Quote:
Originally Posted by Aniseteph
I read that Bhuz thread - what's with flat foot mayas being evil! And whatever that tick-tock hips thing is? (?Soheir Zaki down hips? - we call them chonks which is so inelegant I can barely bring myself to write it..).
We've been learning a dance that has a section of just those moves - OMG am I trashing my spine here? Nothing hurts. The down hips move with a neutral pelvis on me doesn't seem to do much to my spine at all, it stays pointing straight down. I think if my pelvis is at all tilted back it turns into a bit of a tail wag which does feel like it might mess with the lower spine, same for mayas.
Aargh, flippin' internet-induced paranoia.  |
The original person these comments were attributed to is Hadia, a dancer who is quite knowledgeable about biokinetics and the human body. Please keep in mind that we are hearing her thoughts on these matters third hand, and we don't know exactly what she said, or exactly what movements she was referring to. If you read carefully, you will see that Hadia was apparently demonstrating different techniques for producing these movements that are better than some other ways people do them.
I have not had classes with her, so I can't say whether my "down hip" technique is what she would label the "good" way or the "bad" way.
Also keep in mind that no one has the body awareness to feel with perfect accuracy what is "bad" for our bodies vs. "good". There are, in fact, movements, exercises, and stretches that do not necessarily produce pain, but that are known (through research) to produce slow, progressive damage to ligaments, tendons, and joints over time (apparently many ballet stretches done at the bar are included in this category, yet the ballet community is resistant to changing their pedagogy).
Yes, dance puts wear and tear on our bodies. But, if there are ways of doing what we want to do that reduce or mitigate wear and tear on our bodies, shouldn't we be open to learning about this?