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Fancy Footwork
Jan. 19th, 2006 06:30 pmYesterday I asked my dance instructor the secret to his incredible footwork, especially in mambo (a very fast dance). He gave me two secrets.
The first one is to never put weight on your foot until your body is over it.
This reminds me of what I learned in volleyball--don't even try to return a volleyball until you can get your whole body directly under it. I learned it mainly because people yelled this at me whenever I had a terrible pass, which was at least half the time for a while, and also because it did actually make it easier to make the ball go where I aimed. (This group was not easy to play with, and some days my ego wasn't up for it, but it could also be fun.)
My instructor told a story of people who were surprised to find that the place they had decided to dance had a marble floor. Slippery. Hard. Equation for dead people. Must make all dancers wear helmets. But then he realized that everyone was a good dancer, meaning they never changed weight until their body was over the foot. And this means they don't slip. So remember this secret next time you're walking on ice.
This is one of the main problems he has with salsa--there are so many steps where you just brace yourself, or use your foot to push off instead to take a real step. It looks sloppy and even unsafe to him. But then he remembers this is often learned in bars by drunk people; they are not too worried about these details.
The other secret is to move your weight from the heel of your foot all the way to the toe of your foot before you put weight on the other foot. The opposite of this would be kind of clomp-clomping around, putting all your weight evenly across your whole foot at once instead of shifting it from back to front.
I'm used to paying attention to the foot that's landing--should it land heel first or toe first, should it pass close to the other foot on the way to the next step or go directly there, is it waiting until the leader takes a step so that it knows how far to go? Let's just say that when I start paying attention to the other foot instead, the result is not pretty!
Disclaimer: I may have misinterpreted what I heard; use your own best judgment. If you use these secrets and do not look awesome on the dance floor and/or do slip on the ice, please do not sue me.
Site of the Day: Trial by Water, fourth in a series of articles on the recovery and relief efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi, from The Daily Texan, a student newspaper. Read this only if you are in the mood to cry or if you are tired of feeling sorry for yourself and want to either put things into perspective or get survival strategies. These lines summarize the article: "Tien Bui, a 62-year-old widower, shuffles around his nearly vacated property, which used to house a nail salon, barber shop and CD store. . . . The hurricane and its aftermath were bad, he said, but they weren't the worst hardships he's experienced in his life. Those titles are reserved for either the time his back was broken by torturers in Vietnam or the time he had to watch as his wife was murdered right in front of him."
The first one is to never put weight on your foot until your body is over it.
This reminds me of what I learned in volleyball--don't even try to return a volleyball until you can get your whole body directly under it. I learned it mainly because people yelled this at me whenever I had a terrible pass, which was at least half the time for a while, and also because it did actually make it easier to make the ball go where I aimed. (This group was not easy to play with, and some days my ego wasn't up for it, but it could also be fun.)
My instructor told a story of people who were surprised to find that the place they had decided to dance had a marble floor. Slippery. Hard. Equation for dead people. Must make all dancers wear helmets. But then he realized that everyone was a good dancer, meaning they never changed weight until their body was over the foot. And this means they don't slip. So remember this secret next time you're walking on ice.
This is one of the main problems he has with salsa--there are so many steps where you just brace yourself, or use your foot to push off instead to take a real step. It looks sloppy and even unsafe to him. But then he remembers this is often learned in bars by drunk people; they are not too worried about these details.
The other secret is to move your weight from the heel of your foot all the way to the toe of your foot before you put weight on the other foot. The opposite of this would be kind of clomp-clomping around, putting all your weight evenly across your whole foot at once instead of shifting it from back to front.
I'm used to paying attention to the foot that's landing--should it land heel first or toe first, should it pass close to the other foot on the way to the next step or go directly there, is it waiting until the leader takes a step so that it knows how far to go? Let's just say that when I start paying attention to the other foot instead, the result is not pretty!
Disclaimer: I may have misinterpreted what I heard; use your own best judgment. If you use these secrets and do not look awesome on the dance floor and/or do slip on the ice, please do not sue me.
Site of the Day: Trial by Water, fourth in a series of articles on the recovery and relief efforts in Biloxi, Mississippi, from The Daily Texan, a student newspaper. Read this only if you are in the mood to cry or if you are tired of feeling sorry for yourself and want to either put things into perspective or get survival strategies. These lines summarize the article: "Tien Bui, a 62-year-old widower, shuffles around his nearly vacated property, which used to house a nail salon, barber shop and CD store. . . . The hurricane and its aftermath were bad, he said, but they weren't the worst hardships he's experienced in his life. Those titles are reserved for either the time his back was broken by torturers in Vietnam or the time he had to watch as his wife was murdered right in front of him."