Five(ish) Minute Dance Lesson – African Dance: Lesson 3: Dancing on the Clock
– Music plays all the time in class
– the wide steps – wider than her hips (ie outside her body) – require super control in her core
– at 2.48 you can see how charleston works:
Frankie demonstrates charleston
– the way she lands with a bent knee, then uses the momentum of the step (and bent knee) to push up and step back show us how pulse or bounce work in lindy hop
Five(ish) Minute Dance Lesson: African Dance: Lesson 1: Dinhe
In this one
– the music plays all the time (note the call and response!)
– in the first movement her shoulders stay down, but her elbows lift up and down with her hands (note the importance of her steps and core activation in helping her make this movement happen and continue from her core out into her limbs)
– these wide arms with lifted elbows but dropped shoulders frame and emphasise the hips and legs
– when she isolates her diaphragm (moving the chest forwards and backwards) we can see how Leon’s throwing his chest forward (and arms back) create a frame for his (amazing) snake boogies, framing and emphasising his hips
– in the second ‘basket’ movement, the bent knees and ‘bounce’ creates the energy which she uses to step, and also to move her arms. Just like in lindy hop, her bounce keeps the beat (and generates and stores energy) while her steps and arms may move in different rhythms, but still using that stored energy
– the final call and response sequence shows how she can do both vertical movements (where she steps forwards and up with her knee) and also horizontal, where she swings her hips on a horizontal plane – just like a swivel. This isolation lets her do two types of movements, on two planes, but using her core (and bounce) as the epicenter (and engine) for her movements.
