How can we facilitate fun and dynamic physical conversations when partner dancing? Lisa Vegas does a commendable job enumerating some techniques in her blog Building Trust and Communication on the Dance Floor.
Vegas breaks it down into three sections: (1) Building trust by practicing consistency, embracing mistakes with humor and acceptance, and expressing “reliability and stability” through non-verbal reassurance such as “a firm yet gentle hold”; (2) Communicating clearly through frame and posture, good physical listening skills, appropriate eye contact and connection; and (3), what she calls Mind-Body Connection including “synchronizing your breath to your partner’s movements,” body awareness, and confidence.
Without trust we’ve naught on which to build, so starting by establishing our mutual baseline through basic and repetitive movements makes sense. Learning to speak and — most importantly — listen with great skill through our dancer’s frame is, I feel, a worthy lifelong pursuit. And there’s nothing like experience and continual practice, with a variety of movement modalities, to deepen our awareness of how our own and our partners’ bodies can and do move.
See you on the dance floor —Sean Donovan
Constance Brinkley photo (above)