By
Jeff Allen
I
was very pleased to receive a phone call from Michael Fitzmaurice the new
publisher and editor of Dancing USA magazine requesting that I write a series of
articles that address the fundamentals of dance.
We had discussed the importance of fundamentals as they applied to
activities ranging from golf to basketball to ice dancing to business to
politics. Success, we agreed, is
never achieved in any endeavor without the ability to master the fundamentals.
Reliance on the fundamentals is what can be learned from people such as
Michael Jordan or Billy Sparks. Champions
are those who execute their basic technique perfectly and THEN add the dimension
of there own inimitable style!
Fundamentals
apply to dancers at every level: pros, teachers, students, and beginners.
It is my hope, that this article will be the opening of continuing
dialogue where frank discussions and ideas about the various issues of technique
in partner dancing can be brought to light to help improve each Dancing USA
reader’s quality of dancing. As a
teacher, I am a firm advocate that students should be shown qualitative
technique from the beginning of their dance experience.
Then it is left to their feeling of passion and fervor for dance to
practice and obtain the level to which they aspire.
There
are literally thousands of dance figures and they do have the ability to seduce,
don’t they? The liberty to dance the figures you want to is wholly based
on the fundamentals. Because
choreography is only 10% of the social dance experience, it is the fundamentals
of timing and balance with and without partner that lead to smooth
dancing. Technique is the
shortcut to the choreography!
This
lesson will be concerned with momentum. Technically,
we can describe momentum as the impetus, or force with which a dancer or dance
couple tends to maintain their velocity overcoming resistance.
What a mouthful! We sit
passively in an automobile not aware that we are moving until that vehicle
breaks sharply. Then the passengers
of the vehicle immediately discover they are indeed moving and are able to add
their own definition to momentum. An
automobile provides us with a seatbelt to offset the force of momentum when it
is least expected. Let’s proceed
to explore some of the impact that momentum has on your dancing and the devices
we possess to offset its negative effects.
Swing:
The
Problem: The dancer cannot
“keep-up,” with the music or has difficulty changing directions.
Because
we are prone to exaggeration when learning physical skills, the inclination is
to move our feet too far from our center. This
is especially true when learning the varieties of Swing, owing to the speed of
the music and the anticipated movement. Too
often, our bodies become trapped for a moment between our feet and the dancer
resorts to the use of their shoulders and upper-body to propel themselves to the
next position. Unfortunately, this
produces excessive momentum away from their center and frequently the dance
floor. Without good floor pressure
and contact the student can keep, neither good timing nor can they remain
dependable during leads and follows. The
excesses of momentum in the upper body will cause moment-to-moment losses of
balance and the natural instincts of self-preservation will create the need to
hang or pull on your partner. Does
any of this sound familiar?
The Solutions:
First,
The instinctive relationship between
the brain and the dancer’s foot is very simple and very important for any
dancer to understand. Whenever the
ball of the moving foot strikes the
dance floor the body of the dancer stops its flight or progression.
This
haunts a beginner because it leaves
them with their weight distribution between their feet.
Here are some of the results of this erroneous foot placement:
·
Which foot is next?
This is never a question that the dancer has time to answer as their
dancing will become erratic, slow, and off time.
·
The error that finds the
body not fully supported over one foot or the other will become part of your
physical memory.
·
The moving foot that
traveled too far becomes ineffective and void of the compression necessary
to
continue to move the body. Instinctively,
the dancer will revert to swaying their shoulders to generate the momentum and
change of direction necessary for the body to get to the next foot.
This bad habit lends itself to creating a top-heavy dancer who will
frequently find that they are pulling and yanking their partner.
So
how do you prevent or cure this annoying bad habit in Swing dancing?
Actually, it is simple; “Less is more
!”
The maximum distance a Swing dancer should separate the moving foot
from the supporting foot approximates the width of their pelvis.
For most people just around 10 inches works fine.
This distance becomes your innate benchmark, which will allow for maximum
stability, good rotational skills, and a fluid approach to the art of partner
dancing.
I
have never figured out why students try to take larger steps when the music’s
tempo increases. The wheels on
their automobiles just spin faster as speeds increase they do not become larger. To offset the bigger is faster problem I try to convey the
notion of drifting to the side rather than any forced or reaching sidesteps.
The Swinger’s energy is best expended in the area of knee flex and
upper-leg compression, which in it of itself, helps to eliminate momentum and
improves balance by using the direction of down as both a rhythmic and leveling
device.
Second,
learn
to take you feet off the dance floor properly!
The removal of any foot from the dance floor during a Swing dance should
be accomplished by lifting the upper thigh with a light and swift movement of
the hip and leg’s ball socket joint. This
would be quite similar to the type of leg movement used pedaling a bicycle or
ascending a staircase. When the
upper leg is used to take the foot off the floor the body remains level and
balanced. There is no undesirable sway accumulated in the shoulders or
ribcage that will require problematic compensations Many that dance
at nightclubs, dance studios, etc. do their Swing dancing too FLAT-FOOTED or
SHUFFLING! Flat-footed dancing
creates unwarranted friction. The
result of this flat-footed dancing is that the couples have to travel too far
and have built too much momentum in their upper-bodies.
Now they are unable to control their space on the dance floor
and frankly, they are too slow to be effective for Swing music
with some pace to it.
Pulling
your partner’s arm out of joint on the rock step is a problem that should be
left in past once you have taken some Swing lessons.
This is strictly part of your old dancing that I call, “Slingshot
Swing!” You would never know that we are a civilized culture by observing the
way some people launch each other from place to place on the dance floor until
someone nearly or does get hurt.
The
Solution:
The
body’s back movement on the 1st beat of the Swing Rock is the
concluding action of the present figure and should include the transition to
begin the next Swing figure as the couple’s bodies recover towards each other
on the 2nd beat. This
idea requires both mental and physical concentration – here is the most
important moment in any Swing figure or pattern! To insure that this happens the momentum of the present
figure should cease by the Swing Rock’s beginning.
When the dancers are converging rather than separating on the 2nd
beat of the Rock action they gain much better control in transition to the next
figure as well as control of their space on the dance floor.
Here are a few ideas that I would like to share with you to improve the
control of your Swing Rock:
Foxtrot
& Waltz:
Problem:
Losing balance at the top
of the rise creating spatial problems with the following progressive step.
I
often apologize to new students of these two dances for having to introduce them
to one of the most difficult physical concepts in ballroom dancing so early in
their experience. Never the less
they must learn to close their feet at the top of the rise, change weight, and
release their free foot to the next position while lowering through the new
supporting leg. Here the momentum
is vertical and its control or lack of it is contingent upon the rhythmic usage
of the dancer’s legs!
Solution:
It
is ironic that many people sign up at a dance studio because they feel they have
NO rhythm and therefore cannot dance. Students then proceed to learn choreographic content while
remaining in the dark with respect to rhythm.
I hope I can help here by teaching that RISE is a rhythmic skill and not
just an issue of straightening your legs. Without
an understanding of two basic fundamental techniques in dance, namely plié and
relevé, rhythm is literally lost as the vertical energy is sent up into the
shoulders. This generally creates a
struggle for balance in the new dancer.
In
its simplest form, a plié is a compressive action while the knee bends.
The bending knee stores energy in the quadriceps and feels very powerful
similar to the tension that exists at the end of the pulling of a bow or an
elastic. This happens to a certain degree on every step of Foxtrot or Waltz
where lowering is involved. As a
side note, the connotation that the word ‘fall’ gives really irks many
teachers. When you sit in a chair,
you ‘let go,’ of knee flex – this is NOT feeling the plié.
The lowering into the plié stores the energy for the following rise
(body direction that is upward) so that no power needs to be added.
A
relevé or a straightening of the knees can only be achieved by virtue of a plié.
This action is the smooth and controlled release of the energy from the
knees to the hips (if the hips rise obviously the whole torso rises).
The speed of this release is your rhythmic rise.
This action is effortless as long as the abdominal muscles keep the
ribcage over the hips. This rise
is never forced out of the ankles! Beginning
rise from the ankles is the symptomatic action and major sin by those that claim
they have no rhythm. Next time you
practice rise feel your hamstrings (the back of the upper leg) pushing you
upwards through your hips. Your new
rhythmic rise is not felt in an area of your torso any higher than the sternum.
Additionally, the end of the rise retains a portion of that stored
energy. Rhythm exists in the operational parameters of the leg
muscles and not in the hyperextensions of the knees or ankles.
In
conclusion, here is some ‘food for thought.”
A dancer needs to seriously consider the movements of up and down as
directions that will defeat the negative influences of momentum, particularly at
the conclusion of any progressive or lateral dance steps.
Retaining the flex or compression in the upper thighs as you travel will
increase the mobility of your knees and ankles.
Mentally focusing on the operation of the center of your leg muscles
rather than the joints will certainly improve your rhythmic skills, balance, and
movement – remember muscles dance, bones don’t!
Until the next time, happy dancing. – Jeff Allen
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