Homework

During the holiday season, so many of us travel and have obligations that take us away from the dance floor and the discipline of lessons.  However, this is an opportune time to advance your skill in dance!

Many dance students do not know how to practice on their own. All teachers of dance are also students and, personally, I discovered that learning to practice on my own is surprisingly natural. However, I know many students who have no idea what to practice and why, nor do they understand how to build a focused practice plan that will speed their improvement.

I can assist any student overcome this and to develop a methodical program to use at home.  Practice can be a dance routine, an amalgamation of figures or a single dance pattern to create sound technique and good form.

Study is equally important.  For example, it is extremely useful to study your notes on choreography you are working on, reviewing a recorded video, or practicing the 3 to 6 steps of a pattern you find most difficult.

 

You don't have to be wearing dance shoes, on a wood floor, or in the classroom to practice.  I encourage my students, all of the time and especially during the holiday time, to continue working at home.

So this year, enjoy the holiday season and practice!

Achieving Equilibrium for Ladies

A poised follower with beautiful posture who holds her frame in partner dancing is a lovely sight to behold!

So often, my students struggle with maintaining a proper frame, while remaining physically comfortable.  I hear about the difficulty of holding one’s posture throughout an entire dance, or multiple dances.    The keys to a follower’s comfort in a partnership are core strength and counter balance.  

It can be downright exhausting to first build core strength and then develop the discipline to hold it while in motion.  However, the hard work is well worth the effort – as it will pay off by creating the muscle memory required to maintain a beautiful frame.

One experienced follower offers, “think of your skeleton as a coat hanger that is lightly holding up a coat, rather than trying to tense the arm muscles and hold the arms in place.”  She goes on to point out that using the muscles correctly may be more difficult (at first) than using them incorrectly; however, it is much less exhausting. 

The dance frame is the primary way in which partners communicate with each other.  

It can help a follower to realize that correct posture and frame in partner dancing is more than just pretty.   

A correct frame is critical to counterbalance. 

Without counterbalance, like a scale, both sides would be unequal. Each partner participates in creating equilibrium with the other and that equality in balance is the only way to achieve many of the positions that make dance both beautiful and effortless.