Wiggling Tips

[jockey]

Originally Posted by robd

Not sure if it's beginners corner or not but had a class last night where the teacher threw wiggles into a few moves. Now, I don't mind a wiggle but as one kind lady in freestyle gently pointed out when giving me some private tuition my attempts were a bit "Stevie Wonder" with the shoulders giving it more than the hips. I know I need to practice in front of a mirror until I get it right but can anyone give me any tips or exercises that might accelerate the learning?

Also, out of interest do people find it harder stepping back, spinning, wiggling whatever with their left foot, leg, hip (or their right if they are left handed) or is it just me?

Robert

I did a belly dancing class once (4 men 40 women) and the main thing is to separate the upper torso from the hips; one move in Lindy is a North -West - South - East movement with the hips called ?; I do a lot of hip circles as I am Michael Jackson (version circa 1980s) but if you are influenced by salsa you will favour body rolling. "Wiggles" are great if you can pull them off and when you get really confident do them in a train so the girl is behind you or what is called the "Knights Move where you stand still (wiggling for all you are worth) and you lead the lady full circle clockwise around you. Or, if she is in front and you do hip circles you can watch her looking at you...but you had better be good!

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by Andreas

I personally don't think Salsa is such a good dance to learn to wiggle. You can get away quite easily w/o wiggles in it.

Good point.

I'd argue that Columbian salsa is maybe more wiggly, simply because of the faster weight-transfers involved, but certainly, New York and Cuban styles don't have much inherent wiggling.

Maybe we should have Merengue warmups in Ceroc classes, they're always fun. Obviously, I sneer at Merengue as a wussy dance in general, but it's pretty much all about the wiggle. I did a great (well, I liked it) Merengue with someone (ZW? Can't remember) a week ago at Ceroc, it's surprising how difficult it is not to launch into turns and spins...

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

Maybe we should have Merengue warmups in Ceroc classes, they're always fun. Obviously, I sneer at Merengue as a wussy dance in general, but it's pretty much all about the wiggle. I did a great (well, I liked it) Merengue with someone (ZW? Can't remember) a week ago at Ceroc, it's surprising how difficult it is not to launch into turns and spins...

I used to use Merengue and the basics of Lambada for a warm-up for all my classes. 1) it gets the body moving and 2) people lose inhibitions of moving their body after a while.

[MartinHarper]

Originally Posted by jockey

One move in Lindy is a North -West - South - East movement with the hips called ?

"Messin' Around".