In social dancing, we often don’t care how the legs look and we go based only on feeling. This is one way to do it and if you bend or straighten at the right times, it will feel good and also probably look good.
But for “performance dancing” or controlling your aesthetic, knowing when to straighten and bend your legs not only feels great and gives you the extra strength/stability but also helps you draw beautiful lines.
There are only 3 rules (to bending and straightening your legs):
- When the leg is right UNDER you, it is BENT.
- When the leg is BEHIND or IN FRONT of you, it is STRAIGHT.
- You generally should never have 2 bent legs or 2 straight legs.
So think about it. Any time you reach with a free leg, it will straighten. And any time you push off your standing leg, it will also straighten. But any time you change weight and come over onto your new standing leg, that standing leg must be bent.
The only last reminder is that your legs are always moving towards straight or moving towards a slight bend. In some moments, your will straighten even harder or bend even more…but the default is never a stiff locked straight and also never an overly lazy relaxed bend.