Rebound
Intermediate Level
Going deeper — techniques and nuances for experienced dancers
The elastic bounce-back that follows a movement's endpoint — using the body's stored energy to flow naturally into the next action.
Intermediate focus
Use rebound to connect movements. Body wave: each segment's rebound initiates the next segment's movement. The chest reaches its forward peak, rebounds, and that rebound energy passes to the ribcage. The ribcage rebounds to the hips. Nothing starts from scratch. Practice this: chest pop, rebound into body wave, body wave finishes, rebound into another pop. The whole sequence should feel like one continuous energy bouncing through your body.
Tips
- •Think of your body as a rubber band — every stretch has a natural return. Work with that, not against it
- •Practice with a tennis ball: throw it against a wall and catch the rebound. Now imagine your body is the ball and the movement endpoint is the wall
- •Watch advanced dancers in slow motion — they never fully stop between movements. That continuous quality IS rebound
Common mistakes
- •Killing the rebound by stopping each movement dead — this creates robotic, disconnected dancing
- •Over-amplifying the rebound into uncontrolled bouncing — rebound should be proportional to the initiating movement
- •Ignoring the rebound in leading — a good lead uses the follower's natural rebound to flow into the next movement
- •Confusing rebound with aimless wobbling — rebound has direction and purpose
Practice drill
Standing in place: chest pop forward, let the rebound pull your chest back, immediately let that back-rebound push your chest forward into the next pop. Create a bouncing rhythm. Start with 2-count bounces, speed up to 1-count, then to half-count. The pops should feel increasingly effortless as you let the rebound do more work. Then apply the same principle to hip pops, side to side. Three minutes.