"Posing" during dancing

[dream a little dream]

As I lower level dancer, I have noticed that advanced dancers will stop and will "strike a pose" which makes for a good photo op.  However, it has been pointed out to me that pausing during dancing allows for expression in higher level dancing. 
What do all y'all think?

[elisedance]

Its a way to take a breath

I think these 'picture lines' are an integral part of ballroom - they are excluded from syllabus and only seen in open routines (I think thats true of latin as well as standard) and can take quite an athletic skill of flexibility and balance.  Personally, I really love them as a moment of expression quite different from that achieved by movement. 

Dance may be described by movement to a rhythm but a pause in movement is just as much dance too...

[SwingWaltz]

Yes as Elise said, picture lines are an important part of ballroom dances. Ok..maybe not so much in quickstep and viennese waltz as in other dances, just cause they are so quick. It's not really "stop and pose", but it's an extension of a movement or momentum, or sometimes even creating momentum by using gravity and the floor. Pictures lines are actually dynamic, and I find myself using more of my body in picture lines than in other steps. Probably cause when the legs aren't moving, something's got to move to keep the momentum going.

P.S I love a throwaway oversway after a bunch of spins and pivots, just to give me sometime to rest and recover from the dizziness! Hehe

[elisedance]

I hope your partner is as enthusiastic about the throw as you are

I love the step too - but its one thats done well rarely (and apparently mine could do with improvement ...)

[SwingWaltz]

Oh she loves it! Cause she knows that there is a kick coming right up, and she loves to kick....

[elisedance]

Kick?  All women love to kick... all you need is your closest competition nearby and you can officially kick ass...

I hope I didn't break any rules with that.  wait a mo, I set the rules... :blush:

[emeralddancer]

It's something that I actually had my instructor show me this weekend. AND I LOVED IT!!!!!!! He knows I want to put it into our showcase routine this summer for a "photo opt" moment for my family and friends. hehee

But I found it is a "break" too even for low level.

[waltzelf]

Picture lines are dangerous. You have to do them well or they will cost you the competition, because noting says incompetant more than a messy picture line.


Our routines tend to have a lot of them, as we've got a good natural look that lends itself well to them, but we spend more time practicing those than anything else.

[SwingWaltz]

but we spend more time practicing those than anything else.

Ditto!......So buddy...that throwaway oversway....

[elisedance]

but we spend more time practicing those than anything else.

Ditto!......So buddy...that throwaway oversway....

nice left hook SW 

but no comments on mine OK - I've only done it once in a competition - and it seemed to work OK

[waltzelf]

but we spend more time practicing those than anything else.

Ditto!......So buddy...that throwaway oversway....

Love it. The highlight of our waltz. Princess does it so beautifully, and we do draw the audiences' eye, since we do it right in front of a section of them.

[SwingWaltz]

Love it. The highlight of our waltz. Princess does it so beautifully, and we do draw the audiences' eye, since we do it right in front of a section of them.

Aww you call your partner "Princess". Does she call you "Prince"?
Do you have any photos of you doing the oversway throwaway? Let's see!

[waltzelf]

Love it. The highlight of our waltz. Princess does it so beautifully, and we do draw the audiences' eye, since we do it right in front of a section of them.

Aww you call your partner "Princess". Does she call you "Prince"?
Do you have any photos of you doing the oversway throwaway? Let's see!

She is my princess :-)

No, but she's taken to calling me "big monkey-bear" after we were walking down the street one day and a 3 or 4 year old boy pointed to me and called me that. Very random, but she found it amusing.


Photos? There's two, one posted for a photographer:




And quite a bad one of us half way into a throwaway - how could a photographer not know to wait for the completion of a line? :-(

[Some guy]

Wow!  Beautiful!  ...and that's just your partner!  You're picture line's not so bad either! 

[QPO]

Nice picture...I think the other guy just takes them on the fly he has so many to take..You should see some of mine. I dare not post them.....