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Every Man’s Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing

CHAPTER 12

Movement and Timing

I won’t be old until my feet hurt, and they only hurt when I don’t let ‘em dance enough, so I’ll keep right on dancing.

Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson

If you watch most beginners move on the dance floor they appear to be marching. I remember my marching days—they lasted almost a decade.

On the other hand, if you watch the masters move they appear to effortlessly glide across the floor; they actually have the illusion of flight. That’s the big question: How do you get from marching to flying? In a moment I’ll tell you the technique I use but, first, some background.

There’s a well-known rule of movement in dance: feet follow frame. The problem is that beginners do the opposite—they let their frame follow their feet—which gives the appearance of marching.

When I step I find that it helps to think “frame” (torso) and not “step.” If you think of stepping it creates a focus on the foot, which causes the foot to move first. Worse, the foot is often lifted too high and moved too far; the frame is then dragged sideways to catch the foot. This would be “frame follow feet’” the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. It looks clumsy and is a mark of a beginner. At worst, it looks like a game of hopscotch. Or a camel.

If you lead with your frame—if you let your torso move first—the foot will naturally follow and, like a carpenter’s plumb bob, reposition directly below your frame. Then, simply lower your weight to finish the step. Unfortunately, this is much easier to utter than execute.

I’ve heard the concept of feet follow frame described, crudely, as leaning in the direction you want to move and then, just before you fall, the foot moves to catch your falling weight. Skippy Blair has a more precise and elegant technique, which got me on the path to looking like a dancer. It’ll be easiest to explain her method by jumping right into an exercise. First, three definitions from Skippy:

1) center - the solar plexus, which is the point in the frame that’s the focus of movement; center is short for center point of balance. Lingo Alert  Other teachers use the term center to identify the abdominal area so you may need clarification when that term is used.

2) receiving foot - the leading foot in a step, the foot that moves first and receives the weight change.

3) sending foot – the lagging foot in a step, the foot that stays behind and moves second; it presses into the floor to send the body

Try This: Take a Step. This is a good one to do with a teacher. First, do it standing in place with small steps side-to-side. I mean really small steps, say, two to three inches (see box below, Take Baby Steps). Once you can do a side step, then try a small walking step forward. Start with your weight on your right foot. Begin the step by pressing the sending foot, the weighted foot (the right foot), into the floor and, like a tube of toothpaste being squeezed, let it lift and stretch your center to the side (left). You should feel a stretch and elongation in your body. Keep your shoulders horizontal to the floor. Then let the receiving foot, the unweighted foot that moves first (left foot), automatically follow a split second behind your center. When your center arrives at the new location—just two to three inches away—don’t make me come over there to remind you to take small steps—the receiving foot (left foot) will line up directly below. Then, just lower your weight. Next, still standing in place, try a step back to the other side (the right). When you’re ready, try a small, walking step forward. At first do it slowly and exaggerate the motion, as if you were walking through chest high water. To time steps correctly, press and move your frame on the &-count, then lower your weight to hit the floor precisely on the beat (more on timing below).

The key word for executing this movement technique is press, not step. It’s a little counter-intuitive as the focus is not on the foot that takes the step but on the foot that’s left behind, which does the work by pressing. When you press, think tube of toothpaste.

Movement in any direction—left, right, forward or back—can be accomplished with this technique of pressing into the floor. Think of a lion stalking prey. It will thrust its chest in the direction it wants to move and then the paws will follow. Think lion.

Advanced Info Alert  There’s a common body movement in dance called contra body movement. It’s simply an exaggeration of the movement your body naturally makes when you walk: as the left foot goes forward the left shoulder goes back and the right hip goes forward, all in one motion; as the right foot goes forward, right shoulder goes back and left hip goes forward, all in one motion. However subtle, this is how we walk naturally, especially when we’re confident; this is how you should move when you mean business, whether it’s into a job interview or on the dance floor. It’s a bit of a strut, like how a matador walks. Where’s my cape?

Try This: Walk with Contra Body. As you walk, see if you can identify your natural contra body motion (from the Advanced Info Alert above). Exaggerate the motion making sure you’re thrusting your center (solar plexus) ahead of your feet by pressing into the floor with the sending foot (the back foot). Check yourself in a mirror. Pretend you’re a matador.

How you move is pretty darn important as it not only corrects that dorky-look but it affects your ability to lead. If your upper body moves first it feels good to your partner and lead and follow will be much easier. If your feet move first it feels bad to your partner and lead and follow will be awkward at best. But movement, any movement, will not look good or feel good to your partner without good timing.

Timing is controlling the speed of body movement in relation to the music. Specifically, this means getting the foot, the frame and the weight change to come together, simultaneously, exactly on the beat. If you’re early or late, even just a teeny-tiny bit, it’s off-time. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not!

Skippy Blair uses the analogy of a pianist. For a chord to be played on the beat, the pianist can’t move his hand and hit the chord at the same time. But by moving the hand into position before the beat, to a point right above the piano keys for the chord, hitting the chord on the beat is easy by simply lowering the hand. Likewise, if the dancer moves his center into position before the beat—on the &-count (Chapter 9), the point between two beats of music—then it’s easy to hit the floor precisely on the beat by simply lowering his center.

You can practice movement and timing as you mark rhythms and shadow dance, although the real practice comes from working with partners. Movement and timing are a couple of the hardest elements of dance to master. For us mortal, ungifted dancers, I’ve come to accept that doing this stuff well takes at least two lifetimes.

Lingo Alert I hate to be so picky about language but, hey, my mission is to make sense of the stuff that makes no sense. The word timing is sometimes used to label a couple of other concepts we’ve already explored. First, it can be used to mean the speed or tempo of the music, for example, someone might say the timing of the music is fast. Call me obstinate, call me annoying, but tempo (Chapter 3) is a more accurate label for describing the speed of the music. Second, it can refer to how you count a step pattern. For example, when counting a double rhythm, two steps taken to two beats of music, someone might say the timing is “1  2.” Call me whacky, call me out of control, but the pattern count (Chapter 9) is a more accurate label for counting a step pattern.

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