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Sharing your weight is the foundation of all partnering in dance, from ballet lifts to contact improvisation balances and ballroom sequences.
Andrew Suseno, who teaches the contact improvisation technique and his own contact-based style called Parcon Resilience, says sharing the weight is a language of its own. “Our intentions, our feelings, our relationships, all of these can be communicated through touch and the exchange of weight.” Suseno says that “when we share the burden, we share ourselves.”
This makes weight sharing both a physical challenge and an exercise in vulnerability and trust that dancers often struggle with. But, with a strategic approach, dancers can build more comfort and confidence in any partnering environment.
Start with yourself
Ballroom dancer and teacher Ana Jurenec says the biggest problem she faces with dancers learning to share their weight is “trying to do something with another person” when they lack a connection with their own body. “Instead, where is the weight of your body? Where is your center of gravity? How does your spine move? Then invite another person to it.”
Suseno believes it starts with listening to yourself. He asks, “What are the signals that tell you to move your leg to be more stable? What are the signals telling you to bend?’ Once you begin to feel this in your own body, you will begin to feel it in others.
Careful preparation can help with this: Suseno suggests warming up all parts of the body, and especially the core, by yielding to gravity and breathing flow. You can ‘awaken the body to retreat’ using your hands, objects in the space or another person. You can also practice putting your weight on something more predictable than the human body, the floor. Suseno says that exploring a stable surface with different body parts (starting with rolling on the floor to activate the center) allows dancers to “tune in and prepare for the unpredictable dynamic relationship with another human being.”
Build trust
For Suseno weight is not only our physical body. He says it “includes our identities, our stories, our struggles.” “To create a safe and healthy place for that weight to be held, the conversation needs to go beyond the physical.” For example, if someone is struggling with a loss, he says, “their sense of balance, their weight distribution, will be different.”
That’s why Suseno says it’s essential to communicate with your co-dancers before you start weight-sharing. It makes agreements between the team and the partners by setting expectations in a weight-sharing environment, aiming to bring up issues related to the dancers’ past experiences.
One of his favorite agreements is: “Everyone has the power to say no,” meaning that dancers can say no to any movement they don’t feel comfortable with, and that the no is respected. While this may not be realistic in spaces with more hierarchical power dynamics, being open about issues of pain injuries and other issues goes a long way toward building a safe and trusting partnership. Asking for consent often has the same effect, which is what Jurenec does with her students.
Learn to listen
It takes practice to be able to ‘hear’ what our partner is telling us through his body. Juurenec has beginning students begin lessons by walking around the room in pairs, maintaining a point of connection between them. After they start to feel more comfortable, he has one person close their eyes and the other lead them, gradually introducing more complex movements and more weight sharing. In the final stage the driver and the follower alternate continuously.
Jurenec says the key is to start simple and slow: Lots of fast movements make it hard for us to feel our partner’s body. Try not to rely on visuals. It may not always be safe to close your eyes, but at least at first, make sure you’re not looking in the mirror or thinking about what you look like from the outside. Suseno says, especially when improvising, “discover something unique that comes from the union of the two bodies. Don’t just follow an image, such as ‘I’ll balance you this way.'”
Lean
Andrew Suseno, who teaches contact techniques in New York, says that leaning is a challenge for dancers learning to share their weight. “We are so used to standing on our own aligned vertical axis. Often, instead of leaning, we use the muscles and open support base.
As people become more familiar, they learn to have less of a base of support, learn to lean and use less effort and more of their skeletal structure.” Suseno says it can be scary to get off your axis. To deal with this fear, try conditioning the nervous system by connecting it to your breath, starting very slowly, and then discover where the joint dynamics can take you.
Exercises for safer weight distribution
Physiotherapist Mia Ronson and trainer Jennifer Beach, who work with dancers at the Richmond Ballet, say the key to dealing with the unpredictable nature of weight sharing with a partner is strengthening the core. Use these exercises to prepare for partnering. They suggest 2 to 3 sets of 10 reps.
1. Plank with alternating leg lifts:
In the plank position on the elbows, alternately lift the legs slightly off the floor and hold for a moment.
2. Pose bird dog on a ball:
In high plank position, with your pelvis and lower abdomen resting on the ball, lift opposite arm and leg simultaneously while maintaining balance on the ball.
3. Rotary center pressures:
Stand with feet at the opening of the pelvis and knees slightly bent. Pass a rubber band from a fixed point in the house or in the hall, to the height of your chest and stand to the side. Advance as far as necessary to stretch the rubber. Hold it with two hands on the chest and force the arms to stretch forward resisting the rotational force. To upgrade the exercise stand on an unstable surface such as a balance disc, foam block or pillow.
4. Pelvis-on-ball bridges:
Lie on your back with your feet on the ball and knees bent 90deg. Push and bridge your pelvis while keeping your balance. To upgrade the exercise, while on the bridge roll the ball towards you with your feet and back.
5. Shoulder Presses:
Run a rubber band over a low stable object. While in a seated position, grab the rubber band with one hand, hold it close to the shoulder, and press up until it stretches the arm and legs. Alternate pressing straight up and diagonally up to the opposite side. To upgrade the exercise stand on an unstable surface.
Article from: https://www.dancemagazine.com/weight-sharing-in-partnering/
