Hi Latin dancers,

Please give me some advice. How do you do nice sexy Rhumba walk? My Rhumba walk looks very light and hovering instead of heavy and well-grounded. I guess I am not using my ab muscle well. Please advise what kind of excercise can help and what part of my body should be feeling what kind of sensation when I do it right.
Thank you.

Actually, if you look light and hovering, what you are probably missing is the settling action.

First thing: standing over the foot with the weight over the arch, so it is divided.

Now try to relax the tension out of the standing leg. This will make the standing hip pop out a bit back and to the side, and the back leg draw in a bit towards the other. It's a very easy action, the leg starts to close by relaxing, you don't have to 'work it'. Yes, you will want to keep a lot of tone in the abs, but one of the keys to dancing is learning the body awareness to be toned where you need to be toned while also being relaxed in other body parts - many dance actions are actually releases of tension.

divided toe and heel I mean - all on the same foot of course.

Anon,

OK, Evander, you can use your real name.

OB

Anonymous,

Thank you very much for taking time to help me. I think you are so right when you said, "many dance actions are actually releases of tension." This is something I really need to work on. My Latin teacher taught me how to tone my body, but did not pay enough attention to teaching me how and when to release it. Currently I am taking lessons with a different teacher and we did not start Latin yet. Meanwhile I am on my own figuring out my Latin, hence my post.
Thank you again.

Anon. Try to get a mental picture of a Rumba Walk by watching some of our better dancers in action. Otherwise the technique book is very accurate in its description of a Rumba Walk, Possibly the most important is how the body moves into almost an imbalanced postion whereby the weight is caught by the moving foot. This should cause the rear toe or foot to point outwards. If you stop and bring your feet together you should have both feet turned to about an angle of 45 degrees Daffy Duck style. As the weight is caught by the front foot both knees will be straight. If you do it correctly you will find you are right onto the inside edge of the toe of your rear foot. If you keep this, you will have a very high instep as the foot passes the now supporting foot, which is desirable. Some teachers believe that if you are wearing a shoe with a Cuban heel your weight will already be forward, this helps. My advice is for practice send your left foot forward on the ball and then flat Foot turned out knees straight. Stay there to get the feel of that position. Slowly move you weight forward. At this point the weight distribution will be 80 % on the front 20% on the back and moving.. Just slowly let you weight go foreward to that point of you having to take the step. Analyse what is happening
Walks should be practise solo and every time you get the chance. To quote Karen Hardy. How long will it take to get them right.The answer is years. I must add this . Your buttocks should be as tight as is possible and from the front only one leg can be seen. This means there is no gap between your thighs. Now you should be able to join the rest of us Rumba Walkers. One more thing . Don't be bashfull about practising. If anyone can do better then come and join in.

Anon. I forgot something which probably is the most important of all. That is the shoulders must stay square to your front, the hips will not stay square, they will move. A good practise for this is to extend both arms forward at shoulder height. Fingers level. If after a few walks you find that your fingers are no longer level you must learn how to move the hips without moving the shoulders. This is called Hip Isolation.

Anon:

I agree with anonymous on the settling action. I've found that it makes a big difference when it comes to balance. However, I'd like to add that you should make sure your pelvis is stretched as straight as possible before you do the release of tension. No half way action! Good luck.

Thank you very much, everybody(except operabob).

I find all your comments so very helpful. I will print this out and take it with me to dance studio.
Thank you again.