Speaking of allemandes - is there ANY way to teach experienced dancers to not bend their wrists when they allemande? The wrist is supposed to be straight, not bent, as bending can cause pain to the other person's wrist (generally mine). Nowadays when I find a person allemande with a bent wrist I go ahead and keep mine straight and sacrifice a good allemande with weight for protecting my arm and wrist.
As for thumbs, I protect my thumb in an allemande or a wavy line by keeping it close to my hand, not straight up ready to be grasped. I found that by "dancing defensively" in this manner I can protect all my digits and limbs and continue on the joy of dancing longer! Perry --- On Tue, 3/13/12, Andrea Nettleton <[email protected]> wrote: From: Andrea Nettleton <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Callers] Re Allemande Hold (was Analysis of Stars) To: "Caller's discussion list" <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 3:08 PM As a dancer my personal solution to the Rory o more situation has been to have an old fashioned allemande grip for the first balance, as I balance away and have a little momentum to help tear the hands apart, I switch to an ECD hold, kind of like what you do for a balance before a swing, then it is only curved fingers, which actually give plenty of oomph to the spin, but also disengage easily. I don't spin out of allemandes as much, maybe because few women give enough connection to do so, in fact there is often no time for such a flourish because the connection is too weak to accelerate the allemande. This has nothing to do with the position of our hands or fingers or thumbs, but more a refusal to engage the whole arm so the presence of their body can be felt. I love a zesty dance weekend where a high proportion of women connect. I think by and large, we all wrap our fingers around the base of the other person's thumb, often enough with our thumbs also loosely curled arou nd. The only time I recently remember being 'gripped' was by a terrified newbie who seemed to want to hold on in hopes we would all help him get where he needed to be. Although it hurt, I was sorry for his fear and simply slid my thumb straight down. Like catching a falling pencil, it is pretty hard for someone to hold your thumb if you pull straight down. Cheers, Andrea Sent from my iPhone On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:20 PM, Ron Nelson <[email protected]> wrote: > > John Sweeny wrote: >> >> Yes, people always used to interlock their thumbs - that is >> how I was first taught it many, many years ago. >> >> But the dancing has changed. What has happened is that >> people now like to spin out of Allemandes; and Rory O'Mores are more >> prevalent, where you spin out of an Allemande-type hold. If someone has >> locked my thumb I can't spin! You say that it is easy to disengage when >> the thumbs are interlocked. That is not my experience. I really, really >> hate it when people hold on to me so that I can't enjoy the dancing. It >> is definitely easier to disengage if the thumbs aren't interlocked. >> >> Dance styles evolve, and this is an example of a good change >> as far as I am concerned. >> >> Let's all work on getting rid of thumbs from dancing! :-) >> > > Ron Nelson adds: > > I could not agree more. As one who suffers from arthritis in my hands, I can > testify that the thumb is particularly susceptible to abuse and subsequent > pain. > I try to avoid any grip which might entrap and discomfort. > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
