12 Year zouk dancer on breathing and why she WON'T do styling

12 Year zouk dancer on breathing and why she WON'T do styling

30 minute read

This is the first time I do this style of video, I was planning on cutting it to 15 minutes but I find the whole full-length video is very important as it will help understand the full picture of our topic which I think is going to be incredibly powerful for your dancing.

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Timestamp
00:00 - Intro
03:30 - Heidi's Zouk Evolution
05:30 - Breathing Benefits
09:25 - Breathing Techniques
12:00 - Applying Breathing in Dancing
18:00 - How to be Not Boring as Leader
29:00 - Different Applications of Breathing
31:10 - Why Heidi Doesn't Do Styling
35:00 - How to Incorporate Natural Movement as Lady Styling
38:15 - How Leads Can Support Followers Learn This Concept
45:40 - Outro

In the video
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📍Sydney, Australia
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Transcript
Hi guys, welcome back to another video, as you can see, this is a bit of a different one, uh this is more of an interview style where I interview dancers that I think we have like a valuable insight that I think could really help you guys and this is Heidi. Heidi is actually my first Zouk teacher here in Sydney and as you guys probably noticed, like I've been talking about Zouk a lot more recently, she's very happy about this ah and there's something different about Heidi that I noticed right away whenever I'm, but we'll get into this more, but like whenever I'm dancing with her, she always tells me to breathe, like told me 100 times I think, you know, in one class, just just just breathe. So that's that's definitely something really interesting, I think that's that's like way deeper than than just like actual breathing. But yeah, I'm gonna just maybe let you introduce yourself, maybe like tell us a bit more about your dancing background. Hi, my name is Heidi been dancing Zouk for 11, 12 years I think going on now, So teaching for probably about 10 roughly because I'm not sure anymore how long I've been teaching, but yeah, initially before dancing, I've done a little martial arts, which which I feel like it has contributed a lot in um the body awareness, the discipline and kind of like just sticking to what you love and what you believe in and just doing repetitions repetitions and just kind of like mastery from there and yeah, so with Zouk, I haven't really done any salsa bachata prior to that, so I just jumped straight into Zouk and then has been doing a lot of additional side classes, like tango ballet, West coast swing just to improve my zouk. Right, right, right, yeah, the other way around the other way around, like I took up because like people telling me, oh, you know, you're like essential, you need to take up zouk because that's where it came from. And so yeah, I was like, okay, I was a bit reluctant actually, actually my first response um when people tell me, oh you know what, that you should learn to improve your body movement. And then my first response response was like, why don't I do more of an essential, why do I have to do from You can edit that to us? not leave it in. Some people hate you. There's a lot of things that has been adapted from Brazilian zouk and um some of the like world renowned, like the charter sensual dances actually learn from like international zouk teachers as well just to understand, I think the safety and the smoothness and the softness of all of these body movements. But yes, let's just very, you know, it's very deep topic, it's very deep topic, we'll see if we get to that. But um yeah, um like, so how did your dancing evolve, like in a nutshell to where you are now and what have you learned or may be unlearned. So, um, initially I've learned with, um, I think about four different teachers. So two couples in zouk and then, um, then I start to travel and I start to expose myself to different style than Rio zouk style that Sydney was having at that time mainly is Rio zouk, but a little bit of a kind of like a lambada influence, but it's still like, it's not the pure lambada as what we've seen a lot lately around all of the videos and all of the international's that's traveling now. Um, so then I traveled and I was exposed to a lot of different genres or like the neo zouk, the actual lambada, like pure just numbers is very confusing timing for me at that time. and then then gradually moving into black zouk and then some flow and kind of like so zouk and then the Brenderson style and then all of these softness and smoothness and creaminess and all of the battery the stuff that I really fell for like to. Yes. So I'm like eventually all of that involves to finding the one or maybe two generals that I really, really like, which is um, it's kind of like the hybrid of all of it. All right. So trying everything and then just finding out the ones that suits with your vibes, my vibes in this case. Yeah. And then then you master it and then I'm trying to master it, getting to know it more and then giving it back now just like because I believe in that and I dance it that way. I can dance the other ways too, but this is still my favorite way of doing it. Yeah. So one topic that I really want to explore is the breathing part, right? It's such a like of course if you don't breathe, you're going to die right? Like it's such a like there's a limit, there's a limit, right? Like it's it's so like it seems so artificial like it's superficial but then like the reason I like it is because when I was really into self development back then um breathing was like meditation and breathing and stuff like that. It's so integral in like helping you stay in the moment. And like when it when it's translated to dancing being in the moment is like connection, you know? And like that's why I really like because of the connection. Like I think the way that I would like to point it out all everyone when they start learning any anything right? Any dancing, everyone will try to get it right there trying to focus on the movements and trying to focus on just get that part right that they're forgetting about the connection, they're forgetting about being present. They're forgetting about themselves because they're just like so fixated on. I need to be able to do that right? And then eventually like um kind of like it becomes a habit because then all that we are trying to do is just to get it right, so like through development through like so many years of dancing then I probably realized actually we never mentioned to anyone to breathe in class, like you know, and two like I am breathing because I'm trying to, I'm trying to just like making myself more calm or kind of like just controlling, having a bit more control, having a bit more steadiness and then like then again meditations and all of this kind of just like understanding the body a little bit more in martial art, we use a lot of breathing as well, we actually accentuate a lot of the breathing in and out and really voice it out, like really having the sound of the breathing because that it actually is marked for the body to start to prepare or to land or to soften, right? So again, I think I'm using a lot of martial arts to then adapt it back to the dancing is kind of actually like we need a lot of this in, in zouk and especially when I'm exposed more to like so super flow zouk, soul zouk and all of this, I'm like breathing is very, very important, I'm doing it but how do I do it because again, it was never be a focus on the class, right, it was never like okay, breathe here, breathe there, don't forget to breathe, Always said it's like oh you know left foot, right foot and then you're gonna turn here, you're gonna turn there and then like, you know, and then once the focus becomes to make the body a bit more melty a little bit more softer, then you're adding all of this extra information kind of actually you need to breathe a lot more and we need to bring that awareness way early on to all of the beginners if you know if possible whenever possible because they need to get it from the start as soon as possible as soon as possible because then the dance will be a lot easier rather than, you know, rather than a textbook rather than I mean kind of like you know you move forward and back and it's kind of everyone's moving the same way but then you can start just be present like enjoy it for yourself because then you're kind of like, yeah my brain is thinking but I'm like oh actually like I'm not as tired or I'm not as exhausted by the end of it and it's kind of like it's actually enjoyable. I can go longer, go for social longer. Yeah and I guess also other than obviously the connection and then sort of relaxing, it also adds like a layer of softness to the movement because like when you breathe and then you release that's when like the body is like more most like you can mold the body the most when it's like relaxed and I feel like it's like it's an underrated thing, at least in the scene that we see now. Like it's a lot of like using your frame to force the movement rather than unlocking that and then like molding, molding the movement, not that recovering from covid still, but it's kind of like that leftover, the leftover coughs, it's gonna be a while breathing helps breathing, not breathing enough or too much. So with with breathing there's a lot of different methods of breathing actually, like once you send me all of the list of what we're going to discuss today. I remembered when I went to Prague actually my chiropractor actually suggested me to do um a yoga lesson in in one of the studio there where they don't really speak english. But I now kind of like realize they actually focus on breathing most of the time, or prana, whatever you call it. Yoga. yeah, I think part of it, I didn't know because everything was in check. Text actually literally don't know what happened. I just went in there and I literally just do it like, and I felt amazing because you felt the release that you never felt. So literally bringing the air all the way through your body sometimes by force because you're forcing yourself to breathe in a certain way to kind of like there's a fire breathing apparently because I mean I'm reading on it again, there's like all of this just like heating up the body and kind of like yeah it is just really really interesting because all the other yoga classes have been, it's just focusing a lot on the fluidity of the movement but not actually just like this is how you breathe, this is your bread from your left nostril, right? Right, Okay. So it the sensation feels very very different. And then through meditations and then you're learning to calm yourself, Like calm your mind and calm your body and then then I explore it further by just um what can we do more with breathing and how can we breathe basically? How should we breathe? Yeah. Yeah. And I think you did the master class. So yeah, now we're onto like the application right of breathing. Like how do you recommend? Because obviously like when you're in class you have to look at the move and then try to replicate it like you're so in your head, you know? So do you recommend practicing at home and then incorporating breathing at some point? Like I think breathing is like essential, essential, but sometimes we breathe but we're not purposely or kind of like intentionally just breathe for the body. So I think a good exercise. What you can we all can do at home? Maybe before sleeps with that will be the easiest because you're already in bed, you already ready to get relaxed, right? He's just trying to breathe throughout the whole body and gradually kind of like slowly putting yourself to sleep by just relaxing every single line or segments of the body from your legs, from from your feet, your knees, like your legs, your back and hopefully by the end of it you'll fall asleep. But he's kind of like sending the air throughout the whole body and then kind of like felt these sensations of when the air is coming in and coming out right, right. Being really mindful of that. Yeah. Like when you say throughout the body, do you feel like you, are you saying that when you inhale and then you kind of like breathe as deeply as possible and then kind of like feel, feel the, feel the sensation, if you can actually feel how far it goes through your legs, maybe it's the sensation of the blood rush or something like that. Right? So it feels like, okay, I can actually feel that I'm wiggling my toes. Like purposely not just like, it's just like a reaction, but you intentionally trying to feel all the connections within your body through the breathing through, just kind of like relaxing everything into it. Yeah. And then kind of like trying to deactivate or just like relaxing or activate in the morning if you want to try to do it just like alarm or jump over the bed straightaway, Getting ready. Usually I don't have the time to do that because I'll be rushing. But one thing that I noticed I did this once, um, I mean I do this, but this is I, I recorded this once is I do like a lot of this breathing when I'm shadow dancing when I'm dancing by myself. So when I'm dancing at home by myself, I put in airports and then I randomly one time just kind of recorded myself just to like check on my moves, see if there's anything that I should be, you know, fixing. And I noticed like it's so like I put my camera kind of far away so that I couldn't get the whole view. But I noticed when I was replaying the video that I was breathing so loud, like the breathing was so like audible. Like I was like in certain movements. Like, like, like, like a lot of that I didn't realize I was like, wow, that's kind of cool. Actually whenever I'm breathing, like the movements become like bigger and I think like, I just like, I just like, especially in, in a connected, um, like when it's like really close embrace those breathing, like just little chest movements. The other one can feel as well. So through the breathing. yeah, I think that there's a lot of layers into the breathing. I think that you can use or what I've been using in dancing or the way that I dance. Um like the basic stuff will be like just utilizing or knowing your own body, knowing how you breathe, knowing the pattern that you're breathing because like when we go to work, when we try to catch a bus so when you're driving, like just pay notice on like how are you actually breathing at that time? Because normally when you're on autopilot, like you're also an autopilot on the breathing, right? So then try to bring it back and like, oh I'm going to intentionally breathe longer or shorter, like when you're running you will be like breathing a little bit shorter. So he's trying to like pay attention on the pattern of your breathing and what activities that you're doing and then gradually when you dance, you try to apply that kind of same awareness when I dance most of the time people don't breathe, like trying to pay attention if you're not breathing as well because when you're aware then you can fix it right? So it's bringing the awareness like are you actually breathing? How do you breathe in the movement or when? Because sometimes if you hold your breath, when do you feel like you need to breathe or is it just out of pilot and gradually trying to make it a choice for you to actually breathe? Right Yeah, it can intentionally not breathe to create something, I feel like it's it's very um like there's so much that you can do that, that's why like in zouk or at least in bachata, the the first part of the song, like this is like not much opportunity because the structure of the song is very different but like the beginning of the song or like look like if it's not too fast, I feel like there's like a lot like a lot of opportunity for you to just really play with these things. You don't even have to do anything, you know, I don't have to even do the boom chick chick right? You can just like just stay static. Yeah, just stay there and then like breathing. Maybe start to like synchronized breathing with the movement or maybe not breathe for a couple of seconds. You know, we were trying to cover this a little bit on the master class by like, you know the, the first part is just like being aware with your breathing melting into the ground, the grounding and then connecting with your partner because you can do it solo. But when you connecting with a partner especially as leaves, it's going to be a little bit different because you're trying to feel how they breathe as well and he's trying to kind of like um influence when to breed, when to relax because if you're relaxed and your partner can be relaxed too if you can sense that they're not relaxed and you can feel or how do I make my body relaxed and you can try to apply it if that's gonna work the same way. Otherwise you have to find a different way and figure out what, how is their body moves or react. Yeah, so it's like a lot of, a lot of awareness, a lot of kind of like, feeling of kind of like how the body reacted through this kind of like breathing exercises and all of that, and then how that affected their grounding as well. Because like, it does affect in a lot of things like, you know how you shift your weight, how you tense up your body, how you play with all of this energy shift internally inside the body. The micro movements that you're mentioning as well. It's all related to like, if I can kind of like invite or influence the weather, they breathe through the skin, or like body contact. Like not squeezing, not like really forcing your way, and that will be like, perfect, because it will be like the gentlest thing, the fluffiest thing, it's kind of like, and then you just being there together and yeah, I had like amazing dance um just doing like, basic stuff on a close hold, like for many, many songs and then literally just like nothing fancy. It's just like, very relaxing, very smooth. It's just a very connected. But it's a lot of that breathing, a lot of that kind of like getting back into your body and just don't worry too much about the other patterns sometimes at least. I think we also worry that, oh my God, there might be bored a I want us to do something fancy. But a lot of the times it's like it's the sensations, right? Yeah, exactly. The sensations. It's like, even though it's the same sort of pattern, if you just, if you go you do something simple and then you go to like a certain pattern and then you do other other simple things and then you go back to that pattern because of the way you combine it with the music, the timing and everything. It could feel different. You know, I understood that theoretically, but then when we dance at your master class, I was like, wow, okay, like that, that sort sort of solidified it as well. So like I think for leeds, it's important to maybe learn how to, how to follow or maybe just like, you know, grab your favorite zouk leader who can breathe and then ask them to ask them to lead. And then I think it will, it will really help you understand that you don't have to do all these crazy things all the time. It's not, it's not salsa. I think it's a challenge for the follow as well because I think a lot of followers always anticipating what's next, what's next. So what, what should we be doing or like, and then it's very hard to have that stillness. It's very hard to just like, okay, there's no, there's nothing else that's just like chill and let's just like, you know, just be there for each other and just like enjoy the moment of just that breathing, the weight shift. It's very, very hard actually for a lot of followers because they're like, again, fancy stuff. Oh my God, head movements and all of this like hair whips and all of that stuff. And then the simplest enjoyment is literally just be present in your body feeling that the grounding like instantly that you're grounded and your partner is there with you. And it's just the simplest thing. But sometimes we are in our heads like, Oh my God might be like, we might be in this hole for too long. It's only been 30 seconds, before too long. but And then follows like, oh my God, did I miss something that he did not move anywhere? It is that is that kind of like chatter is in your mind. So it does take a while to I think to just go. to let I feel Yeah. Yeah, I think it's it's, you know, it should be normalized to like dance for five songs in a row. Like because sometimes like the first, the first two songs, right? Like this is I tell my classes. Um so we were just um doing, we we did this like basic step tap, step, tap, step, step, step, step, step, step step step, but we just did step tap, step tap, but kind of like moving the shoulders a little bit and then and then some of them were like a bit confused like this is too easy and then I'm like yeah it is easy but like it serves two purposes actually because when when like this happens 99% of the time like I see this like every time a girl just finished dancing with someone, they're like like they were really really like tense, like almost sometimes like shaking and then like the purpose of just like doing the basic is to relax them so that they're like oh thank God it's not something crazy anymore, you know, I don't have to like squeeze my glutes so that my back doesn't hurt. It's really really nice feeling just to kind of relax them. And then once they were both relaxed we have that opportunity to kind of like play with like tiny movements, tiny simple movements. I think it's also like a lot of the time, right? Um Again like relating this to martial arts where um you are very aware with your body up to the point where you when you absorb the impact of someone kicking you you know if you miss the timing to absorb it, you will get hurt right? So you understand your body well enough when and what to protect so that awareness doesn't really come that easy. Yes. No, no you don't have, I didn't say that you have to get beaten up to to get know, there like, you do martial arts get beaten up so you have body awareness. No, but through breathing you can also have this, you cannot be aware, it's like my lower back feels a bit today, or like if you feel any pains in your legs, like you're trying to use the breathing to help you relax it a little bit so you can just not over using the wrong muscles, like you know, you're wrong tension so you're going to make it worse. But yeah, but then like this is not how to say, I'm going to kind of like bring it to the follows as well. This is very hard for the followers too. Voice it out when they're going to get hurt or if they feel pain or anything because sometimes we're not aware with what's going on, right? So just bringing that in the master class, we were bringing the awareness, like, you need to feel your body, you need to say something if something don't feel right or if you're in pain or if you're anything because through the breathing you're actually scanning your body as well, right? Yeah. And then when you're partnering up as a leader, you are also scanning the body of the followers, so you kind of like, oh I feel like she's tensing up in some part of what is happening, they're right rather than firmly asking them which you can too. Yeah, but it would be nice, it's just like gently just kind of like being there for each other and supporting each other and then it's kind of like giving that safe space that the followers kind of like actually I feel safe enough so I can actually force it up or you just feel safe enough so you can ask right? Yeah, because you want to take care and like, you know, have a good dance and like yeah, very good, enjoyable safe dance together. So it's just kind of like everything is related to something very simple, like breathing. Yeah. Yeah. Also just on that note as well, like when you said you're also scanning your body, I feel like um it's so it's so enjoyable for yourself even like I remember when I was doing um like this like breathing thing um like a coarse um when I really brought to attention, like my own body like at the time you were lying down and then like, like on the map, like my back when my I feel that my back against the map when I sort of feel like the weight of my my hand, you know like that that's kind of like yeah, like like I was actually felt energized because like wow, I feel really, I don't know, I don't know what the feeling is but like I feel super present and then being super present, really energizes you and like a lot of the a lot of the participants there, they felt the same way, you know, like they were like, wow, like this is really different when you're living present, you know, because we all like a lot of us or most of us are just kind of like surviving most of the time because we have chores, we have work to do, we have somewhere to be events to go to, you know, and like we forgot class to teach, I'm very present when I'm teaching. It's just all becomes autopilot that you kind of like you sometimes the schedule that you have to do that you just kind of like maybe I need a time out or maybe I need to just like be late or something like that. Just just for yourself. It's kind of like, I think it becomes everyone's focused now after covid and lockdown, mental health, health, mental health, health, health care, everything right? So then it's all correlated than the awareness are more um kind of like, it's more open now for us to have the awareness like this issue is probably all this kind of breathing aspect as well as already always been there. But now since like, you know, all of the awareness shifted then everyone is more open into it and it's kind of like, oh yeah, to take care of ourselves, we have to be present and to be present, then you have to know your body. No, you how you feel and then you will know maybe how other people feel. Especially with partner dancing. Yeah so yeah so I don't know where you are in your dancing but I feel like why wouldn't you want to do this breathing like dancing thing like and not only it's it feels good for you, it feels good for the other person that you're dancing with and then the movement is so much more smooth like so like looks even even more like you know buttery buttery soft and like it's just like heaven on earth. So if like we're not we're not trying to convince you to do the breathing but like if you don't convince yourself after this video that breathing is good then I don't know what to say in general and in general and you know you need to you know amplify it a little bit I think. Yeah and then like just to add extra extra advanced notes as well like um with breathing you can start to disassociate as well. So when you learn to activate you can learn to deactivate as well. So you can I think I mentioned in the class somewhere like you can have the same reaction as a follow or as a leader just to sense that too. You can have the same reaction as what you usually do but you use less of the muscles or the joints that you activate and through the breathing it will happen or it's possible to happen because then you know your body well that you don't use what's not necessary anymore because then like why would I exhaust myself if I can use less kind of the idea and for leaders kind of like the more relaxed you followers, the more easier you throw themselves into any movements, the more easier because then they will be in that state way. It's almost like you're intoxicated but almost half asleep, kind of like really the body is just like Moldable enough, so they're not panicking with any of difficult or move step, you know, complicated moves that they can do, but like, you know, usually they tense up but when they're in that state it's just a lot easier and because you together you present together, it's a lot easier to be there for each other as well. So it's kind of like it's not brainwashing, it's not we're just telling you how much fun we're having. brainwashing, You know, whether or not you want to adopt it, it's up to you what you're missing out if you don't, it's fun, brainwashing is fun. Alright. Um another thing that's like, see the thing with you is like there's like certain things that like it's like, like very striking and that's the first thing that the breathing thing, I was like okay, like the whole aura about the breathing, I think she she like understands it well. And also the other thing is styling and she hates that word styling because to her it's not styling. I just felt, I think from what I can see right from a lot of different dance style. I think it's a little bit for me. Don't take it personally. It's just my opinion. It's a little bit excessive and it's a little bit like force. Yeah, like salsa I did not say that, I did not say what style, who's, who's doing what, but I just, it's okay. I'll take, I'll take all the, all the hate. Um, I just felt like, um, whenever that dance styling is never is my focus, the flow of the energy and the flow of the intention is always my focus. So if I need to offset something because like, you know, I might lose balance and I'll use my arm or I use my shoulder, I use the way that I look tilting to the left or to the right, right just to make it easier for the rest of the body to come back into the momentum or connection. So so to like, to kind of like visualize it, to help people visualize it. You don't do this out of nowhere. Like this is styling, you don't do that. I don't know where they're like, Yeah, so that's styling, what you're doing is you're receiving energy and then you're, you're using like that those movements to balance. Is that, is that what you're thinking, connecting all of the movements. Like we were talking earlier about like, oh you can activate through the breathing, you can activate like certain part of the body and you can choose to not as well. So if I'm if I'm doing an open like an elastic open to the side then I can actually extend the open all the way to my arm when I finished with my weight shift because when I finished all of the energy actually going outwards, which that which my arm then kind of like accentuate the directions of the energy. And then when the leaders bringing me back, the first thing that comes back will be the hand because that's the last thing in the last part of the flows going and that's the first thing that then be affected before it calls wrapping into everything else, right? So then I can direct it open, I can direct it upwards so I can just play around with waving it around just like writing in water, It's more mostly just receiving that energy and that kind of like, like, like like helping that extend. Maybe maybe even like molding it a little bit, but it's not like out of nowhere like you all of a sudden do something right? Like you've never seen me like like like yep yep yep, yep okay okay let's see if I'm just joking around and just kind of like yeah, yeah okay, so there's like so yeah, obviously you can style, right? Like obviously if you want to style style, it's just it's just very hard to say um made up, I think. just doesn't make sense for the body flow. Right? Yeah, it Like the energy flow. It for me it doesn't make sense because I'm like, what am I doing extra if I can do less? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The understanding. Yeah, I think it's because like you like that just kind of like the continuous energy, you make everything connect like make it natural rather than forced, right? So obviously not really for for leads, but like how do you start um understanding this? So you can incorporate it into your movements? I think eventually like if it's talking about dance techniques, it's just feeling where the momentum is going in your body, right? And we're gonna talk about techniques now for hours, just let me know when I need to like stop a lot of the times. Like I'm going to talk this about followers more now because I felt like this is I think usually where it is we are more staying centered because we need to um how to say we need to save ourselves and we're not, we shouldn't go over, right? Because sometimes we don't have enough time to go to the next movement, so we need to stay like just in the middle, but that means we actually never completed the movement, which then this will be your focus if you want to feel where the flow is going, You go all the way, right? And of course you're going to train this with any leaders that knows what you intending to do, right? So you can tell them look, I'm going to go way over than usual. But it's just for me to explore where is this actually going? If it's going all the way? Right? So what the followers will ask his support, I just need to support. So if I'm about to fall off, please catch me. Because that will be the case if you go all the way and you don't know or there's nothing else stopping you. You will fall or you might just have to keep taking a step to the side, right? So it's just exploring that what's the maximum actually what's the maximum of where is this going because most of the time you are centered, so you're not sure how far you can go and what's your limit. So you're exploring that limit within yourself. Even if you do it solo as well, you can do that too because if you do it solo then you just take the steps, you don't you don't fall to the ground unless if you want to learn to fall your floor is your best friend. Yes, I think that's more for like soccer players, you don't learn how to dive. But then like then you start to use the extensions of your arm frame or your shoulder or pretty much the rotation of the body just to offset. So once you know how far that you can extend, you kind of try to offset right to learn to offset. And then kind of like I'm learning your habit staying centered. Uh huh and then realizing that actually have been staying centered all this time so I can actually go more right in no learning all of this. You still need to respect the latest as well. So you can't just the leader stopping me but I want to go Yeah, right. so there's that balance of like just some kind of like reacting and reciprocating what the leaders suggesting, but also letting yourself actually go all the way right, right, right. Because I felt this sort of related to the leaders because most of the leaders maybe you don't know if the followers goes all the way. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to ask like what do the leaders do in helping the follow learn this concept they were training. Um I think being present and when you know it's about to hit the limit, then you gradually kind of, it's the elastic concept from the frame, it's kind of like just before they go all the way you kind of like pull a little bit just to create that limit but not too early. It's just seeing where the footwork is and then before they go all the way and about to tip off with the rest of the body, you create that limit for them. You can also look at their feet if you need to because otherwise you can close your eyes to, you can close your eyes and actually feel it because that then that will help more because rather than looking, you're actually feeling right because a lot of the men styling now you look away and then I don't do man styling, I, I get it like looking away Yeah, look away and then look back and yeah, like yeah, leaders, like you can train yourself with like closing your eyes so just to feel your followers, the presence, the balance, the breathing and it's kind of like training for both sides. The followers just let yourself explore to the maximum you can girl, I did this training with Sonny, like probably like a few years back. Sunny is um Heidi's teaching partner by the way. Yes, so yes, so it's literally when we start to explore more on the kind of like the brands and all of this flow, all of this kind of like really melty, creamy but I felt like I want to explore to the most so he can feel and catch and redirect when he felt that by force because now I'm going intentionally I'm going more, it was very interesting because from the outside, I think I have someone commented watching, it's kind of like, wow, that's a new style, it's kind of like, I don't know, it's just no going all the way, dancing, it's just like the boomerang, even like all of the insights and I'm going all the way to the maximum. Yes, he creating the impulse for me, but I'm taking that impulse and going all the way, so if it's not stopping me, I'm not stopping. It's kind of like that kind of training. So both of us are really aware, kind of like I know when I'm being blocked or I'm being maneuvered so rather than crashing, I'm learning to mold into it, so it's not rough for me as well. Then my like jerky movement. Yeah, so and then for the leaders, you are learning to like knowing, oh wait, I don't want to hurt to go that far. So yeah, I'm gonna like, you know, trying to absorb and receive and redirect Yeah, because otherwise you will know when you missed it. Yeah. Yeah, so good training, you might be very exhausted by the end of it because there's a lot of energy required. A lot of kind of like you're pushing your body to the limit, so it's not relaxed anymore. It's literally fully stretched. There's a lot more kind of like you're exploring the boundaries and then you kind of exceeding it a little bit, you're just seeing where you can like Yeah, do this often like once a month, so probably like once a month for like a good hour, like you can be very exhausted by the end of it. Yeah, because it's like it's required a lot and then you have to calm yourself down. Just have like good nice soft dance. Yeah. So take a bath after, you know, play with the cats and it's just like a dog that was traumatizing. I think it's shocking for the both of us. Probably for me it's more like actually I can go that far right? And then for the leaders like, oh my God, you can go that far right like that. And I was like, oh wow. Like so it's kind of like realization like actually when we dance, that was not that. So what was that then? Like, you know where you're overcompensating for me or am I just like blocking you or something like that. So it's kind of like bring another level of awareness kind of like wait, so how are we doing this if you want to do this in a novel dancing scenario? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is like a higher level concept that you know, like has to be like within a safe environment as well with like a partner that you trust. Yes, I did not say anything that's kevin saying it's a compliment to sonny that I mean she she trusts sunny. Sure. But yeah, like I guess I guess it's like it's really about like learning your own body for the further followers, you know, like circling back to like the whole, not really styling but you just kind of like compensating like a movement like you know making it flow. So yeah, it's it's it's something that you just gotta like practice, you know? I think also it's kind of like it's your choice to if you don't want to go there you don't yeah like you know, if you just like happy with just like I'll prefer to stay centered and not tipping off balance and are you happy with where you're at? That's fine. But if you want to explore, I do I do suggest you do explore because this will, I think this shifted a lot of things with like you know what you know about your body, what you know about the limitations. And also then when the leaders kind of like telling you where to place your feet, you can tell them my body just don't go that way. So it's kind of like because you know, your body was kind of like I can't, my body actually can't do what you asked me to do. You know like you can have something to say because like then I'm sorry like that's that's not how my body works but cool. Right? Yeah. And if you have injuries, you can always tell them you feel secure enough to just be okay with like look, you know, let's make it work for both of us and just kind of like helping each other. Yeah. And you know for the leaders, hopefully eventually once you kind of like getting into this more and more, you can be more aware with your own body and the followers especially who you're dancing with. Um if they need more support or if they need less or you know, it's just making something magical happen with less effort. Yes, Yes, more effort in the beginning. More from the beginning. But you know like training, you put more effort, but so that you know when you're actually social dancing that you know that you can just enjoy Yes, and fall asleep and fall asleep, fluffy fluffy buttery melty dance. I think the way that I measured, if it's like a good success of like on this kind of like breathing and micro movement and softness. If your followers falling asleep by the end of the dance you did. Well that's The dances finished, the goal. come back, you know, that's like, that's like great. Exactly, Exactly. So yeah, Yeah, I guess so. Um on that note, we might wrap it up but four people, how do they find you? So I'm currently teaching for Zuck Unity in Sydney in Sydney, in Sydney you can find me on my facebook idea in West Asia or Zuck Unity facebook put it on the link or Zuck Unity dance on the website and then there's four of us in there and Sunny there too. Teaching with money and Jeff and Sarah and yes, we are going to try to um kind of like have more kind of like this material for our master classes and all of that. Hopefully yes, every quarter. So yeah, hopefully if people are keen enough and you know um interested then we can make it more regular. Yes. Yes. Yes. I like I really enjoyed, I've done one workshop and I've really enjoyed it. Like it's just such a different experience. You know, it's not like move your hands like this, move your body like that. It's more like deeper concepts like this. So yeah, if you guys enjoyed that, please um you know, give a like subscribe to the channel and also if you're in Sydney come yes, Come check out Zuck unity. So friday's practice I forgot. Alright. Yeah. And like for zucker's in Sydney or in the area you need to come to friday f that p Fridays took practice. All of all of the information will be in the description. Uh Yeah, thank you so much. Heidi uh and we will see you in the next video
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