Torso Moves For A Stiff Upper Body (Fix The Rigid Look!)

Easy Dance Moves
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11 Video Views·Mar 31, 2026
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Welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new.
My name is Maneka and I teach adults how to get better at dancing in social settings.
If you are uncomfortable on the dance floor, you feel like you don't like the way you look
dancing, you look maybe stiff or uncoordinated and you'd like more help, just like my client
Nick, who when we first started working together was very tense and just didn't look good dancing
out there.
After just a couple of months inside my online program Competence Through Dance, this is
how he's dancing now.
At the end of this video, I will tell you how we can work together if you're interested
so we can get you the same transformation.
If you haven't seen it yet, I created a free 45-minute training where I'm explaining my
method of teaching and how I help thousands of adults become confident dancing in social
settings.
I'll post the link below.
You can check it out after this video.
You don't have to be, you know, the common misconception is that you have to be very
flexible to look natural dancing.
I'm the least flexible person you know and I look pretty relaxed when I dance, okay?
And this is all thanks to the isolations.
To loosen up the torso, you actually have to use it.
It's not going to loosen up if you're learning all kinds of, you know, footwork or if you're
doing a lot of hip movements and the torso is not moving at all.
If you don't use the muscles, they will never loosen up.
So I'm going to show you two great torso movements that you can use that will help you look more
natural, more relaxed on the dance floor.
The first one, we're going to do what I call torso dip.
You're going to go side to side.
We know the two step, but we're going to add a lot of torso here.
So as I'm stepping to the side, I'm going to lean the torso down in the same direction
towards the leg that goes out.
Not a lot, right?
You don't have to go all the way down, just a little bit, a little dip.
And then as I bring the feet together, I go up to neutral position.
And then we're going to switch the other way.
So down and up, try again, down, up, down, up.
And for now, we can make it look disconnected.
That's OK.
We'll smooth it out in a second.
But notice that we're using the same muscles that we were working on with our isolations,
the obliques.
So it's kind of forcing them to move even more with this movement.
One, two, one, two, one, two, and one, two.
And then we can make it a little bit smaller, but more connected.
So I'm not stopping after I lean down or I bring the torso up.
It's kind of like snaking the body sideways a little bit.
One, two, one, two, one, two, and one, two.
And that's it.
That's all you need to do to use those muscles that don't like to be used, that will over
time loosen up the torso.
And the second movement I want to try is the twist.
This one is also a very common one.
I will use the same footwork because again, in this one, we don't really care about the
feet.
We want to use the torso first and foremost.
So now what's going to happen when my feet are apart, I'm going to twist towards the
leg that I'm stepping with, and then I'm going to reset back to the center when my feet are
together.
Then I'm stepping the other way.
I will twist in that direction just a little bit.
And then I'm back to center, twist, center, twist, center.
Alright, so we have that little setup, one, two, one, two, one, two, and one, two.
Notice that I'm not twisting far, I'm not facing the wall, just the corner, just a little
bit.
And then again, we can smooth it out, we can connect this movement better.
So I'm not stopping after the twist, I let the body just slowly reset.
And if you notice, I'm moving the torso non-stop, one, two, one, two, one, two, and one, two.
Let me show you with the music.
Feeling rigid and tense is a common problem that hundreds of adults come to me for help
with, and this is what I fix inside my online program, Confidence Through Dance.
Because it's not enough to know the moves, if your body is stiff, those movements won't
look good on you anyway.
I help adults go from the sidelines to enjoying themselves in any dance situation, whether
it's dancing at a party, at a bar, at a club, at a wedding, you name it.
In the past almost 18 years, my system helped clients such as Betty go from very uncoordinated,
no rhythm, no moves, to now dancing like this.
Or students like John go from super tense and super uncomfortable looking to being able
to hold his own on the dance floor.
If you're interested in how I can get you the same transformation, feel free to book
a free consultation with me, you will find the link below this video, we'll see if we
can work together inside my online program.
I will also post the link to my free 45-minute training that will explain my method and how
I was able to help so many people over the past 18 years, so definitely check it out.
If you like this video, don't forget to give it a like, let me know in the comments should
I create more videos just like this one to help you look looser, to help you feel relaxed
dancing and I'll do it, comment below and I'll see you in the next tutorial, bye guys!
