As a dancer my personal solution to the Rory o more situation has been to have an old fashioned allemande grip for the first balance, as I balance away and have a little momentum to help tear the hands apart, I switch to an ECD hold, kind of like what you do for a balance before a swing, then it is only curved fingers, which actually give plenty of oomph to the spin, but also disengage easily. I don't spin out of allemandes as much, maybe because few women give enough connection to do so, in fact there is often no time for such a flourish because the connection is too weak to accelerate the allemande. This has nothing to do with the position of our hands or fingers or thumbs, but more a refusal to engage the whole arm so the presence of their body can be felt. I love a zesty dance weekend where a high proportion of women connect. I think by and large, we all wrap our fingers around the base of the other person's thumb, often enough with our thumbs also loosely curled around. The only time I recently remember being 'gripped' was by a terrified newbie who seemed to want to hold on in hopes we would all help him get where he needed to be. Although it hurt, I was sorry for his fear and simply slid my thumb straight down. Like catching a falling pencil, it is pretty hard for someone to hold your thumb if you pull straight down. Cheers, Andrea
Sent from my iPhone On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:20 PM, Ron Nelson <caller...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > John Sweeny wrote: >> >> Yes, people always used to interlock their thumbs - that is >> how I was first taught it many, many years ago. >> >> But the dancing has changed. What has happened is that >> people now like to spin out of Allemandes; and Rory O'Mores are more >> prevalent, where you spin out of an Allemande-type hold. If someone has >> locked my thumb I can't spin! You say that it is easy to disengage when >> the thumbs are interlocked. That is not my experience. I really, really >> hate it when people hold on to me so that I can't enjoy the dancing. It >> is definitely easier to disengage if the thumbs aren't interlocked. >> >> Dance styles evolve, and this is an example of a good change >> as far as I am concerned. >> >> Let's all work on getting rid of thumbs from dancing! :-) >> > > Ron Nelson adds: > > I could not agree more. As one who suffers from arthritis in my hands, I can > testify that the thumb is particularly susceptible to abuse and subsequent > pain. > I try to avoid any grip which might entrap and discomfort. > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > call...@sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
