Ripples?

[pygmalion]

Just curious. How do you all use ripplies in your dancing, if at all? I'm dancing around the house (to R&B, country, pop, WCS, you name it) and finding ripples in every song,while six months ago, I could barely ripple at all.

(Edit: Thanks, Vince A :D 8)

Ripple experiences, anyone? 8)

[SDsalsaguy]

Ripples? I'm not sure I understand how you're using this Jenn... could you please clarify?

[pygmalion]

Good point, SD. Terminology isn't always (who am I kidding isn't often) universal.


Holy cow! Now, that means I have to define a ripple! :shock: Okay. A ripple on a human being looks like a wave in a stadium crowd. A movement flows through the body sequentially -- the hips, then waist, then torso, then shoulders, then neck, then head, all go through the same movement/sequence. It really does look like a wave flowing through one's body. Hmm. Gotta think about a more comprehensive definition. :? 8) :D

[SDsalsaguy]

Would you say that "body roll" would also describe the motion/action you have in mind?

[pygmalion]

Not without ambiguity, because samba rolls exist. Samba rolls are completely different than the ripples I'm talking about. Samba rolls are a 3-D body action, while the ripples I'm describing are more 2-D/forward and backward actions.

[SDsalsaguy]

Hmmm, I don't mean samba rolls, but what you're describing is, as best i can tell, what I typically hear referenced as body rolls... :?

[SalsaGeek]

I do a body roll with my partner starting from the feet up to the head. Picture you and your partner starting with a right to right hand hold. Both leaning back to create a V shape and then start the body roll from your feet up to your head. I hope that kinda make sense to you. :roll: Or you could just do it by yourself during a right to right hand hold.

[etchuck]

Jenn the Rippler??? This I've got to see. Send an avi file... ;)

I'm not sure I use ripples/body rolls that much. I guess I just need a bit more practice. But I'd probably use it more with my WCS since it really doesn't fit in VW that much. ;)

[pygmalion]

Oh yeah! You should see me ripple while car dancing! :D I've always done it pretty well naturally. But, thanks to Vince A and a former teacher, (and lots of practice) now I can do them on demand. :wink:

And as for the ripples versus rolls. I think this is another one of those ambiguous dance terminology things floating around. :?

[etchuck]

I don't know... when you say ripples, I think of the old break dancing "move" where your arms do the "rolling". That or I think of very wrinkley things.

[pygmalion]

The break dancing move with the arms IS a ripple -- a side to side one. My preferred ones are front to back or back to front. The side to side ones always remind me of the funny-looking guy in the Michael Jackson "Beat It" video. :shock: Ugly.

[d nice]

Body rolls are the common name for what you are calling ripples Jen. In B-Boy terminology its waving, a sub-dance form of the West Coast Funk style (also generically known as pop-locking).

Arms, legs, body, forward, back side, up, down, its all waving. West coast Swing and Blues dancing are the two partner dances it fits easiest in.

[pygmalion]

Whatever you call them, they're a blast. (Especially after my requisite two glasses of merlot LOL) :twisted: :lol:

Lots of folks do call them ripples, though (maybe to differentiate from rolls? Who knows. *shrug* ) I googled, just to make sure I wasn't nuts. Lots of references to body ripples, complete with a recognizable description.

One thing I've noticed, through my involvement with DF, is that we dancers really need to get our terminology together. There are a bunch of terms I've run across here that are used to mean two or more different things. And then there are the things that have two or more different terms associated with them. It's really rather annoying. :evil: :x

[jon]

One thing I've noticed, through my involvement with DF, is that we dancers really need to get our terminology together.

Not gonna happen, unless someone imposes a single central authority over all dancers and dance form. Granted orgs like the ISDF would like to do just that, they're not going to succeed. I remember the rolling-around-the-floor laughter with which some of my Lindy friends greeted outside attempts to declare authority over Lindy Hop (http://www.bobethomas.com/history/history_lindy_debate_frame.htm).

Just for one of hundreds of examples, some Lindy hoppers believe so passionately that WCS is not a "swing" dance that they would deny permission for other people to use the term and, insultingly, insist on labelling us "westies"(*). They are of course not going to succeed in changing the name of a dance they don't even do, but how would you propose that these two groups come to a mutually acceptable definition of "swing dancing"?

Heck, ballroom teachers in the US don't even agree on the names of lots of simple patterns.

(*) Yes, I am aware that there are Lindy dancers who do not consider this term an insult (although, why would you choose to call someone by a label they themselves reject?). However, there are certainly a significant number of them who do.

[pygmalion]

Oh yeah, and one more thing. They're also called body waves (not to be confused with the chemical hair treatment LOL.)

jon, that's an interesting web site. I ran across it a few months ago, early in my DF "career," but I didn't get the implications then. Hmm. Thanks for the revisit opportunity. 8)