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Tips and Tools for Better Dancing
by Sandi
& Dan Finch
When we learned to dance, we were concerned about where our feet had to
go. But, better dancing is more than that. We need to learn to use that
wonderful assembly of the body—with its three hinges (hip, knee, ankle)
that control movement. Just stepping on point A or point B does not
create good dancing. Dancing is all about how we get from point A to
point B. In other words, how you use your body can transform your
dancing from an exercise to an experience.
Good dancing begins with good posture. Stand up straight, with head,
shoulders, torso, and hips in alignment and balance over a foot.
Understand what makes a good frame; then whatever you do, don’t mess
with the frame as you go from point A to point B.
Let's look primarily at one rhythm in smooth and one rhythm in latin
and see how to use the body to achieve the look and action you want.
WALTZ
We learn early in our training that one of the main characteristics of
waltz is rise and fall, and we learn a formula for when to rise and
when to lower (fall). We speak that formula when teaching, but unless
we have balance, we will not do it well. Consider how many times you
have to rise (and lower) in a typical dance. If every measure of 1,2,3
has rise and fall, that means you must generally rise and fall about 70
times in each dance. With that in mind, knowing how to find your best
balance point becomes critical.
The next place we can improve is rotation. Most of us understand the
basic rule of physics that two objects cannot occupy the same space at
the same time, but we generally don’t think about that when we are
dancing. A couple dancing together fills a three-dimensional space, and
most of the problems we see on the dance floor arise from failing to
acknowledge that. For any rotation to work, the partnership must figure
out how to make its front half (partner) and back half (leader) get
through the turn.
Imagine driving a car around a corner. The driver has to calculate how
sharp the turn is and how big the car is. Picture one of those old
Cadillac Eldorados, with the hood that seemed to go on forever. The
dynamics of driving it through the turn are different than for a Smart
car, where the driver practically sits on the front bumper.
In other words, when we dance, our “vehicle” is the space from the
leader’s spine to the back of the partner. We have all seen feathers
that end with partners hip to hip. Or a closed telemark where partner
feels like she’s being strangled. Or a natural twist turn when the
leader doesn’t time his unwind with his partner's runaround. Or a
maneuver where partner gets to the end before her leader. In each case,
the individuals were dancing together alone, not as a partnership.
We can fix this by starting with a solid frame, with elbows always in
front of the body. Next, imagine dancing with a shopping cart. This
develops an awareness that one partner must make allowances for the
space filled by the other partner. You need to recognize there are
insides and outsides of every turn. The person going forward will
generally be on the outside of a turn, will generally have further to
travel, and will need to take a bigger step to ensure getting around.
We can also improve our dancing by playing with the music. This is
called musicality or finding your inner song. We can be technically
perfect and dance well, but musicality is what gives you those “ahh”
moments on the dance floor. It is your emotional reaction to the music
that affects your timing, your sense of space and your energy. We call
this STEW (space, time, energy, weight). Any step can be personalized
if you change your thinking about any of those four elements. Try
dancing a simple routine to different pieces of music, or use one piece
of music and dance once to what you hear in the bass section and again
to the other instruments in the orchestra.
RUMBA
Latin dancing differs from smooth in several notable ways. “Smooth”
dancing has that name because it is expected to move around the floor
with fluidity. Latin figures are danced more in place and are designed
to emphasize the beat of the music.
Unlike waltz, steps in rumba are taken onto the ball of the foot: no
heel leads, no rise and fall, no swing or flight through figures. Rumba
is more like walking than like floating. If we change our normal way of
moving about only slightly, we can create a rumba walk that will
automatically give us rumba’s characteristic Cuban motion or hip action.
Types of walking: Rumba has names for the variations of walking that
make up its figures: forward and backward walks, forward walk turning,
delayed forward walk, and checked forward walk. Whether you use the
terms in teaching or not, the technique for each variation contributes
to the rumba characteristics.
Rotations in rumba occur while walking. Three-step turns are forward
walks. Forward walk turning is walking, usually QQS, with a change of
direction but a feeling of always moving forward. This is the technique
of spot turn, underarm turn, Lady’s turning step into fan from open hip
twist. A delayed forward walk is the term for turns within figures that
have a slight pose after the rotation: hip twists, the brushing step of
an alemana turn, the slow step of a cuddle. The checked forward walk is
a checking action usually preceding a recover step. This is seen in
Man’s first step in a basic, not allowing all of his weight to transfer
to the stepping foot, so he has more time to lead Lady onto her next
step.
In smooth rhythms, turns occur between feet, but in rumba, turns occur
on the ball of the foot after you have stepped onto it. We use swivels
and spirals in rumba to create turns on one foot.
Swivels: If you stepped onto your right foot and want to turn right,
you will swivel right face. Lady swivels on the last step of the open
hip twist. Think of spot turns as forward steps with swivels—step
forward and across swiveling a half, then step forward turning to face
partner, step side.
Spirals: A spiral is a turn over the foot you are standing on, but in
the opposite direction of a swivel. (If you are stepping onto your left
foot, the spiral turns right-face.)
Hip action: The most common mistake is trying to create hip action by
swinging the hips side to side, like thinking your spine is the handle
of a paint brush and you are painting the floor. This is the hip action
for merengue. For rumba, you want more of a sports car gearshift (“four
on the floor”) action through the hips. An exercise: Stand with feet
together, straighten the spine, relax the shoulders. Step to the left,
first on the inside edge of the left foot, and as you transfer weight,
allow the left hip to swing back. Your weight should now be to the heel
of the left foot. The knee of the left leg is locked back, the right
leg relaxes with slightly bent knee. Return to standing position and
try moving the right foot. Feel the “shift” into neutral, then into
fourth gear as the right hip swings back. Imagine waiting impatiently
for a bus and shifting your weight from one hip to the other in disgust.
Have patience, though, with new concepts. They require practice and
analyzing with logic why something you tried didn’t work. Dancing is an
art—but all of what you do should be dictated by the science of how the
body moves.
PASSING AND CLOSING FEET IN
SMOOTH
As we dance down the floor, some of our figures “close” (the last step
brings the feet together) and some of them end with passing steps (the
feet end up apart).
Feet “close” or “pass” at the end of a measure for a purpose, related
to the physical movement of the body and the characteristics of the
rhythm or look desired for the dance. We expect waltz figures to have
“rise and fall,” the primary characteristic of waltz. The act of rising
causes your feet to come together so that when you lower at the end of
the third step, they are together, side by side.
Most foxtrot figures—at Phase IV and above—travel through all three
steps because the primary characteristic of the rhythm is graceful
linear flight, like a swan gliding across a pond, not the rising and
falling picture of waltz. Because of that, feet do not come together on
the last step—they pass each other.
We can become sloppy and slush through our steps. Feet will pass on a
forward waltz, perhaps. No big deal at phase II, but as you progress,
you might struggle with rise and fall unless you understand that action
will bring your feet together. That characteristic is also important in
being able to dance the slower tempo of waltz music.
Problems arise for dancers when similar figures are done differently,
depending on the rhythm or the phase. Left and right turns in phase III
waltz and foxtrot are done with a closing step at the end, but in phase
IV foxtrot, the turns have passing steps at the end. The forward run 2
in phase III foxtrot appears to be the same as the phase IV three-step,
but they differ from each other as well as from the forward waltz.
Why do we have this and how are dancers to know what is expected? It
isn’t as simple as saying “waltz figures end with closing feet and
foxtrot figures end with passing feet” because that’s not true.
Round dancing has borrowed heavily through the years from all forms of
dance. By the time Roundalab (RAL) was formed in 1977, the early
leaders had introduced steps from folk dancing and the dance form
developed by Vernon & Irene Castle at the turn of the century, then
expanded on by Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire to become what is called
“American style” ballroom dance. The International style of dance—named
by the English and based on standards developed in England starting in
the 1920s—was also beginning to come into round dancing, and the
differences above were born.
At RAL’s organizational meeting, the differences between the two styles
were much discussed. Concern was expressed about protecting the old
“round dance style” while not causing those interested in the “English” style to splinter off. As the RAL manual began coming
together the next year, it was decided to keep both styles, the
“English” style (with emphasis on technique) and the “round dance
style” (described by the first Standards chairman as the “ball-of-foot
glide and the chest and shoulder lead”). The founders recognized this
could create some problems and encouraged leaders to make clear which
style they were teaching.
Foxtrot created the most problems. In American social foxtrot, figures
generally end with closing steps. In International style, foxtrot
figures generally end with feet apart. Foxtrot begins in the RAL manual
at phase III with feet closing together at the end of a measure, a la
American style. At phase IV, foxtrot changes to International style,
and foxtrot figures in that phase (and up) generally end with passing
feet.
Having entry level foxtrot (phase III) be like waltz makes it easier to
introduce. Just use the same figures learned as waltz, but teach
dancers to hear the timing differences in the music and dance SQQ
rather than 1,2,3. Then, the job becomes teaching the other differences.
Forward, run 2: In 1989, RAL thrashed out the differences between this
and the three-step, which comes in at phase IV. The forward, run 2 can
begin on either foot and is danced with no mention of heel leads.
Technique becomes the issue with the three-step, which always begins on
the Man’s left foot and requires heel leads on steps one and two (with
slight rise at the end of step two, then toe-heel footwork on step 3).
Turning figures: In 1985, RAL adopted the rule that turning figures
ending with passing steps (as in phase IV foxtrot) are to be called
natural and reverse turns, and turning figures ending with closing
steps are to be called left and right turns (phase II waltz and phase
III foxtrot). When the cue is for a reverse turn or natural turn, the
dancers should know that they end with their feet passing on the last
step.
The correct terminology will tell the dancers which technique is
intended. Hopefully choreographers use the correct terms. Then it is up
to leaders to help the dancers recognize those clues.
From clinic notes
prepared for the 2015 RAL Convention and from a club
newsletter, September 2017. Reprinted
in the Dixie Round Dance Council (DRDC)
Newsletter, May 2018. Find a DRDC Finch
archive here.
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