Tango hand

From Silkworms

tango hand, flamenco hand

this is a subtlety used to avoid some hand changes. in sequences that involve putting on a crucifix while standing on the fabric-- that is, taking the standing part of the fabric that's in front of you and passing it behind your back-- it's helpful to first reach around the fabric with a hand that's as high on the fabric as possible, and grab it in some approximation of this position. in the illustration, my viewpoint is the camera's viewpoint and i'm reaching around the fabric from the right with my right hand. to put on the crucifix, i would then pass my head and shoulders around to the right of the fabric; as soon as my right elbow passed behind the fabric i'd put it on the same side of the pole as my fingers-- then i would be in crucifix position with the fabric tucked under my right arm.

this position can require some wrist flexibility. the more you can get your shoulders in line with the pole, though, the less reaching you have to do with your wrist; often even if it feels like you don't have enough wrist flexibility you can actually do the move by changing the position of the rest of your body before you try the grab.

links: the seattle circus wiki describes this move here: http://www.byz.org/cgi-bin/SeattleCircusWiki?FlamencoHand