In Lesson 3, we worked some more on posture and walking technique. Remember to keep a straight axis through your torso, with the energy going up and forward in the upper part of it and the energy dropping heavily from the lower part, the pelvis and the legs. Walking should be done with a minimal expenditure of strength, and as little tension in the hip and leg muscles as we can manage. Imagine the leg being a freely swinging pendulum hanging from the torso.
We practiced step frequencies in the weight changes: double time, simple time, half time, pauses. You can practice this alone, without need for a partner. And don't bother counting: the beat you hear is the emphasized beat, and stepping on each of these is what we call simple time. Don't worry about measures and musical phrases.
In the weight changes, make sure you use joints as needed. You cannot do quick changes (double time) when trying to move the axis as a whole - your ankles and knees need to work with the music, too. Just put the weight down on the foot on the beat you want to hit.
Finally, we introduced a simple method of doing double time in forward steps: the traspié. The traspié is a kind of stumbling step, or hesitation. We take the step, but stop short of finishing our axis transport, pushing back a bit instead, then finishing the step after all. The easiest way of doing it is just not allowing the forward knee to bend after placing the lead foot. The straight leg almost automatically pushes us back from the floor, we rock back, then forward again, this time allowing the knee to bend normally, which results in our axis going forward and finishing the step. Voilà.
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