Last night I was watching a video of  myself dancing a few years back and I literally wanted to hide under the covers!  We have all felt like this at some point in our career.  Sometimes, so much emphasis is put into hip and chest work, forgetting completely of working our arms just as much as our hips.  In the video, my arms and hands were everywhere not being able to keep them still or commit to a position.  Our arms frame and pull together our moves and when we do not concentrate on the placement of our arms it will make the dance go from fantastic to very poor.  What I was doing with my arms and hands where so distracting it took away from what I was doing. 

Keeping the arms in simple positions are best so that way your arms do not take away from the hip, stomach or chest moves that you are doing.  We must get just as comfortable with the position of our arms just like that of pistons and hip thrusts so that it becomes natural in our body.  The arms and hands are artistic gestures and they are just as important!

Tips:

• Practice arm positions each time you practice
• practice form and placement of arm and hands
• look in a mirror to make sure the form and placement our correct
• keep arms nice and strong and the energy flowing all the way through your finger tips
• drill placing your arms in 1st, second & third position
• vary the positon of your arms when doing hip work
• take a video of yourself dancing