Ask Kasia
Weight distribution
Ladies, to be great ballroom dancer and be able to dance with a partner, we need our own strength. We need to be fully in control of our bodies. To work on our technique we don't always need a partner. Once the information has been given, it's up to "You" individually to practice, practice, and practice. As difficult as it may sound it's actually pretty easy.
Let’s start with simple weight distribution. Ladies make sure that your weight is in the middle of your foot when you are staring and/or finishing the movement. Not too much weight forward on the balls or too far back on the heels. Middle of the foot gives you the most support and balance. That's where you should start and finish every movement. Shifting your weight to the balls of your feet gets you ready for the movement. The more you shift your weight to the front of your foot the more ready you are to make your next step. If you always keep your weight on the very front of your foot you are probably too pitched forward and therefore struggling with being way ahead of music. You are always ready to go, simply because you have no point of arrival which should be in the middle of the foot. Your weight should be placed on to the front of the foot only when you are ready to leave the position you are in. Staying to far forward contributes to the lack of balance and causes us to stiffen our bodies. Being aware of your weight distribution will give you much more control over our dancing. For mobility we should shift our weight forward and for stability and balance weight should be in the middle of the feet.
Enjoy your own strength. Have fun dancing.
Ribcage and hip alignment
Today I would like to talk about your ribcage, hips and your spine. To be the most efficient in our movement you have to pay close attention to your ribcage - hip relationship. Ribcage have to be directly over the hips. Any time we disconnect those two we put ourselves in an off balance position. Majority time our spine is being tilted therefore we lose control over the movement. Things start happening to us instead of us being in control. We keep on moving not because we want to but because have to, to simple camouflage being of balance. Our bodies need to move as a one peace. We can isolate, rotate ,and twist our bodies in between steps; to get ourselves ready for the movement, wind ourselves to get more speed more rotation but when it's time to move from point A to point B our whole body have to be perfectly aligned and move as a one peace. Ribcage over the hips, hips over the feet creating very nice strengthened spine position, only than we can produce graceful and powerful movement. Good luck with your technique have fun dancing having more control over your bodies.
Clear Intentions – what are your working on
To be the best we can we have to start with clear intention. We need to know what it is that we are trying to accomplish. Is it turning, swiveling, jumping or simply moving forward. Once our goal is established it’s our concentration level that is going to determine how fast we are going to accomplish our objective. Concentration is a total focus on what we are doing. We cannot be thinking of one thing and doing something else looking for the best results. Dancing well not just dancing is more than just doing things is doing it with a conscious mind. In order to get that done I like to suggest verbalizing every activity that is being done. Simple saying what it is that we are doing Ex L forward R back swivel on the R L forward R back. Do not wait for your teacher to tell you over and over what it is that you are suppose to do but say it yourself. Keep saying the directions as many times as you need to know exactly what to do and then move on to counting. Again say it yourself. It's your responsibility not your partners to know all the counts of your steps and also staying on time. Ladies you are the ones that have to keep counting from the beginning to the end of the dance. There is no such a thing as dancing and not counting. If you want to be precise you need to be aware of your counts and the music all the time. Do not put that responsibility in somebody else’s hands.
It's your job- get it done and have fun with it
Weight Transfer
The issue that I like to address today is transferring of the weight. Ladies make sure that
you are very precise on the weight transfer. Do not just point your free leg or put a little
pressure onto it. You have to shift you full weight. I would like you to be able to freely
