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HACKNEYED APPEARANCE is the prosaic or expressionless showing portrayed by an inexperienced dancer.

HAND HOLDS USED IN COUPLE'S WORK (Freestyle): Hand holds are more often used in Boy/Girl couples work than in 'All Girls' routines. When facing partner any combination of single hand holds can be used, i.e. Right + Left, Left + Right, Left + Left or Right + Right. ('Hand shake hold').
Double hand holds can either be a straight forward Left/Right + Right/Left or arms crossed to achieve a Right/Right + Left/Left combination.

Side by side choreography sometimes requires a hand hold and is either Right + Left or Left + Right.
In 'shadow' position hand holds can either be single, i.e. Left + Left or Right + Right or double, i.e. Left/Left plus Right/Right. From any of these hand holds the partner in front can make half a turn to end facing the other partner.

HEAD BASHING: A dance done by the younger generation of the 1990s, at Rave or Disco sessions where couples or groups of dancers stand apart and violently shake their head forward and back, side to side to the beat of the music.

HEEL (Heel Lead):

  1. The part of the foot directly below the ankle and behind the arch and
  2. Described in the FOOTWORK section, abbreviated 'H', or 'HF' (for Heel-Flat). A 'Heel' step is taken first with the heel in contact with the floor and then with the whole foot flat. (The 'Flat' is usually implied).
HEEL-BALL TWIST TURN:  A type of Twist Turn taken with the weight distributed equally between feet, on the heel of one foot, and the ball of the other. The turn is executed by crossing one foot either in front of or behind the other, and then twisting in the direction of the forward foot. When the turn is complete, the feet will have closed into first position, having turned approximately ¾ of a full turn. Also known as a 'Corkscrew'.

HEEL PULL: A type of Heel Turn where the moving foot is 'pulled' back and to the side of the supporting foot, slightly apart. The footwork of the moving foot is as follows: Heel first, then Inside Edge of Foot, then Whole Foot.

HEEL PIVOT is a turn on the heel of one foot only, in which no change of weight occurs. The Heel Pivot might be termed a 'compact Chassé,' and is used instead of a Chassé in the last part of the Quarter Turns in the Quickstep.

HEEL SPLIT or WING SCISSORS PIGEON-TOE BUTTERFLIES: Feet together with weight on balls of both feet. Move heels apart on count 1, and together on count 2.

HEEL TURN is a turn on the heel of the stepping foot, the closing foot being kept parallel to it throughout. The weight is transferred to the closing foot at the end of the turn. It should be noted that, although the major part of the turn is on the heel, it is actually commenced on the ball of the foot. A Heel Turn is the backward or inside part of an Open Turn.

HESITATION: An action in which progression is temporarily suspended or checked; the weight being held on the supporting foot for one or more beats.

HIGH ANKLES denote an over-stated ankle line created by stepping extremely high on the toe with either a straight leg or bent knee to effectuate an exaggerated picture line in Latin dancing.

HIP MOTION: The rotation of the hips around the spine. A hip-Swinging style used in Latin-
American dancing (see cuban Motion).

HIP TWIST: An action, such as a swivel or change of weight, accompanied by a pronounced Latin-style hip movement.

HISTORY OF MODERN BALLROOM DANCING: The International DanceSport championship 'Modern Standard Ballroom' includes five dances: Modern Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Slow Foxtrot, and Quickstep, are danced the world over both socially and in DanceSport competitions. The figures in these modern ballroom dances have now been standardised and categorised into various levels for teaching, with internationally agreed vocabularies, techniques, rhythms and tempos. But it was not always so.

These 'Standard Ballroom' dances have diverse origins, rhythms, tempi, and aesthetics, but have one thing in common: they are all danced by a couple (usually a man and a lady) in 'Closed Hold', maintaining 5 areas of contact between the partners while performing all the figures of the dances.

THE HOLD: The closed ballroom hold requires the maintenance of 5 points of contact between the partners while they are dancing. These consist of 3 hand contacts:

  1. the man's left hand holding the lady's right hand.
  2. the lady's left hand resting on the top of the man's right upper arm (behind the arm in the Tango).
  3. the man's right hand placed on the left shoulder blade on the back of the lady.
In addition to these 3 hand contacts, there are two more areas of contact:
  1. the lady's left elbow rests on the man's right elbow.
  2. the right area of the chest of each partner touches that of the other.
Ideally, in this hold, the lady's upper arms are both held horizontal by a suitable placement of the man's arms and hands. This not only makes it comfortable for the lady to follow the man's lead, but also gives the couple a deportment of regal appearance. This deportment is a characteristic of dances coming from Western Europe, and is a heritage of the origin of ballroom dancing in the royal courts of Europe. The erect and fixed torso is even more evident in Classical Ballet, which had the same origins.

The peculiar ballroom dancing 'Closed Hold' in the 1500s, possibly had its origins when men wore swords while dancing. Since most men are right-handed, it was conventional to wear the sword and scabbard on the left-hand side of the belt, to facilitate the drawing of the sword with the right hand. Thus, if a man was to put his arm around a lady's back, she would have to be on his right, or she would keep tripping over the sword. Therefore, he could only put his right arm around her; and if she was receptive to this advance, she would place her left arm over the man's right. From here it is a simple matter for the man to offer his left hand for the lady to hold for additional balance while dancing.

The resting of the lady's left elbow on the man's right elbow is probably a hangover from the days when ladies were socially restrained from ever making advances to a man - the man always had to take the initiative, and the lady either accepted or rejected. One aspect of this elbow contact is that the man must keep his right shoulder over his right hip, and the right elbow in front of the line of his shoulders if the lady is to feel comfortable.

The facing of the palm of the man's left hand and the lady's right hand has its origins in the same social gender constraints as described above. The man offers his hand (palm up), and the lady accepts by putting hers on the man's (palm down). This orientation of palms has the advantage of allowing each partner to keep their wrists straight, and the hand in line with the lower arm, giving aesthetically pleasing lines (although many teachers advocate other palm alignments).

The social expectation of male initiative is of course also the reason why in ballroom dancing, the man conventionally 'leads', and the lady 'follows', i.e. the man is responsible for the choreography and directions of travel.

HOCKEY STICK: A basic figure used in International Rumba and Cha-Cha, taken from Fan Position and involving a Loop Turn for the lady. The figure gets its name from the hockey stick shape of the path that the lady moves along throughout the step.

HOLD: A count to describe a designated time before taking another step, i.e. to hold a slow count fractionally longer than regulation time, thus adding expression to the movement or action (see syncopation).

HOME: The original starting place in Country and Western dancing.

HONOUR DANCE is when the winners of a competition are given the opportunity to dance a demonstration of their best dance or dances as a token of recognition.

HOOK and CROSS: The free foot moves as a pendulum in front or behind the weighted foot and is kept off the floor. The toes point downward.

HOOK COMBINATION: A 4 count move using (1) heel (2) hook (3) heel and (4) together.

HOP: A jump into the air from one foot and landing on the same foot.

HOVER: A step taken high on the balls of the feet, for the purpose of changing direction and rotating, allowing enough time for the moving foot to brush toward or to the standing or supporting foot. A Hover should be thought of as being a part of a figure in which the moving or turning of the body is checked, while the feet remain almost stationary.

HUNCHED SHOULDERS are produced by couples lifting their elbows too high, causing the shoulder line to rise beyond its horizontal point. A hunched appearance is also formed when the lady wears a dress that has a puffed shoulder line or the man wears a badly tailored jacket which hunches when his elbows are raised, giving the 'coat hanger' affect.

HUSTLE: The Hustle marked a return to popular dances where couples danced 'touching' each other. In the early 70s a modified 'Lindy' or 'Jitterbug' became popular on the crowded dance floors of New York. It was called the Hustle. Still popular today, it is danced to modern 'disco' music based on Rhythm and Blues.

Hustle is also very Swing oriented with many turns and twirls but its single rhythm resembles the Boogie, except that the Hustle 'rock' action is syncopated. Hustle could be called an advanced Boogie.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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