1. Lateral Projection vs. Revel's Change of Foot

This is one of the most challenging distinctions, for both Marks and Revels.

What is a lateral projection? The Mark stands still and indicates intention for a lateral movement. The Revel extends her free leg in the indicated direction.

What is a Revel’s change of foot? The Mark does not change his own foot, but asks her to change her foot.

HOW-TO:

Both lateral projection and Revel’s change of foot are LATERAL. This means they both are marked with contraction of the Mark’s oblique muscles on the side he wants her to move.

There are two techniques to distinguish the movements:

Size: For the Revel, projection feels bigger than change of foot. This quantity is created by the intensity of contraction of the Mark’s oblique muscles. (Strong contraction for lateral projection and more gentle contraction for Revel’s change of foot.)

Amplification: To amplify the difference in size, the Mark abducts his leading arm slightly for a lateral projection.. For a change of foot, he relaxes both supraspinatae completely (to ensure no abduction whatsoever) and he internally rotates his wrists which imparts a sensation of gravity.

This is one of the most empowering comparisons we’ve articulated.

What is projection toward and away from the Mark? The Mark is preparing the Revel for a movement toward or away from his spine. The projection prepares the Revel’s body for the next movement.

What is Change of Distance? This indicates to the Revel that the Mark wants to change to a closer or more distant embrace.

What is Permission for Volcada/Colgada? Volcada and Colgada are movements in which the partners lean (Volcada) or hang (Colgada) their weight on one another. This process begins with the Mark communicating to the Revel permission to give her weight to him rather than working to keep her balance. (After this permission the Mark continues to build the architecture to support the partners’ weight.)

All three of these movements involve action toward or away from the Mark.

The differences between them are controlled by the joints of the embrace, specifically the elbows and shoulders.

• For projection toward/away from the Mark: The elbows and shoulders are stabilized so their angles of flexion do not change.
• For change of distance: The angle of flexion of the shoulders changes to bring the Mark’s hands closer or further from him.
• For permission for volcada/colgada: The Mark extends (for colgada) or flexes (for volcada) his elbows without changing the angle of flexion of the shoulders. (Later in the movement, the shoulders and elbows will move more to create an architecture to support more weight, but for the very first part of the movement, communicating permission, only the elbow joint changes.)

To practice, stand still and focus on clearly communicating the differences between these three actions. Feet should only move in the case of change of distance. Colgadas and Volcadas should be very small with all feet staying on the floor. Be sure to change roles for this exercise!

We need to maintain flexion in the base leg(s) hip joint at all times in order to keep each body in an arc and the partners in an arch. Extending the base leg’s hip will pull the dancers’ backs out of the arch.

How much hip flexion is enough and how can I verify it? In many situations we will increase hip flexion, but we need to be aware of the minimum necessary amount. To find this minimal hip flexion, touch your fingers to your hip bones. Then touch the frontmost part of your rib cage. You can put your thumbs on your rib cage and the tip of your middle finger on your hip bones. Now find a position where your hip bones are about 1cm behind the frontmost part of your rib cage This is the default and minimal amount of hip flexion. When you dance, your hip bones should never move forward of the front of your rib cage.

When we flex the base leg’s knees for any reason (such as to create co-contraction) we notice that hip flexion increases.

Without ever losing the minimum hip flexion, we use the muscles of the hips to mark intention/ projection:

• For direction away from the Mark we contract the gluteus muscles to extend the hips slightly pushing chest forward. This causes the Revel to do the same thing, contract gluts to extend the hip of the free leg to make the projection away from him.
• For direction toward the Mark we use the psoas to flex the hips pulling the Revel toward his spine. And again this causes the same action in the Revel, who uses the psoas to flex her hips to stabilize her position and then send the free leg toward his spine.

The free leg’s hip does sometimes extend! This happens in first projection while walking backward, in second projection while walking forward, and in back voleos and ganchos.

REMINDER: For the Revel, projection has two parts: [1] Stabilizing the base leg against the force of the Mark’s intention so that she does not prematurely fall in the direction of the intention. [2] Extending the free leg in the direction of his intention. The stabilization can involve many muscles, but the easiest one to start with is the quadriceps,