Thread: Drills for Improving Arms During Improv

This is part Arm, part improv question. I've noticed my students (and myself for that matter) need ways to improve arms during improv. It's not that we lack grace and control, but learning to develop that polish that arms bring to performance while improving. Any suggestions or drills that you have come up with?

This is also something I'm working on. To be honest, I think it depends on your style. If your Egyptian with a strong ballet flavor to your dance, port de bra might be what works for you. Tribal devotees might like to study flamenco drills for theirs.

Right now, I'm loving Aziza's Arms (can't remember the whole name) and combinations. It gives you arm drills, but combines them with combinations and goes through different series, for example a grapevine with hip bumps at the end, with variations on what positions the arms are in.

I think as beginners and intermediates, we are trained to hold our arm up, but not to really use them or to think about the variations, this dvd works to combat that.

you can make arm path drills out of any combination of poses that you like, it doesn't have to be only the ones used for port de bras.
for me a lot of arms is confidence, believing that it's OK to fully extend and take the space. and the same confidence needed to not bludgeon the music with too much movement applied to slowing down my arms. i liked the drill on Aziza's practice companion where she has you doing the arms so much slower than the rest of the body, i am gonna be asking for her new one for Christmas.

Originally Posted by raqFariha

you can make arm path drills out of any combination of poses that you like, it doesn't have to be only the ones used for port de bras.
for me a lot of arms is confidence, believing that it's OK to fully extend and take the space. and the same confidence needed to not bludgeon the music with too much movement applied to slowing down my arms.

Very true. In fact, it took me so long to actually start working on arms because I was so shy on stage, it didn't feel OK to open myself up to my audience in that way. Now that I am getting more comfortable on stage, I feel free to use my arms more and to play around with them.

Aside from the psychological factor, what I am doing to improve my arms is taking ballet. Ballet has been helping with my arms because the port de bras drills arm paths that become natural to me, and that I can later modify in my own ways. It also helped me get used to keeping my arms energized at all times.

The other thing I do now is to use cute arm poses and paths that I "make up" (I'm not literally making these up, I've seen most of them done by other dancers first, but I just sort of use what comes to mind at the time, without really following a specific DVD.) as I am drilling other moves.

Since I drill almost everyday, I get to work on arms plenty by using this method. At this point, I have told myself that unless my upper back/shoulders/arms are really sore on a given drill day, I HAVE to use my arms in my drills. No excuses.

So while I am drilling hip or chest moves, I try to use different arm frames and pay attention to the way I transition my arms from one frame to the next, when I move from one drill to another. I use either arm frames or a moving path, depending on the movement, and on what I feel like doing at the moment. I use different arm frames each day, but I end up repeating a lot of them throughout the week. I like to switch around what frames I do with each move so that I'm not drilling myself into always only using the same frame every time I do that movement.

Bozenka has an arms DVD coming out in the near future--having taken an arms and hands workshop with her, I'm enthusiastically looking forward to it! Just that hour and a half workshop made me think more about my arms and internalize some lessons.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Bozenka has an arms DVD coming out in the near future--having taken an arms and hands workshop with her, I'm enthusiastically looking forward to it! Just that hour and a half workshop made me think more about my arms and internalize some lessons.

I will be all over that when it comes out!

I've had years of ballet training and do port de bras exercises with students. Maybe it's more of a confidence issue and being able to think of the whole package while you're dancing.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Bozenka has an arms DVD coming out in the near future--having taken an arms and hands workshop with her, I'm enthusiastically looking forward to it! Just that hour and a half workshop made me think more about my arms and internalize some lessons.

*squeals* When? When!?!?!

I use all sorts of drills. Some focus on ballet arms because that helps people learn to move the arms from the back and also to move in synch, frame the face etc.

However, this kind of arm carriage is too static for oriental dance so the rippling and twisting moves come next. Usually I start with finger ripples then engage more hand, more arm and finally snake arm, one at a time, then both. Then, wrist circles while moving the arms.

When people are warmed up I'll start people doing a shimmy then adding the arm movements.

Finally, there is the idea of using the arms for particular styles and/or to express a thought/emotion, so maybe we'll just experiment, see what looks right.

Using veils can really help improve arms. To make the veil move well the arms have to move well and move as a unit, so this can be a really useful double whammy - it teaches basic veil ideas then when you don't have the veil your arms seem to be automatically better.

I also have a personal trick: wearing heavy brackets on my wrists. This is sort of a reminder thing. It seems to help for some reason...g.:

Originally Posted by Elibelinde

I also have a personal trick: wearing heavy brackets on my wrists. This is sort of a reminder thing. It seems to help for some reason...g.:

I haven't tried that one yet. Perhaps I should...

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

So while I am drilling hip or chest moves, I try to use different arm frames and pay attention to the way I transition my arms from one frame to the next, when I move from one drill to another. I use either arm frames or a moving path, depending on the movement, and on what I feel like doing at the moment. I use different arm frames each day, but I end up repeating a lot of them throughout the week. I like to switch around what frames I do with each move so that I'm not drilling myself into always only using the same frame every time I do that movement.

This right here. I used to drill my body parts separately, but when I started putting arms over the chest, hip, and traveling drills, the "connect" was made and my arms got used to the idea of playing along with the rest of my body in improv.

Originally Posted by mathkitty

I will be all over that when it comes out!

I've had years of ballet training and do port de bras exercises with students. Maybe it's more of a confidence issue and being able to think of the whole package while you're dancing.

wow, we do that too ! cool

I have just discovered using a very basic instructional dvd, one so boring and memorized I could do it in my sleep, and then focus on arm movement and position throughout it. I'm currently using Aziza's ultimate practise companion because I've used it for years as a fitnesss program so nothing is new to me, all the moves become background information and I can work the arms.

Works well to get that overall picture of the whole body as someone mentioned earlier. I have tried a basic Sadie dvd to work on shimmy continuity but it may not be as versatile as arm training with this method.

I wore tight rings on my middle fingers between the first and second joint for a while. I am contsantly calling out "feel your fingers". If you middle fingers are paint brushes, the arms come along. I do shirt on, shirt off drills at varying speeds while the hips and or feet are at a different tempo, making sure that my student "get" that the 1, 4 or 8 count need to be achieved with the arms coming back into the same position as the last 1, 4 or 8 count to create a smoothness in the drill. Breathing helps a lot...you cant make your arms come alive if your chest is dead. Thanks, Ranya!

Originally Posted by anala

I wore tight rings on my middle fingers between the first and second joint for a while. I am contsantly calling out "feel your fingers". If you middle fingers are paint brushes, the arms come along. I do shirt on, shirt off drills at varying speeds while the hips and or feet are at a different tempo, making sure that my student "get" that the 1, 4 or 8 count need to be achieved with the arms coming back into the same position as the last 1, 4 or 8 count to create a smoothness in the drill. Breathing helps a lot...you cant make your arms come alive if your chest is dead. Thanks, Ranya!

noticing how i move my hands differently when i paint my nails, im gonna try practicing with wet nail polish on my pointer fingers. we shall see ^_^