Tip of the Week : Balance 03/02/09

[ceech]

Work on balance. All of the great dancers that I've studied have incredible balance. It doesn't matter style of dance, from ballet to popping, tapping, locking, breaking, house, lindyhop, etc, all of the great ones have strong balance.

How do you work on balance ? Start with something as simple as standing on one foot for 10 seconds without wobbling. Balance. Strong and solid. Happy dancing.

[theDL]

At my old martial arts studio, we had a balance training exercise called chicken fight. You would hold one leg with one or both hands as if you were sitting indian/yoga style, and stand on the other. Another person would do the same. Then, the goal was to knock the other person down while remaining upright on one leg. Brute force charging would fail because the other person can easily dodge and you'd fall flat on your face. It came down to maintaining balance while standing, maintaining balance while moving (hopping), and maintaining balance during impact (from your attacks or theirs).

I'm not saying to try this out on a hard dance floor, but this just reminded me of it and it was very useful for improving one-legged balance.

[Jeremiah]

awesome tip, i was practicing this last night, a lot harder than it sounds, i need 2 work on my balance

[Switch Step]

Balance always helps and standing on one leg is a good way to start off. What I would do if I were working on balance (Haven't really done it in awhile) Is lift one knee up so its perpendicular to the body and while on one leg slowly lower myself as low as i can go without falling and raise myself back. Good for strength also but I feel really helps develop balance also with changing levels.