Lateral Wave
Intermediate Level
Going deeper — techniques and nuances for experienced dancers
A body wave that travels sideways through the torso instead of front-to-back — creating a fluid, serpentine lateral motion.
Intermediate focus
Build the full lateral wave: initiate from one shoulder/ribcage side, wave down through the obliques and into the hip on the same side. Then reverse: hip initiates and waves back up to the shoulder. Practice both directions. Now make it continuous: wave down the right side, cross at the hips, wave up the left side, cross at the shoulders, and continue. This creates a figure-eight-like pattern that flows continuously.
Tips
- •Practice with your back against a wall — this forces the movement to stay lateral (you can't wave forward)
- •Think of your spine as a snake moving sideways — each vertebral segment shifts in sequence
- •Film from the front: the lateral wave should be clearly visible as a side-to-side sequential shift
Common mistakes
- •Turning the lateral wave into a forward-back wave because that's what the body knows — deliberately stay in the frontal plane
- •Moving the whole torso as one block instead of sequentially — the wave needs to travel through segments
- •Leaning instead of waving — a wave has sequential, flowing movement; a lean is just a static tilt
- •Ignoring the hip finish — the wave should reach the hip, not stop at the ribcage
Practice drill
Stand facing a mirror, feet shoulder-width. Shift ribcage right (just the ribcage). Now let that shift cascade down to the right hip. Reverse: start from right hip, wave up to ribcage. Do 10 repetitions. Switch to left side. Then make it continuous: right side down, cross hips, left side up, cross shoulders, right side down. Five minutes at slow tempo, focusing on sequential movement.