Learning the femme walk -- the isolation method

[dilane]

I've logged about a jillion hours out and about en femme, usually a couple of days a week, out in the regular world, day and night. Hopefully, I've learned a thing or three...

Here's my distillation of what really helped me get it. Try it and see if it works for you.

There's two parts: What not to do and what to do ...

Don't: roll the shoulders left to right -- they should stay level and even. You should be able to balance a book on top of your head as you walk. Your shoulders in a femme walk are back and you're standing straight.

Don't: spring off the toes of your feet.

Do: The swivel: learn to isolate your hips, so that you can (if looking from above), swivel the left forward, then the right hip forward, a little like doing the twist. Do while standing still. The shoulders and feet are still, only the hips rotate. Your skirt should fan out, as you rotate clockwise, then recenter, then swivel counter clockwise.

It takes practice to feel natural. When you've got this mastered, your half way there.

Do: The tilt: learn to isolate the hips so that you can move the left pelvis up, and the right down, while being stationary. Nothing else moves, just the hips.

Bonus: You get some dance hip moves for free! I remember a woman pro dancer telling me when I complimented her on the dance floor "It's all in the hips!"

Do: Learn to move both hip motions together, the swivel and the tilt. When you can freely move your hips using both motions without thinking, and your upper body remains still and relaxed, then you can ...

Walk: Start with a swivel to the right and slight tilt up as you lift your left leg -- that's what leading from the hip is about. The push off from the back foot is subtle and gradual -- the driving force for each step comes from swiveling hips a bit as you move the front leg forward.

With a subtle back-foot push, your strides are shorter, so you have more steps to feel and learn the hip-swivel as you bring the front foot forward.

If you throw a lot of swivel/tilt as you step, you're advertising more :) If you use just a subtle swivel/tilt as you step, you're toning it down, but it's still unmistakably feminine.

[Sheren Kelly]

Very good advise!
Unfortunately I have seem some very attractive T-girls ruin their presentation by walking like a longshoreman (my apologies to the longshoremen among us!). if you want to walk the walk, you have to practice...

Warmly,
Kelly

[Gina X]

I read somewhere recently that Marilyn Monroe had one heel shorter (I don't know by how much) than the other to purposely accentuate her wriggle. Sounds like it might help ...................

[Stephenie S]

The easiest way to do this is go to a mall and follow a woman (not too close, you don't want to get arrested) and copy her walk. You will find she takes smaller, quicker, steps, and swings her arms more.

Other than that, there is not too much difference. Don't try to wiggle. You will just look ridiculous.

Of course, some women walk just like men, and some men walk just like women. There are really no hard and fast rules here. Just generalizations.

Smaller, quicker strides will carry you a long way towards a more feminine walk.

S

[RenneB]

I learned in an earlier thread that I should try a couple of chairs. So I tried it today. Took two kitchen chairs to the living room. Held each one in each hand, stuck my arms out to get them off the floor and then tried to walk. You would be amazed how this isolates your hips. The girl that posted it originally, said she does the chair thing about once a week to keep in practice. I have yet to find anything better to learn with.

Oh, BTW, it works better in heels than in sneakers.

Renne.....

[Nancie64]

Practice, practice, practice. Last Thursday I had to go to Madison and on the way back home, about a 3 hour drive, my SO and I decided to get off the interstate and we ended up on this state highway that ran parallel to the 4 lane. Guess what, no traffic. I decided that it was a good time to practice the walking. Full fem with 3.5 inch heels, out I went. Ending up walking close to a quarter of a mile. Only 2 cars in all that time, just went behind the pickup until they pasted. Nice breeze with a skirt on, of so much fun. Will have to try the chair trick.

[ReineD]

http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

This is a fun video to go along with Dilane's explanation.

There's a button you can click on to add lines, and there are scales for different types of walk: heavy/light, nervous/relaxed, happy/sad. It's also great fun to slide the button between male and female in each of the walking styles. :)

A word of advice though ... few women walk like the extreme right examples. You'd be perfectly OK to walk just a little right of center.

[AlisonRenee]

I checked out the biomotionlab site that Reine mentioned. One detail I noticed that I have trouble with is the arms, elbows. I have a hard time keeping my elbows "in" toward my waist, as women naturally do. There has to be some basic bone structure difference there.

[ReineD]

Don't forget, Allison, that the "in" elbow position on the extreme right of the scale in the video is exaggerated. Just go to the mall and watch women walk to determine this for yourself. You just need to perhaps keep your arms closer to your side.

[Melissa52uk]

Excellent advice and a great thread .....

Walking and body movement is something I'm working really hard on at the moment, especially as I just love wearing heels .... !

Melissa x

[Persephone]

I have had the pleasure of getting together with Dilane on several occassions (we need to get together again soon!) and I can vouch for her grace and poise. Her advice is worth a fortune.


I checked out the biomotionlab site that Reine mentioned. One detail I noticed that I have trouble with is the arms, elbows. I have a hard time keeping my elbows "in" toward my waist, as women naturally do. There has to be some basic bone structure difference there.

I don't believe it is a bone structure or muscle difference, Alison Renee, rather, it is a difference in the way you hold your arm.

Practice is to rotate your arms so that your thumbs point forward, not inward. When you do that your elbows rotate so that your "funny bones" face back rather than out to the sides. That allows your arms to rest closer to your body.

The next step is to practice that until it becomes "normal" and you don't have to think about it.

Hugs,
Persephone.

[HannahF6]

I love that demonstration from biomotionlab.com, absolutely fascinating.

Hannah

[Wendy_Marie]

I was given some advice by a GG who happened to be a personal Trainer...she recommended that you walk as if you are holding a golf ball between your thighs and you don't want it to fall. Sounds silly, but it seems to work for me.

[kimmy p]

Very good advise!
Unfortunately I have seem some very attractive T-girls ruin their presentation by walking like a longshoreman (my apologies to the longshoremen among us!). if you want to walk the walk, you have to practice...

Warmly,
Kelly

If you look around the same can be said for most young GG's nowadays! Walking in heels is becoming a lost art.

[sometimes_miss]

It's in the biology as well as what you wear. Watch a mid teen girl walk when she's just wandering around somewhere and you will still see a bit of a difference. As far as the old book on the head routine, well, that works just great if you have a flat head. If your head comes to a point or is very round, you're going to be out of luck because the moment you move, the book is going to slide off of your head.

[ReineD]

If you look around the same can be said for most young GG's nowadays! Walking in heels is becoming a lost art.

Reality check: that's a bit of a stretch isn't it? What about when they all go to their proms?

[Kaz]

Reine, I think you are having a lot of fun with this!

[ReineD]

Kaz, indeed I am! :D