Sunday 17 October 2010

free leg play with circles, boleos and ganchos - practica session notes

theme for monday 18th Oct: free let play.

What is the free leg? The leg which is free to move, because it has no weight on it. As we walk, each leg goes from free to fixed to free ... and so on.

While a leg is free it can move according to the energy of the lead, or the follower can move it in some expressive way often referred to as a decoration. We'll focus on leading the free leg.

Exercise: finding the free leg. hands on wall, make circles with leg using movement of centre. Contrast forced circles with free ones. Break down into four positions, let the leg hang. Get the circle going freely.

Exercise: walk with an occasional circle (as per exercise above). Try to fit to music. Watch for followers 'helping' leaders by faking the movement. Encourage dialogue between leader and follower.

Exercise: Linear boleos. Start from stationary, follower lets the leg hang. Leader experiments to find how to make the leg swing like a pendulum. Stress importance of trust between leader and follower to allow the true lead to be discovered. Go into walking boleo, backward and forward.

Game: Gancho pendulum. leader and follower face same direction, side to side. follower swings inside leg like a pendulum. Leader moves inside leg between follower sporadically, creating a gancho. Tests trust. Emphasize the difference in feeling from a hesitant gancho to a full leg wrapping one. Technique points: allow slight bend in standing leg for follower, have free leg foot making contact with only the ball of the foot on the ground.

Exercise: Put into pactice, backwards ocho into gancho. Try to get the same flavour as with the game. Gancho's should feel more 'delicious'.

Exercise: Gancho rebound into follower secarda. Emphasize difference in timing and direction of lead 'into the ground'.

Idea: Introduce the idea of the free leg freeze, from compression or tension in the embrace.

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