Understanding how we relate to another body as we dance is not just important, it is our dancing. There is much overlap of the skills and techniques that you develop in any of the movement arts. You develop muscle control and strength, flexibility, core strength and even rhythm. While these are all very important skills that must be developed, what sets our partner dances apart is well, the partner.
Partnering skills are the crux of all the Ballroom, Latin and Swing dances, we must not think that learning to dance these dances requires that we learn a few steps that we execute next to a partner. We are learning a language and skill of relating to a partner in movement. When two bodies are really moving as one it is a beautiful thing, and this must be our goal.
Things to remember when working on our partnering skills are that even though each partner has a role in the dance, leader or follower, both need to develop their awareness of their partner. We must understand how to feel what leg our partner has their weight on and how to maintain a consistent position with respect to our partner.
To this end, it is important to work on things like our posture. If we suffer from poor posture, so does our partner- suffer from your posture that is. Our posture is what helps keep us in balance and therefore not affecting our partner negatively. You must understand how to hold your own body before you can clearly relate to another.
Understanding how we use our legs is of tremendous importance. It is through the leg we are standing on that we relate weight change to a partner. The activity of our standing leg will tell our partner everything about our next action.
Then of course there is the dance frame. The hold we share with our partner. Understanding exactly how much energy and activity it takes to create and maintain your frame, and it isn’t very much, will make all the difference in the ease and comfort of your dancing. Understanding your dance frame will also allow you to maintain a consistent position with respect to your partner that will allow for what is often referred to as the balance of weight or the opposition of spines. These terms are applied to the seemingly magical ability to relate to your partner entirely through feel, to connection.
The magic of the partner dances is the partner, two bodies gliding effortlessly through space expressing the music as one. As beautiful as this sounds, it isn’t really magic at all, but skills you must develop. These skills are certainly more than learning a few steps, the steps can be a tool to learn about connection and partnering, but remember they are really nothing on their own.
Lawrence is a teacher at Dance Station. To schedule a lesson with Lawrence or any of our teachers call 505-989-9788.
