close hold dancing and height difference

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Close hold Bachata dancing and height difference

This question should really go to tall guys who will usually end up dancing with relatively short followers or vice-versa.

I was at a out of town social. I dance Bachata with only a few. Being out of town I randomly asked the only girl left off the dance floor. She turned out to be very good Bachata follower and dancer. She was a kind of follower, whom you know will be delight to dance with right from the first bar. The connection was good and we were dancing in close hold. She was much shorter than usual followers I dance with. My guess is our height difference must be about 8 inches or more.

Due to height difference it felt a little odd. Our legs couldn't be where they would be when the relative height difference is less. I found that I had to bend my knees or lower myself a little (kind of makes you fell less grounded). It is very similar in Tango too. That made me wonder about the guys who are a lot taller than average females. Do they too find it difficult to lead shorter followers. Do followers find it different when the lead is really tall ?
 
You shouldn't feel less grounded if you keep your body weight in the right place and have good posture (even though your legs are bent).

Your heels may start to go up... that's probably why you feel less grounded if you rely on them normally.
 
Salsa is no problem, but I don't like bachata with a small follower for this very reason.
I'm about 1.85/6'1" and with a lady who is less than 1.65/5'5" (or 160/5'3" + heels) it's not very comfortable. For me bachata is best when she is about 1.75/5'9".

I don't know how the ladies feel about the height difference.
 
Don't care, rarely notice if the lead is good, for salsa or bachata.

Could you explain how you are creating the closed hold in Bachata - where are your bodies relative to each other, where are your legs/feet, how are you creating the connection, where is the centre of gravity?
Because sooo many guys who have great closed basic holds in salsa or in the 360 suddenly throw all those principles out of the window when it comes to Bachata and then are surprised when the dance is crappy.

And I have experience of being the one over 8 inches taller than the leader too, both regulars and occasionals :). And in one case in my heels I am well over 8 inches taller - and this last guy is one of my absolute favourite guys to dance bachata with (close hold, open hold), great dancer, great connection and frame, totally fun - we always have a blast (and I don't feel any desire to back-lead when dancing bachata with him which I do with 90% of guys mwahahahaha :P).
 
tresto said:
I don't know how the ladies feel about the height difference.
Click to expand...


Salsa is okay because guys who are shorter or taller than average have usually worked out what works for them.

I prefer most of my bachata in good connected closed hold, so don't really enjoy it as much with a big height differential.
 
What works is to allow short follows relax on your knee for the whole dance. That's kinda boring, but makes ladies happy.

I don't think absolute height difference is that important but size of the legs can be a game changer.
 
Yeah, I'm 6'5", and I dance Bachata in close hold - I prefer to have a good connection.

Of course there's always a height difference, and I've recently worked out that Bachata often makes my back sore. (I don't know why it took me so long to work this out!, but I suppose I often sit out bachatas). So I definitely prefer to dance with taller ladies. And if there are multiple bachatas played in a row, I'll probably sit out for a dance after each song I dance to.

I can dance bachata with shorter followers and still have a good connection, but it gets progressively more uncomfortable and tiring for me as the height difference increases.

I also dance Salsa in close hold a fair bit of the time. But it doesn't cause that much of a problem for me in Salsa, because the dance position will open and close through the song more than it will in Bachata.
 
My problem tends to be that I'm taller than the vast majority of latinos so in a close hold there are some who end up with their noses right at cleavage level :)
 
I'm 9-10 inches taller than Ami and have to bend my knees quite a bit to get a nice close bachata. I also end up hunching from the neck if I want to get in close. It's worth the skeletal pain.
 
Haven't danced bachata with a really tall partner yet, but for salsa I don't mind close hold with tall guys. I'm really small (at least in the Netherlands, everyone is rather tall here) 1,60cm (again I don't understand those weird american sizes argh!) and when I dance with a really tall guy the difference is well, astounding to say the least. Cannot comfortably grab the shoulder, so to speak. So I just gently brush my hand against leaders upper arm (about as high as I can reach haha) and it's no problem for me! The big problem is that our beginner leads do not really take small steps, and their big steps make me almost hop through the steps. Funny sight, I can assure you!
 
I should have clarified that I wasn't talking about salsa. I was talking about Bachata.

From the responses so far it seems that height difference does make dancing close hold Bachata difficult.
 
londongirl said:
Could you explain how you are creating the closed hold in Bachata - where are your bodies relative to each other, where are your legs/feet, how are you creating the connection, where is the centre of gravity?
Because sooo many guys who have great closed basic holds in salsa or in the 360 suddenly throw all those principles out of the window when it comes to Bachata and then are surprised when the dance is crappy.
Click to expand...

Much closer...
 
timberamayor said:
My problem tends to be that I'm taller than the vast majority of latinos so in a close hold there are some who end up with their noses right at cleavage level :)
Click to expand...

Oh, did I have that problem in Japan! Where many guys had never seen serious cleavage before...
 
I'm about 6'2" (1.88m), so it is very common for me to be 6 inches to 10 inches taller than my followers, even when they're in heels. Because of the height difference (and the length of my arms), even my "closed hold" frequently does not mean being body-to-body, and I often switch to open hold or Dominican/Caribbean-style. When I do maintain a body-to-body hold, my connection emphasizes leading from the torso (i.e, ribcage/stomach) -- regardless of the woman's height -- rather than the hips/thighs. I learned the basics of Tango several years ago, so that's probably where I learned my particular closed-embrace connection.

When there is a large height difference, obviously the body-to-body connection is more likely to be my stomach to the followers chest. Depending on our comfort level with each other, I might bring the follower's right arm in closer, and allow it to rest on my upper stomach or chest. I usually take smaller steps, so there is not a requirement to bend my knees much. When I do want to create more of a chest-to-chest connection with a much-shorter follower, I'll bend my knees and sometimes slouch my shoulders more, but I can't/won't do that for an entire song -- maybe just stretches of 20-30 seconds at a time. I frequently switch back-and-forth between closed embrace and open embrace. For short ladies who "miss" the body-to-body connection with me for an entire song, I try to make up for it with increased musicality....so, luckily I still have many women of all heights who seem to enjoy dancing Bachata with me, regardless. :cool:
 
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