Dance Journal: 4/20/15

Dance Journal: 4/20/15

Activities involved:

folk dance containing Roll, slide, pivot, push. Back to back containing pivoting, and rolling. A-Frames, Leaning/sliding, grazing, ledging/draping, 

Questions:

How to properly keep track of shifts in weight by use of hands, while keeping in tune of stepping?

How much weight can I hold, and how much weight can my partners hold. Is there a way to tell by sight?

Ideas for further exploration:

Weight shift, and footwork:

I think a method, i could try to keep track of shifts in weight, by use of hands, while staying in tune of stepping, would be to "tie" the motion of my hands to my footwork. In kendo, it is proper form to connect a sword strike using the arms, the instant that the foot comes in contact with the ground. I think I could re-purpose that sense of hand/foot contentedness for this exercise.

Weight holding, and giving:

I think I could first, get a table of approximate weights of dancers per height in inches. I found on yahoo answers, the following "typical" shortcut method for determining a female dancer's weight, compared to height.

Ballet dancers typically range from 5'3'' to 5'7'' in height. This is to allow for 3'' of additional height, when they stand on point, as they are likewise expected to always be shorter than the male dancers they are partnered with. The base weight of a dancer is considered to be 85Lbs at 5' with an additional 5'Lbs per inch of height. Allowing for a 5LB estimated 'standard deviation' above or below due to differences in body frame/muscle mass, That gives us the following table.

5'	80	90
5'1''	85	95
5'2''	90	100
5'3''	95	105
5'4''	100	110
5'5''	105	115
5'6''	110	120
5'7''	115	125
5'8''	120	130

I'll also assume, that a dancer can only resist a horizontal force back-to-back that is slightly greater than their own weight. I suppose I could do some research, but for now, I'll assume that with my weight currently being 260 pounds, I should, at most give a dancer of a height 5'-5'4' between a quarter and a third of my potential weight, and a dancer from 5'5-5'8'' between a third, and one-half my total weight. A dancer of my approximate height and weight should be able to resist my complete force.

This would also indicate that under ideal conditions,  I should be able to resit between 2-4 dancers putting pressure directly on my back, depending on our relative masses, combined strength differential, and positioning.