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Question: When slow-dancing with a guy, what do I do with the rest of my arms!?
Homecoming is coming up for me, and whether or not I go, it raises a question for me from the last time I was slow-dancing with my boyfriend!. We held each other really close, so I was at half my arms' length away from his neck, and I didn't have to reach up very far to get to his shoulders!. But what do I do with the rest of my arms then!? That night, I had to fold them behind his head and it was kind of an awkward position considering I had to stand on my toes to achieve this and still pay attention to my feet!. What do I do with my arms in future situations like this!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Arms are continuation of your body!. You shouldn't need to try to do anything specific, or it will feel even more awkward!.
Were your feet directly in front of his!? Kind of like this!?
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If yes - you'd be awkward no matter what you do!. Shift your body a little, so that your front is to his right rather than directly in front of him!. You will stop worrying about your feet, and your arms will fall more naturally in place!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
well, when I go to regular dances which is just for fun (slow dances not like ballroom)!.!. all I do is put my hands on their shoulder!.!. my heart quickly decides because if I'm dancing with the guy I like!.!. I don't know!.!. just comes to me, cause as soon as he asks me he puts his hands on my hips LOL and I just put it on his shoulders!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
You shouldn't stretch to get to his neck!.
Slow dancing, more correctly called "slow rhythm dancing," has a much more comfortable hold as its basic starting point!. If you want to make it more compact/closer, that's OK, but you shouldn't do so to the point of awkwardness, or you're defeating the whole purpose of the hold!.
The correct hold for slow dancing has the boy's left hand and the girl's right holding each other!. The boy's right hand goes on the girl's left shoulder blade, or if a closer hold is desired, at the small of her back; the girl's left hand rests lightly on the boy's upper right arm, and it can go up to the top of the shoulder or even to the back of the neck for a closer hold, but not if that requires you to stand on your tiptoes, or even if you have to shift your weight forward to the balls of your feet!. It sounds like you need to go back to the basics, and work closer from there to find your comfort zone!.
The standard hold also places each of you a bit offset to the left of the other, so your feet aren't in line and you don't have to worry so much about stepping on each other!.
Chances are, you picked up bad technique from watching others at your school who don't know any more about what they're doing than you do!.
For a good look at proper hold, you can look at ballroom dancers doing foxtrot or waltz!. There's a difference, in that they have to keep a "wide top line" with the elbows way out, in order to help with spins and turns, and those elbows would clip other couples on a crowded floor in social dancing, but it'll give you some good reference points!. Then you can look at the slightly closer hold ballroom dancers use in tango!. Again, it's still too wide for social dancing, but I think you can see the progression to the closer hold I was talking about!.Www@QuestionHome@Com