Heel Leads

David

David

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Staff member
I know that among ballroom dancers, the rule for Latin is pretty much that you should only step with the ball of the foot. Obviously, for salsa there is a much loser interpretation when it comes to technique. I have seen some great dancers use the heel. What are your thoughts?
 
Guys are those who sometimes use the heel (I believe one of the moves is called hook turn)... there are also shines where you "kick" with the heel, but not actually step on it...

I use the "toe-heel" technique when stepping... and just the toe when spinning... :)

And I've seen dancers use their heels myself... really advanced dancers can do it and make it look nice (while not doing anything wrong) but beginners and intermediates have a tendency of "leaning back" when using the heel... thus resulting in poor technique and "bad looking moves"

My 2 cents'...
 
And I've seen dancers use their heels myself... really advanced dancers can do it and make it look nice (while not doing anything wrong)
Click to expand...

A couple of guys I know have some styling based on dancing on the heels (well, swivelling on toe->heel) - moonwalking, basically... it results in less 'cuban' movement... but looks cool. Is this what you mean?
 
I use heels too, especially for spins when it gets very fast. This comes from my dancing background and has nothing to do with latin. The result is that I can spin very fast, with quite a lot of stability (I stay in the same place) and can do up to even ten spins without losing control.

Although yesterday I surprised myself doing a long series of spins on my toes.
 
I've seen a shine if you classify this as one, that's called a "toe-heel" shine. Say dancing on2:
on beat 1, weight on the right foot
beat 2, still keeping the weight on the right foot, left toe tapping the floor with the toe facing right
beat 3, keeping the weight on the right foot, left heel tapping the floor with the toe facing left
same thing with the right foot on beats 6 and 7.

Is this a common shine?

wuthering said:
I use heels too, especially for spins when it gets very fast. This comes from my dancing background and has nothing to do with latin. The result is that I can spin very fast, with quite a lot of stability (I stay in the same place) and can do up to even ten spins without losing control.
Click to expand...

Wuthering, what's the sercret of spinning so well! and with the heels down :shock: I thought it was harder to spin with the heels down! With spinning, I'd only put the heels down to stop my spinning. (I've seen my latin dancer friend doing 5-7 spins with his heels down and I can only admire....)
 
hopelessly_addicted said:
I've seen a shine if you classify this as one, that's called a "toe-heel" shine. Say dancing on2:
on beat 1, weight on the right foot
beat 2, still keeping the weight on the right foot, left toe tapping the floor with the toe facing right
beat 3, keeping the weight on the right foot, left heel tapping the floor with the toe facing left
same thing with the right foot on beats 6 and 7.

Is this a common shine? .......
Click to expand...
Yes, this is a common shine that's driving me nuts! :x :lol:
See :arrow: That one evil move that's driving me nuts!
 
peachexploration said:
hopelessly_addicted said:
I've seen a shine if you classify this as one, that's called a "toe-heel" shine. Say dancing on2:
on beat 1, weight on the right foot
beat 2, still keeping the weight on the right foot, left toe tapping the floor with the toe facing right
beat 3, keeping the weight on the right foot, left heel tapping the floor with the toe facing left
same thing with the right foot on beats 6 and 7.

Is this a common shine? .......
Click to expand...
Yes, this is a common shine that's driving me nuts! :x :lol:
See :arrow: That one evil move that's driving me nuts!
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: too funny! Am not laughing at you but laughing at myself.. I swear that I skimed your thread. Just that it didn't register that you were talking about the same thing as I!
 
wuthering said:
I use heels too, especially for spins when it gets very fast. This comes from my dancing background and has nothing to do with latin. The result is that I can spin very fast, with quite a lot of stability (I stay in the same place) and can do up to even ten spins without losing control.
Click to expand...

Until now my heel spins has been unwanted. It is easy to loose control spinning on the heels. It is so very fast...

But now I have started to apreciate them. And I guess I have started to control when I use them. Before it happened when I was about to loose control.

There is a simple turn/spin that resembles a hookstep - left feet behind right feet - legs crossed - and then "spin" the rest until 360 degrees. This one is best done with help of the heels. And when you are o0n your heels ...make a few more turns/spins.

About loosing control..perhaps you can help me.
Sometimes spinning on the heel I slide over to the back of my high heels (the part that is supposed to vertical to the floor :shock: ). The result os often bad.... :headwall: How do I prevent this?

/luc
 
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