Dance! - The Road to Heavies: lesson 20. April 27, 2012
The shoulders and their position in dancing...
Once again, my shoulders are the problem when it comes to my posture. When I have to do a side-step (from the Beginners Reel this time), the teacher also notices that the foot I throw into the air tips up instead of being pointed and straight: Not supposed to happen!
There is a small break to see where the problem originates from.
It shows that I can get quite high on my toes, but place my weight on all my toes instead of my big toe only. This means I have to keep my heals together with my feet pointed out ánd being high on my toe(s). That's far more tiresome and far more complicated than what I did before.
Getting pushed into the right posture
While in 5th position as good as I can, all my weight on my left leg that's placed behind, my arms straight to the side and my shoulders back, the teacher starts pushing my chest back, to let me feel how the right posture feels. I quickly sense a burning sensation around my stomach-area and as soon as I reach the needed posture, the real problem surfaces: the muscles around my stomach just are not up to this yet and I really need to work on those!
To check on my feet, I have to dance the side-step very slowly. Just like many steps in Irish dance, this takes far more effort to do so, as part of the balance comes from doing the steps in a fast order.
Instead of the usual 7 steps, I know have to just keep going along the length of the hall and in doing so, I have to slide with the other foot, that has to stay pointed. Besides that, I also have to close with my other foot and pay extra good attention in doing so.
When I reach the end of the hall, doing about 8 'bars' of sidestep to the right and 8 to the left, I'm completely wrecked.