Dear fellow dancers,

In spite of having danced quite intensively for some time now, I still don't manage to keep my upper body steady for Latin. My coach has mentioned it, but doesn't pay it much attention, whereas all my dance partners make me aware of it.

Any tips, i.e. special exercises to learn to keep my upper body calm?

With appreciation,

Philipp

Hi Philipp:

I am not qualified to answer your question as I am not very good at International style Latin. Since no one answer this thread yet, I will speculate. As lately when I do Cha Cha, Samba, Swing or Mambo, I keep reminding myself to maintain a smoother look that is to have my knees more flexible. That way, I had noticed thru the mirror that my shoulders or upper body no longer jumpylike.

I had watched some beginning beginners doing their Rhythm/Latin dances particularly Chacha, Mambo and Samba, their shoulders do bouncing up and down quite a bit. I am sure you have observed this too. If you look at their knees or legs, there are the problem due to the stiffness of knees as they are trying hard to get the steps right. As in Rhythm dances, one may say, obviously they had not mastered the proper techniques of "Cuban Motion". My current way of dealing with the overly bounciness is to think as I were to dance a smooth dance ( ie. Foxtrot or Waltz ). Does that make any sense?

Regards,

Keh Gough

Thank you, Mandy, and Belle, also for your response to my other question!

Philipp,

Do you have access to a full length mirror? It really helps to watch yourself as you try out the techniques.

Dear Keh,

Thank you for your observations. Unfortunately, it is not the bounciness that is my problem. My Cuban Motion is ok so far, but when I put weight on my left foot, for instance, so that my hip comes out to that side, somehow my left shoulder slightly dips, whereas my right shoulder is raised.

The same happens in jive. I'm not sure of this, but my jive may have a slight bounce as well, but I know how to take care of that, just haven't got time to practice enough.

So, any advice for the tilting of my shoulders, anyone?

Thank you.

Hi, Philipp:

Last year at the Holiday Dance Classic competition thru a Hawaiian amateur competive couple, friends of ours, we met Igor. Right before the evening competition, Igor was giving friendly advice to another amateur competive couple on the floor in some Latin techniques. I was ear dropping. of course !! He adviced when you take a step to the left your shoulder go further then your hip. But the line from your ankle, thru knee, hip, rib cage to shoulder is straight. So your left side of body appears to be tilted but not off balanced. While your left hip rolled to the back natually, your shoulder is not (at least not much). And both shoulder still pretty much on the same level, that is to say it is differed as you have discribed as left shoulder goes lower and right shoulder goes up. Of course as in doing Samba there are some steps are designed to be rolled with great deal of shoulder and body rotation. I hope I (may) have described this in a semipicturable way !!

Regards,

Keh Gough

The very best way to learn to control this is by doing isolations. I was fortunate enough to be in a class where we did the isolations as a group. Corky and Shirley Ballas have a video with similar isolation techniques. It's called Dr. Latin Intro. DanceVision doesnt' have it any more but you may be able to get it from C.Martin video or from the Corky and Shirley website. If you can't find it let me know and I'll look for specific information.

The exercises are excellent and will help in all areas.