Foundation Fridays #1: Posture
This weekly feature will be dedicated to building a complete liquid dancer.
The first foundational element of liquid that is most often ignored by beginners is posture. Yet, it is one of the most important elements in presenting the dance to the audience. Your posture lets people know that you’re about to do something amazing, that you know what you’re doing, and that your body is going to be used for something aesthetic.
This video by house dancer Jardy Santiago concerning posture is very relevant to liquid, except what he says about the arms:
However, many people have misconceptions about good posture. There are all sorts of videos on youtube on creating good dance posture. Watch a few of them, and see if you can recreate the good posture in a mirror.
Practice drill:
Watch the first segment of the following clip, but ignore the dancer in the brown shirt. His posture is more reflective of a specific boogaloo dance style, while the dancer in the white shirt has a posture that has more universal application.
Put on some music, and drift from pose to pose to the beat as in the clip. You do not have to hit your poses, but you should come to a dead, instantaneous stop (ie, dimestop). Every so often, check to see if your back is actually straight, especially in lower positions. Record your practice drill on camera if you can, so that you can see if the lines that your body creates are aesthetically pleasing and correct them if they are not. Some notes:
- You can also use a mirror to check your angles, but be aware that you should use your peripheral vision to see your reflection, rather than turning your head.
- Often, beginners bend at the waist to achieve lower angles with a rounded lower back. Instead, try to think about keeping a straight back and bending at the hips. This requires a bit more flexibility in the hamstrings.
- If you are bent at the hips, try to keep the angle of your head consistent with your back. If you are bent at a 90-degree angle, you should be looking at the floor.
- Keep your elbows away from your sides. Put your arms out to your sides, in front of you, above your head, wherever, but find some variation and keep your elbows away from the sides of your ribcage. This will become more important when you actually involve liquid flow.
Beginners should do this each day for a few songs. It will pay off big in the long run. More experienced dancers looking to improve their posture and angles can incorporate this as part of their warm up.
