Compression

Ive been working on compression lately and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me?

Often I find that Im giving it a little too much and ending up too far from my partner or not giving it enough and making it difficult for him to remain in closed hold (or get into it depending on which dance we are doing).
I think something else that factors into this is keeping my weight properly balanced, going into a heel lead always seems to find me off balance for some reason.

If I am practicing alone I feel a lot more comfortable and my steps seem perfect, but when partnered I feel the need to "keep up" with him and it doesnt work so well.

Should I not worry about keeping up with his step size?

Thanks in advance :wink:

It is my understanding that partners should work on a step size that is acceptabel and works well for both people. Sometimes I danec with thsi lady and she has really small steps. Every time I try to stretch my steps to move across the floor I find myself stymied, and I've noticed others having the same problem, and so I simply dance out of the way and with small steps when I dance with her.

I think that the extent to which one can really roll through the foot from one end to the other may actually be a larger contributor to effective step size than how far the moving leg swings. Obviously really covering ground requires doing both together, but it may make sense to work on rolling through the foot with comfortably sized steps, then scale things up together.

I would not sacrifice technique just to keep up. It's generally the responsibility of the person going backwards to adjust to the amount of movement determined by the person going forwards.

Warren J. Dew said:

I would not sacrifice technique just to keep up. It's generally the responsibility of the person going backwards to adjust to the amount of movement determined by the person going forwards.

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Interesting. I find that if my partner commits to her movement as soon as she feels the slightest forward movement from me, it gives a bit more freedom for me to get a good driving step which she can then utilize so that we get more flight as a couple. In other words, there seems to be a mirocosm of alternating adjustments where she adjust to me, I to her and then she to me again.

Of course, I could just be imagining it.

Warren J. Dew wrote:
I would not sacrifice technique just to keep up. It's generally the responsibility of the person going backwards to adjust to the amount of movement determined by the person going forwards.


My teacher tells me that he will step as big as I let him; so he would be adjusting to me rather than vice-versa.

Angelo said:

In other words, there seems to be a mirocosm of alternating adjustments where she adjust to me, I to her and then she to me again.

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I was probably oversimplifying. Yes, with well matched partners, it's ideally more of a situation of continuous mutual adjustment. I feel the backwards moving partner has slightly more responsibility because you can't very well power through your partner while moving backwards, whereas you can to some extent while moving forwards.

For asymmetric partnerships, such as most cases of a student dancing with an instructor, obviously the more experienced partner should do more of the adjusting - one can't easily adjust to step lengths that are longer than one can comfortably take.

ShyDancer said:

If I am practicing alone I feel a lot more comfortable and my steps seem perfect, but when partnered I feel the need to "keep up" with him and it doesnt work so well.

Should I not worry about keeping up with his step size?

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Sometimes honestly ShyDancer I think we must be twins! I had this problem for a long time when starting closed dance position. I would get to my private lesson all excited, telling my instructor that my forward poise, etc, etc was working during my practice all week. We'd start dancing and it would be bad all over again. :x Funnily enough it was some waltz exercises that helped to break through for me. Just doing rise and fall while doing a waltz box, controlling your ankles and feeling where your weight sits over your foot after each step. Then during one lesson doing Tango, click, it all started to happen. He was as shocked as I was!!

I at first blamed the size of his steps he was taking, saying that I couldn't take huge steps and remain balanced properly. He kept persisting through my complaints and now I realise that he was pushing me to do the size of step that with my height and frame, I should be doing. Now it's all working much better.

Just keep soldering on and don't for a second think that your home practice is not doing any good. It is, it just takes a while for your brain to put everything together at the same time. :wink:

Hm. I don't usually have to think about the lady's compression, since I do Pro/Am. But from my own point of view--

Soft knees. Pretend like you're in the finals at Wimbledon. And control your steps with your ankles, keep tone through both feet with each step.

HTH

Also:

Is it your backwards steps that you are having the biggest problem with? That's where mine was. I can still hear my instructor saying every time "extend from the hip, extend, extend". You have to keep up with his size of step or he will either run you over when you are going backwards or you will end up off balance as his frame moves you with him when going forwards. At the very least you will not be able to keep closed dance position.

Just keep practicing, I found it was more a strength thing than anything else. Once the strength is there in the legs and ankles, you can control what you are doing a lot easier.

dancin_feet said:

Also:

Is it your backwards steps that you are having the biggest problem with? That's where mine was. I can still hear my instructor saying every time "extend from the hip, extend, extend". You have to keep up with his size of step or he will either run you over when you are going backwards or you will end up off balance as his frame moves you with him when going forwards. At the very least you will not be able to keep closed dance position.

Just keep practicing, I found it was more a strength thing than anything else. Once the strength is there in the legs and ankles, you can control what you are doing a lot easier.

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Ok now you are scaring me :shock:
-You said in your first post you think we must be twins,..... then said you couldnt take such large steps and remain balanced <-- thats me all over!

Now with the backwards steps! At my last private instructor was saying that my forwards steps are great now, but my backwards steps need to be bigger.
My problem seems to be "catching" my weight on the rear foot rather than the extension, I feel like Im either going to push so far I will end up in the splits on the floor or knock him down if I push too hard off the lead step, (OT here - but after what he did to me last week, Im now even more paranoid! He was telling me I needed more tension during an american spin -in jive_-and told me to push him hard, try and push him over, so I did, and being silly he pretended to stumble backwards only he slipped and nearly pulled us both to the floor :lol: )

SD--

Here's something you might want to try. Stand at the bottom of a flight of stairs on the first step. Reach backward with your right foot until you feel the floor, then push off the step. That can help you work on those back steps. Once you feel comfortable on the first step, go to the second, and again reach backward past the first step to the floor. You might want to start this in flats or barefoot.

ShyDancer said:

My problem seems to be "catching" my weight on the rear foot rather than the extension, I feel like Im either going to push so far I will end up in the splits on the floor or knock him down if I push too hard off the lead step

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My problem with this was not extending fully from the hip. Try just standing on one leg and swinging the other back and forth feeling your hip extending fully backwards (if you know ballet this will be easier). To echo the advice that I got here (thanks guys ) you need to compress the weighted leg while extending the other leg back then feel his weight coming towards you and push with the heel of your front foot, landing on the toe of your back foot. It's like you push then land, rather than land then push, which is as a result of not extending back properly and will end up with him running you over and you losing your balance backwards as the backward momentum takes you out of closed dance position.

I found it really frustrating, but it does come together eventually! He only occasionally steps on me now! :wink:

you need to compress the weighted leg while extending the other leg back then feel his weight coming towards you and push with the heel of your front foot,

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Make sure you don't "land" with full weight on the back foot. You need to hit the split position first (i.e, 50/50 weight distribution,) otherwise you'll have a hitch in the movement where the body sort of stops in a non-flowing manner. I never realized I had this problem until my current intstructor called me on it ... repeatedly.

The other thing ... while you do need to swing from the hip, don't pull back from the pelvis. Otherwise, you'll almost certainly disconnect from your partner, and probably develop a bit of a forward pitch as well. This is a bad habit I developed from trying to overpower a social lead, but again, one that I get called on repeatedly by my instructor. That's one of the toughest aspects about Standard IMO ... dancing your center towards your partner's center through a backing motion or a turning motion.

msc said:

Make sure you don't "land" with full weight on the back foot. You need to hit the split position first (i.e, 50/50 weight distribution,) otherwise you'll have a hitch in the movement where the body sort of stops in a non-flowing manner. I never realized I had this problem until my current intstructor called me on it ... repeatedly.

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Forgot about the 50/50 weight thing, thanks msc! Need to keep the weight forward and not move any further back than the ball of the back foot. Aaahhh I remember the bumper car waltzing that I used to do to my instructor before it started to work properly! Takes strength and control to stay forward, but if you extend and meet his stride length, it does work!