New subject: Re Allemande Hold (was Analysis of Stars)

13 Mar 2012

This is a problem for my wrists, too. It can cause enough pain to bring tears to my eyes
so I've taken a direct approach. With a friendly (I hope) smile, I put my opposite
hand on the back of the other person's hand & gently push to straighten out the
bend. This is often baffling to my co-allemander; the ones who care ask me then or later
why I did that. I'm grateful that so many are truly curious and willing to alter the
angle. A couple of friends have told me they still have no idea they are bending my wrist
until I tell them. I can see that it might be a little trickier for a man to do this with
another man....

-----Original Message-----
...
 From: Perry Shafran &lt;pshaf(a)yahoo.com&gt;
Sent: Mar 13, 2012 3:17 PM
To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re Allemande Hold (was Analysis of Stars)

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.  

As for thumbs, I protect my thumb in an allemande or a wavy line by keeping it close to my
hand, not straight up ready to be grasped.  I found that by "dancing
defensively" in this manner I can protect all my digits and limbs and continue on the
joy of dancing longer!

Perry

--- On Tue, 3/13/12, Andrea Nettleton &lt;twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net&gt; wrote:

From: Andrea Nettleton &lt;twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net&gt;
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re Allemande Hold (was Analysis of Stars)
To: "Caller's discussion list" &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 3:08 PM

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 arou
 nd.  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 &lt;callerman(a)hotmail.com&gt; 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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