Drew Burgess is back, and this time he's diving into handstand walking, the skill he says tells him everything about a dancer the first time he sees them attempt it.
He breaks down progressions for every level, starting as early as a plank, and shares the hand squeezing trick that gets dancers to stack their hips like a rocket. There's also a studio wide challenge idea to keep every class pushing for more reps and more steps. If you teach acro, this one gives you something to use in class tomorrow.

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About Drew

Drew Burgess is a nationally recognized choreographer, adjudicator, educator, coach, and consultant specializing in dance and acrobatics. He serves on faculty and adjudication panels for prestigious organizations including Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Dance Masters of America, Dance Educators of America, Impact Dance Adjudicators, Kids Artistic Revue, Rainbow National Talent Competition, and Encore Performing Arts, among others.

As a former competitive dancer, Drew held multiple regional titles including Master, Junior, & Teen Mr. Dance of Ohio, Mr. Dance of the Pacific Coast, and the national titles of Jr. Mr. Dance of America and Mr. Dance of America. He is certified by test to teach through DMA and DEA in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Acrobatics and maintains active membership in both organizations. Drew is also Acrobatic Arts Certified (M1-M3) and is honored to be part of their staff as a USA Division Course Conductor and Examiner. He is also a proud faculty member of Accelerate: The World’s Largest AcroDance Convention.

Drew’s professional performance credits include working with the Radio City Rockettes, Taylor Swift, and The Baha Men. He toured internationally as a professional dancer in Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance, performing in both “Rock the Ballet 2” and “Romeo & Juliet” as a multi-track swing in each show. His choreographic achievements include the Sherry Gold Memorial Choreography Award from DMA, Overall Choreography Awards for Small Group and Production from NexStar, and Industry Dance Awards Nomination from KAR.

Drew’s students have earned distinguished honors including Teen Miss Dance of Arizona, Miss Dance of Ohio, Mr. Dance of America, positions with the Radio City Rockettes, Walt Disney World, D1A Texas Tech Pom Squad, NFL Cincinnati Bengals (“Ben-gals”) Cheerleaders and Female Junior Solo Gold & Silver Medalist from IDO World AcroDance Championships.

Currently based in Columbus, Ohio, Drew is on the weekly teaching staff at Straub Dance Center and Drake Dance Academy. He previously served as Tap Director at Spisak Dance Academy in Glendale, Arizona for four years. Drew has filmed educational content for CLI Studios and recently worked as a Guest AcroDance Coach for The Ohio State University Dance Team. He continues to share his expertise through year-round guest workshops, technique clinics, and choreography sessions worldwide.

Listen to Drew's Previous Episodes

Ep 56 Analyzing and Refining The Aerial with Drew Burgess - https://youtu.be/d58YRZ_Lgts

Ep 60 Maximizing Potential: Cross Training in Acro with Drew Burgess - https://youtu.be/vjCbbwtp0WU

Ep 80 Balancing & Limbering Fighting the Good Fight with Drew Burgess - https://youtu.be/PDdXl7ON3xA

Ep 107 Acro Chat Coaching, Creativity, & Connection with Drew Burgess - https://youtu.be/IYS18yM0GA4

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Loren  0:00  
Hey everyone! Welcome to the Acrobatic Arts Podcast. I'm Loren, and I will be interviewing some of the top leaders and innovators from the dance and acrobatic industry. If you are a teacher, performer, student, or a lifelong learner like myself, you are sure to find these episodes intriguing and full of inspiration. Acrobatic Arts is passionate about providing current and relevant information for everyone, so please sit back and enjoy as we share our passion with you and the world.

Loren  0:36  
Today's guest needs no introduction, but I'm going to give him one anyway. Drew Burgess is an Acrobatic Arts faculty member, a Dance Masters of America and Dance Educators of America faculty member, a judge, a choreographer, and someone who has been on this podcast more times than just about anyone. Each time he is on the show, he brings the kind of energy and passion that make you want to go straight to the studio and work with your dancers. Drew has talked to us about aerials, cross training, balancing, limbering, and acro chat, his one-on-one coaching program for teachers and studio owners. In this episode, we're talking about something Drew has told us more than once is his absolute favorite acro dance skill: handstand walking. Let's find out why he loves this challenging skill and how he helps students learn and master it.

Loren  1:29  
Before we begin, a quick reminder for anyone looking for professional acro training. Acrobatic Arts trains and certifies 1000s of teachers around the globe. You can learn more about our programs and upcoming courses at acrobaticarts.com. Now, let's welcome our guest for today.

Loren  1:52  
Drew Burgess, welcome back to the Acrobatic Arts Podcast.

Drew  1:56  
Thank you so much. I'm always so honored and privileged to be back. It's always a treat.

Loren  2:02  
We're going to dive right in, and I know that you have called handstand walking your very favorite acro dance skill, and I think our listeners would love to know why.

Drew  2:15  
Well, handstand walking holds a special place in my heart because it's one of those acro skills that tells me a lot about an acro dancer whenever I see them do it for the first time, or you know, as they're progressing through their training. It's one of those skills that we all should be getting better at. It promotes strength, alignment, control. It's going to work like that hand-eye coordination, and let's be honest, balance and spatial awareness too, right? So it's one of those skills that is all encompassing for a really strong, healthy, well trained, and employable acro dancer, especially when we they start to stack variations and they want to do more and be able to control their bodies. And handstand walking, handstand pirouettes are a huge part of that.

Loren  3:01  
Now you mentioned that handstand walking does take strength, alignment, control. Can you break that down? Like, what's actually happening in the body that makes this skill so beneficial?

Drew  3:14  
Well, of course, the dancers are inverting and going upside down. They're using their eye line to track through a curved handstand. They're learning how to actually stack their bodies correctly, and of course maintain balance and shape and control throughout the skill. It also helps to increase and make dancers more aware of using their spider fingers, like that that type of gripping effect with their fingertips as well, which is again is just so crucial to any inverted balancing.

Loren  3:43  
And I know you have a lot of strong opinions, but especially when it comes to handstand walking and the training, when should it begin?

Drew  3:53  
I say as soon as possible, as soon as dancers are able to stack like like a piked handstand, or you know, like like hips on top of shoulders at the wall, or even really when they're in a plank. Like you don't have to necessarily be all the way like feet in the air in order to start training handstand walking. So even just doing like planks crawling around in a circle, or like army crawls, like you know, with your your hands and your feet going side to side-that's all still part of the pre-progressions for handstand walking. So start it as soon as possible, and it's a skill I truly never skip in any level of acro class, even if they're not the most gorgeous handstand walks, or if they're modified or like adapted to what the dancers are capable of and working at in that particular level, they need to be upside down and walking on their hands way sooner than like a level eight and pre professional level in our Acrobatic Arts syllabus.

Loren  4:51  
True, that's fantastic. I love that you mentioned starting in plank because as a teacher looking for new things to do and not just. Holding a plank for minute after minute after minute, they can start their handstand walking.

Drew  5:05  
Even in a downward dog, if dancers even aren't quite strong enough for an actual plank, or their plank is still a little, you know, we're working on the shaping and remembering all the corrections. If you, if we pop the hips into more of a downward dog position or like a front bridge, you know, hands are on the floor, feet are behind them, and then they could just put one leg up in the air and crawl on their two hands and one foot. That's just going to start to get them to invert and tip their hips a bit. So, like three-legged downward dog walks is what I call them.

Loren  5:34  
I think a lot of teachers might look at handstand walking as something that their students will eventually learn or get to maybe once the dancer already has a solid handstand. But how do you see it?

Drew  5:48  
I see it as similar to like ballet walks, jazz walks, ballet runs across the floor. Those particular elements in those classes-they're not really skipped over. At least in my opinion, they shouldn't be skipped over, so the same thing applies to acro dance with handstand walking, and as well as bridge walking and rolling and square splits. Like there's certain skills and certain basics, if you will, that really should never be skipped. Not just for safety, but for longevity and for building up stamina and consistency as well.

Loren  6:22  
All right. Now I know everybody that probably has tuned in wants to just get to the how you have a brand new student who's new to handstand walking. Where do you start them?

Drew  6:36  
Usually, I I put them like either in the center or at the wall, and we're just doing like a plank or downward dog situation. We're not. Sometimes we'll pike the hips up. It depends on how I'm feeling and what the student experience really is, because some students have a little more fear than others. Some don't like to be upside down as much. Sometimes it's a whole new, you know, perception for them to actually invert their bodies with the the weight only in the hands or only in one foot and the hands. So sometimes I'll prop their feet up on a stack of mats, kind of maybe encouraging them to pike at the hips if possible, and then just sort of walking around that stack of mats, like in a circle around the mats with the feet still staying stacked. An octagon is also really helpful sometimes to prop their feet up as well, like an octagon mat. But any type of stack, or even just putting their feet up. If you have bars that are attached to the walls, you could just prop their feet up on like the low bar with piked hips, and they just sort of walk across the floor with their feet still on the bars, kind of sliding out. You might want to have them put on a sock or a, you know, something to not to protect their feet. But really, if they lift up and they're engaged, their feet can kind of slide and glide across that bar as well. So it is possible.

Loren  7:51  
And do you have other progressions that you would teach early on for this skill?

Drew  7:57  
I even do sort of like a modified bear walk across the floor where they're walking kind of hand hand and foot foot, kind of crawling forwards, then slowly trying to take more and more steps. It's not going to be pretty when they first start these skills, and that's okay. Like there's beauty in the growth. You know, every flower blooms at a different time, but you actually have to start planting the seed to grow the garden, or it's never going to happen, right? So even when I'm first introducing handstand walks, it might look sort of like a busted cartwheel going forwards that doesn't really like stack the body yet. But we're just learning how to invert the body, start to stack the hips, and get the feet up. I love doing this with like a wheelbarrow exercise with dancers, where I I might spot them first holding their feet, but then eventually I want them to spot each other and have them hold the weight of the other dancer because then you're getting some partnering in as well. Forward, sideways, backwards. I I try to change up the directions. Maybe we go in a circle today as well, or like you're, you know, each person is kind of in their station, or each set of dancers is in their station, and then they're going to go around.

Loren  9:08  
And I know you mentioned you have them at the wall. Can you sort of explain to our listeners what that might look like for a dancer in your class?

Drew  9:17  
Yeah. So a couple different options. Option one of belly button towards the wall, but feet in like a pike position, so that their toes might be touching, or even flat-footed, but they're just kind of stepping their hands, transferring their weight, but even working towards shoulder taps would be the goal, or chest taps, or even thigh taps, or head taps while they're starting to invert their bodies. Putting them at the wall is going to help to give them a little bit of comfort with their feet connected to something that you know feels more grounded and something they can sort of support on support themselves on like a bar, and of course feet at the bar could work as well, but then going across the floor like I mentioned with wheelbarrow. And then eventually having them stack their hips up even more, and then starting to let go of one leg in the wheelbarrow. So like you're not just holding both legs forever. You have to start letting one leg go, and then I'll have them start to switch to the other leg. I tend to also walk behind my dancers, so their back is to me, and their handstand walking, and then I'll have them squeeze my hand in between their feet to help engage their adductors to really stack the body and lift them up. And I find that the hand squeezing method at the feet really gets them to to secure the the deep rotators and their adductors inwards and shoot the the legs up to the ceiling, much like like a rocket or a lightning bolt going through the through the roof.

Loren  10:48  
You know, I love your visualizations and the images that you use. I hope all the teachers are making notes because I think the students really do respond to all of that.

Drew  10:58  
Yeah, I mean, and also students can help themselves by practicing this skill at home outside where it's safe, of course. But I mean, once students get more comfortable with just like a stacked handstand where their legs are actually straight up, maybe curving the head of the spine of it, but having them do like a handstand against the wall with their front or their back, then just like a quarter turn, then a half turn. So we're starting to introduce turning, like you know, the pre-handstand pirouette, if you will. So there's lots of fun options. It doesn't have to just stay forwards, backwards, or sideways, but I love that it can be turned and put in a circle, if you will. Handstand pirouettes are always so fun in lots of different leg positions, and it's it's an important skill that I feel like a lot of dancers and teachers maybe just start it too late. So I always want to encourage people start it as soon as possible. That's been a big push for me mentioning that to all of our teachers attending module two and aerial back handspring. They're seeing these higher level skills and they they're sometimes like how does that happen and it's because we start the handstand walking sooner than later.

Loren  12:08  
Exactly and we're all about safety and setting up our students for success so how do you know when a student is ready to move off the wall?

Drew  12:20  
It actually kind of happens on its own. So oftentimes we'll put our backs against the wall or the front of our body against the wall, and then I'll just have them take a few steps away from the wall and have them go right back to the wall, whether it's their back or their body. So they're just starting to get that bravery on their own, and then they can either hopefully forward roll out of the skill or cartwheel out of the skill. I try not to let or encourage my dancers to bridge out of the skill.

Loren  12:47  
And when they're actually away from the wall and they feel themselves losing their balance mid walk, is there anything special you tell them?

Drew  12:57  
Of course, engage the core, like lift up in the shoulders even more. When you transfer from one hand to the other, you don't want either of the shoulders to drop. You want both of them to be up into the ears, right? Engage like engaged short neck, if you will. But sometimes, if they're far enough away from the wall, I want them to Arabian back up if they're if they're able to, like if it's not going to hurt the wall or hurt the dancer. But of course, step down, cartwheel out, forward roll out. I try not to like let them bridge or walk over out of this skill unless I'm asking forward in choreography.

Loren  13:33  
And what are your thoughts on class culture when you are training this skill? What does it look like in your studio?

Drew  13:41  
Well, I teach at multiple different studios, and I also work all over the country and different parts of the world. So it's always interesting, and I try to adapt and bring my own flavor to to the classroom. And each studio culture truly is different, so I never want to scare anyone or like make it too aggressive in my teaching style, but I'm very much an like all or nothing. Like the whole class needs to really get the skill. So I really encourage with my own dancers like some record record holding or like record placements. We we keep a class record or even like individual records of how far they're walking, how many steps they're walking, and then I'm gonna start making this more of like a studio-wide contest with all of the acro classes, so that way there's just a little bit more incentive to stay part of it and not just let one dancer be successful with the skill, but we want all of the classes to sort of challenge each other to see if those juniors are going to outwork the teens, or if the teens and seniors are going to step it up and and get just as many reps in, just as many steps, more feet, you know, more consistency across the board. I don't just want one talented acro dancer. I want them all to be talented acro dancers, and of course, kind humans.

Loren  15:00  
Once they have the handstand walking, where do you take it after that? What would be your progression of variations?

Drew  15:08  
I always encourage them to give me like the length of mats across the room with their legs straight and their feet together first. Like that's the it's the hardest one, but it's worth it in the end because then all of the variations that they can do with their legs and then direction changes are really, really, truly limitless in my opinion. I have them walk forwards, sideways, and backwards. I'm all about incorporating front, side, and back, even in rolling elements, tabletop walking, crab walks, bridge walks, and of course, handstand walks. What we do front, we should be able to do side. We should also be able to do backwards. So I have them do it with like switching splits. I'll have them do it changing their legs. Trish Thompson Crea mer, one of our fellow faculty members, has her dancers handstand walk in a pike position across the floor, switching to like a like kind of like a yogi handstand throughout it, and I think that's so brilliant because the piked handstand is actually going to get them to really use a bit of counterbalance and get their shoulders stacked or even beyond their hips, or their hips stacked beyond their shoulders. Sorry, and and it just encourages a cool shape too. If they can walk in a handstand pike all the way across the floor, almost anything is possible.

Drew  16:26  
So I don't limit myself. We do straddle. We do switch splits. We do you know like toes together, like kind of like a diamond shape with the legs. We'll do check mark legs. I do like a I do love a crossover flick or like a crisscross leg when they're handstand walking, and of course handstand pirouettes galore in all the shapes, each direction. I want them to do like at least a triple handstand pirouette to the right and a triple handstand pirouette to the left. I'm always saying like if you can do it on your legs, you can do it on your hands. Like if you can turn around five times to the right, you know, doing five pirouettes, great. Now I need it upside down on your hands, right? So the handstand pirouette is like the jazz pirouette, but right the the acro version of that to me is you know a handstand pirouette instead of just like standing pirouettes. But the beauty of acro dancers that they should do both. But handstand pirouettes, and then of course blind handstand entrance, or like sometimes it's called a half reverse or a full reverse, where you're putting like your your right arm into into the inside of your right leg, and you're undercutting a handstand and turning like a little half pirouette into it, or a full, and it looks so entertaining for walkover skills, for like good limbering elements, like you can go into a like a cool contortion bridge out of out of things like that. So learning how to like walk forward, sideways, backwards, and of course handstand pirouettes are like chef's kiss in all the positions.

Loren  17:57  
And I've been in a few of your classes where you use music, and you use it sort of in a different way.

Drew  18:04  
I mean, I guess I like them to like walk, like try to sync up their skills either with music and or together with the music. So the dancers working on finding that synced up handstand, then walking right, left, right, left. We always love like an Annie Lennox like walking on broken glass, because you know we love a good dance pun, and then you could of course use like walk it out, walk it out. So I try to encourage them to you know find the music first, then find a buddy, and then try to walk with the buddy. But it doesn't always happen. But that's the beauty of you know acro dance and the beauty of dance. Not everything's always going to be perfect, right? In live entertainment, things can go wrong. But learning how to adapt, learning how to modify, and and you know, self-correct and adjust is a huge part of it. You can also walk forward for four counts with music, then pause for four counts, or switch to a new position for four counts, as they're saying. That's another like Vicki Fletcher thing that I've learned from another fellow faculty member. So it's so fun to see what other teachers do and hear what they do, and then I just keep adding that to my little repertoire for my dancers too. It keeps it all fun, interesting, entertaining, and exciting.

Loren  19:17  
And let's talk about where handstand walking shows up beyond the acro class, where else do you see it applied?

Drew  19:24  
Well, of course, I see it all over, like dance team, like all of the collegiate and high school dance teams out there. They're utilizing a lot more acro dance, a lot more variations, a lot of interesting floor work. So, of course, I'm going to see it in that sector. But we cannot deny that modern dance has is an immense amount of inversions and floor work. So, and of course yoga, and then of course like jazz dance itself is going to also have some crossover with contemporary. So it's actually quite multi genre. Being able to walk on your hands, even if it's just a half handstand pirouette, or preferably a full handstand pirouette, a blind handstand entrance, these things are very crucial and actually a lot more prevalent than people realize. So, of course, modern, contemporary jazz dance teams.

Loren  20:19  
I want to talk a little bit about the control that you mentioned, and I know it's sort of at the heart of this skill. It needs to be controlled. How does that show up when you are using handstand walking in your choreography?

Drew  20:34  
Well, it's just great for showing off strength and balance, right? Relatively, once the kids get it, it's a relatively easy skill once they have truly mastered it, and it also gives them some breathing time. So they're not necessarily tumbling like like they're not necessarily bending either because we maybe we'll cartwheel out of it, maybe we'll cartwheel to the floor out of it, maybe we'll forward roll. But like we're not necessarily like doing side arrows and back handsprings when we're handstand walking. So it gives the dancers a little bit of time to breathe and really focus, and it's a nice change of pace for the audience because it kind of slows things down or it really highlights the to me like the true strength and ability of acro dancers. It's impressive.

Loren  21:18  
I have one more question, and I just want to know, and I think we all want to know, what is it about handstand walking specifically out of all the skills in acro dance that makes it one that you keep coming back to?

Drew  21:33  
I feel that it's attainable for everybody. So often, I feel like dancers, acro dancers, think like, oh, I'm not flexible, so I can't do any of the contortion bendy stuff. And then some of them will say, oh, I can't tumble because I don't have the coordination yet, or or I'm working towards like the timing and and just getting more reps in of you know the the the prior proper progressions. However, handstand walking is one of those things that I, in my opinion, feel like everyone can always get better at and always work towards. I mean, think about yoga workshops now, where they're just working on inversions and handstands and forearm stands. Right, the same thing applies in the acro class. So the more that we can get them upside down, walking on their hands, learning how to cartwheel, learning how to take like helicopter variations, have a handstand walk in them. Of course, blind handstand entrances, really cool, different patterning. Like if you're doing a three-handed walkover where you walk three times on your hands and switch your splits over the top, you're handstand walking. So, I find that the handstand walking itself is something that all dancers can get better at. But in my opinion, as I'm teaching acro all over the globe, sometimes it's not necessarily a skill that's always well mastered. I'm not gonna lie; it's very rare that I see an entire class of kids where I'm like, ooh, all of these handstand walks were fantastic. There's usually, you know, maybe like a smaller percentage in each room, and I'd just love to encourage all of our dancers, all of our listeners, our teachers, to keep fighting the good fight for handstand walking because it really is such a valuable skill if we want really cool transitions, strong, healthy dancers, and then of course make them go into their handstand walking on their not so favorite side too.

Loren  23:30  
Amazing, Drew! I just want to thank you so much for joining the podcast today, sharing your insights on handstand walking, and I really, really appreciate you taking the time, and I can't wait to have you back.

Drew  23:43  
Oh, Loren, thank you so much. It's always such a treat, an immense honor, and I would love to come back anytime you'll have me.

Loren  23:55  
If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe and follow so you never miss an episode, and if you know a dance teacher, student, or parent who would love to hear this discussion, send it their way. Sharing the show is one of the best ways to support the podcast.

Loren  24:13  
Until next time, find power in your strength, freedom in your flexibility, and know that we are here to support you on your acro journey.

Loren  24:24  
Thanks for listening, everyone, and have a great day!