Thread: Help me explain the reverse undulation!

You know how everyone learns differently? Well, I always strive to have as many different ways of explaining moves as possible so that I can give my students a variety of ways to learn something...But I have hit a wall with one of my students regarding the reverse undulation.

I break it down in three parts: tuck pelvis, roll up abs, lift chest. The student is getting stuck on the upper ab part of it and can't figure out how to make the transition from the upper ab contraction to the chest lift. I've tried to explain it to her, but it is really hard to put into words.

We did some exercises trying to isolate the upper abs from the middle and lower abs. Then we tried it against the wall. I've tried just about everything I can think of. Any ideas on how to help? Thanks in advance.

Not entirely serious, but the visual I use is "cat hacking up a hairball." Maybe that will click for her.

Does the visual of paper rollers or gears help (i.e., two wheels turning in the same direction, where one wheel is the hip rotation and the other is the torso rotation)? This produces an ugly continuous movement, but it gets everything going. If she can do the lower half of the move with the upper body relaxed, I've heard the top half of the reverse undulation called, "...and put your boobs on a high shelf."

Originally Posted by dunyah

Not entirely serious, but the visual I use is "cat hacking up a hairball." Maybe that will click for her.

I just had a private lesson with Anala - and that's the same description she used I have a cat - so this makes perfect sense!

Edna

I've heard some teachers describe it in terms of a zipper -- imagine zipping yourself up, from your pelvis through your abs all the way up to your chest.

My tribal teacher calls it "Kotzwelle," the "throw-up wave". It's like you're tucking your pelvis and then letting it roll up from there - with more or less pretty results, depending on how strongly you visualize it

Originally Posted by dunyah

Not entirely serious, but the visual I use is "cat hacking up a hairball." Maybe that will click for her.

haha i was gunna say its similar to throwing up.
one of my teachers had us put our hand on our lower abs and one on the upper and practice pushing"at our hands" one at a time out and in (in lower in upper out lower out upper)

adding a chest pop at the top.
or your trying to get over a ball with your back/stomach( idk how to explain that concept either but idk its what i thought of)


oo ahah just re read the post. maybe say shes thinking of lifting her chest up over a hill?

For visualizations, I use

1) Pretend you're a cat throwing up

2) Pretend you're sitting back in a stopped car. Then imagine the car takes off really fast. (That one was from a Yasmina Ramzy workshop)

3) Setting your boobs on a high shelf or up a hill.

Reverse undulations of course don't have to include the chest, but if that's the part she's stuck on and wants to figure out, maybe try just working with the chest.

Have her think of her chest as being a little plastic Hungry Hippo...lift it up and over, grab a ball, and pull it straight back in. This should get a warped sort of vertical front to back chest circle going. If she's got the pelvic tuck & belly roll up part down, it should be fairly easy to add on the chest hook. Of course this is an exaggerated version; the top of the reverse undulation should not evoke Hippo-ness in practice. ;)

Nasila's response is pretty similar to my own. Have your student practice her vertical chest circle "in reverse" (pull back, lift up, push fwd, set down) until it's "working" and then add it to the pelvic tuck and roll portion.

LOL - afraid I don't get the cat throwing up part - ?



I think of this more as a snake.

So, flex in the knees, tuck the pelvis into a contraction, then release the energy up the spine - into a soft arch - basically this is an undulating arch and contraction.

You can start doing just pelvic contractions releasing (gently) into an arch to give people the feeling that the hips can rock forward and back which helps with a lot of other steps/combinations/transitions.

As far as the upper torso goes, doing upper torso lifts and drops helps but also forward and backward circles; ditto with the arching/contracting -you can do this in the upper torso as well as the lower, these moves can be extremely expressive.

You can stop this upward rippling movement short of the bosom though and keep it small and low; or by the same token let it flow and or snap into the head or even all the way into a backbend which I used to do when I was young.

To make it really gorgeous, engage the belly muscles - when you contract the pelvis, contract the abs hard - lower abs especially then release the belly muscles as the energy ripples up the spine.

I think everybody else is saying pretty much the same thing - except - thinking of it as an arch-contraction variation plus I feel it's pretty key to have a soft knee at least at first.

I realize that some modern style dancers have a real straight leg these days but the softer knee gives your pelvis, hips and torso a lot more flexibility and it also helps teach the concept of driving/letting the energy pulse from the ground up through the legs/pelvis/hips and finally the spine.

IE a lot of this is visualization I think - mind over matter - plus the idea of arch/contract + tightening and loosening muscle groups in sequence.

Sequins.

Oh - forgot something - this works when walking backwards with this - weight into the heels. That helps too.

I teach it as a lower ab tuck then an upper ab tuck/crunch. This drops the chest and creates a rounded back (think of it as what your back does when doing a crunch.) It's the same concept but standing up. Then there is room to lift the chest at the end.

I have my students start with bended knees for the lower and upper ab tucks, then stand up as they lift the chest. This gives the illusion of a bigger move. I finish the sequence with a slight chin lift 9as if you were flicking someone off with you hand under your chin)

Okay, this worked for me. My teacher explained it like this:

Pretend or better yet get up on a stool or table where you can't touch the floour with your feet, now slide off to the floor without using your hands. You naturally lead with your pelivis to slide off. Then practice doing this with follow through.


(I just did this on my kitchen table and it works)

Originally Posted by Bahtya

Okay, this worked for me. My teacher explained it like this:

Pretend or better yet get up on a stool or table where you can't touch the floour with your feet, now slide off to the floor without using your hands. You naturally lead with your pelivis to slide off. Then practice doing this with follow through.


(I just did this on my kitchen table and it works)

I like this explanation b/c the movement just won't happen if you're not using the right muscles. Like learning myas by holding a ball between your knees - if you're not using your abdominals, the ball just drops.

Thanks everyone!

A visualization that helps many of my students is to imagine a pregnant woman getting out of a chair.

Also, like Kalirah, I do the Ferris-wheel style of vertical rib cage circles - back, up, forward, return, repeat. Back when I was a student, these Ferris wheel chest circles gave me a real "aha!" moment for both types of undulation, so I always mention them when I teach undulations.

I was also taught by the "cat coughs up hair ball"-visual,just wanted to say I really enjoyed all your creative explanations:)

try explaining that the "upper" part of the undulation movement should actually be a contraction of the upper back muscles between the shoulder blades (contracting the upper back is what lifts the front chest)...

It also helps to practice the undulation in a cross-legged sitting position, with arms up in 5th position, and practice first with "hard contractions" from lower abs, to upper abs, to upper back (and vice-versa) then smoothing it out slower to understand more the transition from and to each muscle group. This will help to strengthen the muscles as well as really show a student the location of the muscles that are used to perform this movement.

Originally Posted by ErikaOH

try explaining that the "upper" part of the undulation movement should actually be a contraction of the upper back muscles between the shoulder blades (contracting the upper back is what lifts the front chest)...

It also helps to practice the undulation in a cross-legged sitting position, with arms up in 5th position, and practice first with "hard contractions" from lower abs, to upper abs, to upper back (and vice-versa) then smoothing it out slower to understand more the transition from and to each muscle group. This will help to strengthen the muscles as well as really show a student the location of the muscles that are used to perform this movement.

Oh exactly! thank you - so concise!

Originally Posted by ErikaOH

try explaining that the "upper" part of the undulation movement should actually be a contraction of the upper back muscles between the shoulder blades (contracting the upper back is what lifts the front chest)...

It also helps to practice the undulation in a cross-legged sitting position, with arms up in 5th position, and practice first with "hard contractions" from lower abs, to upper abs, to upper back (and vice-versa) then smoothing it out slower to understand more the transition from and to each muscle group. This will help to strengthen the muscles as well as really show a student the location of the muscles that are used to perform this movement.

Suhaila does this! Thanks.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

Suhaila does this! Thanks.

She sure does! Also, I find it helpful to explain to my students (sometimes ad nauseum) not to forget to release the previous muscle contraction before going to the next. Sometimes that's the more difficult part.

I'm probably the odd man out here, but whenever I hear "reverse undulation" I think of a hip-only reverse undulation... the "over the barrel" thing. Tuck pelvis, roll it up and down, without carrying the move up to the chest.

It's just semantics, and as soon as I hear the move described I know what everyone is talking about and know that using that name also makes sense in that case, but it's interesting that the term brings a different thing to my mind. Just goes to show no term is universal in this dance!

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

I'm probably the odd man out here, but whenever I hear "reverse undulation" I think of a hip-only reverse undulation... the "over the barrel" thing. Tuck pelvis, roll it up and down, without carrying the move up to the chest.

It's just semantics, and as soon as I hear the move described I know what everyone is talking about and know that using that name also makes sense in that case, but it's interesting that the term brings a different thing to my mind. Just goes to show no term is universal in this dance!

So true. I would probably call what you just described as a reverse camel.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

So true. I would probably call what you just described as a reverse camel.

I call it a pelvic roll, but now that I think about it, it could easily be considered a reverse pelvic camel.

I didn't read all the replies but did anyone mention hands on learning?
If you gently give her pressure on her back as she's trying it, at the 'locked' spot that might help.

Prior to teaching torso undulations I'll have already taught rib isolations and contraction/arch stretch separately, as well as having one foot in front and one in back & getting them used to changing weight from one foot to the other... so for the undulation going from low to high (or however you want to call it), they would be incorporating all that at once. I also like to have them focus on where their weight is (the stance above makes that clear). When both feet are together, they should feel their weight go from heel to toe.

gad I hate explaining movements in words!

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

You know how everyone learns differently? Well, I always strive to have as many different ways of explaining moves as possible so that I can give my students a variety of ways to learn something...But I have hit a wall with one of my students regarding the reverse undulation.

I break it down in three parts: tuck pelvis, roll up abs, lift chest. The student is getting stuck on the upper ab part of it and can't figure out how to make the transition from the upper ab contraction to the chest lift. I've tried to explain it to her, but it is really hard to put into words.

We did some exercises trying to isolate the upper abs from the middle and lower abs. Then we tried it against the wall. I've tried just about everything I can think of. Any ideas on how to help? Thanks in advance.

You guys, awesome. My teacher and I were just working on my reverse undulation at class this past week and I wasn't "getting" it--this thread is a new way of looking at it and I'm starting to understand it now!

(As far as terminology goes--my teacher calls it a "reverse body wave.")

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Also, like Kalirah, I do the Ferris-wheel style of vertical rib cage circles - back, up, forward, return, repeat. Back when I was a student, these Ferris wheel chest circles gave me a real "aha!" moment for both types of undulation, so I always mention them when I teach undulations.

i also use an ice cream scoop on the chest to help teach the ferris wheel circles.

i also do a sortta simon-says drill, with "lift-neutral-drop" on the chest. i start out just going linearly along those (L,N,D,N,L,N,D,N,L,N,D,N,L,N,D.....) then call them out at random and we practice putting our body where we want it until everyone is laughing.

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

Just goes to show no term is universal in this dance!

hehehe, my main teacher calls the vertical chest circle that faces front and uses a chest slide the ferris wheel type. i learned that name for the front-to-back circle Shira described. ^_^

Originally Posted by emma-bessa

I was also taught by the "cat coughs up hair ball"-visual,just wanted to say I really enjoyed all your creative explanations:)

+1

Originally Posted by ErikaOH

She sure does! Also, I find it helpful to explain to my students (sometimes ad nauseum) not to forget to release the previous muscle contraction before going to the next. Sometimes that's the more difficult part.

+1