Dancing Tid-bits Issue #167
Today's Topic: Louis Van Amstel says, "Move that Body"

So, who is Louis Van Amstel?... I am not very good at knowing all top names in Dancing but this name keeps popping up anywhere you go whether in life or on the Internet. I believe he is originally from Netherlands and has been perhaps in association with Team Amsterdam (Ruud Vermeij et al). He is of course many times World Latin Dance Champion and is recognized by many as one of the best latin dancers. I was lucky to attend a group lesson that he gave last night at "Dance Elite" in Bloomfield, Michigan, USA. With Jacob Reves assistance it really was a blast.



First I must tell you that I thought that I will see a "God" on the dance floor. As I entered the Studio, I saw a real human being dressed in bell bottom gray pants and a T-shirt and a light colored sweater. He seemed to speak like a human being and quite a humble one at that and I said "wow"....



Let's get to the lesson.



Move that Body: This was the theme for the whole 2 hours. In everything we did, this was emphasized in many different words like "move your whole existence", or "move your body, your brain , your mind, your whole thing" etc. It was not only said but demonstrated by him very clearly right and the wrong. The right being that the body is in advance of the foot in forward walks and the wrong would be that foot and leg will be forward of the body.



It is all about walks:



Rumba Walks Forward: "Simply move your body in advance of your foot and let the foot catch your weight before you fall on your face. Move, Move and Move, of course with timing and these are forward walks."



Rumba Walks Back: Going back you cannot delay the foot placement otherwise you might fall. Just move the body and your feet will automatically be turned out.



Checked Forward Walks: The bulk of the evening was spent on the first step of Rumba Basic for man or the 4th step for the Lady. This is an animal of it's own species with following characteristics:



1. LF is placed in front of the RF on the same track, not really across.

2. The turn out of LF is more than normal.

3. The back foot (RF) is turned out almost as much

4. There is partial weight (70%..?) on LF, so you should not be able to lift RF

5 The legs are crossed and tight*



* I am slightly confused on this issue. I have a feeling that the right knee tucks behind the left knee with slight flexion of the back knee in a "check" feeling but I do not recall if this was brought up.



Delayed Forward Walks: (a). Knee bent, example, step 3 of Lady's Closed Hip twist, RF forward and across. (b). Straight Knee, example: lady's LF forward as the first step of her Alemana



He emphasized the "Fun" part of dancing and it was just such a wonderful evening.

He deserves 10 (or more) out of 10 for being a wonderful teacher and a person.



With Best Wishes, Max

"Rumba Walks Forward: "Simply move your body in advance of your foot and let the foot catch your weight before you fall on your face. Move, Move and Move, of course with timing and these are forward walks."



I'm not trying to be petty, but this Mr van Amstel's instruction is diametrically contrary to what Sam Sodano teaches in his tape, using Bill Sparks and Shirley Johnson as the demonstrators (C. Martin Video). In rumba walk in both International and American styles, he says, "just slap the heel down on the floor in front of the other foot with no weight on it yet" then come through the opposite hip over the leg that was just slapped. He added that the dancers should use only leg bones and never muscles in this heel-slapping process.



"The legs are crossed and tight"

Sodano says that there has to be a space between the two thighs. He actually puts his hands between Shirley's thighs and runs it up and down. He adds that it is a coach's benefit to be able to run the hand between the lady's thighs up and down and get away with it. He even says that the biggest mistake a dancer can make in Rumba Walk is that the upper parts of the two thighs touch each other, let alone touching tightly.



So, how those posters here who analyze and disect every movement of muscle fiber with their microtome scalps under microscope explain these horrendous difference in opinions between these two dance greats? If Mr. van Amstel competes where Mr. Sodano is a judge, he has no chance of winning. If Mr. Sparks and Ms. Johnson compete where Mr. van Amstel judges they have no chance of winning the first round. Isn't this a fundamental problem? For me, my Mamma (who was an understudy of Hazel Fletcher for many yrs) had taught me in Mr. van Amstel's way, inclduding the bending of the following knee. My muscle memory is so complete that it's going to take a couple of yrs for me to fix it if I want to change it in Mr. Sodano's way. (My Mamma will tell me to change it over her dead body).

I've already pointed out the confusing positioning of connecting wrists in Tango.

(quote).I'm not trying to be petty, but this Mr van Amstel's instruction is diametrically contrary to what Sam Sodano teaches in his tape, using Bill Sparks and Shirley Johnson as the demonstrators (C. Martin Video). In rumba walk in both International and American styles, he says, "just slap the heel down on the floor in front of the other foot with no weight on it yet" then come through the opposite hip over the leg that was just slapped. He added that the dancers should use only leg bones and never muscles in this heel-slapping process. (unquote)

Dancingkid, I do understand your frustration and agony but on the rumba walks I am not confused and what I say, I mean it even though I know occasionally a coach will teach what you are saying. However the majority of teachers including Colin James, Johannes Eftedal, Espen Salberg teach the technique as explained by Van Amstel.

(Quote)"The legs are crossed and tight"
Sodano says that there has to be a space between the two thighs. He actually puts his hands between Shirley's thighs and runs it up and down. He adds that it is a coach's benefit to be able to run the hand between the lady's....(unquote)

However on the second point that you bring up, about the legs being tight, I am not sure if I am saying it right. By the way we are talking here the Checked Forward Walk. I may have misintertpreted. I believe the right knee tucks behind the left with flexion. This is where you feel a "check". I dont think you can run a hand between the legs.

I think sometimes all coaches are telling us more or less the same thing and we interpret differently, could that be a case here?...

This is very intersting

Quote:

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"Rumba Walks Forward: "Simply move your body in advance of your foot and let the foot catch your weight before you fall on your face.

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Sounds about how my partner remembers being taught to do them, while

Quote:

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"just slap the heel down on the floor in front of the other foot with no weight on it yet" then come through the opposite hip over the leg that was just slapped.

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Is more in line with what I remember from my latin technique lessons (I think there was an eventual refinement to bring the leg through with a lot of tone, but relax it about when dancingkid refers to slapping the heel down).

The first approach done poorly looks flighty and ungrounded, the second done poorly looks stiff and dead. It may all come down to what bothers the coach more, or what an individual student most needs to work on.

My world-class Latin Mamma, who was an understudy of Hazel Fletcher, taught me exactly the way you relayed. She yelled at me countless times for not transferring my weight to the front foot right away in forward check or Rumba Walk. According to Mr. Sodano, however, weight transfer does not take place till the last part of the forward step. He in fact states that dancers should use only leg bones and never muscles in the first half of the step. He uses the word "slap the heel" or "slap the leg" many times. You can't slap the leg with toned muscle, but my Mamma tells me to walk with toned muscle, always toned muscle. There is no room to misinterprete his instruction. I am sure he will flunk us (and even Mr. van Amstel) for sure.

Not sure if anyone will ever read this, but I'll post anyway...

Just a thought: is it possible that the 'slapping heel' versus the 'moving body before leg' are two different sides of a balanced walk technique? I mean, consider the audiences: Van Amstel's was likely a dance-literate group of competitors, probably people who tend to bash technique into their heads 24/7. Maybe his approach was that of tempering the intensity of technique preoccupation, reminding us that dance is all about movement, not a series of methodical motions...