Hi, I am new as a social dancer, and I have trouble whith my right arm. The professor told me to have more tonus in my arm. But when I tried I squeeze whith my hand to. So how I can have my shoulder relax, a strong arm, and not squeeze whith my hand?


Chantal
P.S. excuse for my english.

Here are some ideas. I am assuming you are dancing the woman's part - if not, please ignore this.

1) Try dancing on your own with your arm toned, but you hand limp

2) Try dancing on your own, holding a raw egg in your right hand

3) Instead of crossing your thumb over your partner's you could try the English-style parallel thumbs hold. At least that way you wouldn't be able to squeeze as hard

4) Instead of putting more tone in your arm, you could work on making sure your upper arm functions as an extension of your shoulder. You do not really need tone in the arm, rather you need your body to respond to the way your partner moves you hand. But this difference will take weeks, months, maybe years to understand.

Hi, I am sorry, I was not very specific
yes I dance de lady part. Thank you for your advice, I'll try with the egg. Maybe it will be funny.

If it gets too messy, you could switch to holding a sharp new shoe brush in that hand...

Your wrist is the part that has contact under the ladies armpit. That's if the ladies knows the correct position of her body in relation to the man. Your hand is simply tucked around without pressure. In fact if you didn't have a hand it should not matter. But if the lady is a beginner, and does not know the setup you will probably have to use your hand. Keep your elbow from dropping, and if you study this further you will see that your hand is level with the fore mentioned armpit. Not that long ago the position of the mans hand was much lower than it is today. But time has changed that. Having said that it never was down towards the ladies waist. You would be well advised to get some professional instruction here. It is so important, if you are a dedicated dancer the money would be well spent. Here's to a good Topline.

We have been working on this exact issue... We are amatuar competitive dancers of 15yrs dancing at the gold level.

It seems as a lady I have this problem in the international tango. I feel that I am constantly chasing the connection in my partners(husband) arm connection. He feels that what I want is his frame would make his arm to be to close to his face.

I cannot seem to keep my head weight over my heel, because I am chasing and looking for this connection...true disastar!!

Because of this, the tango continues to be our biggest challenge, while our connection in say the foxtrot or waltz is fine...

Any help would be appreicated.

Actually his hand should be relatively close to his face - or to put it a more usefull way, you each should stretch your head towards your own left hand. A large looking frame is not created by having the arms spread wide, but rather by having the heads as far apart as possible. Unfortunatley, this is a message lost on the majority of American couples at all but the highest levels - it's quite common to see the joined hands too far out on their own.

The gentleman's left elbow should be at a slightly acute angle.

The lady's right hand should be in front of her back, but the arm should be relaxed - she doesn't need to push against the man, just have enough tone to feel where he is. Her elbow will be somewhat more open than his, but should not approach straight unless she is much smaller than him.

I appreciate your comments... They are right in line in what we have been learing lately.

At first when our coach tried to explain to us to use this arm connection to feel each other we did just what you described..... a very heavy pressure...We were squeezing our hands together to find a connection... Well, we just about knocked each other over. As the learning expereince progressed, we reached the point of not this heavy pressure but just a slight tone.

I am amazed how difficult this whole concept is. Like I said we have danced competitevly(sp) for 15 yrs, and still I am learing these very basic concepts.

Often I wonder if I have the ability to do this. You would think after so long, and we would have these concepts a bit more perfected. We coach 3 times a week, at an hour a lesson. Will I ever get this??? Had it not been for the love of ballroom dance so much, I would of given up the ship long ago.

Very hard to explain this one. Start off very much on the man's right side. Try a Link. This is straight off an instruction tape, Lady shape the right toe inwards under her body, wait for the man to lead this one. On the Link do you feel that you have moved on the man's right hip, a feeling of actually going against the LOD on the Link. At this point you have not yet opened your foot postions, head is in promenade. As you both step ladies RF, man's LF move this step one floor board each apart allowing yourselves room for the the Closed Promenade. Remember you are not open after the Link, your legs are still connected, inside mans LF outside mans RF. When you finish the Closed Promenade you should be in exactly the position that you started. Man don't do too much on the Link. By that I mean don't wiggle your shoulders about, or use excesive force . I have found this helps. Man and Lady do the 1st step of the Link, toe turned in for the lady. Now hold that step for a couple of bars. Head still looking to the left, then hit it. Study this one. You are still in a closed position at the end of the link, and not wide open .