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Don't Panic!
Have fun and relax — laugh, smile and breath deeply — relax and remember to breathe. Most dancing is just walking in different directions — walking doesn't (normally) require a great deal of thought — so don't worry, otherwise you can suffer from a “paralysis of analysis”. If you tense up, you will slow down, as your muscles will lock and won't move quickly since they will take time to unlock before moving. — it is difficult to lead a partner who has tensed up.
If all else fails; stand tall, look confident, and bluff — most people won't realise that there is a problem.
Breathing (correctly) can also help your dancing:
Breathing in: will inflate your lungs and chest. This “inflationary movement” of the chest forwards, can be emphasize to give a slight indication that you are about to move forwards.
Breathing out: will deflate your lungs and chest, lower your shoulders, and in some sense “ground you”. This sinking sensation will emphasize moves, such as lunges — and gives a slight indication that you are not intending to move.
It's almost impossible to relax immediately on demand; but it is possible to try to relax by breathing slowly and deeply “in to the stomach” so that the diaphragm expands. A consistent warmup and stretching routine (“ritual”) can also help to develop a calm frame of mind, prepared for dancing.
Remember dancing's too important to take seriously.
Smile, laugh, grin, etc., etc. If you can smile (even if it has to be forced initially) it can start to fool your body that it should be relaxed. Try walking round with a smile and see whether you start feeling different — yes it sounds as if it is new age mumbo jumbo, but hey it's free to try.
Keep cool.
Drink plenty of water, but avoid alcoholic, or caffeinated drinks.
Make sure that you've not skipped meals.
Keep your hands relaxed; don't clench your fingers — your partner won't thank you either.
Shoulders can build up a large amount of tension — especially if you spend all day typing at a keyboard. Try to keep your shoulders relaxed, rather than hunched up — if your shoulders are relaxed, then your shoulder blades should be closer together, than when they are tensed.
Sometimes it can be helpful (when not dancing) to relax your muscles by changing the alignment of your arms and shoulders, e.g. by raising your elbows by taking them away from your body — which should also lower your shoulders.
Have a relaxing bath, or shower (and remove any uncertainty about your personal hygiene).
Turn up in plenty of time.
Avoid partners who stress you.
Try to leave your non-dancing problems off the dance floor (easier said than done).
Keep your shoulders “low” and relaxed. If you raise your shoulders when you dance you will appear stressed, and it can make your dancing look somewhat unnatural.
Your shoulders will tend to accumulate a lot of tension, especially if you are working at a desk (computer) all day. Deep breathing, shoulder massages, and circling the arms can help to alleviate tension in the shoulders.
For a graceful posture, keep your shoulders down by bringing your shoulder blades together.
Be (or at least look) interested in dancing (and your partner) — slouching will make you look lazy and disinterested. If you need to “lose height”, e.g. when dancing with a shorter partner, bend your knees — don't crouch your body.
If you are moving, then look in that direction — as in general your body will tend to move in the direction that you are facing. In particular, if you are looking down at the floor, then your spins and turns will be more likely to travel (forwards) off the spot — “falling into the floor” as you finish rotating.
There are two ways for an individual dancer to generate energy to move:
Become unbalanced; generate movement by falling — using gravity to accelerate you.
Push against the floor; using a strong connection with the ground to take a “clean” step from a balanced start position to a balanced end position.
It is easier to quickly change the direction, or intention, of a step when you are balanced. If you are unbalanced, then changing direction requires that you will not only have to change direction, but will also have to stop falling in the original direction — this is unlikely to happen quickly.
Maintaining your balance while dancing can take practise — especially maintaining balance on a single leg (or on the ball of a single foot), e.g. spinning. Each partner is responsible for keeping themselves balanced, and not unbalancing their partner. In general, each partner should be balanced at the end of each beat — prepared to move in any direction (or to continue moving in the same direction). If you generate too much momentum, you will not be able to find your balance quickly — if a leader wishes to keep momentum within the move, then they need to maintain a lead to signify this.
It takes time to find your balance, once it is lost. If you lose your balance during a step, then the recovery time will probably disrupt the move and your partner's timing, and possibly their balance40. If either partner does lose balance, then the other should help them — this may be easiest when both partners are in closed dance hold.
Leaders shouldn't lead (a new move) while their follower is unbalanced.
Followers should always keep their own balance during a move.
In particular, followers shouldn't use the leader's handhold to keep themselves balanced, e.g. when stepping backwards — tension in the handhold should be deliberate and not just from both partners' weights (momentum) moving apart. Don't needlessly use your partner for balance — in particular, don't grab, or “yank” the handhold with your partner, to pull yourself forwards after stepping backwards, as this will make you seem heavier to your partner which will tire them needlessly, and may even hurt them. If you find that do need support, then it may be that you are taking steps that are too large or are simply going off-balance when spinning, etc.
When you are connected with your partner via a hold (especially a closed dance hold) then you will have a shared axis to balance about and a shared sense of that axis. However, partners may sometimes have to sacrifice their individual balance so that they remain in balance as a couple — several Modern Jive leans require partners to lean away from each other.
When both partners circle, they share an axis to rotate around. This rotational axis can vary from half way between both partners (in which case both partners will move around the circumference of the circle) to having the rotational axis coincident with one partner's balance axis (in which case one partner will move around the circumference of the circle, while the other partner rotates while remaining at the centre of the circle).
Dance with your body — not with your feet. If your body is moving in the right direction, then your feet must be moving in the right direction.
Keep close to your partner, but don't tread on them. Stepping too far away from your partner (“too far backwards”), or otherwise overextending your handhold, will cause a “whiplash” effect in your body, and head — when your arm(s) reach their maximum extension.
Similarly, don't lean backwards i.e. don't take your weight too far backwards, as it will take too long to move your weight all the way backwards, and then move your weight all the way forwards — especially to fast music.
Don't let your legs cross too far, so that they “lock” — in that case there's only one direction you can turn to unwind. Which may not be the way the leader wants to lead the follower — can wrench their shoulder?
A wider “base” will help you to keep your balance; rather than closing feet together, it may be better to keep them a shoulder width apart.
In social dancing, take small steps — large steps mean that there will literally be more room for error and collision. Large steps will not fit well with fast music, and it is more difficult to take large steps so that your feet glide close to the floor.
Listen to your feet. Are your steps crisp and rhythmical? Or do they shuffle uncertainly, e.g. like a herd of elephants?
Notice how your weight moves from the initial contact of your foot with the ground until you commit your entire weight onto it. Unless you are stepping “flat-footedly” your weight is likely to roll from the inside to the outside of your foot — as the weight shifts from the ball of your foot onto the complete sole. This natural rolling of the weight can be used to generate a natural Cuban hip action.
Ladies, dance on your tips!
Men, dance on your balls!
Rather than dancing on your entire foot
keep your weight kept forwards when dancing. Teachers may suggest that should dance on your toes or on the ball of your foot, but it is more accurate to consider the area formed by the big toe, the two adjacent toes, and the front part of the ball of the foot, as shown in the following figure.
Note that your (bare) foot (and toes) will change shape slightly as your weight moves forwards and the heel raises off the floor — good dance shoes will also allow the foot to “deform” to a degree and hence allow the dancer to keep a strong connection (maximum contact) with the floor.
Dancers will often refer to the idea of maximising the contact area between their foot and the floor as “pushing into the floor”. Obviously, if a dance shoe is relatively rigid, then the dancer cannot maximise the contact between their foot and the floor, but can only maximise the contact between their foot and their shoe.
Dancing with your weight kept forwards may make steps and walks less mechanical, i.e. less like marching. Additionally, stepping with your weight forwards, allows the weight change to “roll” through the entire foot when you need to drop the heel and keep your weight over the entire foot — which can make stepping more graceful.
Obviously, rotations and pivots will be easier if there is only a single area of the foot in contact with the floor.
Use a light grip for your handhold — squeezing, or crushing, your partner's fingers will be painful to your partner and will also mask some of the subtle nuances in the lead. If in doubt do not use thumbs when holding your partner, as it can be painful for your partner if you press the back of their hand with your thumb — however, light brief pressure with a thumb can be an acceptable lead.
Obviously, handholds must rotate freely in turns — so don't hold on to your partner with your thumb(s), or interlace your fingers in their fingers — as this can be painful if a turn is led unexpectedly.
Place your hands — don't swing them on the end of your arm — your arm will move naturally, as you place your hand.
A follower's handhold can sometimes interfere with the lead and follow if the leader's hand is held too firmly, for example gripping the leader's thumb, etc. A leader can mitigate an overly firm follower's grip by leading with a single finger, since a single finger is easier to rotate in a follower's clenched fist. Additionally, a single straight finger is easier to extricate from a follower's grasp, when leading a spin, etc.
Keep your handholds and arms relaxed, but always keep a degree of spring, i.e. compression or tension, in the handhold so that your arms are flexed, rather than completely rigid. Rigid arms can “lock”, which will slow down your dancing and make leading and following difficult. Provided that the arms don't collapse, tension can be generated in the handhold by stepping or rotating slightly away from each other. Similarly, provided that the arms don't overextend, compression can be generated in the handhold by stepping or rotating slightly towards each other.
If you feel that your partner is tensing up then relax your own hands and arms — some dancers will stiffen their arms to try to restrain their partners as a defence mechanism — relaxing your own arms can sometimes help them relax.
Keep your hands away from your body, i.e. out wide, will help you balance when moving, turning and spinning. Additionally, it allows your partner to catch you easily at the end of a spin (so don't spin with your hand(s) behind your back). Keeping your hands accessible (in front of you at approximately waist height) allows your partner to easily catch your hand at the end of a step to regain hold, lead hand-changes easily, or blocks, or even interrupt your step to transform it into a different move.
Don't break your shoulder — keep some tone in your arms, almost as if were holding a notional “hoop”. As a rough guide, you should always be able to see your hands — unless you've definitely bent (folded) your elbow, e.g. in a hammerlock41.
Figure 1: The shoulder line and the notional hoop.
You are more likely to be injured if you break the shoulder line, as there will be no tension to prevent your partner wrenching your arm or shoulder.
When not using a hand, or arm, in a handhold, don't just let it die and hang limply at your side, use it to add some style and pizazz to your dancing. It takes practise, but if you don't you can look extremely unbalanced (lop-sided) -- one half of your body will be dancing and moving well, while the other side is just hanging around.
In general, keep “square on” to your partner when you are in front of them, i.e. keep your hips and shoulders facing them.
One technique called “flashlighting”, can be used to envisage your body position relative to your partner. Imagine that you and your partner have a torch (flashlight) stuck to your chests:
and to consider the area “illuminated” by both torches:
In general, for a given separation between partners, the larger the area both “torches illuminate” the stronger the apparent connection between both partners.
Sighted people can let vision overwhelm their other senses; closing your eyes can help you to feel the music — and can help you more easily feel your partner's movements.
Dancing is not just moving (or performing); dancing is moving to the beat, and moving in time with the music. Modern Jive steps move within the four beat bars, they don't necessarily start on the first beat of the bar.
If you are watching your partner you should always know:
Where your partner is (even without a dance hold).
What and how they are dancing.
If they are having fun.
Hence, if you are watching your partner, you can try to adjust your own dancing to suit them — for example, avoiding disrupting your partner's balance when they unexpectedly improvise or otherwise interpret the music.
If you also have a good connection through your handhold (or dance hold) you should also be able to predict how your partner will be moving, by “listening” to the changes in the compression and tension in the dance hold, that will make the lead and follow easier, and hopefully make your dancing more enjoyable.
Looking at your feet can also make it seem as if you are trying to look at your partner's chest (down their cleavage) — especially if you are close together or in a closed dance hold.
Don't look at the floor, look up and watch your partner — how else can you tell how, or where they are dancing? Why wouldn't you be watching your partner — the only reasons when social dancing are as part of a “pose”, e.g. a Confident Hatchback, or because of floor craft, i.e. looking for obstacles — or making eye-contact with the audience, if performing42. Note, watching is looking in your partner's general direction, keeping them and their general surroundings in-view, rather than intently focusing on them with a fixed intense stare43. If you look down at your feet, or at the floor, then you are leaning forwards which spoils your dance line and posture. Most importantly, looking at the floor means that you are not watching your partner (they are probably having to look at the top of your head). Similarly, as you are not stood upright any spins or turns will be difficult. In closed dance hold, looking at your feet will open up a gap between you and your partner, making it more difficult to lead and follow. Finally, you will probably have more collisions if you are watching the ground instead of concentrating on the other dancers around you.
Eye contact is useful for a number of reasons:
Eye contact is an important way to communicate with your partner, and can be used as part of your floor craft.
Eye contact creates a connection between partners, developing a sense of intimacy without close, strong, physical contact.
Other dances can convey such a connection between partners in other ways; for example, in Salsa the basic “mambo” step is danced with a fixed separation between partners, whereas in Argentine Tango both partners maintain parallel (close) body positions. Unfortunately, these techniques are less applicable to most Modern Jive moves, and hence eye contact is one of the best ways in Modern Jive to indicate that you are dancing with your partner.
Eye contact and keeping your eyes focused on your partner has a strange optical effect in moves where both partners circle, or pivot:
Your partner will stay in sharp focus.
The rest of the room will blur, somewhat blending into the background.
This can create a sensation of a cocoon containing you and your partner, separating you from the rest of the dance floor — at least until you get too dizzy.
One interesting exercise to investigate how much communication comes through eye contact is to dance with a partner and agree that neither of you will make eye contact — wearing opaque or mirrored sunglasses can help avoiding making inadvertent eye contact. Dancing without eye contact can make you feel disconnected from your partner — communication with your partner is not solely through the hand or dance holds,
While dance choreography can begin creating a narrative, a performance requiring playfulness, flirtatiousness, sensuality, or seduction will be incomplete if both partners don't interact fully and fail to make eye contact with each other — without eye contact, there is a danger of appearing to simply “go through the motions”.
A less self-conscious technique than direct eye contact, can be to look at your partner's forehead or the bridge of their nose, rather than gazing deeply into their eyes.
There should be no inadvertent transitions from dancing to not dancing, and vice versa. Keep dancing continuously, don't pause during “slow” stationary parts of moves. For example, leaders should keep dancing (and moving) as the follower spins, or turns e.g. stepping in place, while the follower does a Return or Push Spin.
If you lose the beat and get out of time with the music, then the easiest idea is simply to stop — take a breath — and then try to start dancing back in time with the music.
40Loss of balance (and any recovery) is often obvious to most observers or judges — in particular if both a wobbling partner will draw the eye from a stationary one.
41There should be a definite, clear lead into a hammerlock, for example, by the leader taking the hands below waist height, i.e. lower than normal.
42In competitions, as well as looking at and dancing with your partner, you may want to make eye-contact with the audience — hopefully, this will make your performance seem more confident (and professional).
43Normal day-to-day eye-contact is about one second in duration; more definite eye-contact lasts about two seconds; longer eye-contact may be interpreted as staring.
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