I think that there are structural differences between people that make movements look very different. Our bones are proportionally different and our muscles can be attached to bones at proportionally different places. The next time you are in a place where people are wearing short pants, take a look at peoples' calf muscles. In some the muscle is short and fat and inserts relatively high on the leg, whereas in others the muscle is longer and and attaches relatively lower. The former creates a more curvy calf and the latter a more linear calf. I can imagine that these kinds of variations in hip flexors and obliques and other core postural muscles could affect the way dance movements look.
If you know that video of Mona El Saiid where she dances in a pink and blue costume with poufy sleeves. She does some hip drops that just amaze me in terms of the range of motion that she has. It looks like her hip is moving a foot between her ups and downs!
I'm not sure what might contribute to achieving a large range of motion like this, but I would think that posture would have alot to do with it. If the dancer has thoracic strength to lift the upper body all around and maximize the space between the pelvis and the ribs, then the hips will have more room to move. If the dancer has alot of fat around the middle, that fat could physically get in the way of the lifting part of the movement. When I gain weight it is around my waist and it literally gets in the way of some kinds of movement. If the abdominal oblique and ilipsoas muscles are tight, that could limit the dropping part of the lift. Also, if the lumbar curve and pelvis are not in a perfectly neutral position (in other words if the dancer has some lordosis or swayback), the pelvis will be tilted forward and this will severely limit the range of up and down movements.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head.
Sedonia
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