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Answers to Faq of Standard Ballroom Dance

Posture, Poise, Frame & Position

by GoVnu

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Contents at a Glance

Preface Introduction Posture Poise Frame Position General concerns

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Table of Contents Preface About this booklet How the booklet is organized Introduction Posture Head Hips Poise Frame Connection 1: The man’s left hand to the lady’s right hand

Connection 3: The man’ right wrist to the lady’s left underarm Connection 4: The man’s right palm to the lady’s left shoulder blade Connection 5: The lady’s left hand to the man’s right upper arm

Position Connection 2: hips Connection area General concerns

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Preface

About this booklet This booklet is a collection of some interesting and important, in my own opinions, information about Posture, Poise, Frame and Position in Standard Ballroom dance. And hopefully it is useful for other International Ballroom dance enthusiasts.

How the booklet is organized This booklet is divided into several parts. Each part consists of a series of answers. Each answer responds to a question or an informative point. You might have known or might not have known those answers. Each answer is managed to keep it not more than ten lines for clarity. Each title of an answer is cataloged with three different colors, namely blue, purple and red. Both blue and purple colors represent ‘right’ ways to dance, but the answers with purple color are beyond basic level; whereas red color represents ‘wrong’ way to dance.

Preface to the second edition Address the lady’s poise a little bit more and explore the leading and following role of the hand and hip connections. The two main topics of the frame are balancing and lending. Leading is discussed here; the balancing is described in a separated booklet Dynamic Balancing.

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Introduction

It is applicable to all standard dances but Tango Since Tango contains so many disparities among the other standard ballroom dances, it is better to address it separately, inside the Tango booklet. It is applicable to all swing dances, it doesn’t mean all swing dances share the exact theories on posture, poise, frame and position. However, there are only a few differences, so why not discuss them together.

The hands are just as important as the feet in ballroom dancing Since the modern standard ballroom dancing is not a pre-amalgamated dancing, the hands are the most important communication tools between the couple. Of course, the hips and the legs have their functions on the leading and following; however, without the hands, the hips and legs cannot fulfill the communication independently. Even though everyone knows that we use our feet to dance, it is not overstated that the hands are as crucial as the feet in ballroom dancing.

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Posture All five blocks are in the same alignment The five blocks from top to bottom are Head block, Shoulder block, Rib Cage block, Hip block and Knee block. In order to maintain a vertical balance, all blocks should align vertically. Someone calls these as five drawers where you can pull out or push in each drawer horizontally. If the Head block leans forwards, the weight of body may shift from the center of feet to the balls of feet. Similarly, if the Hip block leans backwards, the weight of body may shift from the center of feet to the heels of feet, and hips may lose contact as well.

Posture focuses on body shape from head to pelvis General speaking, posture is related to the whole of our spinal cords. In dance, we mainly focus on upper four blocks, namely head, shoulders, rib cage and hips. There is a little difference in a good posture between our daily life and our dancing. Our destination is to align the centers of head, shoulders, rib cage and pelvis vertically and put the weights of all blocks on the center of the feet.

The weights of all blocks should fall on the center of feet with minimum muscle assistance If all four blocks align vertically, the weights of all blocks should naturally fall along your spine on the center of feet. And also, your muscles should be in relaxed condition.

Posture affects our health In our daily life, a bad posture, such as a retroverted pelvis, could cause back pain. A good posture is also called a healthy posture. Likewise, in dancing, a good posture can reduce injuries to a minimum level.

The meaning of a good posture Keep the body in vertical balance as dancing.

Make sure whenever shaping you should keep a good posture It is not only applicable to the Standard Ballroom dances, also to the Latin American Ballroom dances as well. It is better to have a good posture without shaping rather than have shaping with an ugly posture.

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Checking whether you are in good posture yourself by a mirror Stand facing LOD, put a mirror on your right side; turn your head to the right side to check on the mirror whether your body from the head to the bottom aligns vertically.

Turning, swaying or swinging does not change the posture Whenever we turn, sway or swing, keep the same good posture as we commence dancing. We may find some professional dancers change their postures; those situations may be shaping and projecting. We should do it on condition that we can master the techniques of shaping and projecting.

Swinging, rising or falling does not change the posture Whenever we turn swing, rise or fall, keep the same good posture as we commence dancing.

The techniques of posture are applicable to both the man and the lady Both the man and lady should keep their four blocks vertically aligned, surely the lady needs to poise a little bit more than the man as the fame forms; but she is still in balance state .

First set up a good posture individually before forming a couple Before the man invites the lady to dance, both of them should already set their own good postures.

A drill for a good posture 1. Stand up 2. Close your feet 3. Bend your back forward as low as low you can, so your head is above your toes 4. Pull up slowly your center (tummy button area), your rib cage, your shoulders and

finally your head. The reason is that when you bow, your body stretches from the toes to your head; it makes sure that your body does not lean leftward or rightward. When you bow, your lower body is vertical balance; when you have pulled up your body, it makes sure your torso does not pitch forward or backward. Now, you are in vertical balance state.

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Another drill for a good posture Stand up, put the right hand to the tummy button, put the left hand back between the shoulder blades, and pushing together. That action creates a vertical line.

Head The ways to interpret the head block in good position Way one: Imagine your head as a helium balloon connecting to your torso. Way two: Imagine your head carry a laser beam emitter, the laser projects horizontally on screen. All the above ways are to illustrate the head should face horizontally, not upward or downward. And the head’s center of weight aligns vertically.

Checking whether the head block is in good position from time to time You should keep your head block in good position not only at the beginning of the dance but most importantly during the dance. Therefore, check whether you look horizontally from time to time. For example, if the height between your eyes and the floor is 5 feet, your eyesight will stare at the objects on the same height, 5 feet.

A drill to attain a good position Put a cardboard same size as an IPAD 2 at the top of your head, if the head block is in good position, the cardboard will not fall down while dancing.

Set up visual windows for the man and the lady After adjusting their heads in a correct vertical position, both the man and the lady hold their heads a little bit to the left to set up their own visual windows. They rotate their heads about 1/8 turn to the left.

Maintain the head in forward and upraise position as body rotation or body swing A good illustration is to imagine the head as a helium balloon, no matter the stone underneath connected with rotates or swings, the balloon is still in upraise position.

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An anteverted or retroverted head causes the center of body shift forward or backward If other blocks keep aligning vertically, the anteverted or retroverted head makes your body shift forward or backward. And you will be in out of balance. In the situation, your partner will waste his/her energy to support you.

You should not look at your feet while dancing During dancing, many dancers worry about their footwork or alignments and so on. So they look at their feet from time to time. It is better to check it from mirror or replay the dance practice videos; it is a bad habit to look at your feet at the same time you are dancing.

Hips The body pitches forward It may occur in both forward and backward figures. For examples, the body of man may unconsciously pitch forward in the forward figure, the step 2 of Telemark, or in the backward figure, the step 1 of Backward Lock.

The body pitches backward It may occur in both forward and backward figures. For example, the body of man may unconsciously pitch backward in the backward figure, the step 1 of Double Reverse Spin, or in the backward figure, the step 2 of Impetus Turn.

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Poise Functions of poising 1. Posing gives the couples a competitive shape on the floor. 2. Providing more space between each others in their upper bodies.

For Lady

The way of the lady’s posing The lady rotates her left side, from her shoulder to hip, slightly to right, and then her upper back has a diagonal stretch forward and upward. Now, her head should be on the same line with her back. The ‘line’ is a technical term in ballroom dance. Here give a simple illustration on it. Imagine using a marker pen, draw from the center of head downward along the spine until the end of the spine. The track should be a straight line. We can find many kinds of lines, such as the Oversway Line or Spanish Line. For the Oversway Line, from the man’s left elbow to his right toe forms a straight line.

The Lady should not poise to right for certain figures For example, at the end of the Change of Direction, She could change to Open Head Position, but not poises rightward. Another figure with same issue is the Back Check. Certainly some figures are correct to poise to right, such as the Left Lunge, but not many.

Make sure the lady can keep her vertical balance after posing Besides a correct diagonal stretch, the lady should be aware of whether she can still keep their vertical balances after poising. She should poise to the degree that she is able to keep her vertical balance; the degree of poise may depend on her body flexibility. Otherwise, partial of her body weight may fall on her partner, even worse, it may hurt her back. If partial of her body weight falls on her partner, her partner will feel she is heavy and always pulls him forward.

The lady poises and should not out of balance When lady poises, make sure she can keep balance herself, otherwise the right arm of the man needs to support a partial weight of her upper body.

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Her partner feels her is heavy, which is the consequence of her being out of balance rather than her physical weight. The man’s feeling on her weight while dancing is totally independent of her physical weight and vice versa!

The lady adjusts the blocks to maintain the vertical balance She cannot just pitch her abdomen forward and lean her left shoulder backwards. She should stretch her body into smooth curve. Don’t depend on the man right arm to support her back; she should keep vertical balance herself.

A way to test her vertical balance by herself After she has poised, she states on spot, but her partner loosens the frame and walks backwards. She should still be in vertical balance with any help from her partner.

A drill to assist lady in poising properly 1. Stand on her right foot with her four blocks in vertical balance; definitely her

shoulders are in parallel. 2. Put her left hand to the side in straight line with her shoulders. 3. Place her right hand under her right shoulder blade. 4. At this point, make sure she is still in vertical balance and her weight is on the center

of her standing foot. 5. With her right hand she pulls her right shoulder blade upwards and forwards 6. At this point, make sure her left shoulder blade is still under her center line; in order

words, her left shoulder is still under her left bottom.

Her head doesn’t leans backwards from her neck Some people think the lady’s head leans back because her right shoulder moves forwards, relatively her head leans backwards. She only stretches her head diagonally from her left shoulder blade upwards and leftwards.

Her forward and upward right shoulder blade balances her head’s stretch to leftward and upward. Actually not her head stretches leftwards and upwards, but also her left arm and elbow.

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Her shoulders are still in parallel after poising Her left shoulder does not drop. If she sway to her left, the man will sway together because the frame constraint. When they are in good posture, both the man’s and the lady’s shoulders should be in parallel.

Her rib cage is flat Her rib is stretched more flat than before poising, not leaning forwards.

Conclusions of the drill 1. The poise is started from the lower part of her left shoulder blade. 2. She is balancing on her own feet after poising. 3. She is stretching from her left shoulder blade to the head upward and leftward,

not bending backwards.

For Man The way of the man’s posing The man stretches slightly upward and leftward from his left shoulder blade, and keeps the lower two blocks vertically aligned.

The man poises too much to left The man may poises to left same angle as the lady does. The poises between the man and the lady are not symmetrical in shape. The lady poises and shapes a little bit more to left than the man does.

The man gives the lady a frame as reference for her posing From the man’s arms, the lady receives the degree or way of posing. In order words, the man put the lady into poise. The man not only leads the lady the following step but also her shaping. The man’s right hand acts as an indicator for lady to shape. If the man’s right hand places in an improper shape, the lady will follow it to poise incorrectly.

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Frame & Position It is also explained as five point connections It describes how to connect the arms and contact the bodies properly. The five connections are man’s left hand to the lady’s right hand, hips, man’s right wrist to lady’s left underarm, man’s right palm to lady’s left shoulder blade, and lady’s left hand to man’s right upper arm. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th of five point connections are related to Frame, and the 2nd is related to Position.

Joints are still moveable after the frame formed The joints of the hands should not be locked as melted because those joints have slightly movements while dancing different figures. For instance, in the promenade position, the shoulder, arm and wrist joints literally need to adjust the angles from closed position.

One of the most important functions of frame and position is the communication between partners. The only way to transmit the leading and following signals is through the frame rather than through human languages. The lady can receive clear leads only when a good frame achieved consistently and the man sends the signals without any ambiguities while dancing. Therefore that protocol between couples should be paid highly attention.

The other importance of Frame and position It helps the couples balance after merging two units into one and improves overall presentation.

The last step is to turn the whole frame slightly to left After the 5th connection, we turn the whole frame slightly to left so that it creates a more visual space to each other.

Our frames and positions complement our bodies’ flight In swing dances, a signature of it is a body flight feeling; we, as dancers, and the spectators should feel our bodies in flying with in flight. Therefore, our frames and positions have to complement it.

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We will address how our hands, arms and bodies’ positions enable us to dance with body flight felling respectively in detail in the following sections.

Frame The basic meaning of a frame The Frame is simply defined as the frame formed with the left and right hand holds. Our focuses on the frame are the positions of our hands, elbows and arms.

The steps to form a frame Firstly, the man invites the lady with his left hand; secondly, pull her right hand to form the right side to right side body contact; thirdly, he places his right hand under her left shoulder blade; finally, she places her left arm on his right arm just next to his right shoulder joint.

The upper arm levels of a frame Put both your middle figures at the center of your rib cage and place your forearms in horizontal level, at this situation, your upper arms are on the proper gradient.

The elbows position Both the man and the lady should hold their elbows slightly forward of their backs, particularly after the lady poising.

Don’t raise the elbows as swinging Some people raise their elbows from the shoulder joint as swinging. Actually the elbow does not raise, only the whole left side or right side body raises.

Manage your own frame in proper position before forming a frame with your partner Start wrong, end wrong. Practice setting your own frame first. After both the man and the lady have satisfied their own frames, attempt to merge two frames to form a composite frame. Just like you should master how to dance a figure in solo before dancing with your partner.

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There are three major holds: normal hold, open hold and two-hand hold Generally speaking, there are three major holds in Standard Ballroom dances, namely normal hold also called closed hold, open hold and two-hand hold. Open hold is same as normal hold but without hips contact; and two-hand hold is one where the man’s left hand holds the lady’s right same as the man’s right hand holds the lady’s left in normal hold. Majority of time we dance with normal hold, only occasionally in practice we dance with open hold or two-hand hold. Here we only address the normal hold. Besides these three holds, you may find many other holds, such as double hand hold.

No tension on shoulders, arms, fingers and all muscles in the frame No muscles in the shoulders, arms and fingers are in stretch condition. The lady should feel the man’s arms and fingers as soft as cushions. Otherwise, the man will be very tired to keep the frame in shape for the whole dance. The tightness in muscle appears a rigid movement as a robot. A good frame is a relaxed posture and hold. Reminding that tension is the enemy of dancing.

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Connection 1: the man’s left hand to the lady’s right hand The basic definition of connection 1 It is a connection that the man’s left hand holds the lady’s right hand with palms contact.

The forearm levels of a frame The forearms of the man and the lady should form a symmetrical triangle.

The angle between upper arm and forearm Assuming the lengths of the man’s hands and lady‘s hands are equal, since the man’s right side contacts the lady’s right side, that position seemingly makes the man’s left hand longer than lady’s right hand and the man’s right hand shorter than lady’s left hand. Therefore, the angle between upper arm and forearm of lady’s right hand is flatter than the man’ left hand; whereas the left elbow of lady is more to left than the right elbow of man from her view.

The angle of wrist The man’s left wrist can straight, and the lady’s right wrist has larger angle. In another way, both the man’s left wrist and lady’s right wrist have the same amount of angle. You can select it based on your preference.

Hand

Over 80% of lead role is from the man’s left hand hold The man’s left hand is very very important in the leading, may be beneficial to those who are left-handed. In other words, just with the man’s left hand hold, the man can lead the lady to dance most of figures.

How their fingers position For the Lady, move her right hand’s middle finger slightly downward, place the figure between the thumb and forefinger of the man’s left hand, her forefinger and third finger automatically close to each other and place on the top her middle finger. It forms a downward triangle shape. Place her thumb over man’s thumb. For man, curl all his four fingertips of his left hand along the edge of the lady’s right hand.

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After the connection of his left hand and her right hand , he may slightly release all 4 fingertips and closes their again, that makes the connection more smoothly; just like the preparatory step, shift the weight on the left foot, then, replace the weight on the right foot. The man’s left thumb base contacts with the lady’s right thumb base Besides the lady’s right thumb places over the man’s left thumb, her right thumb base also connects the man’s left thumb base. In other words, the action the lady’s right thumb places over the man’s left thumb is only the by-product of the action her right thumb base connects the man’s left thumb base. The line of thumb is through the wrist to the elbow.

Body Flight

The man’s left forearm is in upward and outward position as the position an airplane is taking off Since in swing dance nearly each figure involves rise or/and fall, the angle of the man left’s forearm accompanied with his body swing action will generate a body flight feeling as he rises or falls. Therefore, his forearm is not in horizontal level or downward position. Whereas in Tango, because it has no body flight, the man’s left forearm is flat and inward.

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Connection 2: hips Position

The simple definition of position The Position is defined as the position relative to your partner. We mainly divide our body into three parts, namely, center of body, right side of body and left side of body. The center of the body is the line of our shirt center buttons location or the tie location, the right side of body is right side from the center of body; the left side of body is left side from the center of body.

The reason for right-side to right-side Because there is only one kind of hold in Standard Ballroom dance, namely closed hold, unlikely Latin American dance which has more than ten kinds of holds, they need to walk forward Inline and between their partner’s feet, or else, they will step on their partner’s foot. If they position in center to center and avoid stepping on each other while stepping forward, the only way is to walk Outside Partner that is not the character of Standard Ballroom dance.

The position may change depending on the specific figure At the preparation state, the positions of all five standard dances are right side to right side. But, during the dancing, besides the Viennese Waltz, the positions may change from figure to figure, such as Wing changes to left side to left side. In Viennese Waltz, the only position is right side to right side.

Don’t wrongly change the right-side to right-side contact When dancing side step, such as 3rd of Closed Change, the couples will change the right-side to right-side contact if the man moves sideward faster or slower than the lady. It is a synchronized issue.

Connection area Your torsos only have contact in hips area Unlike other dances where the whole torsos have contact even some have faces contact; whereas in the Standard Ballroom dances, the torsos only have contact around dancers’ belly buttons.

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Actually the contact area is not only on the hips The contact area should be from the hip upward through tummy button up to the diaphragm. If only hips contact, separating their diaphragms connection, the lady is poised too much backward. Either the man supports her partially weight with his right hand, or her knees bend forward to retain her own balance which will hinder the man’s forward movement.

Leading and following A drill to lead and follow by the hips for both the man and the lady Although the hip connection only sends the forward movement lead, it is still important as a leading and following role. First prepare a simple amalgamation, such as a Three Step and Feather Step in the Slow Foxtrot, or a Closed Change, Natural Turn, Closed Change, Reverse Turn in the Waltz. Then the couple connects only with their hips, dance the amalgamation, it is quite challenging to keep the hips contact throughout the amalgamation.

Lifting the diaphragms as the hips in contact Both the man and the lady should stand upright, lifting their diaphragms as they make the hips contact, it not only produces a good posture and enables their tummies contact more comfortably.

Not only could the lady pitch forward her hip but the man too The lady could pitch forward exaggeratedly because poising too much. However, not only in the lady but also in the man, their tummies pitch forward in order to contact their partners. To balance their convex tummies, they pitch backward their bottoms. Their bodies’ shapes would look like a reverted question mark. When they dance together, it appears the convex tummies are only belly fat; however, when they separate and stretch their bodies up, It shows that they deliberately pitch their tummies forward. It is mostly likely for them to lose balance because they spend so much effort to keep the incorrect shapes.

Don’t lose contact when man while stepping backward

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A most obvious example is the 2nd bar of Viennese Waltz; the reason is that the man’s backward steps are faster than Lady’s forward steps. It is a synchronized issue. The man and the lady may still maintain his and her own good posture. In order words, neither the man nor the lady leans his or her hip backward.

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Connection 3: the man’s right wrist to the lady’s left underarm Don’t cup your forearm under the lady’s left underarm If the man cup his forearm under the lady’s left underarm, either his palm will contact lady’s spine or his wrist will protrude as he keeps his palm on lady’s left shoulder blade.

Don’t shift his forearm forward when the man dances forward step Particularly for the steps need strong power. Examples include the 2nd step of Double Reverse Spin and the Forward Spin. The man moves faster than the lady moves backward. In this situation, his body leans forward, the right arm shifts forward, and most probably his right hand loses contact with lady’s left shoulder blade. It is a synchronized issue.

A drill to keep connect the lady’s left underarm The man just puts his right cuff under the lady’s left underarm, then his body moves up and down, he jumps up and down and shifts his body left and right; his right cuff still connect with the lady’s left underarm as he does those actions. This exercise illustrates his right shoulder joint should be flexible and free.

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Connection 4: the man’s right palm to the lady’s left shoulder blade All fingers from forefinger to little finger should close in side by side position After cupping the lady’s left shoulder blade, the man should make sure all fingers from forefinger to little finger close in side by side position.

Keep on placing the man’s right hand on the lady’s left shoulder blade for the whole dance Some men may place his hand below the lady’s left shoulder, like the Tango hold, or around the lady, like a hug. So the man should keep track whether your right hand holds the lady’s left shoulder from time to time while dancing.

Man’s fingertips pointing to his center Because of the lady’s poising, man’s hand will curve inward and his fingertips should point to his tummy button location.

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Connection 5: the lady’s left hand to the man’s right upper arm The lady straightens all fingers of her left hand before holding the man’s right arm After the man cupping the lady’s left shoulder blade with his right hand, the lady straightens the fingers of her left hand, surrounds slightly the man’s upper arm with thumb and middle finger, lets forefinger rest in a natural position and keeps the third and little fingers straight. After the lady left hand holds the man’s right arm, her fingertips of forefinger, third finger and little finger usually do not rest on the man’s right arm.

Three common ways for the lady to put her left arm on the man’s right arm Method 1: After the man have completely cupped his right hand under her left shoulder blade where the man’s right side frame is ready, up to this moment, her left arm totally has no contact with the man’s right arm, the lady slowly moves her left arm downward and inward on the man’s right arm. Method 2: As the man is cupping his right hand under her left shoulder blade, the lady puts her upper left arm on the man’s forearm; when she feels the man’s right side frame is ready, she moves her forearm inward on the man’s right arm. Method 3: The lady curls her left hand around the man’s right arm nearly simultaneously as the man putting his right hand on her shoulder blade. Method one is most popular among top dancers.

The lady’s left wrist should be flat on the man’s upper arm The lady places comfortably her left wrist on the man’s upper arm same flat as her arm places on it. Lady loses the contact of her wrist and elbow with man’s arm Lady sometimes unconsciously loses the contact of her wrist and elbow with man’s arm during dancing. One reason is the asynchronized body movements between the man and the lady. For example, in the Hover Telemark, if the lady hovers faster than the man, this issue will occur.

Don’t squeeze the man’s right upper arm so tight

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If the lady squeezes the man’s right upper arm so tight, it will block the blood circulation of his right arm. And also, the lady herself feels tired on her figures.

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General Concerns

Keep vertical balance both in static and dynamic states In static state, when all five blocks align vertically, the body is in vertical balance; however, as we are dancing which is in dynamic state, there are external forces involved, such as centrifugal force during body swing, so we have adjust our body to anti-balance those forces to get the line of balance, namely, the weight is still on the center of feet. Reminding that no matter how the body adjusts, the frame is still in proper position.