Advanced
Snake
Advanced Level
Full mastery — nuance, personal expression, and artistry
A full-body undulation that travels through the entire body from head to toe (or toe to head), like a snake slithering vertically.
Tips
- •Practice against a wall: start with your forehead touching the wall, then peel off one segment at a time. This forces sequential movement
- •Video yourself from the side — the wave should be visible as a traveling ripple, not a simultaneous push
- •Think 'each body part is on a 1-beat delay from the one above it' — that delay IS the wave
Common mistakes
- •Starting from the chest instead of the head — the head initiation is what makes it a snake rather than a body wave
- •Skipping the abdomen — this creates a 'two-part' movement (upper body then hips) instead of a continuous wave
- •Moving everything at once instead of sequentially — the whole point is the traveling, sequential quality
- •Only doing snakes forward — practice backward snakes, lateral snakes, and reverse (upward) snakes
Practice drill
Stand profile to a mirror. Initiate from the head: chin forward (count 1), shoulders follow (count 2), chest (count 3), ribcage (count 4), abs (count 5), hips (count 6), knees absorb (count 7), neutral (count 8). Yes, that's an entire 8-count for one snake. Once smooth at this speed, compress: one snake per 4-count. Then per 2-count. The compression forces faster sequential movement while maintaining the wave quality. Three minutes.