A Beginner Guide to Connecting Arms, Torso, and Footwork

One of the most common struggles dancers encounter, especially at the beginner level, is coordinating movement throughout the body.

For instance, it often seems easy to learn the steps of a dance combination, but when the arm movements are added on, suddenly everything feels a little too tight, a little too late. The arms get added on with tight shoulders and a disconnected upper body. The feeling is that somehow the arms didn’t know when to go along with the feet or that the body simply doesn’t have enough arms to be able to deal with the feet and the arms at the same time.

There’s no perfect fix for this situation, but here are some things that I often do when learning a dance combination that has complicated footwork:

First, learn the footwork. Make sure you know when you’re changing your weight, where your supporting foot should be, and which directions you’re traveling in. Mark the steps of the combination so that you can learn it with a smaller range of motion and at a slower tempo. By marking the combination first, you eliminate having to look down at your feet while you’re learning the dance.

Next, add on the torso. Does your torso contract and release? Is there a bend or a rotation in there? How your torso moves will greatly affect how you move your arms in the combination, so it’s important to make sure you understand what your torso should be doing. Try isolating this part, by holding your arms still at your sides and focusing on only the torso movement. Often, it’s helpful to exaggerate the torso movement at first so that you really understand what your body is doing. Try moving with different qualities (faster, more fluid, sharper, etc.) to see which one feels most comfortable. You may find that you’re stiff in the ribs or pelvis or have a disconnection between your pelvis and chest.

Next, add on the arms. Try isolating this part by standing in a neutral position with your feet and then just working on the arm movement. Try to trace out the shape with your elbows and hands. It’s helpful to think about where your elbows are traveling to and where your wrists are pointed rather than where you hands are traveling. Do the arm movement with a smaller shape to make sure your shoulders aren’t tight or raised. Now add the arm movement to the torso movement. The movement should feel as if it’s all stemming from the same impulsive movement rather than first having a torso movement and then adding on an arm movement.

Next, test out a phrase (2 or 3 movements or steps). For example, you might practice the second and third steps of a dance combination without the beginning or ending. Try moving through the phrase and thinking about the timing. Can your arms, torso, and feet all be moving at the same time? Is there a place where all three of these body parts should be moving together? Where you’re arms should move on their own? It’s helpful to test the phrase both with the smaller range of motion and also with a full range of motion.

Work through the dance one phrase at a time. It’s important to break things down rather than just trying the whole thing. It’s OK to work through the dance combination very slowly. Trying to do it faster will just hide the issues in timing rather than helping you fix them.

Now that you’ve worked through all of the different movements and understand the shape and the timing of each, put it all back together! Do the dance combination slowly at first. It might help to record a video of yourself or go check in the mirror. Do the transitions between different movements feel awkward? Does it seem like you’re moving your arms, your torso, and your feet all in one movement or is it more like you’re giving your body three separate commands?