Secret. If you have ever been to a professional soccer match and arrived early you will find the teams before they start passing the ball around go through a rituial of stretching. This takes about ten minutes. If you stayed after the match you will find both teams stretching again. Maybe you went at it too soon and too hard without out warming up first.
This is not going to happen to you I hope. We had an over 35's couple who represented their country abroad . They were very good. Then one day he went into the first three of a Natural Turn in the Waltz and never danced again. All of us, any style, should always stretch first and warm up slowly before and AFTER.
I'll give you an example. We've been dancing all evening. Time to go home. So off we go in our car and arrive home about half an hour later. Throw open the door and hop out.This is exactly when you can tear a muscle. This was from a former tennis player who won Wimbledon a couple of times and does know what they are talking about. You might hop out of that car a thousand times, but just that once.

Agreed! Never underestimate the power of stretching!

Okay, I'll admit I was in a hurry to leave the gym and I didn't stretch.

I'll definitely get into the stretching now that I heard all these freeky stories....

You can't imagine how important stretching is. Before every round of the competitions, our trainer makes us stretch like there's no tomorrow. At first i thought she was crazy, before competitions we need to stay focused and so on, but after one of our collegues suffered an accident and couldn't dance for 2 months, we finally understood her

Theo. In one of our seminars one of the lecturers was by a Ballet dancer. He told us that he himself didn' t stretch one day . Leapt in the air and didn' t dance for nine months. Watching us dance he suggested that to turn the ankle might be a problem and like he who didn't, said to lay the ankle over and carefully stretch the sides before dancing..If the ankle did get turned over and had been streched he possibly would not have got injured.

If a person has a sway back and dances that way. The balance will be in the wrong place.If you lay flat on the floor and cannot get your lower back on the floor. I suppose you have no choice but to make the best of a bad situation.

"Theo. In one of our seminars one of the lecturers was by a Ballet dancer. He told us that he himself didn' t stretch one day . Leapt in the air and didn' t dance for nine months."

But if you stretch without FIRST DOING ENOUGH MOVEMENT TO WARM UP, you only INCREASE your likelihood of injury.

Don't stretch cold muscles. EVER.

Quickstep, I have a natural stong arch in my back and am contantly attempting to correct it, it has gotten better as I am strengthing my abs, but just curious as to how i can get my hands on this tape that you are talking about? can you PM me at kimba1177@comcast.net? Thanks!

Well Secret and msterpsichore,

I remember when my teacher told me this as well, he made me quickly stop this by telling me that every time I stick my butt out I will loose all my money, and when I did he dropped a 20c piece behind my back! I STOPPED STRAIGHT AWAY! Maybe ask your teacher to use a method like this!

But I do know that Professionals hips do indeed go past their shoulders, but they do not stick their butts out to do it! They,(in cha cha or rumba for example), place all their weight onto the back foot through their hips and when the move from leg to leg the sort of move their body to the other leg diagonally, mainly because all of their weight goes into the step, to the balls of the feet!

Good luck and hope you get used to Latin!

I realize this is a VERY old thread but my instructor was working on my posture and frame today and referenced Donnie Burns. I Googled it and this thread came up. A lot of what's in here is terrific, so thanks for that.

However, I'm still looking for the interview or class he was talking about. I guess Mr. Burns replied (when someone said it doesn't feel natural to stand that way) something like " Well then don't do it! But realize there are those of us who have worked for thousands of hours to make if feel natural!" I hope to find the actual interview or quote.