[SCA-Dance] RE: A few more random thoughts about the Volta
Alex Clark
alexbclark at pennswoods.net
Mon Feb 13 16:39:47 EST 2006
At 07:47 AM 2/13/2006 -0500, Brian Spurling wrote:
>My name is Brian Spurling and I am the Dance Director at the Michigan
>Renaissance Festival.
>
>I am looking to teach La Volta "properly" which means I wish to learn La
>Volta "properly". Does anyone have any ideas?
First, check with your costumers to make sure that the women all have
sturdy corsets so that there will be no danger of anything coming loose
when the men grab them and start lifting. The corsets should have adequate
breathing room, without being loose enough to slip around when man-handled.
Once the corsets are in shape, the dancers should be in shape. I expect the
women would benefit most from lunges and leg presses, while the men could
work on hip flexion/leg raises (& maybe hip abduction), biceps curls
(hammer curls might be best), shrugs, lateral and front raises, and middle
body exercises. And aerobics for everyone, of course.
Before dancers get together as couples, they should have practiced the
footwork so that they will be able to step first with the outside foot,
every time, without thinking. The steps are: spring onto the outside foot
(beat 1), low step onto the inside foot (2), leap (women) or lift with
hands and thigh of outside leg (men), and join the feet together at the end
of the measure.
The emphasis is on turning and elevation; steps should be relatively small,
especially the first step. The woman goes around the man, so the man's
steps are smaller. It is not safe to do a big turn while lifting, so the
greater part of the turn should be done during the two steps before the
lift. The men might benefit from starting the lift with the supporting leg
slightly flexed to help stabilize the knee.
HTH.
--
Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon
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