13 Mar
2012
13 Mar
'12
11:48 p.m.
Dancers who understand can wear badges that way "I allemande with a straight
wrist"In fact, dance organizers can hand out badges or labels with this to arriving
dancers.
Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844
--- On Tue, 3/13/12, Andrea Nettleton <twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net> wrote:
From: Andrea Nettleton <twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re Allemande Hold (was Analysis of Stars)
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 9:38 PM
I don't know if seasoned dancers who engage in a bad habit are able to hear that they
are in error. In a new dancer workshop, I show and tell that the two dancers in an
allemande are like two panes in a revolving door and their joined hands are like the post
they turn around. Their arms should be in a flat open W shape along the plane of the
glass. They should maintain the same relative position to one another. If they do so,
and keep their wrists flat, I say, they are well positioned to help one another around
with the firm presence of their bodies flowing into their arms. I demonstrate that when
one person tries to speed up by curling their wrist and scooting faster than their
complement, they not only break down all possibility of teamwork, but can do damage. Here
I make exaggerated contortions with my demo partner. The point is generally well taken.
I don't know if one could get away with such a teaching point during the evening,
unless you were doing a dance with
an allemande 2X round and could justify trying to keep everyone safe while ensuring they
had the tools to get all the way round twice? I don't know. I think uncurling the
curled fists that people impose on us while dancing might be the best we can do for those
with a deeply ingrained habit.
Andrea
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 13, 2012, at 8:42 PM, Chris Page <chriscpage(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Perry Shafran
<pshaf(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
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Speaking of allemandes - is there ANY way to
teach experienced dancers to not bend their wrists when they allemande? The wrist is
supposed to be straight, not bent, as bending can cause pain to the other person's
wrist (generally mine). Nowadays when I find a person allemande with a bent wrist I go
ahead and keep mine straight and sacrifice a good allemande with weight for protecting my
arm and wrist.
I wish I knew. I was teaching a pre-dance workshop at another place
and some of the "helpful" experienced dancers in the session were
steadfastly insisting that the bent wrist alternative was the only
safe one. Is there any way to deal with that without getting into an
noisy argument while the new dancers are trying to sort this stuff
out?
-Chris Page
San Diego
p.s. I'm not bothered by the hidden thumbs. The allemandes work fine
either way. The hidden thumbs just means the person's been hurt in the
past and is protecting themselves.
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