Looking Down

My partner has this terrible habit of looking down during both Latin and standard. He does not bend his neck per se, but his eyes are downcast, which affects his general posture. He was told over and over again to stop doing that by me and our coaches. But it seems that he cannot help it. He said he does that during Latin because he has to think about his move, specifically his hip. He did not have any excuse for standard. It is a huge problem for a competitive dancer. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this problem?

Have you/your coaches told him where to look vs. only where not to look?

Maybe if, instead of being told not to look down (say in Standard) he knew to look at the seem between wall and ceiling? Just a thought...

I don't have any answers unfortunately, but I have the same problem.

I developed it in latin and have a really bad case of it. My pro has tried fining me ($5 every time I look down) and reminding me, to date it hasn't worked. I really don't like to see who might be around watching practice and look at the floor to avoid people's gazes. It soon became an ingrained habit. I have recently devoted more attention to it and know it will take a concentrated effort (not to mention a little more confidence) to fix.

I do not have this problem at all in standard. Since the followers head and eye position in dance frame is up and away, not a problem.

I'm just starting smooth and I'm pretty sure I'll have the downward gaze problem there too....

I actually have this problem too, but more so in rhythm with any type of open breaks/cross body leads. I can really tell you why I do it. Maybe I am used to keeping eye contact with my partner when we're in closed dance position, but as soon as we separate, I don't know where to look? I worked on it during my last lesson. Hopefully I can shake it.

Video tape him and have him look at it repeatedly (both as punishment and as a learning tool!). Seriously, I did it a bit myself and have adjusted quite a lot after constant video review. And I do agree that once he doesn't have to focus so much on his hip, he'll be able to focus more on his head.

It just needs time and practice. When he gets better with the steps he'll be able to concentrate to look up.

put a pair of sunglasses on him and call it a day

Hmm, I'll have to check my videos and see if I do this.

I've noticed that some guys with much shorter partners have a tendency to do this

SDsalsaguy said:

Have you/your coaches told him where to look vs. only where not to look?

Maybe if, instead of being told not to look down (say in Standard) he knew to look at the seem between wall and ceiling? Just a thought...

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Good point... a way to help is to do a round of dances each time you practice where the only focus is to look at (connect with) someone in the audience (when you're not looking at your partner). Don't stop for any reason, and just make that be your main focus for that round.

caityrosey said:

I've noticed that some guys with much shorter partners have a tendency to do this

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I'm shorter than my partner, and he was once told to look directly above my head. It's really disconcerting to me, bc I'm looking up at him and it looks like he's looking at me, but we're not making eye contact. I still haven't gotten used to the feeling...

behavior mod is the way to go here. don't analyze why - just force the correct behavior, in increments if necessary (first: alone with partner in a room with nobody. then, with one other person watching. then, with many more. etc.) video could be helpful in terms of shaming the person into better behavior/making them realize why it must be fixed.

Couple of you suggested video taping him. I am not sure that would help, because his looking down is subtle and it will not be so obvious on the video. As I said in my original post, he does not bend his neck, but just glancing down. So it does not look terribly bad, but if he looks up, it will help us look better. I would say that his looking down may not be noticed by some others, but his looking up will enhance our look. It will make us look a lot more confident and determined. At competitions, small things make a huge difference, don’t they?

Dancebug said:

Couple of you suggested video taping him. I am not sure that would help, because his looking down is subtle and it will not be so obvious on the video. As I said in my original post, he does not bend his neck, but just glancing down. So it does not look terribly bad, but if he looks up, it will help us look better. I would say that his looking down may not be noticed by some others, but his looking up will enhance our look. It will make us look a lot more confident and determined. At competitions, small things make a huge difference, don’t they?

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It might show up on the video. The guy I am thinking of who looks down doesn't really bend his head either, but you can tell where his focus is if you're paying attention to his eyes--of course this will only really work if you can get a good close-up, filming at a distance won't help with this.

alemana said:

behavior mod is the way to go here. don't analyze why - just force the correct behavior, in increments if necessary (first: alone with partner in a room with nobody. then, with one other person watching. then, with many more. etc.)

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Alemana, this is definitely the way I will have to go...although I have to admit to feeling a bit like a pavlovian dog experiment. Thank goodness they're not ringing any bells, hate to drool all over the dance floor....

I would suggest you don't go overboard correcting him ALL the time - he can get pretty annoyed at that and become unresponsive. I would make sure I gave reminders every once in awhile about it but I wouldn't harp on it. Chances are he knows he's doing it (given your's and your teacher's comments about it) and is either concentrating on other things that need fixing or is trying but hasn't succeeded yet. Ingrained habits are very difficult to break so give him some space. I know I wouldn't want to hear about something I am doing wrong all the time, especially if I know I am doing it.

I am speaking from experience, BTW. My dance partner has had trouble maintaining a positive head position as well but harping on him about it constantly, I knew, wasn't the answer because it wouldn't do as much good as harping on other things. This was in standard and other things he's been working on lately have given his head position a much better look than my harping would have done. At least in standard, I feel like the boys' head position is often a result of other problems with posture in the body and correct movement and stretch. Fixing those is a good way to fix the head position as well.