13 Mar
2012
13 Mar
'12
3:08 p.m.
As a dancer my personal solution to the Rory o more situation has been to have an old
fashioned allemande grip for the first balance, as I balance away and have a little
momentum to help tear the hands apart, I switch to an ECD hold, kind of like what you do
for a balance before a swing, then it is only curved fingers, which actually give plenty
of oomph to the spin, but also disengage easily. I don't spin out of allemandes as
much, maybe because few women give enough connection to do so, in fact there is often no
time for such a flourish because the connection is too weak to accelerate the allemande.
This has nothing to do with the position of our hands or fingers or thumbs, but more a
refusal to engage the whole arm so the presence of their body can be felt. I love a zesty
dance weekend where a high proportion of women connect. I think by and large, we all wrap
our fingers around the base of the other person's thumb, often enough with our thumbs
also loosely curled around. The only time I recently remember being 'gripped' was
by a terrified newbie who seemed to want to hold on in hopes we would all help him get
where he needed to be. Although it hurt, I was sorry for his fear and simply slid my
thumb straight down. Like catching a falling pencil, it is pretty hard for someone to
hold your thumb if you pull straight down.
Cheers,
Andrea
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:20 PM, Ron Nelson <callerman(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
John Sweeny wrote:
Yes, people always used to interlock their thumbs - that is
how I was first taught it many, many years ago.
But the dancing has changed. What has happened is that
people now like to spin out of Allemandes; and Rory O'Mores are more
prevalent, where you spin out of an Allemande-type hold. If someone has
locked my thumb I can't spin! You say that it is easy to disengage when
the thumbs are interlocked. That is not my experience. I really, really
hate it when people hold on to me so that I can't enjoy the dancing. It
is definitely easier to disengage if the thumbs aren't interlocked.
Dance styles evolve, and this is an example of a good change
as far as I am concerned.
Let's all work on getting rid of thumbs from dancing! :-)
Ron Nelson adds:
I could not agree more. As one who suffers from arthritis in my hands, I can testify that
the thumb is particularly susceptible to abuse and subsequent pain.
I try to avoid any grip which might entrap and discomfort.
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