Hi Julian,

              I suspect that the challenge is more to do with bad Allemandes than from keeping your arm up.  Your reference to “providing weight” reinforces my suspicion.

              Many dancers are very bad at Allemandes and think, just because they are in an arm-wrestling hold, that they have to fight their partner instead of just providing a gentle counter-balance against centrifugal force.  The movement should all come from the feet, not from pulling other people around.

              See http://contrafusion.co.uk/Allemande.html for an article I wrote based on discussions on this forum.  This is the combined wisdom of many great callers.

              I wish more callers would pass some of the hints from this article on to the dancers whenever they call a dance with multiple Allemandes.

              I love to do a good Allemande 1.5 times and Swing the one you meet, with a spin out of the Allemande into the Swing.  But so many of the dancers are so focussed on fighting me that they don’t bother to travel around the circle, so it always too late to throw in the spin. :-(

            Happy dancing,

                   John                      

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent