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Cornish Pixie
3rd-November-2004, 02:36 PM
The teacher at my local class always says to the lady's that when they get to intermediate level they should be dancing on their tip toes. Is this also true for men?

Minnie M
3rd-November-2004, 02:47 PM
The teacher at my local class always says to the lady's that when they get to intermediate level they should be dancing on their tip toes. Is this also true for men?

Are you learning Ballroom :confused:

jivecat
3rd-November-2004, 02:57 PM
The teacher at my local class always says to the lady's that when they get to intermediate level they should be dancing on their tip toes. Is this also true for men?

Not sure what you mean. Not on pointes, obviously. Do you mean with heels off the floor? Or weight on the front part of the foot? I'm not sure what would be right for ladies, let alone men. Would flat v. high heels make a difference, and which would be best? I think I dance best in flattish shoes (dance trainers), but think I tend to keep my heels off the floor. I'll have to start watching people's feet now to see what they do.

I think men sometimes tend to have a flat-footed, rooted-to-the-spot look. Is this what your teacher is talking about?

Cornish Pixie
3rd-November-2004, 03:07 PM
Are you learning Ballroom :confused:

Sorry people i will explain myself. Not tiptoes i mean with your heel off the floor

Gus
3rd-November-2004, 03:17 PM
Sorry people i will explain myself. Not tiptoes i mean with your heel off the floorNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :tears: :tears: The idea is to dance on the ball of the foot, but raising heels up can put a strain on ankles, calf muscles ... and can look reallly odd (personal view entirely)!

jivecat
3rd-November-2004, 03:22 PM
but raising heels up can put a strain on ankles, calf muscles ... and can look reallly odd (personal view entirely)!

Does this apply to the wearing of 3 inch heels? Where you would have your heel raised up but still be able to put some weight on it.
I certainly agree about the strain, don't know how people cope wearing those gorgeous latin sandals.

Minnie M
3rd-November-2004, 04:14 PM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :tears: :tears: The idea is to dance on the ball of the foot, but raising heels up can put a strain on ankles, calf muscles ... and can look reallly odd (personal view entirely)!

Absolutely :yeah: that is why I asked if it was ballroom - IMO modern jive should be danced on the ball of the foot as Gus says but keeping your foot as flat as possible to make it smoothe (it can be easier to do in small heels when learning, personally I perfer dancing sneekers) if you dance only on the ball you will be bouncing up and down (as per ballroom) as you move and it DOES make your muscles ache :sick:

MartinHarper
3rd-November-2004, 05:32 PM
Coincidentally, recently I was looking at the feet of one of my local female teachers, and noticed that when she was in motion, her heel was a couple of millimetres above the ground. This is in split sole shoes, which probably makes a difference. I've seen her dancing a fair amount, and this is the first time I've noticed. Perhaps a natural consequence of dancing in split soles with your weight forward?

Whitebeard
4th-November-2004, 11:28 PM
Absolutely that is why I asked if it was ballroom
In my recollection ballroom is not danced on the toes (more precisely the ball of the foot) as you seem to suggest, nor is there any of the bouncing so often seen in MJ. What there is, is a smoothly flowing "rise and fall" over several steps - not on each step. This is what contributes to its gracefullness. Trying to remember - in the 'slow, slow, quick, quick, slow' of the quickstep the first 'slow' steps are probably taken with slightly flexed knees and may involve the heels, but more probably a flat footed glide. For the 'quick' steps the knees straighten and the dancer 'rises' on the balls of the feet. Then its down on the 'fall' into the more flat footed position and flexed knees of the following 'slow' step.

As a naturally 'springy' person (used to be a bit of a sprinter) I didn't find this difficult and, although some (much?) of that spring has now gone, I still feel there is a place for that rise and fall action in MJ. Most obviously perhaps in the swingy numbers I might once have danced to quickstep. I think we must all bring some previous baggage into MJ.

jockey
4th-November-2004, 11:42 PM
The related question here is whether dancing on the balls of your feet/tip toeing etc causes you to bounce and whether bouncing is desirable or not.Personally if I get a bouncer it makes me uncomfortable (as lead) and affects the dance adversely - when they are going up and down they should be going backwards and forwards. This problem is worse when the music is fast. Aesthetically, it's wrong: watch people on the 'crosstrainer' in a gym: give me a driver (flattish foot) over a bouncer (toes) any day.

Minnie M
4th-November-2004, 11:53 PM
In my recollection ballroom is not danced on the toes (more precisely the ball of the foot) ......... For the 'quick' steps the knees straighten and the dancer 'rises' on the balls of the feet. Then its down on the 'fall' into the more flat footed position and flexed knees of the following 'slow' step....

IMHO - I think it is slightly different for the follower, but yes more on the ball of the foot than the toes (I would think only ballet dancers actually dance on their toes)

From what I can remember from learning ballroom, my heels hardly touched the floor and my legs used to really ache after classes. Never had the same problem with MJ /Lindy or Rock 'n' Roll - I did a little bit of ballroom jive, and from I can remember, that was bouncy (the rise and fall bit)

(need LilyB to help here, as she can ballroom dance - help please Lily)

Yliander
5th-November-2004, 06:03 AM
IMHO dancing on the balls of your feet/ with your weight forward on your feet will not make you a bouncy dancer - bouncy dancing tends to have more to do with how much someone is bending their knees,how high they are stepping, moving their arms up and down and how much they are bouncing their upper body/head...

for me dancing on the balls of my feet/with my weight forward on my feet- means keeping my heel off the ground(at least trying to) - ever so slightly when moving - obviously heel comes down sometimes

by dancing with on the balls of your feet/ with your weight forward on your feet- particulary for followers you have a much better ability to change direction smoothly and quickly

Lory
5th-November-2004, 09:30 AM
IMHO dancing on the balls of your feet/ with your weight forward on your feet will not make you a bouncy dancer - bouncy dancing tends to have more to do with how much someone is bending their knees,how high they are stepping, moving their arms up and down and how much they are bouncing their upper body/head...

for me dancing on the balls of my feet/with my weight forward on my feet- means keeping my heel off the ground(at least trying to) - ever so slightly when moving - obviously heel comes down sometimes

by dancing with on the balls of your feet/ with your weight forward on your feet- particulary for followers you have a much better ability to change direction smoothly and quickly
:yeah: And I think that ladies who put their whole foot down look a bit 'plonky'. And one girl I can think of puts her heals down first and this looks really odd! :what:

Whitebeard
6th-November-2004, 05:44 PM
IMHO dancing on the balls of your feet/ with your weight forward on your feet will not make you a bouncy dancer - bouncy dancing tends to have more to do with how much someone is bending their knees,how high they are stepping, moving their arms up and down and how much they are bouncing their upper body/head.
Know a guy who does this constantly with little lateral movement, head bobbing a good six inches or so up and down on each beat as though he were jogging, and all the time he's bending his partner's ear with cheery chatter of some sort. He's obviously having great fun, a whale of a time, and so far as one can tell his various partners are quite happy to go along with it.

Whitebeard
6th-November-2004, 05:49 PM
And one girl I can think of puts her heals down first and this looks really odd!
Presumably she's wearing flattish shoes?

There's probably a small place for this too, in a very exagerated way, when hamming it up a bit to some rock and rolly tracks.

drathzel
6th-November-2004, 08:15 PM
:yeah: And I think that ladies who put their whole foot down look a bit 'plonky'. And one girl I can think of puts her heals down first and this looks really odd! :what:

I used to do this when i first started but i am concentrating on putting my toe down first! I actually think its lazieness that does it as when you are stepping back its takes less effort to put your heal down than you toe!