Thread: Lotus Hands

I've been practising with some youtube videos, and I just can't seem to make mine 'pretty'.

Any tips?

Anyone still use this move in their dance anymore?

Here's one of the videos I been trying to practice with:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HZ-qV0-38c]YouTube - Lotus Hands a Visual[/ame]

I don't but I stuck some in a retro-styled choreo, cos they are pleasantly cheesy.

To me the trick to making them look really good is keeping the hands in a cup shape - don't splay the fingers out. And they look better either overhead or travelling down the body IMO, not straight out in front like that lady is doing to demonstrate.

I think that hand and arm movements in general are the most common examples of actions that look *very* different on different body types.

Kami Liddle discussed this with a workshop that she took at Raqs B this year. She pointed out that soooo many dancers want their arms and hands to look like Rachel B's and that that is fine but part of Rachel's styling and presentation is the way things look on *her* physique.

My own arms are just appalling but my hands are ok-ish. the main trouble is that I have very small (as in short, as opposed to delicate), 'spade' hands (where there is a minimal difference in finger length) so most of my hand movements, however well executed, look like they are being done by an animated bunch of cocktail sausages.

This may not be even slightly relevant to your difficulties with Lotus hands but I think its worth bearing in mind.

animated bunch of cocktail sausages
..l;,

No, I'm sorry. I'm not laughing about your hands, but about your description of your hands.

animated bunch of cocktail sausages


No, I'm sorry. I'm not laughing about your hands, but about your description of your hands.

..l;,..l;,

Well I laugh at them! They run in the family so to speak. I think we were last in line when they were dolling out the aesthetically pleasing hands!

Originally Posted by zumarrad

I don't but I stuck some in a retro-styled choreo, cos they are pleasantly cheesy.

To me the trick to making them look really good is keeping the hands in a cup shape - don't splay the fingers out. And they look better either overhead or travelling down the body IMO, not straight out in front like that lady is doing to demonstrate.

I think I've been splaying them out too much.

My hands aren't really pretty either...but I really like the look of Lotus hands (even if they are a bit cheesy).

Thank you ladies!
:-)

I have never been able to get those darn hands!! I have a hard time learning from a video, I need to see it in person, and no one has ever been able to teach me!! I try and try but....I have NO idea how to do them!

Wow, I got it!!! I just watched the video and finally they just worked. I am no longer lotus-hands-challenged. Woo hoo!

Sorry, not idea how I did it, so no tips at all.

Where would one do these? Is this an American move, something co-opted from Indian dance?

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

I have never been able to get those darn hands!! I have a hard time learning from a video, I need to see it in person, and no one has ever been able to teach me!! I try and try but....I have NO idea how to do them!

from the video (as i've never done this before), it looks like this is what's being done:
your hands are attached at the wrist. inner wrist (hands face to face) or outer wrist (hands back to back) according to where in the move you are, so they can move/rotate but must always stay linked in the wrist area.
imagine you have a figure "8" in the air in front of you, and you want to 'write' it with your hands. as your hands trace around the top circle your palms are facing the inside of the circle (so hands linked at the inner wrist), and for the bottom circle, you have the backs of your hands facing the circle, palms facing out.
try doing it really slowly with that mental image, it oughtta work...

Originally Posted by CFerhat

Where would one do these? Is this an American move, something co-opted from Indian dance?

Sorry, I didn't see this question earlier.

I don't know if it's an American move or not, but I've mostly seen it done in American Cabaret.

If I remember right, they would move their hands with the music, until there was a tempo change. I guess to make their next move a smoother transition?

If I come across any videos of it being done in a performance, I'll link it here for you.
:-)

It's originally an Indian hand movement.

My tips:

- really turn around the wrists, don't let the center of the movement slip to the front. If your hands touch instead of the wrists, you are doing it wrong and it won't look pretty.

- try to keep the tips of your middle fingers in one line, your hands should always be in the exactly opposite direction

- as it has been said before: never torn a hand towards your body

- RELAX when practicing! You don't need to pull up your shoulders when you do this

MEISSOUN

Delilah's lotus hands (and bellywork) are incredible in this video:

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jx5aDLVil_U]YouTube - Delilah - "Conversations" (THE ORIGINAL)[/ame]

Well worth a look if you have a couple of minutes spare!!

I had to watch it without sound, and that was still amazing!!!!
Sound isn't working on this computer, I've tried several times. :-(

I could 'see' the story!
Here's my verbal interpretation:

She see's dancing spirits, catches them in her hands, and the spirited hands possess her to move her body...then the spirits leave her hands, and fly away.

Can't wait to hear the music with this!

Thanks for posting this firefly5!
:-)

Our instructor started teaching us Lotus hands this week in class. She had us start with just one hand tracing a figure 8 in front of us. Then the other hand. Then both together but going the same way. Next we brought the wrists together to put the whole thing into one move. The trick she told us was to use the little finger of your left hand to start the figure eight and then follow it with the right hand. It seemed to work but I'm really going to have to work at it to get it down pat. Good luck.

This goes with relax: the only way I could do these at first was after a drink. Seriously, it seems that the time that I tried to do them was always with other dancers/teachers after dancing. After a drink, the instructions always made sense and they worked.

It's not the alochol, of course-it's the relaxation and sense of fun. So take that advice for what it's worth. Find someone that does them well and whose company you enjoy. The actual drink is optional.

Kitty

Originally Posted by meissoun

It's originally an Indian hand movement.

It's also used in Thai dance, which is the style in which I learned it. In the dance I learned -- Fawn Leb, the fingernail dance -- we did splay our fingers to show off the long brass fingernails we wore. Hand positions throughout the dance were overextended to make a stylized line through the brass fingertips.

I do them by wrapping my brain around the following...
Leading with the right hand (if left handed lead with left, easier) right out and around left out around, open. So my brain goes right around left around and open.
After you get this down you can play with timing and such...

I do them in Kathak class (classic indain dance)

Originally Posted by kahaz

This goes with relax: the only way I could do these at first was after a drink. Seriously, it seems that the time that I tried to do them was always with other dancers/teachers after dancing. After a drink, the instructions always made sense and they worked.

I finally got them down at a party where an Indian friend of mine swore she would have me able to do them before the night was out--I'd have to agree, a bit of alcohol helped. One also tends to view one's mistakes with more charity/better humor after a drink or three. ,r:;

Originally Posted by gothique

I had to watch it without sound, and that was still amazing!!!!
Sound isn't working on this computer, I've tried several times. :-(

I could 'see' the story!
Here's my verbal interpretation:

She see's dancing spirits, catches them in her hands, and the spirited hands possess her to move her body...then the spirits leave her hands, and fly away.

Can't wait to hear the music with this!

Thanks for posting this firefly5!
:-)

Same with me - couldn't use sound right now so watched it silently.

First; the movement is gorgeous! We barely see her feet and yet it's pure dance!

Second; the story is so vivid! It's called "conversations" and to me it's like she becons the spirits, or perhaps her muses. One at a time, she brings them close to her ear and they speak to her. Then they begin to move her hands - around her body, up in the air, out to the sides and so forth and then down into her belly. And she holds them there and encourages them to move her.

So. Yummy.

Thanks for sharing!

As for the lotus hands, I think they're nice, when used sparingly. SPARINGLY! One bar at most for most performances. And when done right. If they don't look right to you, for heaven's sake, don't do them in performance! I have seen someone perform once who did them completely wrong (where the right hand just went over and under the left, like someone unwrapping an tensor bandage) and I was like D'OH! ..c::

The video in the OP was the video that finally helped me to figure it out, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help than that video. :) Keep working on it. Slowly. Remember to keep the hands open, like shallow lotus petals. Not splayed like claws.

Originally Posted by veritate

Same with me - couldn't use sound right now so watched it silently.

First; the movement is gorgeous! We barely see her feet and yet it's pure dance!

Second; the story is so vivid! It's called "conversations" and to me it's like she becons the spirits, or perhaps her muses. One at a time, she brings them close to her ear and they speak to her. Then they begin to move her hands - around her body, up in the air, out to the sides and so forth and then down into her belly. And she holds them there and encourages them to move her.

So. Yummy.

Thanks for sharing!

It would probably make a lot more sense if you could hear the music, the track is a musical conversation between two instruments, one is a high flute which she follows with her hands, and the other is a clarinet(?) (hard to tell, they are both synthesised anyway) which she uses hip and abdominal movements to follow. It is a beautiful interpretation, I wish you could hear the music, because her interpretation makes it all the more amazing!

It is a magical performance, I love your spirits idea, I'm sure her story must be along those lines.

Okay I just found a new challenge. How cool! I've seen that move but didn't know it had a name.

And Firefly, thanks for sharing that vid. Can I just say that Delilah didn't even move her lower half much for the first half of that and the moves of her arms and hands were so lovely I was mesmerized!

I too have 10 pork sausages to work with and it can be such a bummer to try and make them look gracefull. I think I am missing a joint in all of my fingers..l;,

I've added that one to my Youtube faves and I just keep watching it...