pivots

fascination

fascination

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can we talk about these?...I am beginning to dance open smooth, I am aware of a good amount of pivot technique...a substanyial amount...and yet I still find, and I suspect it is in physically holding back, that I am tending to take my foot before my center and not turn my standing foot enough...what do most of you who do good pivots think about when you are doing them?
 
If my pivots are going poorly, I usually find that it's one of two things:

1) I'm not driving from the previous step enough, but rather placing my foot and expecting my body weight to wind up in the right place.

2) I'm not down into my legs enough to maintain any kind of balance.

We'll occasionally do a drill in which we take a step, wait til the end of the measure (or whatever's easiest while still being deliberate), then do the pivoting action over the standing leg. Wait another measure, then repeat. While not necessarily being the actual practice of a full pivot, it helps a ton when you go to do a pivot to actual timing.
 
thanks, I will give that a try...we do that fairly often..here's my thing though...the horrible paradox of it all...when I do them alone in isolation, I can do them fairly well most of the time...it is when I have him in my space :) that it all goes to hades..and I know better than to step before moving my center, but I seem to continue to insist upon doing that and not continuing to turn that standing foot to help with the endeavor
 
1) Drive! And double check that you're driving INTO your partner, rather than trying to get AROUND him

2) Receive - make sure you get a good "crease" between front of hip and pelvis (sit back in your butt) to give space to your partner when he drives into you.

3) Stand up straight, and pull center in/up - you'd THINK it would be obvious...

**I recommend practicing with less-than-optimal rotation, to get the back and forth feel down, and only when comfortable try to rotate more and more**
 
thank you Gina...I rather suspect that these are the issues...and that it isn't a matter of knowing, but of prioritzing and doing, first in practice then in closed hold
 
GinaM said:
1) Drive! And double check that you're driving INTO your partner, rather than trying to get AROUND him

2) Receive - make sure you get a good "crease" between front of hip and pelvis (sit back in your butt) to give space to your partner when he drives into you.

3) Stand up straight, and pull center in/up - you'd THINK it would be obvious...

**I recommend practicing with less-than-optimal rotation, to get the back and forth feel down, and only when comfortable try to rotate more and more**
Click to expand...

I think these are very good suggestions.
 
yea...I am beginning to believe that my issue is not a lack of failure to grasp the concepts or of not having enough info, but rather simply of the hard work of doing it
 
For me, I find there is an issue when I am not rolling through the foot properly. For example, when I am stepping forward with the right foot, I need to make sure I get over the ball of the foot, as that is the part of the foot "spins" on the forward step. If I don't do this right, I end up stepping more "side" on the next step.
 
Pivots are the hardest for me. Question -- for the 2nd step (left foot) should I be stepping forward across my partner? or to the side across my partner? And at what point should I "sit in my butt" to give space for my partner to drive? Is it as I cross her path?
 
I would assume it is the same for the man...that you step directly toward your partner, no?...and that the sitting is just prior to taking that forward step to prep for your own drive...then again, I am no technician
 
Well, my pivots are far from perfect and not very consistent either, but here's my input. The reasons I usually can't pivot are because I don't offer CBM to my partner, doing so really makes pivoting much easier as you're allowing your partner to go around you and vice versa. Another common reason is because I tend to transfer my weight too late and end up pulling my partner; no common centre of gravity. And of course the silliest of all the mistakes, not keeping my weight down and knees flexed while pivoting.

I'm not sure are you referring to the pivots in latin or standard but having personally done more pivots in standard (waltz, tango, foxtrot), I made the silly assumption that you're referring to them (: However, I guess that pivots in latin dances pretty much hold the same concepts?
 
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