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Hand position transitions!
Hey everyone!
I've been struggling with this one for a long time, and it's taken me a while to be able to articulate it correctly. I'm not entirely sure I can… but it's frustrating so I'm going to try.Whenever I go from pretty dancing, such as with my feet on the ground, or spins, into a strength move or climbing (like split grip hold, or even baseball grip) I have a very awkward pause. I have to "set up" a lot for those moves, because I'm usually taking my feet off the ground, and I have to make sure they're correct so I don't fall down!
But it doesn't look very good, breaks my flow… so I practice those moves a lot less than I'd like.
I would really like to figure out how to transition into these kinds of moves. I'd actually really like to learn how to transition my hands around all over, without being horribly obvious as to the move I'm doing next! How DO you get your hands into position for a cradle spin without your audience thinking "I see those hands, you're about to do a cradle spin!"
Hopefully all of that makes sense Oo;
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8 Replies
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I know this answer is going to suck but….practice! I will not throw moves into a dance until I can do them without thinking.
As for cradle, when I taught I would first teach the cradle hold and then taught how to spin it then walking into it. When you walk into it: as you are walking around the pole start lowering your hand down the pole. Step with your inside foot near the pole and then sweep both your outside leg and your outside hand up to the pole, while pivoting on that inside leg. Once you have that motion down you can start working on getting that inside leg to the pole. Even with that inside leg kind of straight the move looks cool. You will find that the bigger the sweep with the outside leg the bigger the spin.
Does that make sense?
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For things like intermediate spins, I transition form more basic things. Cradle, for instance, I go from basic pirouette (leading with my right hand on top) and just turn back into the pole into a cradle with my left hand on bottom, right hand on top. I can do cradle on both sides, so it doesn't bother me
I really recommend going back and doing Veena's basic series if you have the lessons. I'm a self taught exotic dancers and redoing Veena's basic under arm spins and whatnot has really helped me strengthen my flow.
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Chem, I kinda figured that would be the answer!
The cradle spin I can actually do pretty well, now! I love it to bits, and do it often. It just seems very… obvious, not a lot of moves with that hand position, so I can't play with it much, tease my way into that move. It's pretty committed, I suppose!
I was thinking about it all last night, and I figure I should come up with a bunch of combo moves that would help me work into and out of those hand positions, and move more easily from spins and pretty moves into strength moves and inverts.
So, that would be the other question: What transitions do you use with the Fan kick, or getting into an invert, or a climb, or a split grip hold?
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I LUVS me a spinning climb! Basically fireman up into a climb. This all comes with freestyling. Just pump up the music and MOVE. You will find that your body will move into position naturally and you will be "hey, this would work here".
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Chem, Freestyling is all I do! And, when in the groove, I don't think "Gee, I should attempt to get into this move that breaks my flow!"
That's WHY I'm asking about this. Every time I try anything in split grip, or baseball grip, or anything other than what I normally do, it breaks my flow, because I don't know how to easily transition into it.
Hence, I am also asking about combos and ways of helping me gain that flow, that understanding of how to quickly change hand positions during some good music so I don't have the lengthy pause while I re-adjust.
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can you post a video so we can help better? Pictures (videos) are worth a thousand words!
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I always just stroke the pole….no matter what I am doing I have that whole fondling thing going on which kind of doesn't matter what you are doing with your hands.
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I know what you mean Runemist. I look at my videos where I do the cradle and my hands are definitely doing that "here it comes" thing! Especially since I walk with my right hand up, but my cradle is the right hand down. This requires me to change directions first. I think it is difficult to guide someone so specifically when it comes to getting better flow. I think it just comes with practice, really. Sometimes I concentrate on another aspect of my body/dance instead of on the move itself. For instance, I may extend my outside leg while my arm is moving into position. I try to make this a graceful dance move so the focus is on that instead of an obvious "prep" position. There are also tiny things that can go a long way in making the move look more polished. Chem gave you a great example of this with the outside leg sweep. Also as Chem mentioned, it is good to be able to do moves on both sides (I'm working on that!). It can really help with flow. Check out Veena's beginner and intermediate routines. You'll see that her arms and legs are in constant motion and sometimes all she needs to do is walk into the move gracefully. (Side note, she does fan legs around the one minute point in the Intermediate routine) I was just at the Midwest Pole Convention last night and watched some awesome pro's routines. They also have pauses, and running starts. What makes it flow is strength and constant arm and leg movement. Not sure if this helps, but thought I'd give it a shot.
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