Correct posture - a lifted rib cage, head held high, shoulders back and relaxed, loose legs, a focus on center of balance - is what is essential to making a dancer "shine." From my very first beginner's class I emphasize this posture, choosing to spend precious lesson time on this, before moving on to dance. It is also important to line up legs-knees-feet under the hips so that a proper base is formed for movement. In other words, feet should be straight (not pigeon-toed or out) and about 12 inches (more or less, depending upon your hip span) apart. Knees should be spongy and loose, spine should be straight, and rib cage should be lifted. Dancers who come to me from other teachers will always ask if they should tuck their pelvis. I ask them to do this: Put hand on the small of back with straight legs - you will see that you have a bit of a sway back. Now slowly bend knees and you will feel your back straightening out. So to have a straight back the trick is to have loose legs, not to have an unnatural tight tuck - which will keep you from being able to do a variety of shimmies, hip movements, and layering.

Concentrating on the center of balance is also an important aspect of posture and ultimately, the quality of stage presence. When teaching hip slides to my beginners, in reviewing hip circles and figure 8's with my intermediate students, and with intensive work on beledy movements with my advanced students, I will always demonstrate the shift of weight by having them lift the leg that is not bearing the weight of the movement. At the beginning, the students will topple over, or have very shaky legs at the least. Eventually they learn to find their center of balance and can execute many, many movements on one leg. Some uninitiated person might walk into my class and think I have a flock of flamingoes in training! A further suggestion is to close your eyes while you are walking (providing you are walking in a safe place) and concentrate on the alignment of your body so that you can walk (at a quick clip) a straight path. This takes some doing, but really is fun once you get the hang of it.

The importance of these lessons in posture, balance, and centering became poignantly obviously last summer, when during the heat and a battle with some summer allergies, I felt unusually sick. I was nauseous and dizzy, and almost fell out of my chair when I reached over to throw something in the wastebasket. I was doubly concerned as I was in the middle of preparing for a special Hafli in September. Spinning and turning are a big part of my routine, and although I could spin dervish style for long periods of time, a simple turn would send my head spinning.

It was not only with dancing that I had noticed this. Something had been brewing for years, but I didn't want to waste money or time going to the doctor. My dental hygienist first said to me around 2 years ago that something must be wrong with my inner ear as I was not able to go comfortably back in the dentist's chair without getting sick and panicked. At aerobics class I would literally get ill when doing sit ups. Various things like that…

I really started to get worried this past summer, though, when I thought my dancing would be affected. I was tested at length - everything from hearing tests to neurological tests akin to an EKG or EEG, but for eye movements and brain patterns. As it turned out I did have a condition known as BPPV - Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. The doctor referred to it as a disease, but "condition" sounds so much friendlier, so that's what I call it. To make a long explanation short, some crystals are displaced in my ear canal and when I turn my head suddenly or in certain positions the brain does not register the movement at the same speed or direction as the movement itself, hence severe dizziness and vertigo. Sometimes a "cure" can be exacted from physical therapy in the sense that the brain can be tricked into lots of things leading to less dizziness, and sometimes the crystals can actually be coaxed back into the correct position.*

At my initial physical therapy evaluation for this, the therapist was absolutely astonished and said I would truly be an amazing case study. While there were many positions and manipulations that were severe enough to indicate potential disability, there were other things that showed no signs of the condition at all. For example, with regard to the former, when standing with both feet together and closing my eyes I instantly fell to the left. In an example of the latter, I was able to stand on one foot with my eyes closed without so much as a waiver. After talking about my dancer's posture, my center of balance needed for dancing, and the fact that when teaching hip movements I often do stand on one leg only, so as to entirely isolate the movement, she determined that my dancing, indeed, saved me from life in a wheelchair. This is not because the condition makes the body physically deteriorate, but because the severity of my condition, had I not been a dancer, would have made it so that I would have found it difficult to walk even with a cane. (But of course, had it been that severe, I would have sought help earlier, perhaps warding off the dire predicted future.)

My dancing, and specifically my "magic lift" which is so much of my day-to-day posture, truly saved my life. So when your teacher tells you to stand tall, explore your center of balance, and isolate, DO IT!

* Please see http://members.aol.com/inventmd/bppv.html for a good explanation. There are many similar websites that can be found just by typing BPPV into your Search function.