Dear LovelyIsabella,

Many thanks for your reply and I will try to practice as what you told me.

Best regards,

tina

Check you local library for dance instructional video tapes. I found one called "Let's learn technique for ballroom dance 2" by "Kathy Blake". It has pretty good description of the cuban motion IMBO (in my beginner's opinion).

Hi Tina - are you sure you heard your teacher right?

In Rumba (I presume you mean International style) when you dance the walk, the body moves after the fooot is placed and not the other way round. There should always be a slight feeling of falling forward, with the feet moving forward to counteract this. The body then moves after the weight is taken. The knee is then locked back producing a straight leg which in turn causes the hip of the standing leg to dispace to the side and back. Tension shoul still be kept in the non-standing leg.

In order to achieve the correct poise try the following exercise.

1.Stand upright with the feet slightly apart.
2. Allow the upper body to move forward slightly in advance of the legs. But be careful not to overdo it. You should get to a point where you feel you are about to fall forward.
3. At this point move the free leg back so that it is in the correct position to start the walk. There should be tension (not too much) in this leg.
4. Swing the free leg passed the standing leg toe-ball until it is in front of the standing leg. At the full extent of the stride simply lower the heel and settle the weight into this leg, locking the knee to displace the hip.
5. The body should then move forward to attain the same position as you had at the start.

The repeat.

A couple of things you should be aware of.
1. The hips displace because of the poise and the locking of the knee. You should never force the hips - this is bad dancing.
2. The upper body can be divided into the 3 parts:
the top - which hardly moves
the chest/stomach area - which moves slightly
the pelvis area - which moves the most.

You may be making a mistake in thinking that Rumba is all about wiggling your hips and shoulders as much as you can, but this is incorrect.

If you really need to develop mobility in the top of your body then try isolation exercises - isolating the different moveable parts - shoulder - chest, hips etc.

Hope this helps

Steve

Dear Steve and Curl,

Thanks so much for your explanation. but I still have one question, when i settle my weight of my standing leg and make my hip move back/side, do i need to put my free leg close to my standing foot? or just let it seperate behind my standing leg and keep it straight with toe turn out?

best regards,

Steve, may be there is different technique to forward move...

1) stand upright weight is on right leg, leg is stright.

2a) to prepare the step do the hip movement NOW. the hip moves to right side/back while the left breast moves forward/left side. the direction how the breast is moving is the same like the direction of the step.... so backward steps are more difficult than forward steps.

2b) move big toe of left leg forward to the point you want to go, at the end of movement leg is straight.while passing your standleg heel is maximum up. 2a and 2b can be done same time.

3) Now push your weight from your standleg forward, step is finished when the weight is completely transfered, during the transfer there is NO hip movement. both legs are straight. heel of right feet is maximium up, foot is turned out.

4) start over at point 2a change right into left. dont forget to have fun

always prepare every step with hip and chest movement... after some years of practice you may be able to walk latin

Sorry, but when I see the clips at ballroomdancers.com about lindy hop, american chacha & rumba and smooth this looks very strange to me....may be its funny to do it but IMO it looks not very atractive (sometimes ugly???)(may be because the dancers are only low-level, i dont know) ... so for me this is not a alternative to international style ...

my exercise...stand in a walk "position", ie. one foot fwd. and one trailing, be sure to track your feet and use proper turn out. Start with your weight over your back foot and then move your body weight fwd. onto your fwd. foot ONLY by pressing (some people call it rolling) through the length of your trailing foot, all the way to your toes (don't forget to let your hip/knee action happen). If you're not used to this it can cause the muscles in your ankles (esp. of the trailing leg) to really work, so stretch out before. Once you are over the fwd. foot then bring your trailing leg through (as you would in a walk) my insrtuctor teaches that the knee should come through first (almost brushing standing leg) then ankle then foot, and don't forget to keep the ieob (inside edge of ball) on the floor throughout. Then repeat the excercise. The idea is to go through the extension very slowly, emphasizing your foot action and your balance. It is an exaggeration of the actual walks but it builds strength and helps you to "feel the floor" through foot awareness. One last tip, get your arms up and out, at least a little bit, don't just keep them hanging down by your side.
Any instructor might elaborate on this...it's an excercise that I made up on my own, but it did help me. It can be so tough to put into words!! Good luck, Mal

Hi Curl

There is no opposite sideways movement of the chest area on a forward walk in Rumba. By doing what you say causes two things.

1. It contorts the body and lifts the shoulders.
2. The hips are forced into an unnatural position.

At all times the upper body weight must be felt to be travelling forward as a result of correct poise. You can check this at any time by stopping the movement. The hips move only as a consequence of straightening the knee. They should never be forced into position to counteract some upper body movement. Similar poise shopuld also apply to Cha Cha Cha.

By all means use an isolation exercise to free up muscles in the rib cage. This is useful for all the latin dances and for disco, but in Rumba despite what people call it - a body dance - it is controlled use of the muscles and the separation of those muscles which allows freedom of movement particularly around the pelvic area. As I said in my previous post, the upper body can be divided into 3 parts, the movement of each part being distinct and noticeable when you look in a mirror.

Good Rumba movement should always have a syncopated action 2&3&4&1&

On a 'quick' walk ie one that takes up 1 beat of music, the walk and transfer of weight takes up 1/2 a beat whilst settling of weight and straightening of knee takes 1/2 a beat.

Similarly, when using 2 beats for a walk (slow walk on count 41 normally) again foot placement and weight transsfrerrance takes 1/2 a beat. The remaining times should be used for settling the weight and leg straightening.

the body starts the movement.... you do this with your chest & hip... the chest starts moving to the new direction, hip moving back/side (stretch yourself )... then your feet points to the new place you wanna move ,hip movement is at maximum, chest, too ... and after that the weight is transfered ... startover