With this exercise we return to backward walking, but this time we are trying to refine what we did in exercise 3.  In exercise 3 we focused mostly on the feeling of arriving with all our weight over the weight bearing foot.  We were looking for the feeling of relaxing onto that foot so we didn’t worry much about the free foot, and while the result didn’t look very elegant it did get to the foundation of transferring weight backward.  Now we will refine this movement and make it smooth and continuous, and then we want to be able to do the movement really slowly.  That is always the test, can we do the movement slowly and still have good balance all the way through.

What you will find when you slow this movement down is that you might have a tendency to push with the foot you are leaving.  This will come out again when we focus on the free foot, and picking it up as soon as possible.  As you do this you will probably also end up with tension in your feet.  Review exercise 3 and if you were able to do that weight transfer with relaxed feet, try and keep that feeling.  Here we want to pick the free foot up as soon as there is no weight on it so we finish the step over the weight bearing foot with the free foot free from the floor and passing the standing foot.  When I am leading this is the point I am looking for in my partner’s movement, at this point my partner is ready to start another step.  This exercise is all about finding that place.

Finally at the end of the video I show something I do a lot as a brief practice exercise, combining backward and forward walking.  Go ahead and take a video of yourself doing the exercise and watch to see how you are doing.

Slow movement is hard to do, and yet it doesn’t require a lot of muscle to do.  Be careful of your feet as you do this, you will probably work too hard at first.  If anything hurts, stop whatever you are doing, nothing we are doing here should hurt.  Listen to your body, and figure out why there is pain and change what you are doing.

Have fun and look forward to the time when we can all dance together again.