I don't know which anonymous i'm talking to, but to suggest that good posture is obtained by engaging the surface abdominal muscles and not the deep ones, and to try to pull the rib cage down towards the hips is just nonsense. I invite the dancers who come on this site to try it.

Phil, you are wrong. Because dance posture has the upper body shaped back and up the rib cage must be kept firmly down with the abdominals strongly toned. If instead we shaped forward and down, then muscles further back were needed.

But you are welcome to keep doing it wrong

You are confusing what it takes to stand erect for ordinary good posture with the different needs of dancing. In dancing, you need to hold an aligned position without bending more than a tiny bit backwards, and for that it is muscles on the front of your center that do the most work. Many make the mistake of letting their ribcage ride up, weakening their center and breaking the connection between their upper body and their legs. This area needs to remain absolutely toned and firm, with the lower ribs held down to the center. Except of course that it should be rotationally free.

Anonymous. Balance is a straight spine that is my center of balance. A spinning top. where is its center of balance. Look at a sprinter. Where is their center of balance Isn't the upper body still, whilst it is being carried by the legs. Drive that spine.

And to keep that straight and unbroken spine through the body swings, you will have to seriously tone the abdominals - they will work much more than any muscles in the back

Anonymous . First we have to find out which style we are refering to. If it is Latin, Rumba or Cha Cha, the upper body is lifted and the lowest part of the spine is stretched downward. Refer if you like to Slaviks DVD Inovation where you can see and listen too for yourselves.

"the upper body is lifted and the lowest part of the spine is stretched downward"

Yes, but that doesn't contradict what was said about standard posture - the lower ribcage still must not be allowed to lift due to lack of abdominal tone. Instead, the lower front of the ribcage needs to be held firmly down to the center, at the same time as the entire upper body is lifted as a unit - stretch is good, breaking is bad.

The big difference between latin and standard of course is that in latin you settle into the hip creating turnout, buit in standard you always dance on it because turnout is counterproductive in standard.

""the lower ribcage still must not be allowed to lift due to lack of abdominal tone. Instead, the lower front of the ribcage needs to be held firmly down to the center, at the same time as the entire upper body is lifted as a unit ""
The only way this can be done is to bend the upper spine backwards to open up the rib cage. If the body is kept in a good postural position (3 blocks of weight and all that) then lifting of the rib cage - any part of it - is not a symptom of lack of abdominal tone - in fact the reverse is the case. It's very easy to slouch when the muscles are weak

Phil. I dont agree that the upper spine is to be bent backwards. For one thing that will give you a sway back which is to be avoided at all costs. Why not just stand by a door and stretch yourself with as much of the spine touching the door as is possible. Keep the shoulders down, or as they say , empty.

You may lift the entire ribcage from the inside, but you must retain tension in the abs pulling the lower front edge downwards to connect it to the legs. To do otherwise is to let your body break below the ribcage, a common fault.