Get a piece of cane and bend it. Each segment bends equally doesn't it.
Also the whole movement is an up line. If each of our segments arcs equally we have a curve on an up line. In other words stretch it by not breaking our sides. Each part bending equally.

"Get a piece of cane and bend it. Each segment bends equally doesn't it."

Yes. But that is not what a skilled dancer does.

You can't very well bend your thigh bone after all!

Instead, a skilled dancer creates the impression of an arc using a collection of straight components: those that simply can't be bent, like the thigh bone, and those that simply SHOULDN'T be bent, like the spine.

To the unskilled or merely appreciate eye it looks like and arc - but study it in detail (so that you can do it yourself) and you discover it is made of STRAIGHT LINE SEGMENTS.

Lets get this settled once and for all. If you stretch your body upwards and you get to your limits. and keep stretching. You will create an arc with your body. The more you stretch the more you will arc.Don't try to tell me that isn't so.

"Lets get this settled once and for all. If you stretch your body upwards and you get to your limits. and keep stretching. You will create an arc with your body. The more you stretch the more you will arc.Don't try to tell me that isn't so."

It is true only as an overall effect/impression.

If you DO IT RIGHT, your BACK WILL REMAIN ESSENTIALLY STRAIGHT.

Actual arching your back itself is a VERY BAD HABIT.

The back is arched on one step only by the man and that is in the Throwaway Oversway. More in the Waltz than the Quickstep for obvious reasons. Marcus Hilton shows a good one in the Tango. A Lunge to the left and hit it. Then the Throwaway. Back to the Lunge to the Left .Then a type of Link with a head flick. Some I believe have this tape. Its worth persevering with this one. He also shows it in the Quickstep, with a different exit of course.

"The back is arched on one step only by the man and that is in the Throwaway Oversway."

You just never learn, do you?

It LOOKS like an arch, but the back itself is not arch. The small of the back must remain long and stretched and flat. The impression of arch is only approximated by the angles between the straight line of the back, the straight line of the thigh, etc.

Yes, it looks like an arch to the untrained eye. BUT THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS ACTUALLY DONE!

From the ribgage to the head. If a line were to continue up the spine and through the head. Where would yours go and in which direction are you looking. I am looking over the ladies head and a line to the back would go to where the wall joins the ceiling.
Last. I would never do as I say without looking for myself.

Remember, you have to have a healthy gut to ballroom dance. If not, you will be sluggish.


LGS therapy works.

OK i give up. LGS? I'm sure it's not Lager, Gin and Sausages.

I've been dancing now for over 30 years and one comment that my old dance teacher used to say is that the contact between partners should be "titty to tie" (as the lady's right bust should be in contact with the gentleman's tie).

I think its a catchy phase thats always stuck in my mind all these years later.

Regards Jackie