Class Notes: 13th September 2009
14th September 2009
(Week 1 Notes | Week 2 Notes | Week 3 Notes | Week 4 Notes )
Introduction
We spent some time reviewing last week's topics:
- Connecting: raising / lowering, transferring weight
- Walking: smooth, soft knees,
- Sidesteps: lower first, then lead initial move, then transfer weight
- Rocksteps: small, rotating, don't transfer the whole weight
- The embrace: open and closed versions
- Ochos: led by rotating the chest, then opening out the chest to lead a step.
Posture and walking
We covered basic posture and walking. Some key points:
- Always keep contact with your partner
- Ensure you have a "forwards intention" - for both leaders and followers. Don't lean back - if you do, your partner will feel off-balance as they'll have to lean forwards too much.
- Don't pull down on your partner's arms / shoulders; you shouldn't rely on your partner for support.
- Leaders, take sure, clear steps - don't rush things
Think "Eiffel Tower" shape:
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Dissociation
I talked about dissociation - the "twisting" or "winding up" effect.
Walking along, we naturally dissociate, moving our arms / shoulder in oppostion to our legs / hips - we did a brief walkaround to demonstrate this. So the trick is to recognise this natural movement, and to use it within dancing to pivot ourselves.
Key points:
- Dissociate all the time - for walking and for pivoting.
- Dissociation powers the trailing leg
- Dissociate to the side of the forwards foot (when walking forwards or back)
- Dissociation is what's used for pivots (ochos)
- Use the lat muscles to dissociate.
Ochos again
Building on last week, we looked at ochos, and at switching from forwards to back ochos and vice versa - by simply not pivoting the follower.
Key points:
- A forwards ocho is a pivot towards the leader, followed by a forward step.
- A backwards ocho is a pivot away from the leader, followed by a backward step.
- You step in the direction you rotate towards
- Leaders: always lead the pivot first, then the step. Don't try to do both at the same time. And keep the feet together when rotating; rotate with the upper body only.
- Followers: pivot first, then step. They are two separate motions - don't rush into one before the other.
- Followers: don't anticipate the next step being an ocho, simply because the last step was.
- To change from a forward to a backward ocho, simply lead a forward step without a pivot (to lead a not-pivot, simply don't lead a pivot!), then lead a backstep with a pivot. And vice-versa to change from a backward to a forward ocho.
- Alternatively, you can lead a pivot one way, then pivot the other way, (without stepping in between) to change ocho direction.
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Ochos in dancing
We then worked on adding ochos to our dance as a natural part of the dancing, integrating them with our normal walk.
I demonstrated a sequence example to show how this might work:
- Leader takes a sidestep to the left, follower sidesteps to the right.
- Leader changes weight, follower does not.
- Leader pivots to the left, follower pivots also.
- Leader takes a sidestep to the left, follower backsteps.
- Leader reverses pivot (pivoting to the right)
- Leader takes a sidestep to the right, follower backsteps
- Leader pivots to the left, follower pivots also.
- Leader takes a sidestep to the left, follower backsteps.
- Leader pivots to face, then changes weight (again, follower does not)
- Carry On Walking (leader starts off on the left foot).
So basically you have a three-ocho sequence which you can put into your dancing.
- David Bailey, 14th September 2009