Ballroom Blitz #019

Demystifying Fan in Rumba & Cha - Mar 30, 2023

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls of the interwebs I'm Ian,

Lindsey: and I'm Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is the Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome blitzers, today we are demystifying some language. We're going to be going over the Fan in Cha and Rumba,because the position is in both, and the naughty language that people use is in both.

So we're going to be setting a few things straight getting you on track so that when we actually Blitz out some figures you will know where you need to go and what you need to do.

Alright, first things first, there are two [2] major contexts of the word fan in ballroom dancing, specifically in Cha and Rumba, so let's just keep to those.

1) is as a figure: there is a figure called The Fan.
2) is a position, there is a position called Fan Position.

Now these are very different if you say fan without context and you can't determine whether you mean the figure or the position you're up the creek without a paddle before you've even stepped onto the floor. So, there are two contexts, let's go over them individually.

The position we will demonstrate in a moment the figure though, the figure is very specific it gets from closed to fan position, so the Fan Figure gets you to Fan Position. But, there are two ways of doing it and they sometimes get jumbled but here's the kicker you don't only have to do fan to get to Fan position you can get to Fan position from a bunch of different things, but they are not the fan figure they might be a Hip Twist of a sort or something else.

So, we need to separate Fan Position from Fan Figure and later on we're going to separate Fan Figure from the developed version of the Fan Figure. Both get you to Fan Position.

This is fan position. The important thing to note about fan position is, leaders your hips and shoulders will be square in one direction, and follows your hips and shoulders will be 90 degrees cutting across that position. You will also have your feet arranged in a specific arrangement that will make it very different in feeling to when you will be in a open counter Promenade position.

Basically, if it feels like you can do a New York or a spot turn from this position something isn't right.

However you have arrived in fan position, whether it is the fan figure or something else, leads you'll have all the weight on your right foot and your left foot will be parallel to the right; it's not forward it's not backward it is to the side with no weight. However, follows you will have all the weight on your left foot but your right foot will be pointing forward.

This is because to get to Fan Position leaders have usually done some sort of sideways chasse and follows you have usually done some sort of backwards chasse. So, once again, you haven't got to a point where you can do a New York where you've both done a sidewards Chasse. So use that as a good marker if the follow's gone back and the lead has gone to the side it shouldn't feel like you can New York, and therefore you'll be more in a Fan Position than in open counter promenade position.

So, that is a very quick blitz on Fan Position it should feel very different from your  open counter promenade as we've said, and you get into it via very specific means. We're now going to give you a quick blitz, just a quick run through, on the basic Fan Figure. We will leave amore in-depth analysis for that for a different blitz where we can focus on it a bit more but that [this] will give you an idea of the Fan Figure in its basic form that ends in fan position.

[Demonstration of the Fan Figure]

Ian: So, without any further analysis, you can see from that step there that we started in closed position, we went through a figure, and we ended in fan position. That's your basic Fan Figure. You can do it in Cha Cha, there we demonstrated it in Rumba, and like in many of those basic moves that are interchangeable you simply add to the chasse after the step-rock step.

So, that is it a quick Blitz through some terminology putting it all into perspective and sorting out the difference between fan position and fan figure. There is lots more to go over there are many ways that you can get into fan position, and then once you get there we have to know what to do to get out of it so there's lots more to say but we're going to leave that for another blitz.

Leave us a comment if you want to see something into or out of fan in one of the blitzes coming up. And, what's your experience with some dance terminology? It will be a topic of one of my pet peeves for the future so if you've got some fuel for that fire let us know. But, until then enjoy your Cha enjoy your Rumba f@$k it enjoy all of your dancing and we will see you in the next one.