Ending the dance

[ttd]

OK, so a question to the ladies - when you finish the dance and the man rolls you out, what do you do with your free arm? What I was doing up to now, most of the time, is put it out to the side, but somehow I don't like it anymore. It looks somewhat forced. I watched some of my recent videos and I think the endings which I liked best were the ones where I did not put my arm out and kept it in low 5th position instead because there was a person in the way. On other had, keeping the arm low looks "small". So what's the best way to end the dance?

I understand that by the time we finish the dance the judges made up their mind anyway, but still I think it is important that the ending looks good too.

[elisedance]

The judges may have finished for that dance - but they are about to do the next one so you don't want to loose your composure one iota.

Its best to get a ballet dancer to show you how to do the arm.  The hand sort of rolls out as if you are unfurling a carpet - but I'll wait till someone else describes it since I've not been doing it long either

[QPO]

How about starting in 5th position and and bringing it up to 1st position, slowly of course in an unrolling manner. Something we have not yet done a lot of work on, but I will try that, when I stand and do it without being rolled out it feels ok to do.

[ttd]

How about starting in 5th position and and bringing it up to 1st position, slowly of course in an unrolling manner. Something we have not yet done a lot of work on, but I will try that, when I stand and do it without being rolled out it feels ok to do.

I'm not sure about this. If I am entering into a spin-out from a closed hold, my left arm is sliding off man's shoulder, so 1st will be the natural progression from that. If I take it down to 5th and back up to 1st, it seems too busy. I guess I am trying to decide between leaving it in the 1st after the spin-out, or bringing it down into 5th during the spin. Or maybe I just need to figure out what looks better on me.

[elisedance]

what does your coach think?

[QPO]

How about starting in 5th position and and bringing it up to 1st position, slowly of course in an unrolling manner. Something we have not yet done a lot of work on, but I will try that, when I stand and do it without being rolled out it feels ok to do.

I'm not sure about this. If I am entering into a spin-out from a closed hold, my left arm is sliding off man's shoulder, so 1st will be the natural progression from that. If I take it down to 5th and back up to 1st, it seems too busy. I guess I am trying to decide between leaving it in the 1st after the spin-out, or bringing it down into 5th during the spin. Or maybe I just need to figure out what looks better on me.

can you use a mirror. my suggestion was on the basis that your hand was already at 5th position. And Seek your coaches advice if you are not happy with it

[ttd]

what does your coach think?

Will ask him when I will see him next time. I got snowed out of a lesson tomorrow again

[TangoDancer]

Hi. Part of the confusion is that this is actually an action in 2 parts, and the main part hasn't been mentioned. Never dance the arms. Always dance the hands; the arms will follow.

1. Sit comfortably in a manner where the arms (from the elbow) rests atop a table or such. Gently, lift the wrist as if it is pulled by the string of a marionista (puppeteer). Note how the hand drops and shapes naturally. Important: repeat the exercise focusing on placing the arm back down, but such the the wrist (just back of the heel of the hand) is placed first.

2. When rolling out of the frame, as you said, the left arm is coming from the man's shoulder. More to the point, it has formed a circle similar to that of the ballet position with both arms afront of you. At this moment, forget the arm. Take the string at the top of the wrist, and pull the wrist to its fullest, most relaxed position. when it arrives there, use the replacement technique above (the heel of the hand thingy), to arrive at the desired position. The arm has naturally followed the circle, and shaped perfectly.

[elisedance]

nice descriptino TD - thanks..

[QPO]

I will work on that this week have a comp coming up soon and will try it out and see if i can perfect it

[TangoDancer]

Of course, let us know how it works for you.

[QPO]

will do....

[ttd]

For this competition, I finished all my dances with the free arm in low 5th for situations when I was getting out of the closed hold. For situations when we were already in the open hold I left it out, when it was appropriate (i.e. if we ended the tango in the middle of open fan variation, we would just hold that line).