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.
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