Dance DanceSport News Articles - Lecture by Stephen Hiller

In an hour of lecture and workshop on the day after the championship, Stephen Hillier stressed the great importance of the dance hold in modern ballroom dancing. It is the key to a successful partnership. If you cannot hold your partner properly, you cannot dance properly.

"You can win or lose a competition because of your hold," Stephen Hillier repeatedly emphasised to a captive audience who packed the Sunny Low Studio on Sunday 25 October 98.

A competitor who walks with his partner on to the dance floor is immediately judged. The way he holds his partner is vitally important. The hold must be seen as firm and purposeful, leading and guiding the lady as she is being presented to the audience. Any competitor's hold that is casual, loose and purposeless is going to give the judges a very negative impression.

Stephen Hillier stressed strongly on the great importance of the man's left hand as he raises it to hold the lady's right hand as she walks towards him at the beginning of the dance. This left hand connection with the lady is vitally important in dancing. This important connection enables the man to draw the lady towards him to create a proper dance hold. It is a dynamic connection. It is not static and it is never a rigid connection.

After the lady is gently drawn and guided towards the man, she must be in balance as she stands in front of him. The next vital connection is the man's right hand on the lady's back. This is another very important connection that when properly done will make a champion dancer. Do not think of creating a big top at this juncture. Make sure both of you are in balance. Connect the lady with your left hand and connect her with your right hand. You are now ready to dance and compete.

The so called big-top is created while you are dancing. The vital connections move only in four directions to create a dynamic silhouette. They can move forwards and backwards. They can move parallel to each other. They can move to the left and to the right. The connections are alive !

Stephen Hillier reminded the audience that he would not like to see dancing monsters on the competition floor." Competitors who have a rigid hold and who create an artificial big top and who dance like robots are monsters," he said. They will be out of the competition in the first round.

"Dancing is natural like walking", Stephen Hillier explained as he demonstrated the walk with Jennifer Buchanan. Please do not make it more difficult," he implored.

The next thing Stephen Hillier talked briefly on was the left and right turning figures, the inner and outer circles. In the natural turn, for example, he said that the man must swing past the lady who must give way to him. Similarly in all right turning figures, while the man must is in the inner circle, the lady must swing past the man.

"I do not want belly dancers," Stephen Hillier told a hilarious audience. "Do not push your partner with your belly," he emphasised. "The lady will be off balance and the partnership will be shattered. Your dancing will be monstrous! Use your connections to lead the lady, and never your belly."

A very important point Stephen Hillier pointed out was the promenade position. The man must stretch the right side of his body as he goes into the promenade position. Similarly, the lady must also stretch her left side. "Never fight to go in front of your man," he warned the ladies. "The lady must always stay behind the man and then follow closely behind the man as he dances forward."

To dance gracefully and correctly, the lady must be proactive. She must not simply be a passive follower, hanging onto her partner, land weighing a ton. She must be on her own feet. She must feel the floor. She must be in balance. Then she will be as light as a feather.

Time constraint made it difficult for Stephen Hillier to fully explain the mechanics of the swing. He however stressed the importance of a good physique and the understanding of the mechanics of the swing which involved the muscles of the legs, the joints and the importance of the hip.

Stephen and Jennifer then illustrated the importance of the hip in creating the swing by dancing the slow foxtrot. "Never swing directly at the lady," he stressed. " You must swing past the lady and the lady must posture herself in such a manner that the man can swing freely and with ease."

To be a top couple, like Marcus and Karen Hilton, you must have all the mechanics in place. You can be tired after a grueling long day. You can be grungy after a tiff with your partner. But, when you have a trained body and have developed the right mechanics, you can still dance to the top and be a champion.

"Convert your body into an instrument. Develop those muscles and perfect those mechanics and you will soon be a champion," so concluded Stephen Hillier.

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