Some teachers tell us categorically that dance partners ought to give no resistance to each other but should instead move independently (albeit together).
They want to make an important point but are doing it in a misleading way. The point being that we want to become skillful solo movers so we can move well with a partner. We don’t want to use a partner (pushing, pulling, hanging on) to make up for deficiencies in our preparation.
But we DO give resistance to our partner and the floor in both leading and following. That resistance provides signaling, preparation, and assistance (yes!) for dynamic movement.
Let’s look at a couple, from head to toe and across the floor. What are points of opposition that provide useful resistance to power a movement?
No matter the embrace, apart or close, if we can feel our partner there is some functional resistance.
EXPLORE: Allow a partner to grasp our hands and move them around in any direction. The Range of Possibilities. First, have wet-noodle arms that provides no resistance. Our partner’s movements have no effect on our body; it gets lost in the arms. Next, the opposite extreme, with arms that are like a statue. Movement here will move the body but will feel unpleasantly stiff to both partners. Now the sweet spot. Tone the muscles of the arm such that the body moves easily and comfortably with our partner’s movement of our arms.
Now, we prepare to take a step. We shift our weight in the direction opposite to our intended step so as to unweight the stepping leg and ground the pushing leg so it can provide power. Without this preparation, we fall into steps.
We like to call the weight-shift preparation a windup. Picture how in sports, when kicking or throwing a ball, shooting an arrow, or jumping, we start in the opposite direction until we get muscle resistance. That muscle loading provides power for final movement in the intended direction.
In motion now, we characterize backward movements as “yielding resistance” and forward movements as “quiet insistence”. (This is the person moving backward or forward, regardless of whether they are the designated follower or leader.)
EXPLORE. Stand with our weight mostly on one side, then try taking a step with that leg. You have to shift your weight before you can even take the step. Now, with equal weight on both legs, the slight weight shift is more difficult to detect, but it is still there. This time, with deliberate intention, shift your weight onto the leg opposite the desired step direction and even to the opposite edge of the foot. Feel the power this adds to a step by pre-loading the muscles of the pushing leg.
Continuing, we come to an inflection point where we change from locomotion across the floor to pivoting on a spot. We can signal to and prepare our partner by a slight twist in the direction opposite the intended pivot. A movement imperceptible to onlookers but not our partner.
Think of martial arts, how when we directly resist our partner, they strongly resist us. If we instead bring our partner toward us, it can momentarily unbalance them so they pull back in the intended direction. It is akin to the windup concept.
(Our “partner” in martial arts?? In Aikido, the martial art that we feel can best inform partner movements, during practice, the “opponents” are considered partners: Nage (the leader) and Uke (the follower).)
Examples of preparing by moving in the opposite direction can be seen in dances with underarm (and other) turns, where a skilled leader gives an opposite-direction movement that loads the follower’s muscles when the movement reverses.
Now in the pivot itself, a feeling of opposition helps the pivoting partner stay centered, stable, and turn more easily. Typically, we concern ourselves with “throwing” the body’s mass around the standing, pivoting leg in a forward or backward direction. But if we instead put our attention on the side of the body over the pivoting leg twisting in the opposite direction, we tend to stay well-centered and well-aligned vertically. This makes for easier, lighter, well-controlled pivots.
EXPLORE. Standing vertically with most of our weight over one foot, start a pivot (forward or backward) INITIATING the movement from the side over the light leg, going in the intended direction. Try it from each side and in each direction. After those explorations, this time initiate the movement from the side over the heavy leg, twisting in the direction opposite our intended direction. If we were doing a forward pivot, the side of the heavy, standing leg would twist in the opposite, backward direction. See how this tends to keep our movement more compact and well-centered.
And now we are coming to a stop from walking. During the walk, our steps have both a push component (the windup and push) and pull component as our newly arriving leg pulls our body over the leg and rolls into the next push. But for a stop our body must resist (oppose) that pulling into the next step. We hang back a bit to arrive at a vertical stop, without going past that into another step.
EXPLORE. Take a step while keeping your body slightly tilted toward the step (as we would be in a walking embrace, whether apart or close (more tilt)). Feel how this tends to keep the movement going in that direction. Next, while walking, choose a step in which to stop, and this time allow your body to stay behind the arriving final step. It’s like the feeling of stepping on the brake in a car.
OPPOSITION — a simplistic view of dance (and life!) says we don’t want opposition. We want others to go with us, do it our way, and think like we do. But without opposition (whether with a partner or just in our own body), we lose a means of communication, control, and modulation. We lose a sense of the range of possibilities. We become dull and stiff in our ways.
What do you think? We invite you to oppose us and expand our understanding. Or give other examples of useful opposition.
Thank you!
RESOURCES:
1.7 Fundamentals- Windup reveals intention
10.6 Opposite side
The Secret to Powerful Pivots