Salsa City Forum » Salsa Music and Dance » Tension in arms

I don’t know if anyone will get where I’m coming from with this post, but I’m open to it if they do!

I hear it all the time:
“dont keep your arms relaxed, keep some tension in them.”
And this is supposed to make you a better dancer.

Now I accept that for most people it probably does, but I am wondering if it just exchanges one bad habit for another. Tension in the body slows it down, increases the risk of injury, makes it less supple, looks worse etc.

But we live in a society, or even a culture where tension rules. Men are judged stronger for being tenser, muscular etc.

I don’t think it has to be this way,
If you align the body in such a way that it falls into the floor, then no tension is needed - in the same way as a fancy snooker shot - balls don’t tense they align and wow!

I’m not saying this is easy to do by any means... and for most people - don’t even try! But what about the experts? Experienced internal martial artists know all about relaxation and alignment (any comments Andy Witt?)

I don’t know though... maybe I’ll post again in a couple of years when I perfected it. But if anyone is interested in where I’m getting the idea from:

cheng hsin

Going back to what little I remember of secondary school physics, tension is a force that acts upon a body to create strain (extension) -- it stretches, it pulls. Muscles create a force within the body by contracting, and so cause or oppose movement by pulling upon the skeletal structure.

This is in no way a bad thing. This is how your body works, this is how you move. To say that you have tension in your arm just means that your muscles are working -- exerting a force. The confusion comes because we also use the word “tension” in other less precise and less neutral senses. If you had no tension in your body, you wouldn’t be dancing. You wouldn’t even be standing.

Think this advice is normally more for the followers than the leaders. Provided a lead is clear, there doesn’t need to be that much tension in the leaders arms but they do look a lot better being held up rather than dangling down by your waist.

For the followers it’s slightly different. Getting a bit technical, it depends a bit on the style you’re dancing. I know that quite a few cuban leaders prefer very little tension in the followers arms as it means they can move them into more complicated spagettii-like patterns without injury. If you go LA or NY style however the follower needs to keep enough tension to keep their frame in place - if the leader leads a quick turn when the follower isn’t expecting it then they need to have enough tension in their arm to stop it going up or to the side without the rest of them (which is more likely to injure them).

I think it’s ok to use the word tension for what we are talking about. No bodily movement or posture is performed by only one muscle, a contracting muscle will be kept under tension by another one. Here’s an interesting page on muscle anatomy.

Relaxation/tension is a continuum, the trick is to get the right, communicative, balance. I liken it to shaking hands. Some people have a weak floppy handshake and some have an overly firm and aggressive handshake, the rest of us are somewhere in between.

I think, if one has the desire to be cooperative and communicative, the right tension will be achieved. Extreme floppiness or tension is indicative of a bad attitude, either being uncommunicative or uncooperative or trying to be too dominant or aggressive.

Something I find very unpleasant is when a woman makes no effort to hold up her arm herself and just leans on me, expecting me to hold her up.

I wouldn’t agree that arm tension is “indicative of a bad attitude”. Some women have very tense arms because they are nervous, or because they have over-interpreted a teacher’s instruction to keep tension in their arms. Others may appear ‘floppy’ because they have been taught - as I was - that in LA-style the hands should start low and relaxed, with the man leading more by body positioning.

It’s amazing how much the tension in women’s arms varies. Some women follow so responsively that it feels as if they don’t have any tension in their arms, though they obviously do. Other good dancers have much more obvious tension, and even though this may be technically less correct it can make the dance feel more dynamic.

Its a really difficult thing I think!

Getting the balance is so hard... some times I get told I have too much tension then I get told I don’t have enough! A lot of women are very tense and that can be for many reasons, either they are nervous, they are delibaratley trying to keep the guy at a distance or they could have been taugh like that.

Like myself for example who was a ballroom dancer, it takes huge practice to relax the arms and upper body... I get told off a lot fir this! But I’m trying to relax more. It really depends on the lead I think, if the guy is soft I tend to be soft but if I feel unsafe and like I’m being flung around the room I tend to grab on for dear life!

And it does depend on the style as well... a certain amount of tension is needed so the follower can feel where the leader wants her but equally not too much otherwise the leader can’t put the woman into certain moves. A good example is an open break... there needs to be tension in the arms with a move like this also to get the momentum but in some turn patterns the woman needs to have relaxed arms as either she or the guy, or, in fact, both can end up getting hurt i.e. Elbows in the face etc!

Anyway, don’t listen to me as I’ve never got this right!!

You’re right Lisa. There are lots of factors involved. It’s good to talk about it so new dancers realise that “keep some tension in your arms” must be interpreted according to the situation as it changes.

Lisa, I wouldn’t worry about it - your arm tension always seems fine when I dance with you, and if any man ‘tells you off’ I’d tell him to get stuffed!

This is the attitude that’s helping to hold so many of us back. Dancing is a form of communication. A bit more non-judgemental, non-aggressive, meta-communication between casual partners about what does and doesn’t feel right on the dancefloor would be a very good thing, in my opinion.

I’m with you on the non-judgemental. I really don’t mind being told if I’m doing something wrong, and I’ve learned a lot from people who make comments. However when I feel I’m either being told off or talked down to I am just not able to take things in because I’m too busy feeling hurt.

As for the tension thing... I think as you learn, you are Goldilocks for a long time... trying different things only to find they’re Too Soft or Too Hard, Too Hot or Too Cold. You have to keep looking for the Just Right. I’m not sure I’ve found it, with arm tension or with anything else. I’m still trying.