How to dance with your partner

Whatever you do, your attention should always be focused on feeling the partner's hands, and in a close embrace - his entire body. You know, there is such an expression - "turn into one big ear." Here is the same thing, only you need to listen to your tactile sensations.

Almost all movements in a pair are accompanied by some kind of tactile sensations for the partner. The point is to learn to wait for them, to understand and respond specifically to them, and not to the brave pacing of a partner next to you. If you have any doubts, ask the teacher what exactly you should feel when performing a particular movement. This is very important, do not leave these questions unattended.

I think of a comparison with a trolleybus that only travels by connecting its "horns" to the wires carrying current. The trolleybus does not travel without contact with the wires. If there is no current in the wires, it does not go either. Connect and wait for the current - it will lead you.

There are moments when the female partner is allowed to "free float" for a while and her hands are released, but in these cases the visual connection remains, and this is also very important.

4) Mirror the partner's body direction

This is more of a basic technique rule, but it significantly affects the connection in a pair. If the partner's body is turned towards you, then your body should be exactly opposite. You turn sideways to your partner only when he leads you to it.

Mistakes often occur at the exit of turns and rotations, when the partner spontaneously turns away from the partner and opens up somewhere in the wrong direction.

Fragment of an individual with Kadu at the Prague Congress, July 2012

5) Remember all this as often as possible. Practice makes the difference.

Try to consciously focus on your tactile sensations. Practice as much as possible at parties. Dance with as many partners as possible, ask them to tell you when you are walking without a lead. Invite teachers to dance, take indivs.

It is important to practice at parties and sampo, because in a group lesson your attention is occupied with other things, and there you know what to expect. By attending only group lessons and ignoring parties, you will not learn connection.

The more partners of different levels, the better. The more diverse the partner dances, the more attention he takes to himself - the more effective it is for you. Dancing with a teacher or an experienced dancer at a party is a great option if he gently leads, uses different speeds, changes direction of movement, knows how to do all sorts of tricks to lead, if he knows how to subtly return your attention to himself.

That's what I mean. Fragment of an individual with Jorge at the Prague Congress, March 2012

The bad news is that there are very few such partners. Dancing mostly with guys who don't connect and pinball you on the dance floor, you'll never learn it. You just won't realize that can be different , and you won't have practice.

Congresses, festivals are always a big step in development. If you have the opportunity to go to the congress, do not miss it!!! It will sound unpatriotic, but I always recommend choosing foreign congresses: there the MF ratio is about 50/50, and you will not be bored at the wall - at least for this reason. The rest you will understand later.

6) A very effective way to improve your connection is to dance with your eyes closed.

Even the simplest movements and hugs will open up to you from a new side through the prism of sensations. That's how it should be! You must do all the movements because you feel them with your body, and not because you see how the partner steps aside and raises his hand.

But be careful: the party format is not suitable for this practice! At a party, both dancers must look around and keep each other safe. You can practice like this at sampo, but on the condition that the partner understands his responsibility for your safety.

Specialized "blind" seminars for dancers are periodically held in Russia "IN THE DARK" (organizer - school "Art of play"). From 2 to 4 hours you spend with blindfolds doing different exercises and dancing with each other. Feedback suggests that many are rediscovering dance and connection during the workshop. I myself was at such a seminar, and I really liked it. Highly recommend attending this event the next time it is held.

7) Do not complete the movement for a partner if he does not lead.

Sometimes partners forget to give part of the impulses when performing a movement. They mark its beginning, but they don’t take it to the ending, supposedly the partner has already understood what is required of her. This is an incorrect position, because the movement can change at any moment, and impulses must be given from beginning to end. Or they just have not yet learned how to lead correctly and clearly. It happens very often.

I recommend not doing anything if you don't feel led, because otherwise your body gets used to not waiting for a partner and, when given the first impulse, to do the learned movement from beginning to end. It does not develop connection skills at all.

This is not a mandatory rule, this is my position. In the article on the link above, I described in detail the problem and my point of view on this matter. You can listen to her or not. I was surprised, but the article caused a great resonance among partners who want to see their joints in the dance.

8) Eliminate distractions

Uncomfortable clothes, uncomfortable shoes, embarrassing jewelry take your attention and are very distracting. If connection is important to you, then your appearance is chosen for it, and not vice versa.

At the end of this section, I will repeat once again that connection is the fundamental basis for the lightness of a partner. Without it, everything else is useless and you weigh a ton. That is why I have given so much attention to this topic here.

Absolutely everyone can develop the skill of connection, it only takes understanding, desire, regular practice and time. Everything comes gradually.

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Second component: FRAME

The frame is an elastic, one-piece structure through which impulses are transmitted in a pair (lead-follow).

Frame includes arms, shoulders, chest, abs and back. It is provided by a group of actively working muscles that fix the joints in a certain position and reduce unwanted mobility in them. The rigidity of the frame is adjusted for the current dance partner and for the movements being performed. You can read in detail about how it all works in the article at the link.

The task of the frame is to simplify and speed up the transmission of impulses due to the fact that not only the hands are involved in the process, but the entire upper part of the body at once.

If you know how to use the frame, then the impulse moves your entire body in the right direction, and not the arm, followed by the shoulder, and then the rest of the scattered parts of the body.

In addition to understanding and responding to impulses clearly, a good frame gives you additional benefits:

- stabilization of the body and smoothing out sudden, uncomfortable movements
- improved balance
- synchronized work of your body
- movement safety (reduces the risk of sprains, dislocations and other unpleasant things)
- the beauty of posture (partly)

Frame is a big topic that requires a good understanding of how the body works in dance. I wrote a separate, very detailed article about the frame, the link to which is in the subtitle, and I will not dwell on this in detail here.

To become lighter, you need to learn what a frame is, learn to build it in your body and use it: receive impulses through the frame, stabilize your balance with the frame, adapt the tone of the frame to different movements and softness of your partner.

A good frame requires practice and a certain level of physical fitness. This is being worked out, although at first it may seem difficult and unusual.

In the photo, the partner has a gorgeous rigid frame, which is necessary for this movement.

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The third component: BALANCE

Balance - " balance ; the art of keeping the balance of the body or objects during any exercises, tricks ".

Agree that it is much more pleasant and easier to drive a car if it drives clearly on the road, and does not skid or lose control. It's the same in dance.

Until a certain stage in his development, the dancer does not seriously think about the ability to keep balance and cannot adequately assess his level of possession (or lack of possession) of balance. However, this is another important component of lightness. And not only for partners.

If you get carried away and staggered on some movements, if you rely on a partner to stabilize, if you find it difficult to spin, if you cannot stand still in place at any moment of the dance, even on the half-toes of one leg, you have something to work on .

Balance is another big topic that requires a separate detailed coverage, and there is a separate more detailed article on this topic.

Good balance - for the most part it's just very good control of the muscles of your body, the ability to provide them with stability of the body. This is the ability to "pull up" and fix certain muscles.

I would single out 2 main principles on which the entire balance is built:

1. The vertical axis and stretching the body along vectors.

The vertical axis is always present. If you know how to correctly build your body through it, then you can maintain balance even in a difficult position. If not, then it will pass through you at random, and the uneven distribution of the body in relation to the axis will cause a loss of balance.

In the classical sense, the vertical axis runs through the entire body. Its base comes out of the center of gravity, which is exactly under the feet, and the top of the axis comes out through the top of the head. The axis is maintained by pulling the body up, mostly by the muscles of the back and abs (vector up). It really does, and it helps tremendously with zouk. And also a strong pulling of the body up is the basis of all rotations.

But besides this, there are many non-classical positions with body tilts, twists, etc. In these positions, the center of gravity may not be under the foot, and several vectors are used to balance the body. In the photo above, the center of gravity is located in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe toes of the supporting foot, the vertical axis passes through the supporting part of the foot and the lower press of the girl. The legs deviate slightly from the axis. She is helped to maintain balance in this position by the second vector, which runs horizontally - in this case along the spine. However, in a social dance you are unlikely to need this)

Zouk has many movements with deflection of the thoracic spine. In all such cases, the vertical axis still runs along the spine, and you support it by pulling up the muscles of the lower back and the abs. But due to the fact that the upper back leans in any direction, the axis will not come out through the top of the head, but in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe shoulder, chest or shoulder blades - depending on which side the slope is made.

2. Joint control

The most stable support is the fixed support. That is why, in order to build a good balance, it is necessary to eliminate excessive mobility in the joints, which in one way or another hold our weight (serve as a support). And the mobility of the joints is regulated by the muscles adjacent to them. The tension of certain muscles allows you to fix the joint.

Well, this is so, for a general understanding. Let's add some specifics.

"Dance is the back". Something like this I have repeatedly heard, and there is truth in this. The spine is a very mobile part of the body. If the back is relaxed, then it will bend in its weakest and most mobile places under the weight of the upper body, head and under the influence of physical movements in the dance (hello, lower back pain). There will be no balance, or rather it will be purely random from time to time. So that the spine does not bend when it is not necessary and does not destabilize the balance, it must be made as straight and motionless as possible. This is what we get when we stretch our body up. The work of the back muscles and the press allows you to bring the spine into a stable position. The better the tone of your muscles, the more often you make them work, the easier it will be for you to manage the stability of the spine and your balance in general.

The back is very important for the balance and the whole dance. But that's not all, because there are many more mobile joints in our body. And here we can't help but talk about the favorite joints of all zuckers - the hips)) The hip joints can move in all directions, and how much the girls destabilize themselves with them in the pursuit of beauty!

Remember. Butt is the anchor. A retracted buttock effectively limits unwanted mobility in the hip joint. It won't let you take too many steps, it won't let you swing your hip so far that your balance is out of your foot. When you feel that the shifted balance is carrying you around the dance floor, drop the anchor - pull your butt in.

Ass and back. Back and butt. This is the first level in mastering the art of balance.

Next level is the understanding that in addition to the back and priests there are at least knees and feet. Stretched knees are not a requirement of a boring teacher for the sake of beauty, this is, first of all, the same stable support. If you get into some difficult position, then it will be much easier to resist with a knee extended. And weak feet tend to collapse and tuck. And even if the entire upper part of the body is harmoniously built, then a weak foot that has fallen in or out will spoil you. I speak by myself))

What conclusion can be drawn from all this?

Strengthen your body. Learn to control your muscles consciously and safely.

If you only do social dancing, you won't be able to do it enough. To learn how to keep a good balance, build an axis, control your body, you need to load several times more, and social dances do not give such a load.

The best way to get your muscles to work is solo work with your body weight. No supports, partners, simulators. Your body, gender and movements. The more uncomfortable and unusual the position of the body to find balance, the better. For the first time I felt what it means to reach up when we were forced to do all the exercises in the middle of the hall, without a barre at the ballet. It was then that I was surprised to discover that some new muscles in my back were getting tired. The understanding of balance was then divided in my life into "before" and "after".

The photo shows an element from the adagio on modern jazz.

WEIGHTING FACTORS

All weighting factors are associated with the absence of one or another component of lightness. All of them were found in themselves.

• Too hard or too soft sinking hands. Dancing with outstretched arms or pulling your arms towards you. - No frame.


• Movement guessing - no connection and bad frame.


• Steps too large. - Poor balance. Taking big steps, you move relative to the vertical axis: after all, your partner’s arm does not stretch along with your steps, and your legs are much further than your head - this is no longer vertical, this is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


• Back leg settling. - Poor balance. In this case, your center of gravity is under the heel or even behind it, and you are pulled back. To balance and move you, the partner has to apply more force. The farther the center of gravity, the more difficult it is to shift it.


• Hips going forward of the body or excessive swinging of the hips to the side. - Poor balance. In this case, the center of gravity constantly walks from side to side and goes beyond the foot, you deviate from the axis - see the previous paragraph. There are movements in the dance that start from the hip, but these are one-time stylistic movements, and not a general way of moving. In general, the secret is that when one hip is turned off, the second must be pulled up and fixed very well, then the support will be stable. (thank you jazz modern)


• Excessive passion for style. The partner diligently tries to make every dance as beautiful as possible and... ceases to feel her partner. Attention to the partner disappears, because. the beauty of the dance is a priority. - Very bad connection.


• Psychological factors: nerves, embarrassment, distrust, narcissism, attempts to assess the reaction of others to themselves in the dance, attempts to impress those sitting nearby, looking for a partner for the next dance "on the spot", looking for teachers at dance floor. - Bad connection. Even if the partner does not understand what your thoughts are about, he feels alienated, and the quality of the dance suffers greatly.

You can follow the announcements of new articles through the VK group: https://vk.com/zoukability

12 life hacks to quickly learn how to dance from Mamita Dance

dances

Author: Pavel Collect
psychologist, salsa and tango teacher

dancing

Author: Pavel Sobiray
psychologist, salsa and tango teacher

At the start, you always want to get a quick result. When it doesn't happen, the hypothesis arises that everything takes time. After a conditionally acceptable time, humility comes to mastering pair dances, which, perhaps, is not given, and I will just do what I learned somehow.

This is the most common story of those who believe that the fact of attending pair dance classes is enough to learn how to dance.
Absolutely not. If you want to really dance well, you have to make an effort outside of the dance class. A good teacher will definitely be needed, but the initiative should be on your side.

1. Listen to music

The most common and accessible advice that is given already in the first lessons. And it definitely works. Music creates a certain atmosphere of the dance and intuitively you want to move to it. It doesn't matter where you listen to music - in the car, on headphones while walking or doing household chores.

An addition that will help you dance better is your active participation in the music. Sing along, dance or simply beat musical accents with any free parts of the body. In the subway, for example, it is enough to tap out bright moments with your fingers, in the car to sing along with sounds, and at home you can jump for pleasure.

2. Watch videos of good dancers

It's complicated, but also obvious. It’s more difficult, because without recommendations from more experienced dancers, unfortunately, it’s not so easy to find a good quality video on the net (I mean not the resolution quality, but the content itself).

Meaningful viewing of the video is to form an understanding of HOW the dancers make this or that impression on the partner or the viewer. Technology is at the heart of everything. Understanding how the pros do it is a big step forward.

It is important to distinguish a show from a disco dance, a staged number from an improvisation, a stylized dance from an authentic one, etc. Ask for recommendations, and dance teachers will always throw off a couple of videos of worthy landmarks.

Tango Z. Showreel.

Online modern tango courses

Tango nuevo is the most advanced version of tango. We can quickly learn to dance from zero to a steep level.

3. Dance in salsatecas/milongas/discotheques

A very delicate moment when it is worth coming to the first party. From a technical point of view, most students in 1-3 months have a sufficient set of figures and techniques to come and dance calmly. Psychologically, the same moment can be stretched out for an indefinite time. After all, it is imperative to “not lose face”, “learn more figures” and be sure what to do in case “there is an unfamiliar movement”.

In fact, the partygoers don't really care (except for a small layer of non-professional teachers who want to help inexperienced dancers by treating them as customers in the future). It is important to come and try dancing after a month of classes. You can only with friends or guys from your group. This will be enough to feel the adrenaline and inspiration from the dance.

4. Dance with partners or partners not of your level

The conventional wisdom that you need to practice in groups of your level does not stand up to the test of experience. Perhaps now your eyes widened in surprise, and you want to meaningfully read the phrase again. Yes, you saw everything correctly: when you dance with a partner of your level, you don’t grow anywhere.

It's important to understand that not only does it work one way and you have to dance with cooler dancers, but it works even more effectively the other way. It is no coincidence that teaching pair dances dramatically raises the level of the teacher himself. You have an endless stream of very beginner dancers.

How it works. A more experienced partner needs to be "stretched". It's easy and obvious. With beginners, you need to take more initiative on yourself, see the general pattern of the dance more widely, turn on and insure more, try to be an example and be more careful. The quality of interaction begins to grow significantly. And wonderful partners too.

Dancing with partners of your level doesn't make you grow. Dance with beginners and more advanced dancers

Dominican Bachata Women's Style Online Course

Want to learn how to hypnotize those around you with the most appetizing part of your body? On the course we will tell you all the secrets.

5. Learn to dance for a partner and for a partner

Turks and Argentines are one of the best partners in the world. In Russia, partners are highly valued. Why? The answer is simple. In Argentina and Turkey, it is not questionable for men to ask another man to lead in one piece or another and give feedback on the quality of the lead. For them, it will be a great shame to hear moralizing from a partner, or even more so to be known in the community as an insecure partner.

In Russia, due to the constant, often far-fetched opinion that there are more women in pair dances, partners calmly get up and study their partner's part. Such partners then grow into very cool dancers and teachers. In no case do this at parties, only in class. Here we are talking only about the learning strategy. At parties, be yourself.

6. Do not memorize the links

Always try to look deeper and understand the through principle and idea of ​​movement. Understanding what and how is done will make it possible to independently generate any sequences and chips.

Human memory is limited and there will always be a moment when something will slip away and your repertoire will be limited by the size of RAM.

In Argentine tango, for example, there are seven levels of movement construction that, when mastered, will allow you to make millions of combinations. And how many dance sequences can you really remember? In rueda, more than 150 figures dance in a rare circle. It's hard to keep more in mind.

7. Develop your body

Many years of experience in teaching couple dance shows that as soon as everyone pairs up in a class, any progress in individual style ends. But it is the individual style that distinguishes everyone at the disco: partners change, and style is always with you.

The body as the main instrument of dance must be very plastic, responsive and emotional. Surprisingly, not all pair dance schools have a general physical warm-up. It is vital to tune the body and understand how it works.

You can always train extra and concentrate more on the basic steps, as their true value is as body work. The sequence of steps is, in fact, the simplest thing that can be in pair dancing. The quality of individual performance determines the craftsmanship.

8. Try on the images of inspiring dancers

A psychological life hack for those who have already mastered the steps, but still feel that there is not enough brightness and drive. Most are terribly afraid of being someone else's "clone". Here the action is the same as under the influence of hypnosis - the more you resist, the more you plunge into an altered state of consciousness.

With a high degree of probability, you are already dancing like someone else's "clone". A meaningful fitting of someone else's image is that you mentally take the image of the one who inspires you (inspiration is critical in this case) and "put on" yourself. Then you start dancing and trying to feel in general how it is to be able, for example, to be the best partner or the sexiest partner in a disco. This is much more difficult than it seems. But it works extremely efficiently.

9. Dance to unformatted music

Habitual rhythms keep you in tight limits. Tango salon or speedy timba leave little room for experimentation and fantasy. Pattern dancing is always noticeable and is reserved for beginners.

The truly new is born outside of the usual. Look for places to experiment. If there is no place, organize self-training. The main thing is not to get carried away, because music determines the style. We bring something new to pair dances, rather than trying to change them.

Search, improvise, don't be afraid to go beyond, develop in different directions, be inspired by music atypical for the style

10. Try your hand at basic dance directions dances exist according to their own non-choreographic laws.

This is the deepest delusion, which has turned into a ceiling for the qualitative development of pair dances. After all, all professional dancers, for example, in salsa or bachata, build their ideas on the basic choreographic principles.

Do not think that choreography is applicable only on stage. Any meaningful movement of the body can be choreographic. In general, try classical or modern choreography. Basically, hip-hop can work too.

11. Look for battle sensations

Pair dances return us to an active position of manifestation of our body. As in the days of our ancient ancestors, we impress the members of the opposite sex by how dexterous, hardy, sexy, etc. we are. Modern laws of the jungle in the entourage of large cities.

If you look around the dance floor, it becomes clear that the majority are clearly herbivores (not in the sense of vegetarians, but in relation to those around them). I am sure that predators are always more interesting in terms of the attractiveness of the image - try to find a counterbalance among herbivores, for example, a cat woman or a lion man.

The conversation is about an internal position, not about aggressiveness. Lability and lack of control are inherent in adolescents, and not in adult self-sufficient people.

Accordingly, even a training or friendly battle gives, on the one hand, practical skills - to make a bright sequence of movements, bring an idea to a climax, show a spectacular trick, on the other hand, develops the psychological basis of the dance - self-confidence, resistance to extraneous attention, self-control and self-control in complex elements.

12. Communicate with professionals

The environment shapes the internal position. Basically, real passionaries of the dance community are ready to openly talk, discuss and support the development of dance in every possible way. Universal principles and the ideas they articulate have a much longer and more practical perspective than meets the eye.

Accept that, for example, behind the words "listen to your partner" is not only a beautiful metaphor, but also a practical skill to literally listen to your partner. At the same time, always treat every thought, even the most respected teacher, as a private opinion.

Your skill will lie in finding the scope of the idea even in conflicting opinions. Most often, the contradiction is speculative and the truth lies in the angle of perception or situationality.

Your dancing growth will stop sooner or later. This can happen at the level of three basic steps or years of experience in teaching and show performances. Regardless of your level, the suggested 12 life hacks can get you off the ground and greatly accelerate your dance growth.

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