Effortless movement...

A couple weeks ago, a woman commented on the amount of Energy I have.

I realized today, that upper body motion is almost effortless. I can do it for a very long time without running out of energy. I can go fast or slow, of course, depending on what I need at the time, but still, it feels essentially effortless.

Nearly everything is coming from my legs and hips, the arms and body are essentially "whipping" around.

Now, it's when I do leg movement is when I crap out very quickly. Running man practice kills me.

Question, what do the belly dance teachers say about back / spine safety when rolling up and down your spine.

I'm afraid that I might hurt myself. I think I've figured out how to send a sin wave down my spine, but after I do I tend to have a dull pain / sensation along my spine that I DO NOT like. I figure I'm going to have to take that one VERY slow, but am curious what your input might be.

Trying to Dance for the first time.

I had been mulling over the idea of taking my Tai Chi to the dancefloor for a few weeks before I actually tried it.

My first attempt failed. I had no comfort or confidence, and didn't "feel" it.

The second attempt failed, too. I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

The third attempt blew my mind.

Basically, the key that I found was in the timing (duh!). For the most part I'm not actually doing Tai Chi. There are times when I need inspiration and I'll break into Cloudhands, or other specific movements, but what I've found to be most critical are the most basic concepts, particularly silk reeling, and the flow of energy through the legs and hips, up to the upper body.

Since Tai Chi has trained me to use my hips for control, I find that a very large part of finding a rhythm comes simply from shifting the hips, and thus shifting the motion of the entire upper body.

Studying definitions of various types of dance, I find that "popping and locking" describes a significant part of the final flavor of the movement.

On timing, I've been going out of my way to discover how to use variations on the beat in order to make the result more interesting and deep. More on timing later...

At some point Dance becomes more than just bouncing around to music, it becomes the challenge of complete body-control. This is synergistic with the various goals of Tai Chi or Yoga. It also becomes entertainment.

SO MUCH TO PRACTICE!

I know nothing of dancing...

This is a disclaimer.

I've bounced around on various dancefloors, done my share of grinding with ladies, blah blah, but have never really explored it as a concept until about a month ago.

So, I'm still in just the basic process of learning terminology, and trying to understand what differentiates one form from another. So, readers, please be patient with me if I make errors in terminology, or fact. Do feel free to correct me, though.

Some notes on Tai Chi

Tai Chi is, well, it's complicated. However, I think that it gives me some semi-unique perspectives on movement.

One of the main points to develop in Tai Chi is fluidity, and for me, this has been a particularly interesting study.

For example, say that you begin in Position A, and need to end up in Position B. Even if you have a great instructor, he or she is not going to be able to describe to you every single detail and muscle movement that defines the motion between the two states.

This is where some basic principles come into play. Ultimately, the student needs to work out the most efficient or proper path.

Silk Reeling: This concept is very basic, and defines how to position your hands during motion. In brief, consider the tail of a kite as it flies through the air. The tail flows effortlessly behind the kite, no matter which direction the kite is flying. This is a basic visualisation of how the hands should generally move in tai chi (unless the posture specifies otherwise).

Smooth Curves: In general, there aren't straight lines in Tai Chi. In fact, there aren't straight lines in human motion. Motion is a sum of the motion of all of the axes involved, and Tai Chi very specifically makes use of this by combining rotation produced by the legs, hips, and spine, with various motions of the shoulders, elbows, hands. In the end, all of the motion is curved, or circular. From the very beginning of Tai Chi practice, focus is placed on flexibility and flow.

Motion from the Ground: The legs drive the hips, and the hips drive the upper body. The upper body is essentially relaxed, and this allows for incredibly fast motion. The arms essentially become like whips, and very small upper body muscular controls allow for a wide range of movement.

... more later...

First, a brief description of the location where I spend my time. It's one of the local clubs, and is typically nicely busy with happy folk on Thursday through Saturday.

The average age is probably in the area of 25yrs, as I live in a College town.

Thursdays feature 80's and 90's music, typically with accentuated beat, while Fridays and Saturdays are more traditional Techno.

So far my typical night involves Whiskey Sours until things really get hopping around 10:30PM. I'm currently working to lower the dependence on alcohol, as one of the primary motivations for this set of experiments is to transcend my historical performance anxiety. This has been expressed in multiple ways beyond just dance, such as openly doing my Tai Chi at the Gym, and at a busy Park. I'm working to stay focused on what I'm doing, no matter what is going on around me. Tai Chi, in particular demands that I do so. If my mind floats to a person that I see watching out of the corner of my eye, then my balance and flow is clearly lost.

I have a few weeks to catch up on, so following will be some general statements about what I've been studying, thinking, and doing in that time.

Introduction:

I'm obsessed with Dancing, and I'm a newbie. This blog will be a place where I can make notes and observations, or ask questions to the community, as they come to me, and so as to not totally annoy my FB friends with this stuff.

The basic story is that I'm 39 years old, and other than the typical drunken bounce, I've never been a confident or regular dancer in my life.

I have, however, been doing Tai Chi, and various other martial arts for about 19 years.

Last month it struck me to try to leverage my Tai Chi with something interesting and unusual on the dancefloor, and so I mulled it over, gave it a few tries, and was generally frustrated.

It was about three weeks ago that I feel that for the first time I pulled it off, and it felt incredible.

So, this is the beginning of a process that has consumed nearly every one of my waking hours for several weeks. I know that there is an incredibly long way to go, so who knows how far I'll get, but for now, I'm doing, and I'm going to be writing.