Heels on the ground

[hikari_no_yami]

We've been learning mayas and taqseem(s?) (spelling? grammar?) and I struggle to keep my heels on the ground. Part of it is because I have zero range of motion, it looks like I'm hardly moving. The other reason is my height, I'm only 5'1''. How do I keep them on the ground without compromising the movements? I've tried lessening the bend in my knees, which sort of works.

 

[Shanazel]

That five letter word: drill, drill, drill. The more you practice, the easier and fuller the movements will become. Don't lose heart. Difficulty keeping one's heels on the ground is a common problem in folks just learning the movement. Height isn't a factor in doing the movement properly, so don't worry about that.

 

[LilithNoor]

When i was trying to eradicate heel lifts from my mayas, I tried drilling them in the deep end of the swimming pool!

It's pretty much impossible to use your feet and knees when you're floating, so you can really concentrate on getting the obliques working to power the movement.

And your arms get a good workout holding onto the edge while you're thionking about your hips.

 

[Aniseteph]

It is a tough one. We learnt with heels lifting, which has the advantage that you can see a bigger movement immediately, but the disadvantage that it's easy to cheat by pushing hips around with your feet/legs when you should be working the abdominal muscles. (Love the swimming pool idea!).

Flat feet forces you to generate the movement in the right places, and until you get the strength and range it's going to be small, which is fine. If you are working the right muscles they will get stronger. Cheating for the sake of making it big is a shortcut to nowhere.

Until your range of movement is bigger you won't need a crazy amount of bend at the knees because your hip isn't going to go up much. But the bigger you make the move the more bent they'll need to be. That was a key thing for me in getting flat footed - it feels weird standing there with very bent knees, but otherwise that hip goes up and you pull a foot off the floor, which loses that nice grounded weight-through-both-legs feel.

 

[Zorba]

When I was struggling with Maias, my teacher told us if she saw us lifting our heels, she'd put thumbtacks under them! :lol:

I'm glad she did - it forced me to learn the movement the correct way.

 

[SeeJaneDance]

I learned the movement both ways (heels moving, heels down) from two different teachers. It was actually pretty easy to learn heels down because that teacher focused on the "out" and "down", and sort of left the "up" to physics. Once you get the (L)out, (L)down, (R)out, (R)down, (L)out, (L)down part down strongly, you can focus on getting a smoother rounded motion. At least, it worked for most of my class.

 

[teela]

I found that by bending the knees a bit more, it gave me the ability to keep my feet/heels on the ground. I've been working on learning to do it with my muscles to control the movement but I still use bent knees.

 

[Zorba]

I found that by bending the knees a bit more, it gave me the ability to keep my feet/heels on the ground. I've been working on learning to do it with my muscles to control the movement but I still use bent knees.

As you should/must do.

 

[hikari_no_yami]

Thank you so much. Bending my knees more helped me both isolate the movement and keep my feet on the ground, but that was with the maya.....now the taqseem/reverse maya/downward vertical figure 8/how many other names it has. I can drop my hip from a neutral and a raised position easily, but for the out motion, it feels as though I'm swaying sideways or as if I'm doing a horizontal figure 8 rather than a vertical one. Sorry, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be xD

 

[Pirika Repun]

Thank you so much. Bending my knees more helped me both isolate the movement and keep my feet on the ground, but that was with the maya.....now the taqseem/reverse maya/downward vertical figure 8/how many other names it has. I can drop my hip from a neutral and a raised position easily, but for the out motion, it feels as though I'm swaying sideways or as if I'm doing a horizontal figure 8 rather than a vertical one. Sorry, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be xD

Believe or not, most of moves are very small range of motion. If your movie is correct, then you have big impact with small range of motion. For instance, flat footed maya, at first just tilt your hip in the stand position, then stop. Next slide your hip side to side, but stay in between your shoulder range, Yes, this is very small range of motion for both way. Then combine tilt and slide move together. Start with this small range of motion, until your muscle is strong enough to move bigger. Start with small movement is also good for muscle control.

If you are straggling with some movement, start with small and slow move to gain your muscle control and strength.

Then practice, practice, practice. Good luck!

 

[Yame]

Think about it this way: you might be having a hard time now, but if you keep lifting your heels you will never develop the range of motion in your hips. Just keep practicing and eventually it'll come. When it does, you will always have the option to do the move with heels on the ground or not.

It helps to bend the knees a bit further when you are first learning these moves. The more bent the knees are, the more range of motion you have on your hips. With that said, I personally don't like the aesthetic of very bent knees. My default posture has my knees only *softly* bent, it's so subtle I don't "lose" any height. Aside from tribal, a good portion of BD styles these days have this sort of posture. So check your teacher's default posture and your preferred default posture. If it's like mine, you will want to watch the way you do these movements so that once you start developing more range of motion, you can stop bending the knees as much. If it's a more bent posture, then you should be okay to continue doing them with the knees more bent.

BTW, your height has nothing to do with your ability or inability to perform a movement with your heels on the ground. Height can affect a lot of things when it comes to dance, but not this.

 

[AndreaSTL]

Devil's advocate here: I have to respectfully disagree that it's a requirement that your heels not leave the ground. I think it depends on what style you're doing. When I watch Egyptian dancers I see them using their skeletons to create movements and not just their muscles.
nagwa fouad belly dancer - YouTube
Soheir Zaki in 'Hello, I'm the Cat' (1) - YouTube
Randa Kamel Egyptian Belly dance Balady and Drum Solo! - YouTube

I was taught to keep my heels down, and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I certainly don't sweat it either way. I realize that every instructor requires different things, though, so when you are in her class you should make the effort to use her method.

 

[Yame]

Devil's advocate here: I have to respectfully disagree that it's a requirement that your heels not leave the ground. I think it depends on what style you're doing. When I watch Egyptian dancers I see them using their skeletons to create movements and not just their muscles.
nagwa fouad belly dancer - YouTube
Soheir Zaki in 'Hello, I'm the Cat' (1) - YouTube
Randa Kamel Egyptian Belly dance Balady and Drum Solo! - YouTube

I was taught to keep my heels down, and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I certainly don't sweat it either way. I realize that every instructor requires different things, though, so when you are in her class you should make the effort to use her method.

If you learn the movement while keeping the heels down, you can do it with the heels down and if you want to lift the heels that is an option you can use as well. If you learn the movement by lifting the heels as a crutch, you will never be able to do it with the heels down if you so wish. So there is more versatility to learning it while keeping the heels on the ground, with the added bonus of gaining range of motion you otherwise wouldn't gain, which will help with other movements.

It's absolutely a stylistic choice you can make, whether to keep the heels down or not when doing these movements. But it's preferable to lift the heels because you are consciously making that stylistic choice rather than lift them because you need to lift them to create the movement, because you do not have that range of motion in your hips.

Also, I understand what you mean by your statement of skeletal vs. muscular movement, but I'm hoping nobody takes these statements literally. There is no such thing as skeletal movement in the literal sense. All movement is muscular. Bones can not move on their own.

 

[AndreaSTL]

... it's preferable to lift the heels because you are consciously making that stylistic choice rather than lift them because you need to lift them to create the movement...

Agreed. It's always better to have multiple weapons in your arsenal.

Also, I understand what you mean by your statement of skeletal vs. muscular movement, but I'm hoping nobody takes these statements literally. There is no such thing as skeletal movement in the literal sense. All movement is muscular. Bones can not move on their own.

I never meant it to be taken literally - otherwise we would look like this when we dance (around 2:45). silly symphony - the skeleton dance 1929 disney short - YouTube :lol:

 

[Yame]

Agreed. It's always better to have multiple weapons in your arsenal.



I never meant it to be taken literally - otherwise we would look like this when we dance (around 2:45). silly symphony - the skeleton dance 1929 disney short - YouTube :lol:

LOL!

I figured you hadn't meant it that way, and I completely understand the usage of those terms, but I've seen some people get confused by it and interpret it literally, so when I use it it's always with a disclaimer. Some movements require more visible muscle engagement than others, but no movement is truly skeletal.

Love the skeleton dance!

 

[nightdancer]

Also, try lifting your toes. It forces you to keep your weight in your heels, so to keep them on the ground.

Another drill that will force you to isolate the abs is to lift your foot completely off the ground. It can be done.

 

[Dunyah]

I was always taught that lifting the heels during Maya, or downward figure 8 of the hips, is Egyptian styling, and that leaving the heels on the floor is more of an ATS/Tribal Fusion style. I teach both ways in my classes and let people have the option. For me personally, even after many years of dance training, the movement works better on my body with lifted heels. I have small hips and not much definition between hips/waist, so the movement just shows up better on me if I utilize the heels. In a particular teacher's class I would try to do what the teacher says to do. You can always vary it when you are more advanced.

 

[hikari_no_yami]

Also, should you keep your chest lifted? My upper body tends to fold slightly...

 

[Dunyah]

Also, should you keep your chest lifted? My upper body tends to fold slightly...

Yes, keep it lifted.

 

[teela]

I was watching a new DVD, where the instructor taught the move by lifting heels and then did it flat footed while discussing the muscles to use to make the movement. This made me think that you learn it flat footed so you know how to do it properly using the muscles rather than relying on the foot pushing up to do the move so when you start traveling with the move, you are able to shift your weight so the whole move looks better. This is just a thought.