Ideas for stretching include: rolling your head around to loosen up neck
joints, rolling shoulders in a backward and forward rotation as well as pushing
them down and back for a feeling of proper dance posture, moving arms up above
your head and behind you, circling ankles in and outwards so you don't twist
them, moving legs from the hip joint forward and back to loosen those joints up
as well.
Dance Shoes
If you are beginner- make sure you like dancing first before you spend money on
dance shoes. They can be expensive so make sure you'll get use out of them.
If you are on a low budget, you can also purchase sneakers and put suede on the
bottoms with shoe glue. In ether case, if you are going to dance, shoes meant
for dancing will give you a better experience of dancing in general, and make it
easier on the dance floors you dance on as well.
Footwork
Footwork is something that you will develop over a lifetime of dancing. As
far as good footwork, smaller steps are usually better than larger ones and
remembering to move from your body, not your feet. It is important to remember
too that if you have trouble with concentrating on footwork and body posture and
movement, it is good rule of thumb to put the body posture and movement
first.
Turns
This is done by the leader making a pin with his third and fourth fingers
(preferably) and connecting the pads of those fingers to the followers hand
which is cupped slightly with the thumb tucked to her forefinger (out of the way
of getting caught during the turns). It is important that the follower keep
their palm and wrist facing away and gently connecting to the leader's hand. The
leader can then easily rotate the follow because their fingers and palm (cup)
will rotate with the leaders fingers as she turns. In order for this to work the
follower has to have a soft tone in the arm, especially the shoulder and not
push her hand above her head where she can't see it. A good way to think of this
is that the follow should keep her elbow in front of her face at all times
during the turn.
Beginners and the "Basics"
Make sure you have strong basics in any dance you are learning before moving
up a level or learning new patterns. It will make your experience of learning a
lot more frustrating if you don't know your basics well enough. All good dancers
started at the beginning and repeated the first level a few times before moving
up. Intermediate and advanced dancers often find it to be a good idea to refresh
their memories and hone their skills by taking basic classes again. |
