Alright, been a while since I've had the opportunity to sit down and put any thought into dancing. My fresno is coming along, but slowly. In the meantime, I'm thinking up new pieces of foundation that I can add in to my practice routine to allow for more variation, and start broadening out my horizons.
So, the next couple of moves that are going into the existing fresno are leg rolls. There's a couple of ways to do leg rolls: You can roll the legs individually, or together, and you can do them inwards, outwards, or both in the same direction. I'm going to post some videos of me doing poor leg rolls pretty soon. Please keep in mind that I have got very poor leg rolls at the moment, and so these videos won't look impressive. Not only that, they're only intended as a means for people to identify exactly what the move itself is. Hopefully they'll improve as time passes.
Some of the keys to good rolls are:
- Isolation
- Nice big rolls, and evenly paced
Isolation is the key to all of the funk styles dances. You want to move one part of your body, then another, then another - this is part of the reason funk style dances look bizarre to the eye, as it is a totally unnatural way for the human body to move (typically everything moves together, unless you're some weird kid that grew up mimicking Robocop). If you don't believe me, video tape yourself walking and observe how all of your limbs move together. You don't take a step, then swing your arm, then rotate your head, etc. So, when you're practicing, make sure you're isolating.
What am I really talking about? Well, when you do a leg roll, make sure that only the leg is moving. Your hips should stay stationary. I believe that you can take the isolation further and make it a knee roll, in which case your feet remain in the same spot on the floor. Naturally it may be impossible to get much motion if most of your body stays motionless, so there are certain ways you can cheat - lifting up the heel of your foot throughout the roll, then placing it back down will give you a lot more motion - just remember, the more isolated each move, the better it will look.
Make the roll big enough that you can see it, and make sure the body part you're rolling traces out a decent sized circle. For example, a good knee roll should have your knee trace a nice even circle, perhaps ending back in the same spot. If you make the circumference of the circle you are tracing out too small, you're going to lose a lot of the effect. Go big or go home.
At the same time, don't substitute a lack of practice and smoothness with speed. Doing something faster might make it look better to you, but keep in mind that this is dancing, and the music dictates the rate at which you're moving your body. Learning to do something fast, but poorly, just guarantees that you're going to regret your lack of foundations later (I'm speaking from experience here).
I'll have videos of the rolls posted tomorrow evening - I've still got to post a squash journal for this weekend, so I don't have time to make any videos. Stay tuned!
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