[Tango-L] tweaking lower back

[Carol Shepherd]

The majority of men I dance with are sitting back on their heels with 
their pelvis tucked under.  They learn the correct posture and then five 
minutes later they go back to what I call 'midwestern couch slouch.' 
It's not possible to dance close embrace with these guys and stay on 
your own axis, because they are pulling you into their dance space.  If 
you add the 'hand on the lower back pulling in' aspect it's a recipe for 
  a week of back pain for me, from an hour of dancing.  The men who 
DON'T dance with bad posture--the difference is as between night and day.

It's very hard to teach someone a new way of holding their body--it 
involves fighting against years of body memory.  I think some kind of 
exercise at the beginning of every beginner's lesson is necessary, and 
teachers should go around during practice and correct this repeatedly 
while the couples are dancing.  It should not be on the follows to point 
it out to their partner.  I can do this with my partner but he is a 
long-term partner from swing and salsa and ballroom and wants me to nag 
him about it.  He says it's the hardest thing he's ever dealt with in 
any kind of dance.

And, of course, women have corresponding posture issues, not supporting 
their own weight, tucking their pelvis under, hanging with their weight 
on the lead's right shoulder/arm.


Keith wrote:
> I'm surprised and yet I'm not surprised that so many people seem to have lower 
> back problems attributed to Tango. I'm surprised because of my own personal 
> perspective. In my pre-Tango days I had lower back surgery twice for 3 ruptured 
> discs - L3, L4 and L5. Even between and after the surgeries I had constant 
> niggling back pains despite numerous physio exercises. I still remember my first 
> visit to BsAs in 1997 - I wore a back-support every day of the 6-weeks I was 
> there. But, since then, touch-wood, I've never had a back pain. To me, Tango 
> is like the perfect exercise for anyone with lower back problems. As Huck says - 
> posture is the key and, for me, the disassociation between the upper and lower 
> body resulting in the constant spiralling of the spine is like perfect therapy for 
> the back. Add in the Tango walk - squeezing the thighs and buttocks and I can 
> almost feel my lower back being strengthened and stabalized. 
> 
> So, then, why am I also not surprised that many people do have lower back 
> pains attributed to Tango? It's posture. When I see guys  with their head 
> projected forward, shoulders hunched forward or bending forward at the 
> waist, I think, my god - what are they doing to their back. IMHO, when 
> dancing Tango, the body should be straight but tilted forward, stomach in, 
> chest up and out and shoulders down. That's it. Oh yes, chest up and 
> shoulders down comes from a contraction of the big, mid-level back muscles 
> [trapezius?], which must be engaged.
> 
> Keith, HK
> 
> 
>  On Thu Mar 13 10:51 , "Huck Kennedy"  sent:
> 
>>     And while you yourself are no doubt past that stage, don't forget
>> perhaps the biggest lower-back killer of all:  Poor dance posture,
>> particularly any inappropriate bending forward at the waist.
>>
>> Huck
> 
> 
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-- 
Carol Ruth Shepherd
Arborlaw PLC
Ann Arbor MI USA
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