Dancing involves the gradual development of a mental ability to co-ordinate various parts of the body to move according to music in the right timing. Getting certain parts of the body to move is certainly no easy task for any novice Ballroom dancer. However, understanding the basic concept of Ballroom dancing can certainly help a dance student to slowly develop the skill of mind-body control over time.
The Body Dynamics
- It is never the leg that travels. The body makes the move. The limbs just follow. The more the body moves forward, the more distance can be traveled.
- Interestingly, the body does not move backward in a backward movement like the Rumba Walks, or Cha Cha Walks. The body moves forward initially to give that resistance for the rest of the body to go backward. Such forward movement facilitates connection with the partner
- Parts of the body can be isolated from the rest. For instance, the upper body ribcage can move in all directions, forward or backward, with the hips still.
- It is always hard to get the body to move to the intended direction right away. A dance step to the right, for example, involves preparing the body from the left and vice versa. This will create the momentum for the movement and lighten up the dance step.
- All joints in the body are actually connected. For example the right knee is connected with the left hip; the right shoulder is connected to the left hip, and so on. As a matter of fact, in any dance figure, the dancer may need to use various groups of joints simultaneously.
- The body is never static in dancing. It is always doing something when the music is continuing. It never stops at any point because dancing is a way for the body to interpret the music in a transitional manner.
The Pelvic Power
The hip or the pelvic facilitates most movements in Ballroom Latin dancing. Like the upper body, the pelvic can roll in a plain three-dimensional manner, i.e. forward, backward, or to the side, and even rotate in a figure-of-eight pendulum fashion. The lady always dances the hip twist to change direction to the right. The hip twist is part of many basic Latin dance figures like the Alemana, Sliding Door etc.
A lady’s physique has more curves than that of the man. It is natural for the lady to demonstrate more prominent hip movements. This is sometimes referred to some “sexy” moves by the spectators. However, in Ballroom Latin Dancing, the gender’s characteristic is highly played up. Therefore a female dance student should prepare to use her hips. Of course, the male dancer needs to use his hips as well.
What Connection Is About
Partners are connected through the center of the body. It is not enough just to contact each other with the arms.
Connection is never intentional with any push or pull of either partner. Connection is felt when both man and lady are using his and her joints correctly. Otherwise the partner will not feel the signal for the next step. Once this signal is felt, leading and following are possible.
Appreciating Ballroom Dance
It may take a considerable length of time before a beginner dancer to understand everything about the body. Understanding how the body works will certainly take Ballroom dancing to a new level. Not only can one prepare for learning more challenging figures, he or she can also acquire a more in-depth knowledge of Ballroom dancing from its costumes or outfits to its dance technique.
