Arm Styling for Men

[NeoDevin]

I've been dancing for one year now, but my teachers don't teach anything about arm styling. Do any of you have any suggestions for this? Particularly in cha-cha, rhumba, and samba.

Thanks

[Sagitta]

Which style -- American or International? In my limited experience I think that International lends itself more styling. I've not been formally taught any arm styling but learnt a bit from watching video clips/others and letting my hands move naturally to faciliate what I am doing while thinking of lines of sight and how it looks...I do the following

Cha-cha: When doing New Yorkers /Cross Body Breaks in you can keep your free hand out to the side when facing each other (4 &), connect with other hand also at 1, let go of 1st hand and do the break with 1st hand to your chest when doing the break and you are side-by-side (2-3). I can also make who New York sharper/crisper by putting hand out instead of the softer effect of fingers pointing inwards on the 2-3.
When doing back and forth cha-chas with leader and follower following each other my arms are more angular, V/L shaped. At the end of each cha-cha-cha there is the pivot which has a sharpness to it, so my hands move along with my body...

[NeoDevin]

International Style. What are "Cross Body Breaks"? I haven't learned them yet (at least, not by that name). Thanks for the tips on cha-cha, I'll try them, and see how it works. Also, any general tips on style/technique for a beginner are welcome. Still looking for styling in rhumba and samba.

Thanks

[Sagitta]

I have been remiss!!! :oops: :doh: Welcome to the DF Forums NeoDevin, and hopefully to the family of future long-term active participants as well! :)

New Yorker and crossover breaks. Same move, but different name.

Go to www.ballroomdancers.com, [great website to learn moves etc from video clips, by the way] and choose learn a new dance step. Under latin choose cha-cha, featured steps, then new yorker. Under rhythm dances choose cha-cha and cross over breaks. Same basic move, but slightly different depending on what style you are dancing it in.

Another way I learn styling is by understanding the music...so

Rhumba: Slower then cha cha so there is more time to accentuate all moves. More flowing hand movements.

Cha-cha: Sharper crisper moves, as it is a faster dance, so sharper arm styling.

I've done one or two lessons of samba, it's not played a lot at clubs and dances....so can't help you out there.

That's it. I've exhausted all the knowledge that I can dredge out from the mind of this newbie (been less then a year, and less then 5 months for ballroom) dancer who is suffering from a cold too...sniffle...sniffle...cough :( :)

[Sagitta]

Cool avatar!!! Still picking one out? Which one is a closer match to your personality - 1st or the latest? Or are you using different criteria? :)

[NeoDevin]

I'll check the website out in the morning, thanks. I'm still picking an avatar out, I'll probably flip through the ones already here until I find one of my own somewhere (I'll probably come up with a weird signature too).

You're missing out on samba. That and the rhumba are my two favorite dances. Though they may be beaten by the tango when I learn more of it.

This forum seems like a good source of information, and from what I've read so far, the people seem nice, so I'll probably stick around for a while, so I'll write a bit about myself so you guys know where I'm coming from.

My name is Devin, I'm 18 years old, living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I'm a student at the University of Alberta, in the second year of my Honours Bachelor of Science majoring in Mathematical Physics (sounds impressive, huh?). Last year after christmas, I joined the dance club here at the university with my girlfriend. I had intended to join at the beginning of the school year, but never made it to registrations on time, then my girlfriend made sure I did. I've since broken up with her, she quit the dance club, but I love it, and will probably keep going as long as I'm in school, and after that. I took lessons once a week, for 9 weeks last year, had a couple lessons over the summer, and now I'm in level 2 (level 1 is absolute beginner, level 2 is in between, level 3 is pre-bronze). I have one lesson left this semester, a workshop, and 2 dances coming up. Next semester I intend to take level 2 again, and level 3 as well. So far I've learned a little bit of fox-trot, tango, and quick step, and a fair bit of cha-cha, rhumba, samba, waltz, jive (though I've forgotten most of the stuff we learned in jive). I really want to learn more of the tango, and I love the cha-cha, rhumba, and samba. My other interests are playing the flute and piccolo (been taking private lessons for 4 years now), snowboarding, and working out (and women of course :wink: ). I'm still a beginner at snowboarding, and I hardly ever have time to make it to the gym, but between dancing and snowboarding, I keep in pretty good shape. Hopefully after christmas, I'll be able to make it to the gym regularly. I like all kinds of dancing, not just ballroom. When I was little, I was in tap, jazz, ballet, and ukrainian dancing, which I think probably helped contribute to my current love of it. I also like freestyle dancing at clubs. Any tips for that are welcome too, obviously it's mostly your own style (which I like to think I have pretty good), but tips are always welcome. I think that's about all there is to be said about me, if you have any questions, just feel free to ask me.

[NeoDevin]

And I'd say the first one (Agent Smith from the matrix) was a better match for my personality, but with the name NeoDevin (chosen for other reasons), and an avatar from the movie, I might be mistaken for a matrix nut, which I'm not, so I changed it. Maybe I'll have to get a picture of myself in a similar kind of getup for my avatar.

[SDsalsaguy]

First things first...welcome to the Forums NeoDevin! :D

Hmm, well, having good default arm styling is something I need to work on as well, so I'm not sure that I have much to offer you. For what it's worth, here's one item I've been working with lately: let the arm "follow" the woman. What this means is that if, say I am leading an alemana, I let my right arm fold in, from the elbow, towards my sternum, as she steps through and under, and then return my arm back out as she comes around to complete her movement. This works as a general principle for all types of under arm turns in all three dances you mention.

Aside from this, it's important to understand where all arm motions should be coming from...and it's not the arms! I'm not sure if you've covered this in any of your classes yet, but all arm motions should come from the ribs via the shoulders. Your ribs will isolate in one direction or another starting a chain from rib to shoulder to elbow to wrist (and even to fingers)... with time – and practice :wink: – this problem becomes less and less mechanical and, ultimately, becomes natural.

Hope that helps...

[Sagitta]

Well put SDSalsa!! I was trying to also say something like that using the cha-cha forwards and backwards, with leader and follower taking turns to follow each other, but I'm still lacking in the vocabulary/articulation department for dance. :oops: :) Still got to learn the language.

[Adwiz]

Welcome to the forums. Nice to see more Canucks showing up to represent the dance community here.

Arm styling is something that isn't generally taught until you start to compete.

The idea is to complement the movement of the legs. So if your body is moving to the right, as in a fan, you want your arm to move out in that direction and make the whole action "bigger."

At first, you'll probably find that your arm movements feel stiff and unnatural because you're concentrating on them (I did). Later on you'll find that you can make them smoother and more natural.

Two of my coaches have said that because I'm 6 feet tall my arm movements have to be different from someone who is even a few inches shorter. The taller you are the smoother and more curved your arm movements should be, while short guys can get away with more rapid arm movements and wider expressions of the arms to make them look bigger. If a tall guy goes too wide or fast it looks silly.

An interesting thing I found was that both of my private coaches have completely different ideas of what I should do during Progressive Walks. One coach wants me to move the right arm pretty much constantly during my walk, while the other thinks it becomes distracting. Very interesting, as it shows how subjective that whole side of dancing can be. I guess that's one reason why it isn't taught much.

[pygmalion]

I'm just starting to seriously work on arm styling, myself, so I can't contribute much. However, I do have a very good video -- American Style Technique I, by David and Carrie Kloss. It's for American Smooth dances, and covers much more that arm styling, so much of what's said may not apply. (Meaning -- see if you borrow somebody else's copy instead of spending $50 to buy your own! :lol: ) But David Kloss does a great job of showing the contrast between arm styling for men and women. He describes it, then gives examples of how to make arm styling look more masculine than feminine. Definitely worth a watch, if you can borrow a copy.