Body Skills Collection... Who are you?

The Body-Skills Collection is for the kind of dancer who wants their partner to know the substance of the person they're dancing with - a person of independence, who is unafraid of expressing his or her personality, and passionate about sharing his or her interpretation of music.

This area is conceived as a dancer's 'toolkit' providing a collection of body-isolation exercises. You can use these skills as often as you want, whenever you want; and when deployed in tandem with the concepts of the Rhythm Sense section, confer the ability to express your musicality with greater freedom.

Each item takes the form of a short tutorial, developing just a single skill or approach. It's the sort of resource you can dip into when you feel the need, like if you feel your dancing beginning to stagnate and in need of a bit of a boost.

...We all happen across times like those.

I have deliberately not made all the applications obvious; if I were to suggest a fair number, it might not occur to you to look for your own.

If you're here reading this, you're ready to take ownership of your learning, you're ready to maximise your potential in the way you see fit.

Body Isolation Exercise: Chest, Front-to-Back

Setting Up the Neutral Position

Sit at a table, preferably a round one.

Place your feet flat on the floor, wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed slightly outward. The angle between your thigh and shin should be about 90 degrees.

Place your hands palm down on the table, inside shoulder-width apart, fingers pointed toward the centre of the table.

Adjust the position of your hands from the edge of the table, such that the table supports most of the weight of your forearms without causing your torso to lean forwards. You may need to bring your chair a little closer to the table.

Adjust the distance between your hands, and the direction in which your fingers point, such that your elbows are relaxed but away from the sides of your body.

Relax your shoulders, letting them drop towards the floor under their own weight.

The "elastic string" teaching point
Imagine that there's a piece of elastic string attached to the centre of your diaphragm, passing through the top of your head, and fastened to a point in the ceiling.

Imagine the dome of your diaphragm being pulled upward toward the ceiling by the elastic string. As you do so, you'll find your spine coming into alignment and better supporting your ribcage.

Close your eyes, and listen to and feel your breathing. Feel how the "elastic string" teaching point seems to lighten your chest and release pressure in the abdomen. Feels good, doesn't it?

This is the neutral position and it is both a starting and reference point. Keep practicing getting into and maintaining the neutral position until it becomes second nature.

Feedback Points
All self-teaching systems should incorporate mechanisms for monitoring the successful execution of the lesson.

The neutral position provides such a mechanism as it isolates and focuses on a specific part of the body, and puts other parts into comfortable supported positions which provide you with feedback on the progress of the exercise.

• Your shoulders should be relaxed and remain located in the same space relative to the room. If you find them moving vertically, backwards or forwards, then you could be using them to pull your action along.
   
• If your elbows flare apart or swing inwards, then your spine is inclined excessively toward the table or away from it respectively.
   
• If the curve of your lower back tends to disappear during the exercise, then you're allowing your diaphragm to drop. Remind yourself of the elastic string teaching point.
   
• Your pelvis should only rock forward and backward through the action of your lower back and abdominal muscles; and your weight should be evenly distributed laterally throughout.

Attention:
Before we begin with movement off the neutral position, it's time for a word of caution. This exercise involves the flexion and extension of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician.

If you have determined that it is safe, you next need to manage your expectations for suppleness. It's likely that you've not done this sort of exercise before, so aim to make progress in small increments. Patience is a safeguard as well as a virtue.

Lesson Concepts
The purpose of this exercise is to get your ribcage moving forwards and backwards with minimal 'spill' to the other parts of your body.

The ideal axis of movement is front to back, parallel to the floor, passing through your spine and lower breastbone or sternum. In practice, the track of travel curves upwards at the ends to minimise stresses on the lower back.

To develop the proper muscle tone, this tutorial is based on the concept of virtual forces. This is achieved through imagining the presence of a palm on your sternum, exerting a firm and constant pressure in-line with the axis of movement against your chest. Your response to this pressure; how much and how hard you press back, determines the direction and rate of travel of your ribcage.

Should you:

• Resist less than the palm pressure, your ribcage would ease backwards
• Exert more than the palm pressure, your chest would press forwards
• Equalise the pressures, your torso would remain poised in place.

The idea of opposing forces and their relationships in dance is also studied in the tutorials of the Merengue section, for example in HALO™ Turns for Followers.

We'll make use of a few teaching points to ease the learning process: it will help if you think of your shoulder-blades as gates; your shoulders as the hinges; and your ribcage as a tall drum on wheels.

Maintain the effect of the elastic string teaching point throughout. Pay particular attention to it at the ends of the movement when your diaphragm is most likely to sink.

Let's start the exercise from where we left off.
 

Virtual Forces - Equilibrium Pressure
Set up in the Neutral Position.

Imagine a palm on your lower sternum trying to push your ribcage backward, and that you're resisting this pressure by pressing forward against that palm through your breastbone.

Gradually increase both pressures until they are firm.
 

Accounting for Breathing
Maintaining equilibrium pressure, tune in to your breathing. I find that closing my eyes helps.

Notice that your sternum moves as you breathe: flexing outward as you inhale and retreating as you exhale. This means that the process of breathing affects equilibrium pressure due to the movement of your sternum, causing it to press more against the palm as you inhale, and press less against the palm as you exhale.

Fine-tune your resisting pressure against the palm to compensate for this movement. That is, account for your breathing by

1. pressing a little more as you exhale, and
2. pressing a little less as you inhale.

Master this process as it will inform the initial stages of this exercise.
 

Backward Movement
Exhale a long, slow steady breath.

This time, rather than topping up the resisting pressure, let the pressure from the palm push your ribcage backwards.

Feel your back stretching in width as your ribcage travels backwards, parting your shoulder-blades.

Learning metaphor: Feel the palm push the drum though the gates, the hinges remaining in place.

Remember to keep the elastic string attached and your diaphragm high.

As you become more proficient, you can push the barrel farther and farther backward without moving the hinges nor snapping the elastic string.

Learning points
The tendency is to use the lower back to assist in this exercise. This would cause your action to sag, as if the push of the imaginary palm was being directed downward as well as backwards. To remedy this,

• ensure the elastic string connecting the top of your diaphragm to the ceiling is still working, and
• reposition the push of the palm, so that it's directed slightly upward as well as backward.
  

Don't be tempted to exaggerate the action by pulling with your shoulders. Your hands are placed on the table to help keep your shoulders still in space. If you find yourself leaning into the table on completion of the push, you've overcooked it. Let your ribcage do the work.
 

Forward Movement
As you draw breath, feel your ribcage expand and your sternum press outwards.

Imagine the palm pressure remaining constant. The force of your sternum overcomes the palm pressure as you inhale, leading your ribcage to move forwards.

Learning metaphor: Imagine your sternum is attached to the front of the drum, and the drum being led forwards by it. Feel the gates closing behind the drum as it moves forward.

The elastic string should act steadily to keep your diaphragm high, especially at the end.

Learning points
The path of motion of your sternum scoops upward as your ribcage moves forward. As you progress to the end of the motion, it should feel as if your breastbone was peeling off your body from the bottom tip upwards.

Beginners commonly lean forward from the hips in order to get more travel, which does not serve to isolate the action. You can tell when you're doing this if you find yourself leaning down into the table edge, and if you find your elbows flaring outwards.

Your ribcage has mass, so you will have to compensate with a counterbalancing shift of the shoulders and tilt of the pelvis. Expect it, but try to keep extraneous movements small.
 

Timing
The co-ordination of the front-to-back action is initially synchronised to breathing as a learning aid, but should eventually become independent of it, so that it can be used to accent important beats or to maintain a rhythm stream like the pulse.

The breathing cycle alternates between inhalation and exhalation interspersed with short pauses:

...– inhale – pause – exhale – pause –...

which, interpreted into virtual forces becomes:

...– sternum dominant – equilibrium – palm dominant – equilibrium –...

and translates into movement as:

...– forward – pause – backward – pause –...

The role of the pauses should never be underestimated as they play an important part in promoting muscle and timing control, thereby smoothing out the entire action. Clearly this role is diminished at higher tempi, but they are of tremendous value at lower speeds.

Do stop in the middle of the forward or backward phase occasionally to verify that your neutral position is still correct.

The next stage is to invert the action relative to the breathing; that is your ribcage moves backwards as you inhale, and forwards as you exhale. This is an extreme variant of the exercise with respect to virtual forces, but serves as a useful intermediate step to independence.

I find that alternating the inverse variation with the conventional one, then focussing on the action aspect (thereby de-emphasising the breathing aspect) is sufficient to stimulate timing independence.

The most common application for this action is to maintain the pulse in a small understated movement like a 'tic' to interpret high energy passages in a song. For more information on the pulse, see The Percussionist Dancer: Core. It's worthwhile practicing to a slow rhythm and gradually build up speed - developing muscle co-ordination takes time.
 

Unleashing the Action
The final phase is to get the action to where it can be immediately applicable in a dance context by knocking out the feedback supports we had put in place.

1. Removing reliance on table
   Palms placed on the middle of the respective thigh so that your fingers run across the line of the thigh, elbows pointed outward for continued support of the shoulders.
2. Removing support for shoulder-weight
   Hands resting lightly on thighs, elbows dropped to rest by the sides of your torso.
3. Removing support of the seat
   Standing, feet more than shoulder-width apart.

Once you can do all of that, you've got a very handy little item to add to your dancing. As an application example, see the Dancing a Percussive Counterpoint tutorial.

Setting Up the Neutral Position

Sit at a table, preferably a round one.

Place your feet flat on the floor, wider than hip-width apart, ankles angled slightly outward so that you're pigeon-toed. The angle between your thigh and shin should be less than 90 degrees.

Place your hands roughly palm down on the table, inside shoulder-width apart, fingers pointed toward the centre of the table.

Adjust the position of your hands from the edge of the table, such that the table supports most of the weight of your forearms without causing your torso to lean forwards. You may need to bring your chair a little closer to the table.

Adjust the distance between your hands, and the direction in which your fingers point, such that your elbows are relaxed but away from the sides of your body.

Relax your shoulders, letting them drop towards the floor under their own weight.

The "elastic string" teaching point
Imagine that there's a piece of elastic string attached to the centre of your diaphragm, passing through the top of your head, and fastened to a point in the ceiling.

Imagine the dome of your diaphragm being pulled upward toward the ceiling by the elastic string. As you do so, you'll find your spine coming into alignment and better supporting your ribcage.

Close your eyes, and listen to and feel your breathing. Feel how the "elastic string" teaching point seems to lighten your chest and release pressure in the abdomen. Feels good, doesn't it?

This is the neutral position and it is both a starting and reference point. Keep practicing getting into and maintaining the neutral position until it becomes second nature.

[Note: This neutral position is slightly different from that of the preceding tutorial.]

Feedback Points
All self-teaching systems should incorporate mechanisms for monitoring the successful execution of the lesson.

The neutral position provides such a mechanism as it isolates and focuses on a specific part of the body, and puts other parts into comfortable supported positions which provide you with feedback on the progress of the exercise.

Your shoulders should be relaxed and remain located on an imaginary plane which extends from left to right, bisecting your ribcage into front and back halves.

Your shoulders and collarbones should be maintained parallel to the ground. If you're seated in front of a mirror, this would be easy to monitor; especially if you place a horizontal line of tape at an appropriate height as a guide.

Your pelvis should only rock laterally in response to the movement of your torso, through the action of your mid-lower back and abdominal muscles. You should feel changes in pressure where your buttocks contact your seat i.e. more pressure on your left buttock as your torso moves to the left and conversely when moving to your right. Ideally, there should be no change in pressure in the forward and backward direction.

As you move your torso to one side, you should feel a stretch on the same side i.e. moving to the right should cause you to feel a right-side stretch. If you find your opposite side stretching instead, then it's likely that you've been 'tipping' your shoulders rather than keeping them level with the floor.

The distance between your elbows should remain constant (although their respective angles will change over the course of this exercise). If your elbows flare apart or swing inwards, then your spine is inclined excessively toward the table or away from it respectively.

If the curve of your lower back tends to disappear during the exercise, then you're allowing your diaphragm to drop. Remind yourself of the elastic string teaching point.

Attention:
Before we begin with movement off the neutral position, it's time for a word of caution. This exercise involves the lateral movement of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician.

If you have determined that it is safe, you next need to manage your expectations for suppleness. It's likely that you've not done this sort of exercise before, so aim to make progress in small increments. Patience is a safeguard as well as a virtue.

Lesson Concepts
The purpose of this exercise is to get your ribcage moving side to side with minimal 'spill' to the other parts of your body.

The ideal axis of movement is lateral (left to right), parallel to the floor, bisecting your ribcage at the height of your lower breastbone. The track of travel is perceived to curve very slightly upwards at the ends to minimise stresses on the lower back.

To develop the proper muscle tone, this tutorial is based on the concept of virtual forces. We'll begin this exercise asymmetrically to keep things simple and build up from there.

Imagine a palm on the left side of your ribcage, exerting a firm and constant pressure in-line with the axis of movement, against the side of your chest. Your response to this pressure; how much and how hard you press back, determines the direction and rate of travel of your ribcage.

Should you:

• resist less than the palm pressure, your ribcage would ease to the right;
• exert more than the palm pressure, your chest would press to the left;
• equalise the pressures, your torso would remain poised in place.

The idea of opposing forces and their relationships in dance is also studied in the tutorials of the Merengue section, for example in HALO™ Turns for Followers.

Maintain the effect of the elastic string teaching point throughout. Pay particular attention to it at the ends of the movement when your diaphragm is most likely to sink, and your shoulders to tilt.
 

Setting Up
Get into the Neutral Position.

Imagine a palm on the left side of your ribs pushing your ribcage to your right. Resist this pressure by pressing leftwards against that palm. Gradually increase both pressures until they are firm.
 

Positive Pressure
also known as antagonistic movement because you're moving against the virtual force.

Keeping the virtual force constant, press against the palm until you overcome it and your torso moves to the left.

Feel the weight of your torso shift to over your left buttock, and your left side stretching.

Repeat the process slowly until you get a feel for the action, then start paying attention to your feedback points:

• Are your shoulders level, or are you 'tipping'?
• Is the elastic string holding your diaphragm high?
• Are you moving on a lateral plane? [Tip: imagine you're polishing a pane of glass with the middle of your back.]

Remember that you started this exercise from the neutral position, so you've been practicing from centreline to left, which is only half the full range of movement. Try the same exercise starting with your torso in the rightmost position to practice the whole range of movement.

The elastic string should act steadily to keep your diaphragm high, especially at the end.
 

Negative Pressure
also known as sympathetic movement because you're moving with the virtual force.

Again keeping the virtual force constant, reduce your pressure against it until it overcomes you and your ribcage moves to your right.

Feel the transfer of your torso-weight from the centre line to over your right buttock and the right side of your ribcage stretching.

Keep your shoulders level. There's a natural tendency for the head to tilt in the direction of movement which inclines the balance organs (semicircular canals) of the inner ear. This makes it feel as if the leading shoulder is 'scooping' upward (and the trailing shoulder 'dipping' downward), even when the shoulders are actually parallel to the floor.

Now assemble both practices together, alternating between antagonistic and sympathetic movement to a virtual force applied from the left on your ribcage.
 

Breathing and Timing
The rule of thumb is:

• exhale as you move away from the centreline; and
• inhale as you move towards the centreline

Exhaling does tend to make your diaphragm drop, so you should be doubly conscious of maintaining the height of your action as your ribcage travels to the ends of the movement track. However, this is better than the alternative; inhaling increases the tone of your torso muscles, restricting movement and the stretch you can feel.

The breathing cycle alternates between inhalation and exhalation interspersed with short pauses:

...– inhale – pause – exhale – pause –...

which, interpreted into virtual forces becomes:

...– ribcage dominant – equilibrium – palm dominant – equilibrium –...

and translates into movement as:

...– leftward – pause – rightward – pause –...

The role of the pauses should never be underestimated as they play an important part in promoting muscle and timing control, thereby smoothing out the entire action. Clearly this role is diminished at higher tempi, but they are of tremendous value at lower speeds.

Do stop in the middle of the leftward or rightward phase occasionally to verify that your neutral position is still correct.

The next stage is to perform this with the breathing cycle reversed:

• inhale as you move away from the centreline; and
• exhale as you move towards the centreline.

This is an extreme variant of the exercise with respect to virtual forces, but serves as a useful intermediate step to independence.

I find that alternating the inverse variation with the conventional one, then focussing on the action aspect (thereby de-emphasising the breathing aspect) is sufficient to stimulate timing independence.

The co-ordination of the lateral isolation exercise is initially synchronised to breathing as a learning aid, but should eventually become independent of it. It is used primarily to initiate steps taken to the side, forming a lateral joint cascade (more in a later tutorial).

Once again, practice to a slow rhythm and gradually build up speed - developing muscle co-ordination takes time.
 

Symmetry
To adapt an infamous quote from a friend, 'that's all very well, but can you do it the other way?'

You guessed it; repeat this exercise with the virtual force being exerted on the right side of your ribcage.

Then combine them both so that your ribcage is being moved by two palms; one on the left and the other on the right side.

A useful teaching point is to imagine your torso as a barrel on wheels being moved from side to side by two palms pushing. You can change your level of muscle by varying the imaginary weight of the barrel - the more full it is, the slower, smoother and more forceful it becomes.
   

Unleashing the Action
The final phase is to get the action to where it can be immediately applicable in a dance context by knocking out the feedback supports we had put in place.

1. Removing reliance on table
   Forearms each placed across the middle of your respective thighs.
2. Removing support for shoulder-weight
   Arms held in front of you across your body, forming a straight line: from left elbow - left forearm - one hand on top of the other (both palm down) - right forearm - right elbow. Hands at lower sternum level.
3. Removing support of the seat
   Standing, feet more than shoulder-width apart. You can increase the intensity of this exercise carefully by easing your hips slightly in the opposite direction to your torso.

Body Movement Exercise: Chest, Circular   This tutorial brings together the material covered in the two body isolation exercises: Body Isolation: Chest, Front-to-Back, and Body Isolation: Chest, Side-to-Side; forging them both into a coherent circular motion. Among the many benefits which will become obvious as we progress, mastery of circular motion will increase greatly the fluidity of your movement thus enhancing the quality of your dancing. The elastic string teaching point is valid now more than ever, as is the health caution. Both of these I've reiterated below. The "elastic string" teaching point Imagine that there's a piece of elastic string attached to the centre of your diaphragm, passing through the top of your head, and fastened to a point in the ceiling. Imagine the dome of your diaphragm being pulled upward toward the ceiling by the elastic string. As you do so, you'll find your spine coming into alignment and better supporting your ribcage. Close your eyes, and listen to and feel your breathing. Feel how the "elastic string" teaching point seems to lighten your chest and release pressure in the abdomen. Attention: This exercise involves movement of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician. If you have determined that it is safe, you should still manage your expectations for suppleness but adopting a 'slowly but surely' approach. Lesson concepts From the body isolation: chest tutorials, we have five reference points; one of which is the central neutral position. The other four can be expressed in either the first person perspective i.e. front, back, right and left; or third person perspective from above, using the cardinal compass points i.e. north, south, east and west. I have chosen to present the material from the third person perspective. This encourages an objective detachment and renders the practices easier to visualise. The programme begins with simple 'join-the-dots' exercises and progresses with increasing emphasis on circularity and flow. Not all possible combinations are given; as a matter of fact, mirror-image equivalents are deliberately omitted for you to work out on your own.   Exercises Exercise 1.1 working the diagonals Move your torso, linking two points to form a diagonal. For example: north — west; east — south.
Figure 1.1. A pair of diagonals   Exercise 1.2 diagonals combined An extended version of the first exercise where two sets of diagonals are joined by, Exercise 1.2.1 a lateral link: north - west - north - west - east, - south - east - south - east - west.   Exercise 1.2.2 a vertical link: west - north - west - north - south, - east - south - east - south - north.
Figure 1.2. Linking the diagonals: horizontally (left) and vertically (right)   Exercise 2.1 connecting three points There are two variants of this, the first one returns to the starting point by retracing the path in reverse, the other returns to the beginning by cutting across the centre point. Exercise 2.1.1 reverse direction: west - south - east, then east - south - west   Exercise 2.1.2 going across the centre point: west - south - east, then centre - west
Figure 2.1. Joining three points   Exercise 2.2 fill out the corners As with exercise 2.1 above, but instead of connecting the points with straight lines, push your torso 'into the corners' to create a curved path.
Figure 2.2. Filling out the corners   Exercise 2.3 moving through three points, a different direction Similar to Exercises 2.1 and 2.2 but where the former followed an east - west axis, use a north - south axis instead. Exercise 3 full circle Passing through all four peripheral reference points to form a complete circle, beginning and ending on the same point. For example: north - west - south - east - north; and east - south - west - north - east.   Exercise 4 beyond full circle Here you have to picture mentally, starting in a corner, performing a loop (full circle Exercise 3.1) and ending in a different corner. This practice does three things, it: makes your circle seamless; encourages you to focus on the corners, thereby keeping your movement circular (there is a tendency to cheat by 'cutting corners' which, if left unchecked, would result in a lumpy diamond-shaped action); and makes you practice starting and stopping in the corners in addition to the cardinal reference points, thereby increasing your resolution by 100%.
Figure 4. Tracing a loop   Visualisation Imagine the elastic string, one end attached to a central point far above your head and the other to the pendulum bob that represents the dome of your diaphragm. Envision the pendulum weight as being heavy and moving slowly, describing a perfectly circular path. To change direction, feel it coming to a slow stop, and then gradually gather momentum to circle in the opposite direction. Food for thought Augmenting your physical prowess is well and good, but to elevate skills beyond mere mechanical ability requires as much effort be spent on understanding their nature and purpose - the 'whys', 'hows', and 'whens'. Here are a few points you might consider: How does incorporating this movement affect my dancing? If a partnership can be regarded as a discrete energetic system, introducing torso movement in this manner injects more energy into that system. What changes or improvements need to be made to be able to handle the energy better? [Hint: The successful incorporation of torso movement stresses the importance of good grounding. Which tutorials help with this?]   How do I co-ordinate the timing of this movement with whatever else I'm doing? Most existing material is biased toward joint cascades in the vertical direction. With this motion being lateral, what needs to be done to converge the vertical with the horizontal seamlessly? [Hint: Look the whole body cascade tutorial for clues.]   In this form of dance, the lower body utilises a combination of circular and linear paths. Now so does your upper body. What combinations of movement are possible between lower and upper body? How do they feel? When might you use a particular combination?   How can I build on this tutorial beyond the written page? Flex your creativity and explore how you can evolve this exercise to continue improving. Take ownership of it.   If I wanted to increase my level of movement control, I might adapt the exercise to resemble something like:
Figure 5. A little something extra...

Body Isolation Exercise: Pelvis, Front-to-Back

Setting Up the Standing Neutral Position

Stand with your feet more than hip-width apart, toes pointed outward.

Let your arms hang loosely so that your hands rest comfortably against each thigh.

Imagine that there's a piece of elastic string attached to the centre of your diaphragm, passing through the top of your head, and fastened to a point in the ceiling. Imagine the dome of your diaphragm being pulled upward toward the ceiling by the elastic string. As you do so, you'll find your spine coming into alignment and better supporting your ribcage. This is the 'elastic string' teaching point.

Imagine your pelvis getting heavier and heavier, gradually sinking to the floor causing your knees to flex. Continue sinking your hips towards the floor until your knees are bent, not merely flexed, yet light enough that you can maintain the position indefinitely.

Check that your knees are pointing outwards.

Feel how the elastic string lightens your chest and releases pressure in the abdomen; and at the same time, feel how your heavy pelvis sinks towards the floor causing your back to stretch.

Adjust your tailbone by either tucking it in or sticking it out until you feel your back comfortably stretching to its longest.

Now close your eyes. Listen to and feel your breathing.

Feedback Points
All self-teaching systems should incorporate mechanisms for monitoring the successful execution of the lesson. The standing neutral position provides such a mechanism, featuring loci that provide you with feedback on the progress of the exercise. These are the:

• Soles of your feet
  There should be no perceptible change in pressure in the lateral direction of both feet; and in later exercises there should (ideally) be as little change in pressure, front to back, as possible.
   
• Knees
  In terms of form, they should remain flexed or lightly bent, and should not be encouraged to straighten completely when assisting the exercise. Pay special care to sensing the pressure through your knee joints - should you feel it to be excessive, raise your stance to relieve it.
   
• Thighs
  The level of muscle tone also tells you if you're working within your capabilities. Should you feel a lot of tension in your thighs, you've probably dropped your hips too far towards the ground.
   
• Muscle groups above the hips
  These are the abdominals in the front, and the muscles of the lower back. By placing your hands above your hips, you should be able to feel changes in muscle tone through your thumb and fingertips. In this exercise, you should feel the abdominals contract whilst the lower back muscles relax and vice versa.

Attention:
The exercises of this tutorial involve movements of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician. If you have determined that it is safe, you should still manage your expectations for suppleness but adopting a 'slowly but surely' approach.

Lesson Concepts
The standing neutral position emphasises:

1. Torso-weight being as light as possible, lifting upward; and
2. Pelvic-weight being as substantial possible, sinking downward.

This duality of body is known as the separation of weight; where the upper body and the hips are decoupled except for a fulcrum point just below the diaphragm region. The separation is fundamental to a dancer's ability to hold and express multiple rhythms in the body.

The object of this tutorial is to get your pelvis swinging freely front to back, as if it were a pendulum or cradle suspended by a chord from the solar plexus, with a track of travel that curves smoothly upward at the ends.

In the initial exercises the swinging motion is emphasised at the expense of control of weight. As the tutorial progresses, weight control is established increasingly for the better isolation of muscles controlling the pelvis. You'll learn how to adjust the intensity of the exercise, along with developing fine control over your hips.
 

Exercises

Exercise 1 the cradle
Set up in the standing neutral position.

Place the heels of your palms on your lower back above your hips, on either side of your spine, fingers pointing downwards. This is to protect you from over-arching (hyper-curving) your lower back.

Swing your hips from front to back (north to south) and back again using broad, smooth, and even strokes, curving upwards at the ends. The action should feel like the rocking of a cradle or the swinging of a pendulum.

The swinging movement should be broad enough to cause your weight to oscillate from over the balls of your feet to your heels.

After a smooth even motion is established, investigate the following parameters:

• Depth of stance
  Lowering your pelvis to the floor brings your major muscle groups more into play, but increases the intensity of work. More specifically, you can tighten your buttocks to assist in the forward movement, and push through with the top of your thighs to achieve the upward motion.
   
  
• Arm position
  Forearms resting on the inside of your thighs, hands on the outside of your thighs, hands on hips, or palms on your lower back at the kidney region. Each variation affects body isolation.
   
• Plane of movement
  While you're dancing, it is seldom that you'll have both feet planted on the floor at the same time. More likely your weight will be more on one leg than the other. You can contextualise this action better by practicing it with the plane of movement off the central axis, more on the right and/or on the left.
   

Exercise 2.1 the cradle and loop
Similar to the cradle exercise above, but the hips perform an upward loop on the same plane in the centre of the action. The addition of the circle serves to develop your fine control over your hips. Downward loops may also be performed.
 

Exercise 2.2 cradle and more loops
A further development where multiple loops are performed in between the ends of the cradle, more emphasis is placed on smoothness and circularity of action. Start with two loops, then three, then more.
 

Augmentations

Exercises without weight transfer
Contain the action over your feet by keeping the amount of pressure registered through the soles of your feet equal i.e. not allowing the pressure to shift forwards nor backwards. This results in a tighter, more intense action that has minimal impact on weight transfer. Doing this results in an action that interferes least with the way your steps are taken.

Re-focus on separation of weight
This is the first thing to fall by the wayside. Master the exercises with separation of weight as the principal concept.

Setting Up the Standing Neutral Position

Stand with your feet more than hip-width apart, toes pointed outward.

Let your arms hang loosely so that your hands rest comfortably against each thigh.

Imagine that there's a piece of elastic string attached to the centre of your diaphragm, passing through the top of your head, and fastened to a point in the ceiling. Imagine the dome of your diaphragm being pulled upward toward the ceiling by the elastic string. As you do so, you'll find your spine coming into alignment and better supporting your ribcage. This is the 'elastic string' teaching point.

Imagine your pelvis getting heavier and heavier, gradually sinking to the floor causing your knees to flex. Continue sinking your hips towards the floor until your knees are bent, not merely flexed, yet light enough that you can maintain the position indefinitely.

Check that your knees are pointing outwards.

Feel how the elastic string lightens your chest and releases pressure in the abdomen; and at the same time, feel how your heavy pelvis sinks towards the floor causing your back to stretch.

Adjust your tailbone by either tucking it in or sticking it out until you feel your back comfortably stretching to its longest.

Now close your eyes. Listen to and feel your breathing.

Feedback Points
All self-teaching systems should incorporate mechanisms for monitoring the successful execution of the lesson. The standing neutral position provides such a mechanism, featuring loci that provide you with feedback on the progress of the exercise. These are the:

• Soles of your feet
  There should be no perceptible change in pressure in the front to back direction of both feet; and in later exercises there should (ideally) be as little change in pressure laterally as possible.
   
• Knees
  In terms of form, they should remain flexed or lightly bent, and should not be encouraged to straighten completely when assisting the exercise. Pay special care to sensing the pressure through your knee joints - should you feel it to be excessive, raise your stance to relieve it.
   
• Thighs
  The level of muscle tone also tells you if you're working within your capabilities. Should you feel a lot of tension in your thighs, you've probably dropped your hips too far towards the ground.
   
• Muscle groups above the hips
  These are the oblique abdominals in the front and the muscles of the lower back. By placing your hands above your hips, you should be able to feel changes in muscle tone through your thumb and fingertips. In this exercise, you should feel the abdominal and lower back muscles of one side contract whilst the corresponding muscles on the other side relax e.g. the right side relaxes as the left side contracts.

Attention:
The exercises of this tutorial involve movements of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician. If you have determined that it is safe, you should still manage your expectations for suppleness but adopting a 'slowly but surely' approach.

Lesson Concepts
The standing neutral position emphasises:

1. Torso-weight being as light as possible, lifting upward; and
2. Pelvic-weight being as substantial possible, sinking downward.

This duality of body is known as the separation of weight; where the upper body and the hips are decoupled except for a fulcrum point in the solar plexus region. The separation is fundamental to a dancer's ability to hold and express multiple rhythms in the body.

The object of this tutorial is to get your pelvis swinging freely from side to side, as if it were a pendulum or cradle suspended by a chord from the solar plexus, with a track of travel that curves smoothly upward at the ends.

In the initial exercises the swinging motion is emphasised at the expense of control of weight. As the tutorial progresses, weight control is established increasingly for the better isolation of muscles controlling the pelvis. You'll learn how to adjust the intensity of the exercise, along with developing fine control over your hips.
 

Exercises

Exercise 1 the cradle
Set up in the standing neutral position.

Swing your hips from right to left (east to west) and back again using broad, smooth, and even strokes, curving upwards at the ends. The action should feel like the rocking of a cradle or the swinging of a pendulum.

The swinging movement should be broad enough to cause your weight to shift from over one foot to the other.

After a smooth even motion is established, investigate the following parameters:

• Control of coccyx: Tailbone tucked in or stuck out?
  Explore how the tailbone angle, as detected by the muscle intensity of the abdomen and lower back, affects freedom of motion. How does tucking your tailbone in or sticking it out affect the way you move? Be particularly careful when experimenting with the latter as there is a tendency to hyper-curve the lower back.
   
  
• Depth of stance
  Lowering your pelvis to the floor brings your major muscle groups more into play, but increases the intensity of work.
   
  
• Arm position
  Forearms resting on the inside of your thighs, hands on the outside of your thighs, hands on hips, or palms on your lower back at the kidney region. Each variation affects body isolation.
   
• Plane of movement
  Sure, your hips are swinging from side to side… but is the plane of movement cutting through the balls of your feet, bisecting them, or passing through your heels? How does the position of the plane affect the cradle?
   

Exercise 2.1 the cradle and loop
Similar to the cradle exercise above, but the hips perform an upward loop on the same plane in the centre of the action. The addition of the circle serves to develop your fine control over your hips. Downward loops may also be performed.
 

Exercise 2.2 cradle and more loops
A further development where multiple loops are performed in between the ends of the cradle, more emphasis is placed on smoothness and circularity of action. Start with two loops, then three, then more.
 

Augmentations

Exercises without weight transfer
Contain the action between your feet by keeping the amount of pressure registered through the soles of your feet equal. This results in a tighter, more intense action that has minimal impact on weight transfer. Doing this results in an action that interferes least with the way your steps are taken.

Re-focus on separation of weight
This is the first thing to fall by the wayside. Master the exercises with separation of weight as the principal concept.

Body Movement Exercise: Pelvis, Circular   This tutorial brings together the material covered in the two body isolation exercises: Body Isolation: Pelvis, Front-to-Back, and Body Isolation: Pelvis, Side-to-Side; to form a coherent circular motion. Among the many benefits which will become obvious as we progress, mastery of circular motion will increase greatly the fluidity of your movement thus enhancing the quality of your dancing. The separation of weight concept is valid now more than ever, as is the health caution which is reiterated below. Attention: This exercise involves movement of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician. If you have determined that it is safe, you should still manage your expectations for suppleness but adopting a 'slowly but surely' approach. Lesson concepts From the body isolation: chest tutorials, we have five reference points; one of which is the central neutral position. The other four can be expressed in either the first person perspective i.e. front, back, right and left; or third person perspective from above, using the cardinal compass points i.e. north, south, east and west. I have chosen to present the material from the third person perspective. This encourages an objective detachment and renders the practices easier to visualise. The programme comprises a subset of the material similar to that found in the tutorial Body Movement Exercise: Chest, Circular. Not all of the exercises from there have been incorporated because: I have yet to find real-world applications for patterns other than circular motion; and the movements contribute a significant amount of 'noise' to the dance steps themselves, since the hips are directly coupled to the legs as compared to the chest. Having said that, applying those exercises to your hips does provide an academic advantage as well as bettering your fine control over the movement of your hips. The choice is yours.   Exercises Note: To protect yourself against hypercurvature of your lower back Place the heels of your palms on your lower back above your hips, on either side of your spine, fingers pointing downwards. Exercise 1.1 connecting three points There are two variants of this, the first one returns to the starting point by retracing the path in reverse, the other returns to the beginning by cutting across the centre point. Exercise 1.1.1 reverse direction: west - south - east, then east - south - west   Exercise 1.1.2 going across the centre point: west - south - east, then centre - west
Figure 1.1. Connecting three points   Exercise 1.2 semi-circles: filling out the corners As with exercise 1.1 above, but instead of connecting the points with straight lines, push your hips 'into the corners' to create a curved path.
Figure 1.2. Semi-circles: filling out the corners   Exercise 2 full circle Passing through all four peripheral reference points to form a complete circle, beginning and ending on the same point. For example: north - west - south - east - north; and east - south - west - north - east.   Visualisation Imagine the elastic string, one end attached to a central point far above your head and the other to the pendulum bob that is your pelvic girdle. Envision the pendulum weight as being heavy and moving slowly, describing a perfectly circular path. To change direction, feel it coming to a slow stop, and then gradually gather momentum to circle in the opposite direction. Convergences We touched upon this idea, the co-ordination of movements on several planes, in the 'Food for thought' section of the Body Movement Exercise: Chest, Circular tutorial. Now, let's add meat to the matter. Exercise 3 static convergence For this, you'll need the Exercise 1.2 semi-circle practice (above) reoriented along the north-south axis, going north-south-east-north. Keep your weight on your left leg as your pelvis moves north to south. Use the Lower Body Action of the Merengue tutorial a.k.a. Pedalling to transfer your weight to your right leg, moving your hips forward at the same time to achieve the east position. (If you don't move your hips forward, they'll end up south-east) Use the same pedalling action again to transfer your weight over to your left leg, continuing your forward hip movement to return to the north position. The trick is to time your forward pelvic movement to coincide with the two transfers of weight. Eventually, you can short-cut the extreme north and south positions to form a circle.   Hip-powered turns As you recall, a step is a foot placement and a weight transfer. We can extend Exercise 3 (above) by adding a foot placement to achieve a small re-orientation of your body. Exercise 4 dynamic convergence I'm going to assume that you're now using the short-cut circular form. As your hips are in their southward stroke with weight passing onto your left leg, place your right foot about one foot-length forward. When you transfer your weight onto your right, reorient your centreline slightly anticlockwise. Continue this process of placing your right foot forward whilst allowing your left foot to pivot in place. This eventually results in a complete turn which is driven by the circular movement of your hips. Take small steps initially and apply power for the turn using the pelvic circle; a strong visualisation helps. Lowering your stance will bring your major muscle groups more into play to give a smoother driving action, but at the expense of completion of the lower body joint cascade.

This skill is one of the simplest to learn, and yet was the most instrumental in helping me appreciate what it means to be fluid in dance. The whole-body cascade provides the overarching context; the scaffolding upon which convergences with other body motions is mounted.

Attention:
This exercise involves movement of the lower back. If you suffer from a serious back condition then you should not proceed. If you want to be sure, submit this exercise for evaluation by your physician. If you have determined that it is safe, you should still manage your expectations for suppleness but adopting a 'slowly but surely' approach.

Lesson concepts
Your body is divided up into seven horizontal bands (in order):

• Head
• Upper back and shoulders
• Middle of your back
• Lower back
• Hips / buttocks
• Knees
• Ankles

Each band is displaced in sequence to give rise to a cascade: either from head to toe or vice versa. In dance mode, think if it as an extension of the lower body joint cascade found in the Lower Body Action tutorial.

And the best bit is that you get to do this lying down.
 

Exercises

Exercise 1.1 head-to-toe cascade, lying down
For this, you'll need a firm-ish mattress; and two cushions (pillows or rolled-up towels will do).

Lie down on your back and place one pillow under the arch of your back, and another under your knees. You can place your arms by your side or lay your hands on your lower abdomen. I prefer the latter.

1. Press the back of your head into the mattress and hold it there for two seconds before releasing.
    
2. Press your upper back into the mattress and hold again for two seconds before releasing.
    
3. Do the same for the middle of your back.
    
4. Squash the pillow with your lower back for two seconds before re-establishing the arch.
    
5. Press your buttocks into the mattress and hold for two seconds.
    
6. Squash the pillow with the back of your knees for two seconds.
    
7. Finally, press into the mattress with the backs of your heels for two seconds.

Repeat the practice until the transitions from band to band occur smoothly. Don't forget to release properly before moving on to the next band.

Shorten the pressure period from two seconds to one second, and then to under a second.

Exercise 1.2 toe-to-head cascade, lying down
The same as for Exercise 1.1 except you perform the cascade in reverse order i.e.: ankles, knees, buttocks, lower back, mid-back, upper back, then head.

Exercise 2.1 head-to-toe cascade, standing
Now I know some of my students prop up a mattress against a wall and practice it that way. I don't blame them for finding it preferable to doing the pressure bit against a bare-naked wall.

However in my case, after practising it lying down for a few days, I went straight to the standing unsupported version.

Exercise 2.2 toe-to-head cascade, standing
If you've been able to perform Exercise 2.1 unsupported, the only point you need to remember (apart from the standard safety issues) is to start with your knees slightly flexed to give them somewhere to go. Straight legs don't allow your knees the chance to get involved in the cascade process.

Exercise 3 cascade from pedalling, asymmetric
Execute the pedalling action, and continue taking the movement upward beyond the hips up to your head. The cascade is powered using only one leg, which is the most likely scenario in dancing.

From this exercise, you can glean that the most common application is to use the toe-to-head wave after foot placement, and the head-to-toe wave before foot placement.

Exercise 4 cascade detours
Insert a horizontal circle into the body wave. For example,

1. pedal onto your right leg;
2. let the cascade reach your right hip; then
3. describe a full anti-clockwise circle as in Body Movement: Pelvis, Circular (east-north-west-south-east); then
4. continue the cascade up to your head.

There are plenty of imaginative ways which this exercise can be varied:

• you could use two horizontal circles, by inserting another at chest level;
• or incorporate a lateral looped pelvic swing from east to west, carrying the cascade up the other side.

If you're looking to develop your awareness of your dance line and your control of it, you'd have to go a long way to find a dance better than Tango Argentino. It tightens up the way you envisage your movement on the dance floor, and your ability to be true to that vision.

Here is an excerpt of my response to a request for technical pointers regarding the Argentine Tango walk, previous published in www.dance-forums.com.

Loo Yeo

Walks and your Dance Line

I don't like to see a good post go unanswered.
You are absolutely correct in addressing the tango walk first.

What it is
Nearly any piece of tango's move vocabulary can be interpreted as a walk with single-foot pivots. As a matter of fact, it's important to understand tango's dance vocabulary that way, to ensure that your execution of the dance is smooth. Hence the walk is one of two fundamental elements.

What it's for
The walk is more than just an exercise, more than just a context in which to apply techniques or teaching points. It embodies an important tango principle: that of understanding and commanding your personal dance line.

Here I must clarify two things: "Personal dance line" should not be confused with "Line of dance"; and Principle-based teaching utilises techniques differently to the technique-based teaching prevalent in ballroom studios of the UK (I can't speak for other countries).

Visualising the personal dance line
If you were an ideotypic (as opposed to ideal) dancer, and I coated the soles of your shoes in red paint, then danced with you, at the end of the (wonderful and intimate) dance, we would see on the dance floor:

An unbroken red line
Precisely one single foot-width across
Except for bulges where one foot would pass by (circumvent) the other, the line would be two foot-widths across
The coat of paint would be thickest at the line-side of the bulge, where you had most weight on your foot.
You'd also be a little mad at my abusive treatment of a perfectly good pair of shoes.

Principles of the personal dance line
The ideal dance line travels through your centre of gravity, and is just one foot-width thick so that you consistently take up the least space, without noise or "rattle". This allows your (ideal) partner to position his/her personal dance line as close to yours as possible. "Spraying" your steps imprecisely onto the floor makes it more difficult for your partner to understand your line.

Tango is an intimate dance, performed in very close quarters, and the elegant execution of it lies not in the adornments, but in how a couple's lines unify (notice I did not use the word "super-impose").

As an ideal dancer you would need to be aware of your line, and be able to place your feet on it unerringly. Since your movements will be unsighted, you will need to develop your sense of proprioception, such that your limbs go exactly where you intend for them to. I call this "perfect register" where intent and movement are perfectly aligned.

Finally, absolute command of your line instils a certain confidence in your partner and establishes a greater rapport.

Features of the walk
Feet are as straight as possible, ideally no toe-in or turn-out (for a tight dance line)

Contact is maintained with the floor with the front of the foot (aids balance, acts as blind person's cane for detecting obstacles, prevents you from stepping on your partner's feet, positions your legs for leg-based leads like displacements)

Foot placement is ball flat (ensures the part of the foot that controls your weight is never off the floor, and always ready)

Your centre of gravity should be maintained at the same height from the floor, throughout the dance (for stability, but more for predictability on your partner's part)

Knees are slightly flexed (acting as additional control points, increasing step-size and drive power, absorbing the extra height gain should you need to go on your toes)

About the "bulges"
The trailing foot draws up to the foot of the weight-bearing leg, directly in-line as close as possible.
It then breaks the line, brushing past the supporting foot, maintaining light contact along the length of the leg.
The moving foot swings back into line as early as it is safe. Since the heel of that foot is off the ground, the foot can come into line with the heel over the toes of supporting foot. (Ladies in particular must be careful with this, or you could score the top of your supporting foot with your shoe if you're wearing tango heels)

If your line, feet and knees are right, you should find the knee of your moving leg: tucking in behind the knee of your supporting leg just before the bulge begins; and tucking in, in front of the knee of your supporting leg just after the bulge. These are the ideal positions for the adornments i.e. boleos, ganchos, besos, whatever you want to call them.

Other teaching points
Use your ears, not your eyes:
You should not be able to hear the "clomp" of your heels. A light "swish" of your foot as it just maintains contact with the floor is acceptable.
Listen for the rustle of clothes as your legs brush past during the bulges. (I love that sound from my partner during the course of a dance, it's sensuous)

Think "magnetic knees"
Think "stalk like a cat"

Applications
A solid, confidence-inspiring dance line is a tremendous advantage in so many other dances. It helps you stay with your partner in the quickstep, it helps develop flight in the foxtrot, slot-dancing in salsa is a breeze, international Samba lines can be accentuated differently. I won't go on.

Regards,
Loo

Rhythm Sense... Expressions...

It's all in the mind.

Where the Body-Skills Collection deals with conjuring movement; its counterpart, this section, addresses the expression of rhythm.

And being abstract in nature, it wouldn't be a good idea to be prescriptive about the use of rhythm. Actually it would be futile. There are tutorials here, but not perhaps all of them as you are used to: some of them are highly practical, and others present themselves as articles along a particular line of thought. You're in for a varied ride.

Defining the word “Break”
(from www.dictionary.com)

To help us understand the main varieties of salsa, we need first to understand the meaning of the word “break” in the context of dance.

1. n. Music
   1. The point at which one register or tonal quality changes to another.
   2. The change itself.
       
2. v. intr. To change direction or move suddenly: The quarterback broke to the left to avoid a tackler.
    
3. v. intr. To vary or disrupt the uniformity or continuity of: a plain that was broken by low hills; caught the ball without breaking stride.
    

Let's apply the definition in dance. Suppose you were performing forward salsa walks, and wanted to change directions and walk backwards i.e. to break backwards. You could choose to change direction after:

1. Beat one (a.k.a. breaking on one);
   Forward-back-back-(tap), back-back-back-(tap)
    
2. Beat two (a.k.a. breaking on two);
   Forward-forward-back-(tap), back-back-back-(tap)
    
3. Beat three or four (a.k.a. breaking on three or four respectively);
   Forward-forward-forward-(tap), back-back-back-(tap)

Breaking on three or four looks similar on paper and would be so if you were tapping your foot. However, if you were stepping through during the null weight change instead, you would be:

• stepping through backwards if breaking on three, or
• stepping through forwards if breaking on four
  (think about it, then try it).
   

Playing with phase changes and breaks
Stand with your weight on your right leg ready to move with your left.

1. Perform a forward salsa walk for one bar of music.
2. Perform a backward salsa walk for one bar of music.
3. Repeat the process.

You should find that you're changing phase on beat four, and breaking on beat three or four depending on your choice of highlight i.e. tapping or stepping through.

Then, while keeping your phase change on beat four, break on beat one. Your steps should resemble: forward-back-back-(tap), back-forward-forward-(tap). This is the Latin basic as we practice it.

To complete the set, keep your phase change on four, and break on two.

Try these exercises to music, maintaining your phase change on four, but breaking on your choice of beat. Think about these questions:

• How do the breaks affect the flow of the steps relative to the phase change?
• Do some variations work better with particular genres of salsa music?

Finally, move your phase change to one of the three other beats, and explore the breaks again, adapting both the phase change and breaks to suit your choice of music.
 

Interpreting the main flavours
The Latin basic, also known as the mambo basic or basic time step, is along with the side-to-side one of the most common basic steps of salsa. It is probably the best example to use in demonstrating the differences between the contemporary salsa systems.

On one
The vanilla of the salsa world.
Phase changes occur on four, breaks on one. Begins either left leg forward or right leg back. Changing phase on beat four creates an opening for the double open tones of the standard conga pattern, whilst breaking on one emphasises melodic chord changes. I like vanilla.

On street two
Eddie Torres' New York vanilla.
Phase changes occur on four, breaks on two. Begins either right leg forward or left leg back. Null weight beats feature a step-through with the non-supporting leg. Similar to dancing “on one”, but breaking on two to coincide with the slap stroke of the conga pattern.

On ballroom two
A classic vanilla from the mambo and chachachá era.
Phase changes occur on one, breaks on two. Begins either left leg forward or right leg back. Null weight beats are unadorned. The same as dancing "on one", just offset a beat later. In every bar, the walk commences with the slap stroke and ends with the open tone of the conga pattern. The phase change coincides with the melodic chord change.

Prerequisites
You will need to have understood and naturalised two merengue tutorials:

1. Lower Body Action - all sections
2. Changing Phase - all sections

To have an idea of what we're going to achieve, you might find it useful to view some of the Salsa: Level One content, primarily the clips of:

• Side-to-side
• Latin basic
   

Considerations
There are four main aspects you should grasp.

1. Dance structure - changing phase
   In merengue, phase changes are performed by the lead and can occur at any time. Its open structure allows phase changes to be used with more freedom.
   In salsa, phase changes are performed by both partners and occur on the same beat. Learning to changing phase on specific beats repeatedly takes a little more time to naturalise.
    
2. Lower Body Action - tempo range
   The merengue tempo range begins at a lower count and has a lower average, so you can employ the pedalling action to a greater extent. Salsa is more up-tempo, so there is less time to use a full hip action.
    
3. Rhythm Structure
   If you're used to the rhythmic patterns and instrument ranges of merengue, you may need to spend some time “ear training” or acclimatising to salsa, especially with respect to clave and conga patterns. In salsa, knowing the role of the clave, and being sensitive to the music's resulting two-bar phrases are essential in identifying your rhythmic location.
    
4. Symmetry
   Merengue is an asymmetrical dance because the same leg tends to be used at the beginning of each bar of music, whereas salsa is a symmetrical dance because a different leg is used at the beginning of each bar. This difference in symmetry has an impact on choreography and the manner in which turns are performed.
    

Translation procedure
Taking the example of dancing on beat one (as in Salsa: Basic Steps).

Naturalising a regular phase change

1. Solo, on the spot, without music, vocalising a count to four.
   Practice changing phase at the end of every bar of music i.e. on the count of “four”. This implies three weight changes: one per beat for the first three beats, followed by a null weight change.
    
2. Solo, merengue walk, without music, vocalising a count to four.
   The same practice except the three weight transfers in place are substituted with travelling steps in any direction, usually forwards and backwards first. Phase change still occurs on the count of “four”. You are now doing the salsa walk.
    
3. Solo, to merengue music.
   The above two (salsa walk and on-the-spot) practices separately then combined, to slow merengue music. Increase the tempo of the music as you become more proficient. Try not to cheat. Apply as much of the pedalling action as possible on your steps, it will help you develop power as speed increases.
    
4. Partnered, in phase, without music, to a count.
   Similar to practices 1 and 2.
    
5. Partnered, in phase, to merengue music.
    

Ear training
For a more in-depth exploration of rhythms in salsa, see our Salsa: Ear Training tutorials.

Listen to the conga track: tumbao without clave 144bpm (in Salsa: Ear Training). Alternatively you could use a chachachá, slow son-montuno, or slow salsa at approximately 140bpm. Most of these genres have two rounded ringing sounds at the end of the bar of music. These are the double open tones played on the conga, the first of which is on beat four.

Synchronise your salsa walk to the conga pattern (called the tumbao moderno), such that your phase change occurs on the first of the two open tones i.e. beat four. Your three steps should fall in between the open tones of the rhythm.