This message is a reply to Joy Kelley.

What is more critical in aerials is the height of the lady partner, rather than the height ratio between female and male partner. As I mentioned before, rotational inertia is proportional to the square of the distance of body parts with respect to the axis of rotation. Consequently, a height differential of just 10% between two female partners having same weight results in a 20% higher rotational inertia for the taller one. With a 20% slower rotation, a female partner who wants to successfully and reliably land such aerials (involving a rotation around a horizontal axis) must reach (with the assistance of her partner) a much higher distance from the floor prior to initiating her rotation. This requires an extremely high degree of synchronism between partners during the aerial, and the ability of the female partner to gracefully and unnoticeably jump very high.

When I competed with my best partner, I was 5' 8" tall and was weighing 153 Lbs; my partner was only approximately 4' 6" tall and weighed a maximum of approximately 110 Lbs. But, she was a 16 year old gymnast. We have been told by our coach that the extremely high degree of synchronism of our timing helped us achieve an uncommon performance, even in advanced aerials. I remember flipping her in the air as if she was a feather (so great was our timing and, especially, her balanced posture in the air). But, my fortune of finding such an unbelievable partner to train from scratch has been exceptional. Believe me: For a guy as short and light as I was, the odds of finding an extremely talented, graceful, double-jointed gymnast and good looking female partner with the right proportions in height and weight were less than one in a billion! Was I not incredibly lucky?

As opposed to aerials that involve rotation around a horizontal axis, static lifts are somewhat more forgiving with respect to how tall the lady partner is. Please, refer to my monogram on lifts.

I hope this is not too discouraging. As you can see from my case, there are always exceptions. Enjoy dancing!

[This message was edited by jgengin on 02-20-02 at 10:28 PM.]

[This message was edited by jgengin on 02-20-02 at 10:36 PM.]

Snow8517, thanks for enlightening me

I wasn't aware there were two styles of Lindy Hopping, although I do know that some of the steps my instructors taught us have different names from the ones used in other countries. Actually, not quite different names, but I'll have to explain in the words my teachers used. Apparently, their 'swing-out' is a 'lindy turn' in some other country (I've forgotten) and the 'lindy turn' is a (guess what?) 'swing-out'.

And you're right I started out learning social dancing, but I think I like the Lindy Hop most of all.

I have a question. I just received a Swing Aerials video I ordered from amazon.com. I haven't watched it yet. What do you think a good size ratio is for lifter vs. liftee?