The best dance medicine: Pulsing – (it’s so yummy too!)

Every time I think about how much pulsing is at the core of so many Lindy Hop questions/problems/solutions (for both leads and follows , I get super excited about the potential to spread the love of pulsing! Wow, I feel like I’m selling an item on an infomercial… Here are a few of the benefits…

1. The Pace-keeper: Ever find yourself too far away from your partner either during or at the end of a move? It’s probably because you stopped pulsing while leading/following the move. Keeping the rhythm in your body makes you place your feet down (helping you regulate how big your steps are) and stops you from traveling too far!

2. The Time-filler: Pulsing helps you keep time by filling all of it out. It becomes really, really easy to get ahead of the beat if you have nothing to keep you on beat! Filling out your pulse completely can help you fill time completely.

3. The Efficient-mover: Ever feel like you (as a lead) are not sure when to lead your follow to switch directions? Or, do you ever feel (as a Follow) like you have to be tense all the time to try and be ready for any lead? Pulsing is the solution for you! As a lead, when you pulse and connect with you follow, you are leading her to also bend her knees in time with you. So when you move, it will make sense for her to move too. As a follow, pulsing will help you to be ready to move at the same time as your lead and also release a lot of that unnecessary tension.

Go Pulse…and be FREEEEEEE

Dance Epiphanies: Advice from Naomi @ LOTR

Naomi (in class at Lindy on the Rocks, addressing the followers): “Only think about one direction at a time.”

This is the best advice I have found to help follows continue through with their momentum in dancing. We follows can get stuck trying to guess the next direction, or even if we know the next direction we will cut off our momentum! By only thinking about the direction we have been/are being sent, we don’t have to worry about the next one – which allows the lead to truly lead the new direction!

As an example, the other day in class, James and I were teaching the difference between a forward swingout and backwards swingout. The only way to lead the difference (in this move and many others), is if the follow doesn’t cut her momentum short! She really has to let the lead direct her on counts 3&4, or the difference becomes nigh impossible to lead.

Think about it!

Dance Epiphanies: Creating good lines = Filling out movement

I was talking with a fellow dance geek the other day and realized that I thought about lines in dancing very differently and thought I would share some of my ideas on how I create lines with you!

Much of my thoughts on this actually come from my modern dancing classes where the focus on the movement was to dance fully. It was easy to see the difference between the dancers (the great ones) who would really extend their bodies and reach, versus those that would never push themselves to fill out their bodies and their own movement.

This is what I try to achieve as I dance (hopefully , to dance fully and to really go for whatever movement I am dancing…And, through this concept, of natural movement of the body, the best lines are created! Sometimes what does feel natural, might turn out to be bad muscle memory…but the vast majority of the time, I have found that this really does finish those lines and really fill out movement.

Here are some fun exercises from my modern classes that helped -

1. Burst the Bubble – imagine their is a bubble around yourself, your job is to dance to break it. Swipe up and around with your arms and legs and see how far you can stretch and fill out your movement to try to “break” the bubble.

2. Watch yourself on video and try to spot places you aren’t filling out well. Watch the pro’s on the tubes and compare their movement to yours and try to capture moments that you can use to apply to your body to push yourself to fill out more of your movement.

Left Arm Styling Do’s and Don’ts

I hadn’t thought much about what my left arm was doing on swing-outs etc. until in a private a couple of years ago, Carla Heiney told me ever so sweetly that it looked like I was grabbing my own boob. This wouldn’t do, and so it started my quest to figure out what to do with my left arm. In this journey I have figured out a couple of things…

Don’ts:

1. Don’t clench your fist…it looks weird, and possibly violent

2. Keep your hand lower and away from your chest. Make it easy for a guy to catch your hand and not feel like he might accidentally, um, ya’know…

3. Keep your elbow out and away from your side. Like #2, it is hard to do an elbow catch move if the follow tucks her elbow in.

(check yourself for these no-no’s on spins, especially for hand/elbow placement as when spinning they tend to go in and up – both being dangerous)

4. Don’t “push” yourself with your arm by swinging it really fast/letting it flop behind you. It kinda makes it look like a follow is struggling to move.

Do’s:

1. Do try to cancel any bad muscle memory by dancing, and letting you arm just hang and be limp (tip nod to Laura Keat). This will allow you to…

2. Use your natural movement to figure out what your left arm should be doing. A lot of follows I see try to use their left arm and it ends up just looking stiff and held in place (I definitely was guilty of this for a bit). Let the arm flow from one position to the next – try not to hold it out/up counterfeitedly. (Hint: Natural movement is usually contra-body movement).

3. Watch some videos and see what other follows are doing with their arms!

Last word of wisdom, once you figure out some cool ways to accentuate your dancing with your arm, don’t over use them!

p.s. Don’t give up on that left arm -  I was definitely guilty of bad left arm usage and that is how I figured out these tips in the first place

Dance Epiphanies: Strategizing your variations

Recently, I realized an assumption I was making about the dance that was limiting my range of musicality in my variations, and contribution to the dance. I had given control of phrasing/musically interpreting the song wholly to the lead, and would just try to add to whatever he was doing (which made a lot of variations I did more micro musical, and less to the phrasing of the music).

We as follows can really influence the lead by really phrasing our stylings. Instead of just doing them whenever, try to incorporate them into the phrase of the music, usually 3 8′s, then the break. Maybe try doing a similar variation on those 3 8′s, then something bigger on the break – or nothing/very very simple on the 3 8′s, then save something bigger for the break. Or, just think of it as trying to tune into how the lead is phrasing the song so that you can help compliment it, which might mean not doing any variations if the 3 8′s/break move doesn’t call for it!

Happy Following!

Edit:

Michael asked for some video representation, and here are some examples!

Frida and Skye in their 2nd spotlight at ILHC @ 5:15.

Ramona and Peter in their spotlight – she is kicking ass and  @ 4:57 repeats two of the same variations.

Dance Epiphanies: Frame + ’6′ = Awesome

I continue to write a lot about “6″ and have truly begun to think that it is possibly the most fun and hardest part of a swing-out for a follower to master. But, I have some advice to make it easier!

Many follows tend to collapse their frame on count ’6′ by allowing their elbow to cave into their side and/or dip to the right with their shoulder (using their shoulder to lead into the connection). Try to avoid both of these by 1. using your back muscles to keep your shoulder blades back and down and 2. don’t collapse one side of your body/lean (straighten as if you didn’t want to wrinkle a shirt you were wearing on either side).

Happy following!

The Ultimate tip to becoming a true follow

During your next practice, dance with your eyes closed.

It really is as easy as that. If you are having trouble following through with momentum on turns, swingouts or really any move – closing you eyes can help tremendously. Grab a lead and dance a bunch of songs with your eyes closed the entire time (works for both Balboa and Lindy). This really helps because what holds a lot of follows back is that they let what they see take over and forget to feel (Example: If the lead sends you back wards and then starts triple-stepping forwards, you still need to keep traveling backwards until he leads you forwards.)

Close your eyes and really focus on feeling what he is leading!

All About Swivels: Part 4

Here are some more swivel tips for your dancing pleasure

1. The swivel prep: Your first swivel actually can start on count “8″. Use “7″, “&” to turn to the left so your left foot’s heel is facing your partner. Turning out like this really makes your swivel on “1″ and “2″ much bigger and more defined. This idea of prepping out to the left can also be used as a transition between many different moves that you might be lead in. A good example would be any types of turns into swingouts.

2. Swivel on “1″ AND “2″: The twist on “1″ usually comes out really well, but then the twist on “2″ can sometimes die out…check your swivels to see what you are doing. You can definitely change up your swivels to emphasize different beats etc, but you also want to double check your vanilla swivels.

3 Ways to Enjoy the Floor More

1. Let your pulse drive your footwork. Instead of thinking about creating the rhythms with your feet – create them with your body. While your body is pulsing, let that rhythm flow from your core to your feet to influence what your feet are doing.

2. Use the floor to move. Instead of floating above the floor and gliding along, actually use the floor by pushing into it by starting with the pulse in your body that will drive your legs down and into the floor, and…

3. Bend you knees. If your pulse is only in your ankles, your pulse will be very small and you will dance lightly over the floor. Bending your knees will help you to push through the floor to move. (there is variation on how much to bend depending on the music – but as a general rule this is is a good idea)

Soon, you and the floor will be the bestest of friends

Balboa Posture: The essence of Ladyness

I love dancing different types of dances because they all have a different feeling to them…and whenever I dance Balboa I love that it makes me really feel beautiful and womanly. I get to dress up, wear twirly skirts/dresses, heels and turn a lot! One of the major differences between Lindy and Balboa is the posture. In Lindy, we generate connection is through counterbalance. This is very different from Balboa where follows remain over their own weight and and over the balls of their feet (more “forward”, if you think of counter-balance as defaulting “backwards”). Many great Balboa follows have this amazing posture where they posses this awesome womanly power in the dance.

I have been working on my posture recently in Balboa and trying to find that middle ground between erring too far forward and “giving” into the connection before the lead is leading me too, and erring too far back (forcing it into a counter-balanced position that makes it look too much like Lindy).

Check out the Balboa youtube videos from ILHC here to watch some sweet follow posture action

Quick Fix: Trouble on Turns

Do you have trouble keeping your balance on turns? A tip from David Rehm and Laura Keat: look into your turns (as in – look in the direction of your spin). It not only helps to make your turns harder, better, faster, stronger…. =) But, it also helps your balance, lines, and helps you to control the ends of your spins (no more falling off balance!). An added benefit to this is being able to spot him so you can get your elbow out of the way if he catches you in closed – yay for elbow freedom!

look into turns, arm over his

Dance Epiphanies: Let your lead know where you are.

As follows, if we begin styling (from basic rock step to swivels and beyond) and disconnect our upper body from what our feet are doing – it becomes very hard to leads us. When the lead can feel where your weight is, it makes it much easier to lead us into variations. Basically hiding where your weight is makes the dance a guessing game.

Things that might mean this is you:

- your stylings are always behind you

- your feet slip out behind you a lot (especially when you try to dance fast)

- your upper body stays very stationary and isolated from your legs

So here is the deal, to reconnect your feet to your body, make sure that your body is moving with your feet. The way to do this is to make sure you never give your frame up. Your arm needs to always be connected to your shoulder.

The reason why your feet are slipping out/behind you is because your chest is ahead of the balls of your feet. In order to dance in a balanced position, they need to be under your chest in order for the lead to feel where they are. Play around with how much your feet are ahead, under, or behind your chest and the feel with each of those differences in each part of your basic.

Now, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, sometimes you can disconnect and it is perfectly ok…just not as your default vanilla basic

Happy Following!

Art and Dancing: About Me!

Me! http://www.maryfreitag.com

My Team! http://www.hotclubstomp.com

My Ballroom! http://www.atomicballroom.com