Ten Things to Think About with Rumba Walks

This is a list of things to think about while practicing your rumba walks. Generally in the past I have been against teaching from lists. Mostly I think it was because I had a teacher that taught for wrote from lists and never really understood what the things on the list meant. Lists are imperfect for dancing, just as Laban taught that any language was imperfect for conveying everything for dancing. In the end, nothing beats just having private instruction to work on the things you individually need. Hopefully you get to some place in your dancing that you can come up with your own lists, written from your own personal thoughts and ideas.

So, here is my list. Practice it, play with it, experiment.

1. step forward on to a flat foot This is the basic common typical walk, really I want you to get aware of what your foot is doing. After you can step forward onto a flat foot with control then you can play with stepping into a demi-point (ball of the foot on the ground, heel up) or something else.
2. leaving foot works through demi-point and then point So often I see people cheat this one. Working though the back foot shows flexibility and strength of the foot.
3. keep hips straight until after point After the back leg has reached full point then you can do whatever with the hips. So this point might be a little more controversial -- not all teachers will teach it this way or agree with me. I think it produces a cleaner look and again perhaps it's not something to do all the time but it's a good thing to start trying so that you get body aware of the hips in the movement.
4. stretch the psoas As you step forward to start pulling the hip through so that you start to get a stretch in the psoas of the back leg. (The psoas is a muscle that pulls the leg forward / raises the knee and runs up and down about 2 to 3 inches away from the belly button.)
5. rotation of the leg To get a nice clean natural and more efficient movement of the free leg turn the leg out when it's back, parallel as it passes, then rotate it in as it goes in front of the standing leg, then out at the last point.
6. point the free leg As the free leg goes from back to front raise the knee so that the free leg can point all the way through. This gives a nice contrast of bent and straight legs to your walk. I see this one cheated a lot -- mostly as the free leg is passing the standing leg and if that free leg isn't as fully bent and the heel is close to the ground it just does not look pretty.
7. practice different walks In the beginning focus on one way to do the walks until you build body awareness and skill at controlling your body. After a while then start working on different types of walks: weight right away, delayed straight, delayed bent, pressing walks.
8. contract the lat Once weight is on the foot, contract the lat (latissimus dorsi) on the standing leg side. The lat attaches from the top of the arm by the shoulder to the entire length of the spine. This action of contracting the lat pulls the shoulder blade down and helps to produce that nice latin look. Some people have a tough time with this one because they are not body aware of their lat, but it's a good one to work on because the lat is the second longest muscle in the body and because of how it attaches to the low spine (lumbar) it has a big effect on balance and health of the lumbar region.
9. after the weight is on the foot you can do a hip action I'm all for less hip action. I see a lot of people here in America doing a lot of hip action with figure eight's the size of Montana. Now I think a little bit is alright, but just think about the chain of bones and muscles from the center (by your belly button) out to your foot. The more kinks / distortions / angles that you add to that line, the less it looks clean and the less efficiently you move off the floor. At least once your on the foot your body is no longer locomoting so now decorate the step with a nice simple curve or circle or something. Besides, have you ever really watched a good authentic latin dancer dance? Their hips are not all over the place, it's calm, cool, collected, and efficient.
10. push from the standing leg as you move So depending on your perspective either doing all the other ones in the list will make this one easier, or if you do this one then a lot of the other ones will take care of themselves.