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Roll of Foot

One should distinctly feel the roll for the foot almost as similar to the ball rolling. Roll a rounded object with pressure on one's forearm, forward and backward, to get the feel of what one should experience when walking.

Exercise 1
This is very similar to the Tap-step as in Spanish dancing.
Here we make two distinct and sharp sounds with each foot. The first sound is by the ball of the foot landing on the floor and the second due to the heel of the same foot being lowered with force. There should be equal time interval between each sound. As the ball of one-foot lands on the ground, instantly the other foot is lifted completely off the floor. Thus only one foot is carrying the body weight through out the exercise. The knees should be relaxed and the back should be erect and never look down.

Exercise 2
Tap with the ball only.
Stand in front of a stool. Place the hands on it and take maximum body weight on the arms, such that the feet are almost free of the body weight. In this position practise tapping with the heel without lifting the toes off the ground. The body should not rise or fall when tapping.

The procedure here is that the knee is pushed forwards and up and simultaneously the heels are lifted up. It is not necessary for the heels to touch the floor for the tap instead just the action is good enough.

Once one is able to do it with good rhythm, then slowly start to transfer the body weight fully on to the feet, without the body rising or falling when tapping.

The next variation would be to perform this for two or four taps on one foot and then on the other foot, without loosing the rhythm with the music.

Exercise 3
Roll of the Foot
Stand erect with the feet together. The body weight is distributed equally on the whole foot. Keeping the knees straight raise the toes as high as possible, and balance on the tip of the heels. Next is to return back to the starting position, flat foot, and then to take the weight on the tip of the toes.

When performing this one would notice that when on the heel the height increases as compared to the starting position. The height increases further when on the toes.

The next part is to keep the knees bent when the foot is flat. A slight straightening of the leg would assist one to go up on the toes or the heel. The knees remain relaxed through out the exercise, but more so when on the toes.

After a bit of pracise the same exercise is done with only one foot on the ground.

When performing this exercise one will distinctly feel the roll of foot. This feeling should be used for all the movements in dancing.