Ballroom Dance Tutorials
Our Ballroom Dance Tutorials are our free online teaching lessons, available on our YouTube channel. In these episodes, we talk you through some technical and non-technical aspects of ballroom dancing and offer what we believe to be some key points for beautiful ballroom dancing. These tutorials are perfect for ballroom dancers ranging from beginner to advanced levels. For more videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
How to take the perfect ballroom hold with your partner
Here we offer what we believe to be some key points for a consistent and beautiful ballroom frame. This tutorial covers the following topics:
Personal posture
Connection
Body and feet position
Shape
Arm placement and line.
How to dance promenade with a beautiful shape
In this video we outline the common mistakes we see beginners making when trying to dance their promenade, including:
Losing the relationship of upper body to your partner through rotation (excessive rotation).
Distortion of the shoulder lines through shoulder popping.
"Over-leading" the lady to promenade, as seen through the man's left arm disconnecting from the body and moving forwards out of position.
Lady's head being too upright and anticipating the promenade direction of movement.
Losing the beautiful promenade shape when moving out in promenade position due to a lack of space for the legs to track.
Turn vs Rotation
In this video we teach you everything you need to know about turn and rotation in ballroom dancing. While they sound very similar, there are key differences between them that you must know to take your ballroom dancing to the next level.
In summary, 'turn' is the word used to describe the changing of alignment in relation to the room, usually measured in the feet. Some of the common alignments you may have already learnt about are: 'line of dance (LOD)', ''diagonal wall' and 'wall'. 'Rotation' on the other hand is the word used to describe the movement of the body around the spine. Rotation is mostly executed while the direction of the feet remain the same and is most popularly referenced by 'shoulder rotation'.
It is important to note that whilst we have clearly defined the terms turn and rotation, as well as outlining the differences between them, there are many cases where we must perform both actions within the one figure. This makes it dancing much more complicated but also much more beautiful.
Master the Throwaway Oversway line figure
There are many perspectives to consider and be aware of when trying to show a beautiful throwaway line, and in this video the first thing we discuss in this video is the awareness of all moments of shaping, including entry of figure, the throwaway shape itself and exiting the figure. Having an awareness of these three shaping moments will enhance the effect of your throwaway oversway.
The next point we discuss is making sure we are aware of and maintaining the position and angles in relationship to each other throughout the figure. It's important to remember that the position, in this case closed position, will also enhance the beauty of the shape you are trying to produce.
Last but not least, don't forget the principles of personal posture and arm position that we've learnt in our previous videos. Those are some of the most important fundamental principles that we need to constantly work on and maintain throughout our dancing, especially when dancing beautiful line figures such as the throwaway oversway.
5 exercises to strengthen and tone your upper body
Have you ever wondered what exercises or stretches you should be doing outside of the dance studio as part of your dance training? Perhaps you're looking for some new movements to add to your own personal workout routine? Join us as we walk you through 5 of our very own ballroom dancing inspired exercises that we use to strengthen and condition our bodies for training and competitions. A brief summary of the exercises:
1. Arm circles with straight arms moving in a backwards direction.
2. Vertical climber stretches lifting arms straight over head and lifting the opposite heel and hip up as you reach to the ceiling.
3. Rib isolations with arms straight out to the side.
4. Lateral side squeezes in full ballroom frame (elbows out to the side and creating a 90 degree through the elbow).
5. Rotation twists in full ballroom frame.
Improve Your Ballroom Frame
So what are these 3 simple steps?
1. For the man. Be aware of the angles that you create not just from elbow to elbow but also in your hands, particularly that left one. We discuss how to present your hand properly to the lady and how to style it so that it enhances your perfect, "slick" top line.
2. For the woman. Your frame extends far beyond your arms, and most importantly includes the position of your head. Talysa will walk you through exactly how to place and position your head to create that stunning look which will complete the partnership's top line and see your results improve most noticeably.
3. For the couple. It is absolutely essential that you learn how to accomodate your partner with your frame whilst not detracting from your own look. We will teach you how to angle your body to better fit with your partner, all with a simple rotation of the body and an elegant presentation of the left side of your body.
Make sure you watch until the end as we'll taking up hold many times, showing you the correct methods for creating your frame as well as showing you a few of the common mistakes you might be making.