Today I'm looking at style tips that you can incorporate into the dances to make the figures even prettier! Hopefully you find some of these useful, as I have, in the dance group I am in. I will work from the feet up!
Feet
- Dance on your toes! You will be able to move more smoothly and your motions will appear and feel much lighter than if dancing on the flats of your feet. You could practise walking around your house walking on the balls of your feet to build the strength in your calf muscles.
- When skipping, or doing a jeté assemblé (any motion, really), it is really important to bend your knees! You do not want to damage your knees by landing hard on a straight leg!
- It's also helpful to be on the beat! If you are doing a skip change, take that 1st step of the skip change on beat 1. If you are doing a waltz step, make sure each step corresponds with a beat of music.
- Use up all the music allotted to each figure - what I do is find a reference or halfway point for each figure so that I know that I am on track and on time as I dance. For example, if I am doing a right-hand star, followed by a left-hand star in 8 bars, I tell myself that I need to reach the halfway point in 4 bars, to turn around and get back to place on time.
- I also try to remain in continuous motion, especially in waltz country dances, because it makes all of the figures flow into each other. In this video of the York Regency Dancers at Queen Charlotte's Birthday Ball, we perform Duke of Kent's Waltz (starting at 2:45), and I make sure I use up all of the music and remain in continuous motion if possible.
Torso
- Try to work on posture, having a straight back, instead of slouching. Dancing is made easier if you have control of the muscles in your core, especially when working with a partner in the Regency waltz!
- Give weight in figures like circles and turns... This means, tighten your biceps to create a firm arm. If you also slightly pull your arms down and out, this will create a nice firm circle or turn. This structure is really helpful to prevent a circle for 4 or 6 from collapsing and can even help you get around faster because nothing is weighing the circle down! I will try to create a little video to illustrate.
- When giving weight in a circle or star (etc.), create a pleasing arch with your arms (my ballet teacher always told me to imagine I was holding a big beach ball!). This serpentine style was very popular in the Regency period!
- However, if the ballroom is crowded, this arm hold is less practical. You and your partner should lower your joined hands between you to use up less space.
- Do not grip your partner/group's hands too hard - you want the grip to be firm so that your hands don't slip from each others, but not crushing...
Head
- Smile! If you are enjoying yourself, let everyone around you know!
- Eye contact - this is really important to making the dance feel social! After all, you are dancing and interacting with other people in the set. I find it's always nice to acknowledge their existence when performing figures together! When I first joined the York Regency Dancers, I was really shy and found the eye contact really strange and intimidating, but over time it becomes more comfortable and enjoyable.
Within the Dance
- This may develop over time, but when you are dancing with a partner, you learn to gauge what they need. It's teamwork after all, right? You can actually sense if they need more tension in your arms to get around that circle, or need to go faster or slower to complete the figure. It's a good sense to develop... being aware of your partner and his/her motions as well as your own.
- Also, I find it really helpful, particularly in the longer dances, to think of the next figure in the dance while dancing to be prepared. If you have memorized figures or know the dance well enough, you won't necessarily need to wait for the figure to be called. This helps to keep the motion continuous, as I mentioned before, and can also help your partner or your set should they be unfamiliar with the figures, or forget!
- Similar to the previous point, remember the set you are dancing within, particularly in a triple minor longways, when the positions of the 2s and 3s keep changing. Keep your mind sharp! See my post on progression.
- When leading down the set, let the set breath! What I mean by that is, if the dancers going down the middle or dancing around another couple need room, you can back up to give them space to dance comfortably. The lines along the set don't need to be rigid.
Practising without a group
- What I do at home, when I don't have a group to dance with, is "ghost" the dance. Now, this may seem a bit odd, but I swear it works! If you imagine that there are other people occupying the spaces within the set or formation (ie. quadrille), you can walk through the figures on your own. I did that yesterday with the German quadrille. Even though it may look strange to other people or feel strange to you initially, this kind of motion helps to build muscle memory for each dance!
- I will post a little video later to illustrate. It may look bizarre, but it helps to build confidence and memory, because you know what YOU are supposed to be doing, and not relying on other people.
- UPDATE: Below is a video of me "ghosting" the German quadrille. I will also post this video on the German quadrille page. I know it will seem a bit odd since there are no other people to fill in for some of the confusing figures, but I will post a video of our quadrille practise after the weekend with more people. This is just to get you started on that long dance!
- The music I used was called The Family Party, a country dance from the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society Dances for Jane Austen CD. Please excuse my dog barking the background - he always tosses me a ball when I dance, so I had to keep him inside!
Well, that's all for now! I hope that helps a bit - until next time... Happy dancing!
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