Ballroom Blitz #059

Video

youtu.be/FgyeNOGR_U0

Transcript

Ian: Why hello there random dancer on the internet. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is a Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely people on the internet. Welcome to another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are in the Latin world we are going to be dancing some Rumba and the figure of choice is the Alemana from fan position.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: So the Alemana is two bars long and of course we are keeping with our regular Rumba rhythm of three steps during each bar; so we've got six steps in all. The leader is staying largely where they are, Ian will take you through those steps in a moment, and the followers steps, apart from that very first one that you saw which is our sort of default when we are in our fan position, they are all actually forward steps. So, let's have a closer look.

Now this particular Alemana is taken from fan position. We have looked at a Fan in other blitzes so we'll put a link below. It's worth noting that you can also do this move from an open position, but for today's Blitz we are just going to be focusing on that one starting in fan.

Now, just like there are a couple of options for starting this particular figure there are also a bunch of different ways that we can end it; a number of positions with our partner that we could end up in. It's what makes this figure so versatile, it's a really really useful one for sort of connecting our different figures. It's always up to the leader as to which one they are going to choose; for today's purpose we are just bringing it back into a closed position.

Ian: Leaders let's start with your steps. The footwork is really really simple with this figure, it's more the arm work and the leading and the nuances therein that becomes a little bit trickier as we go. Let's start with the feet, we have arrived in Fan Position, again links in the description to Fan Figure and Demystifying Fan if you need to recap that, but the most important thing is your feet are apart, your follow will be off to your left and you will have them in your left hand. You're going to inspire them to close, as always the first two steps out into any fan figure, or any figure that comes from fan. You're going to step forward on Two extending your left arm encouraging the follow to close their feet and then rocking back onto your right, [the] classic Step-Rock in your Rumba and Cha, and now we need to synchronize that lead of the arm. So those two steps are a gimme and here all we're going to do in the simple version is close our feet, change weight over the Four-One and arrange your left hand into a very old-fashioned policeman stop type placement. You will have a flat palm, that is very important, don't cook or hook your fingers or try and pull the following any way. You are flattening your palm, you're creating a nice wall, and they will walk into that, I will let Lindsey cover that in a moment. It should be in a nice neutral position as you see here. It shouldn't be in the danger zone where it gets almost like a Hockey Stick and it shouldn't be left out holding the follow literally at arm's length, we don't want that at all. So a nice neutral bend in the elbow, nice and high, not straight up, but certainly not down low either, nice and neutral about eye height, flat palm; that happens on the Four-One of the first bar. So we have

And we're now in position, we've now led the actual Alemana from fan, that gets us to the crux of the next bit. We're going to move our arm to encourage the follow to walk forward. They're going to walk forward that direction, and then walk forward that direction, and again I'll let Lindsey cover the follows steps. As that's happening we're going to take a very Rumba-esque step back, nice and small if we take it too big this collapses, that's bad, stepping back on your right foot. Two. All the way over it as we bring this arm back leading the first walk, we're going to rock onto our next step as we bring that forward, and then closing the feet in this case, because we want to bring the follow back to us in a closed position. If you choose to go to one of the other exits of your Alemana, this is the step that will change. For now, we're just doing the simple Two Three and close the feet.

Lindsey: If the leader has been facing you there, I'm going to set myself up so Ian is there, you can imagine him, and he has just led me to Fan Position, so again check the link if you need to. But, we would have just previously gone backwards on our left foot all of our weight there. Like Ian said, once we're there our next two moves are kind of stock standard. We don't really have to worry about what they are, we'll know. It's what happens after that that we need to pay attention to. So we have been led by our leader to close our feet and we want to change weight, so I want to bring my right foot in underneath me, and get my weight on it. That means I'm now ready on my left foot to do my second step which is forward. The leader should be guiding me in that way, and then I'll feel his hand come up into that Alemana position. I want to take another forward walk here, but because it's been brought up, the hand, and I'm sort of following that hand, I'm following the tension, I will have taken another forward walk but it will have started to turn. We don't actually want to stay absolutely straight on that line, we'll have too far to go for the second half. Now, after that first half, I'll do it again in a second, we do have quite a way to turn. We're sort of turning all the way around so that we are facing our leader by the end of that second bar, so we want to be ready for it. But there's a very particular way that we are going to do it. An Alemana, for the follower, is nearly all forward steps. So that means that if I want to curve it around, if I didn't sort of set them up I'd sort of be walking around in a sort of curved action and it's not quite what we want. So we want to set up our new angle after each step, I'll show you what I mean, so we're starting in fan, we've got our close, walk, ah! it's an Alemana. What I'm going to do for my next three steps is before I take this step I'm going to bring my back foot underneath me and swivel on the spot. That means I can get a nice straight step, I swivel take a straight step, I swivel and I take a straight step back to my partner. And in that way we are really controlling our movements, we're getting those lovely long lines in our legs, it will look both elegant but also very defined.

Ian: So we're going to put these two halves together and talk a little bit about what the leaders need to be doing with their hands throughout the walking steps of the figure, and how then the follows will handle that so that we can get the best out of it, and so that when you develop the different exits you won't have any confusion of which one is actually coming up. If we get through our initial two three four-one, you can see here Lindsey's commenced to turn about an eighth (1/8), we have our policeman stop, and she's now really walking into the wall that I've created here. If we follow the idea that the follow is walking forward, as Lindsey has just mentioned, I need to using the power of my left hand, direct where and how big those steps will go. So Lindsey is going to walk forward, and if I just leave my and there she can't go anywhere; in fact she headbutts me; so we don't want that. If Lindsey starts to walk and I go wei-hey, and just do that, she can't reach. So we have to work together in that moment where we maintain the tension. Follows you are following the tension in the hand, walking forward all the way. Leaders you are creating the tension in a space that the follow can actually follow. So we get much more of a

Lindsey: Now as Ian has just said, having that tension to follow in the hand can be really really useful for directing the steps. It makes it much easier for the leader then to direct that step at the end somewhere else, if they choose to. But, of course, we can't be relying entirely on that to do our own work. So we always want to be sort of pulled up. Work on your sort of step and swivel action to make sure that you are keeping your own balance. The leader doesn't want the job of trying to sort of help us to keep our balance, as well as directing, as well as doing their own steps. So we do want to practice that movement by ourselves, practice our walks, practice our swivels, and then that makes the leader's job much easier to sort of direct us around.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And that leaders and followers is your Alamana in Rumba. you'll be unsurprised to learn that there is a version of it in Cha Cha as well, so we should cover that in our blitzes at some point I imagine. But in the meantime try it out. Keep nice and upright, it follows that classic Rumba pattern and it's an absolute beauty for when you find yourself in Fan Position bringing you back to a neutral position where you can start again. So, try it out, have some fun with it, we'll see you next time.