Posture ephiphany!!! -or- coffee is good.

[thespina13]

WHEEEE!!!

So a combination of factors today resulted in a monumental realization. The first seed that was planted was seeing two pictures, side by side, of both my teacher dancing with her husband, and then me dancing with her husband. What I noticed was our postural differences. Secondly, I had enough coffee in my system to want to get up off the damn chair and mimic her posture and how I remember her dancing (she has a very disctincitve posture while dancing). Thirdly, I included everything I'd ever heard here on DF about dancing like a fat lady, Magna's little arched back suggestion, and everything else that's been talked about ad nauseum.

And WHAMMO!!

Dancing was suddenly WAY easier, and I could magically include al the head styling she was teaching me without losing my balance. Also easier to do arm styling properly (ie: getting your upper arm way back and out of the way of your face when exgtended straight up).

What's this epiphany? ok. So I bent my knees slightly, but the correction in my overly erect posture was executed not merely by bending knees (which I need to do less of now), but by arching the lower back and getting the shoulders baaaaaack, via sticking those boobs right out and feeling the ribcage open up to the front. I made sure the sides of my ribcage were visible and not covered by my arms. Head up straight, and shoulders back and down. I thought I was doing this before gbut it turns out I wasn't,re ally. I had to feel like I was exaggerating the arch, which isn't really an arch so much as it is a result of getting that ribcage forward. I executed a tripple with no trouble at all as son as I did this, and was able to do some pretty wild head rolls and whips with no effort at all. So get that butt out, show off your chest, feel proud and let those arms and shoulders stay back nicely. Make sure your shoulders are never rolling forward, unless you're deliberately rolling them forward for a movement or style.

Any of this sound familiar? I'm soooo happy!

[saludas]

Excellent!! Goes for men, too...

My coach famously says (when seeing a hunched over guy) "That's how it FEELS - but not how it should be danced".

[thespina13]

Theerrrre you go. Yeah. I was geting carried away by how the thing felt.. not realizing that the actual technique was much different.

[carrigallen]

Yes, I've heard of this too. My understanding is that it involves slightly flexing your latissimus dorsi muscles (the same back muscles used when doing a pull-up). It opens up space under your arms and straightens your center of gravity.

[noobster]

I included everything I'd ever heard here on DF about dancing like a fat lady, Magna's little arched back suggestion, and everything else that's been talked about ad nauseum. DF is good, right?! It's funny, you wouldn't think you could improve your dancing much by just reading an internet forum; but actually it gives you a lot of feedback on what different people like and are working on, and for me has suggested things to try that I might never have thought of on my own. I totally think DF has improved my following.

So you liked the 'fat lady' advice, huh? That guy told me that back when I was still nervous about missing leads and therefore jumping on stuff too quickly, rather than letting the lead develop in a natural way. I think all he meant was that I needed a little more patience; and visualizing myself as fat helped me to do that somewhat. I suspect that you are way past that stage, but whatever you interpreted the advice to mean I am glad it was useful to you.

So get that butt outRe the arched back, I experimented with a little extra lordosis at one point and my teacher told me to "stop sticking my butt out." :mad: I suspect this is one of his little idiosyncrasies (another teacher might have told me something different) but for now I am keeping the butt tucked. Of course, along the lines of our discussion on body types, it may be that my butt is relatively larger than yours and thus requires a compensatory tucking. :D That's cool that it helped you with the head styling though. I am way too afraid to roll my head around when I am spinning. I do it for fun on single turns but any faster and I feel like if I don't spot all the way through I am going to fall over. I wish I could figure out how to keep it from affecting my center. Maybe I will try the butt-out thing again and see if it helps.

[thespina13]

You know, it's not like you're thrusting it way out.. it just sort of feels a bit like you're opening your pelvis towards the floor and sitting a bit. I saw myself in profile with this new posture and it doesn't really look like i've got my butt sticking out. Your dance teacher might not get mad at you if you can pull this off. There's definitely a difference between poorly arching your back and sticking your butt out, and sitting a bit and getting your shoulders back. I foundt hat I had everything rolled forward.. hips rolled in, shoulder too much forward, and I would consequently lose balance all the time. If you arch your back too much and stick your butt way out, you lose tone in your lower abs, which you don't want to do... that tone is essential in your core strength and stability. But sitting slightly and thrusting your ribcage forward still allows you to engage your lower abdominals.

And yes, thanks DF. It's honestly taught me LOT.