pilates, "In a nut shell, the curve is a movement of the spine that engages  and strengthens the deepest abdominals, while opening the back and stretching the muscles  out. Working in this position will allow you to fully breathe into your back body while also  strengthening your abdominal muscles. 

Work in Opposition 

The Pilates Body tells us, "The effort of lengthening [your muscles] in body directions builds  stabilization and makes each movement a whole-body exercise." To do this, sit on the floor, and  try to lengthen your spine upward while sitting on top of you sitz bones. At the same time, push  your legs into the floor, and reach through your heels. Or as you reach up, draw your shoulder  blades down your back.

Lengthen the Side Body 

Avoid your rib cage collapsing onto your waist and crushing your organs (while also eliminating  your ability to activate your diaphragm) by lengthening your side body. You can do this by  engaging your obliques and keeping your spine in a neutral position (rather than having your  pelvis tucked or hyper extended). Also "tuck your ribs" in order to stack your spine and engage  your middle back. 

For 15 exercises to strengthen your voice using pilates, please visit PilatesPro! Click here for a Youtube channel of at-home exercises for the singer!