Video

youtu.be/zQYD71i2CYg

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello there ballroom dancers, welcome back to another Blitz. We are in the Latin world today we're going to be having a look at a Cha Cha, and it's one of the first moves that we'll start to play around with our Rhythm it is called Three Cha's.

Most of our figures that we've had a look at so far in Cha Cha have had two steps, or two weight changes, followed by a single chasse. This one is going to double, or even triple, down on the number of chasses in a row, so let's have a look.

Three Cha's can be danced in a number of different positions with your partner, and depending on that position that might mean that you are doing them backwards or forwards or side by side with your partner. But any position really you can find that you can get in those three chasse actions. What is consistent about all of those is the timing of them. So you will always start your first one in the normal space for our usual chasse as it comes up in our Cha so over the 4 & 1. That means if you go straight into the next chasse after that it will be happening over 2 & 3 and that will mean that you are back to 4 & 1 for the third one, setting you up perfectly for the next figure.

[demonstration with counts]

Lindsey: Now, that very first chasse of our Three Cha's will be dependent on the move that you have been previously doing. In fact it will sort of share that, that figure's first chasse, and then you continue into chasse three and four [two and three] after that. So it will depend on which figure you have just done with your partner.

[demonstration with music]

Lindsey: So there you go the Three Cha's in your Cha Cha. It's a great one to throw in there just to mix it up because it is that slightly different rhythm, but it gets you back to where you should be for the next one. So try it out, make sure you've got a little bit of room when you do this on a busy social floor, but other than that have fun and we'll see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/xdcobJA3A2Q

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again Blitzers and welcome back to Ballroom Blitz. Today we are going into the land of Modern Waltz and we're going to be returning to a figure that we did a 100 blitzes ago. It was one of the very first ones we did it was the Outside Change. Today we're going to be having a look at the Outside Change Ended in Prominade Position. So, a little used figure for getting into Prominade, a nice sneaky little edit to the last few steps to give you a little bit of variety; so, let's have a look.

[demonstration without music]

Ian: You can see from the demonstration it is still the Outside Change commencing on the same angle the same foot and pretty much doing all the same things. You could almost argue that it's not "outside" anymore because the outside part of the Outside Change is in the last finishing position and here where ending it in Prominade, but I'll leave that for your own mulling pleasure. But, we're using the same three steps, turning to Prominade, there's a little bit of adaptability but for the purpose of today we're going to be pointing prominade down line of dance, and we'll be in our regular position ready to drive through on the back foot to put in any prominade figure that you want to afterwards. Let's quickly recap the first few steps, because we have improved a little bit I hope since we've done a 100 blitzes from when we did the Outside Change video, though I will leave the basic model version link in the description. But let's recap those early steps and how we're going to change the last two to get you into Prominade and using this figure to get into all your prominade figures.

So leaders, if we recap your steps, our line of dance is this direction, I am backing Diagonal Center and I'm ready to use my left foot. The easiest way to get here is to underturn steps one, two, and three of a Natural Turn, it will get you on the correct foot and with just about an eighth turn less, you're ready to go, but it's not the only way. However you get here, you're backing diag center, line of dance is that way, ready to go backwards on your left foot. So we do that, saying thank you very much for the followers drive, we don't want to undercut their drive here, and if we're in a nice closed position the follows almost just in their prominade position, we need to turn ourself away. We're going to continue that momentum from the drive step into step two, and on step three use our frame to hold the follow in position, allow our frame and step to turn down into prominade, rise through the foot and then land into prominade here without having moved or dragged our follow too far at all. So, danced with a bit more speed it is One Two and Three looking in prominade down line of dance. If you do want to point that Prominade anywhere else, that's fine, [the] golden rule is, of course, take your follow with you.

Lindsey: Now apologies followers, I've switched my line of dance down, so my line of dance is now going this way, just so I can face you. The leaders will have set up the previous figure so that we are ready for a drive step on our right foot. Usually when this happens out of a Natural Turn we will be going dead down line of dance, but as Ian said they have underturned it, so it's taking us diagonally out into the floor. So, we're diagonal center ready for a drive on our right, which we produce, drive. Our momentum will keep us going in that direction and then we will feel that encouragement in the frame from the leaders, and we will step forwards once again in Prominade Position this time. So really we can think of this as three forward steps, the exact direction of where we're going in the last step there to prominade is up to the leaders skill with their leading, so we want to leave a little bit behind. In this case though I've got forward into the floor on that diagonal and then a nice third step on that toe and settling on beat three. So it fits in nicely with our Modern Waltz timing three nice slow steps and we're ready for that drive through into a figure that starts in prominade position.

[demonstration with counts]

[demonstration with music]

There we have it ladies and gent, boys and girls, the Outside Change Ended in Prominade Position. Three nice easy simple steps. A much more comfortable way of getting to prominade, in my opinion, than a Whisk and certainly has less turn than something like an Open Impetus or an Open Telemark. Give it a go, try it out, try just holding your partner and sneaking into that Prominade Position and see how you go. Follow it up with Chasses from Prominade or a Weave from Prominade, any of your normal Prominade figures. Don't forget to settle in and get a nice drive, and if you want to take it anywhere other than straight down the floor, just tweak your angles and let us know how you go with that. Until next next time, keep dancing enjoy your Waltzing, and we will see you soon.

Video

youtu.be/YwPvB-50lLc

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome Ballroom blitzers back to the Blitz Bullring. We are dancing some Paso Doble today it is the Huit.

In this case the word Huit is French for the number eight. Unsurprisingly the figure Huit has Huit steps, has eight steps, but it looks nothing like a number eight it makes nothing like a figure eight or anything like that, that's where the similarities end. We are going to be representing the Matador swishing the cape, which of course is the follower, the Matador being the leader, and then you would follow it with a step that hopefully symbolizes the ire that you have just instilled in the bull. So, let's have a look at the Huit.

[demonstration without music]

Ian: So from that demonstration you can see it's not too complex in a lot of ways, but the two parts are very very different, and you can sort of see that the follower, being the cape, is being swished from one side by the Matador and that's really what this figure represents. The Matador, once getting into position, is just Surplusing for most of the figure, but that doesn't mean that they don't have anything to do. The leader must maintain some body control to make sure that they don't topple over while Surplusing on the spot, and to make the look of the figure be in line with the story you're telling. So, while the steps might be simple for the leader they're not the only thing going on. The follower on the other hand, has to cross from both sides and doesn't take weighted steps on every step, so there's a little bit going on. We're going to do the base model that you saw there, but then you can make this move more expansive and much more impactful and powerful looking, once you get the basics so you know what rules you're breaking.

So let's have a look at the leaders steps in a bit more detail

So, the Huit commences in Prominade Position, so we have arrived in Prominade Position weight for the leaders is of course on the left foot ready to commence the figure on the right. I'm going to take my step in Prominade Position, my follower will come with me. I'm now going to turn about an eighth as I close my feet and now, on the spot, footwork wise I'm going to do six Surplus for, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and footwork wise that's all the Huit is. But, as we've said there's a lot of things going on in the upper body, so if I have my follow in my frame I'm going to take my first step, as I take my second step, my closing step, I'm inspiring them to go beyond me, and then on step three I'm going to change their direction from that way, to that way, and I need to inspire that in the frame. Then I'm going to walk them across me for four and five and on six inspire them to change back to looking that way, that's six, and then on seven, eight, return them back to me for a close, I'll let Lindsey go over the steps, but if we add that with our Surplus action we have

[demonstration of leaders steps]

Ian: And you can see there if that gets a little bit too expansive it's very easy to over overbalance [or] topple out of this figure, so it takes a lot of core strength, a lot of nice Paso Doble framework and to make sure you're working together, so that the steps don't get too big and too unruly.

Lindsey: Followers you are the cape, so you've got all the action work here. As Ian said, we are in Promenade Position when we start, our weight is on our right foot, so we're going to start this figure on our left, that's quite usual in a Paso Doble. We take that step with a heel step through on one, and then we will feel the leader stop but also promote us to keep on going further. So we'll take a second step on our right foot, off to the side but then we'll feel the frame shift and it will bring us back onto our left foot again, about where it was before. So the first three, three steps, are step, toe, settle, and now we are facing back the other way in a sort of Counter-Prominade Position. We're then going to repeat a very similar thing, we're being encouraged to go that way so we do indeed go that way, but again we're brought up short and we settle back down again. We've only got two more steps seven and eight, we're brought in front of the leader and then squared upward with them at the end so we finish this figure in a nice steady closed hold.

So all together we have

[demonstration of followers steps]

Lindsey: Now you may have noticed as I was demonstrating, that the very edge steps, if you like, so steps two, one, two, I'm not quite able to bring my weight fully over that foot the leader's frame is going to stop me. So you'll find that you kind of have partial weight at that point on the turn ready to sort of swoop back the other way. So that's something that you can play around with that technique your connection with your partner to get the most out of this figure.

[demonstration with counts]

[demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, the French Huit in the Paso Doble. Only eight steps, very different halves, when you think of the picture that you're building it makes a lot more sense than the name does, really. Don't make it too big until you get the the hang of that shaping but then once you get the hang of those steps and that styling give it a whirl, try and make it a little bit more expansive. Leaders you can separate your feet if you want to to give yourself a little bit more room to move and just try and tell that story with a bit more of a puffed up chest. Either way you swing, have fun Paso is never as hard as people make it out to be. It should be danced more at the social level because it is just a lot of fun when you don't take it too seriously. Smash it into your dancing, give it a go, have fun, let us know what else you want us to do on the channel, especially with our new tech coming out very soon and we will put that in on the list and get it up on the blitz for you. Until then see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/0EqvMM3417k

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello there lovely ballroom dancers, welcome back to another Ballroom Blitz. We'll be showing you a Quickstep figure today it's a Tipple Chasse to Right, and we'll be showing you how to use this figure in a corner.

(Demonstration without music)

Now, you can do Tipple Chasse to Right along a side, but doing it in a corner means that it's a touch easier sometimes, because we don't have to turn it as far. It will be turning to the right and it's the follower who has the first drive step so let's have a look.

So let's have a look at the leader steps first.

Ian: Leaders, the Tipple Chasse to Right commences halfway through a Natural Turn. So we have already driven outside of the follower, we have moved to the side, blocked them, closed our feet, and prepared for the follow to drive forward. So the first driving step will come from the follow on their right foot, you're ready to go back on your left, so that is a somewhat straight drive step, and you don't want to turn too early, so that's fairly typical for this sort of naturally turning figure. Now, what I want you to be conscious of is keeping the follow on your hips, so not to turn away from them too early, or too soon, in the next part of the figure. But, we're going to then do a chasse, we're going to take a side step and we're going to continue to turn to the right, almost riding the corner.

We're going to take our side step up on a toe, close our feet for the middle step of the Chasse, and now I'm going to think I want to cut the corner, really, I don't want to do this 90°, I'm going to come in this way cut the corner and end up traveling diagonal wall of a new line of dance. So, I'm going to set that up with my next step I'm going to take a slow step on my right foot in that direction to end the Chasse part slow, but this is a very curious slow for quickstep. It isn't a heel, you don't lower the heel, but you do have to flex the knee to make it a slow. So if you can nail the middle step the rest of it [is] kind of easy. But the first few steps are Slow Side-Close Slow, you can see I've bent the knee, I've flexed, I haven't lowered my heel.

It's not too easy to just stand there for too long um, but we want to stay up off of the ground here and not allow ourselves to come completely down. That will confuse the follow, they will now, now expect us to follow with a driving heel of our own, which we're not going to do. What we're going to do is produce a somewhat of a body side lead into a good lock position. If you need a little bit of help with that go back and find the blitz on our Forward Locks, and we talk about our diagonal position to move in those, I'll leve the link in the description. But, if we imagine that we've accepted the drive, we've chassed, we've held the follow in position, we've not lowered our heel, I'm going to now bring this next step through in that sort of fashion, realigning my body, setting up a nice diagonal type of arrangement, ready for a step lock step.

So really we have two chasses melded together, if you like, with one sharing slow step in between them. The first one is your classic side-close chasse, the next one is your locking chasse. So all in all we have, slow chasse one, and then chasse two, which is your lock, and you will then progress outside of partner, just like a lot of other quickstep figures, ready to go on your right foot to follow with a natural sort of figure.

Lindsey: Now, followers at the start of this figure the leader should have set up a lovely drive step for us. After that they may do with it as they please. So, we're just concentrating on staying in their frame and trying to judge whether they're still up on their toes, the speed of their steps, where they're going, so that step that the leaders have, that Ian was pointing out, is quite critical to let us know that we shouldn't lower the heels partway through this expecting a drive from the leader too soon. So we give our own drive on our right foot, slow. Se should then feel the leaders frame start to turn us, and then rising up so we rise as well, and we have a left close left for our chasse. We should then feel that they don't lower but they do turn bring that left side of theirs through, which will send us backwards, right lock right, that's the point at which we lower and they will drive past us.

(Demonstration with counts)

(Demonstration with music)

Lindsey: There you are lovely dancers, it is the Tipple Chasse to Right as performed in a corner. So, make sure you get that 1 to 3 of a Natural Turn to set it up leaders, and then take it nice and cruisy onto your new line of dance. So, give it a try let us know how you go and we'll see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/h2di055dXlg

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to another Latin Rumba Ballroom Blitz. Today we're going super simple but super important, we're doing a forgotten figure called the progressive walks. You should be putting it into your Rumba, so we are going to show you how.

(Demonstration without music)

Ian: As you can see from the demonstration we are doing what is advertised on the tin, we are doing walks in our Rumba rhythm and they are, for want of a better expression, progressing us down the floor in some fashion; hence Progressive Walks. But you can see we can do them in a side-by-side position either left side or right side, it really doesn't matter, or we can do them in an open position. In that example you saw the follow going backwards the leader coming forwards, you can easily reverse rolls and do it as the opposite as required as, as you would like in your creative Rumba. So, we're going to focus on exactly what we need to do just to make these Rumba walks pop, make them work, make them balanced, and then it's over to you to put them into your Rumba.

Usually speaking, just to give you a little bit of guidance, you would perform your Step-Rock of some sort of figure, and then you would start to walk on the Four-One, and then progress after that. You don't have to, but it is a very easy starting case. So, if you're wondering where to put them in, try them out of a Hand-To-Hand first up, but for now let's get to what they are.

So it doesn't matter whether you are a leader or a follower and it really doesn't matter what position you're going in, let's have a look at what the progressive walk forward entails. You will obviously be starting with your weight on one foot, and these, these go on either foot, so it really doesn't matter. What do you want to do with your foot progressing forward?

Ian: We want to imagine, in the very Latin fashion, that we have something very valuable under our foot, we're going to push our big toe, the ball of our foot, through the sand; we're not going to lift up and plonk. So, we're going to keep our nice settled straight leg actions on the standing leg, moving forward, extending through the leg, and as we transfer weight we extend and settle into that hip on a faster beat; two. Repeat on the opposite leg; three, and then we're going to break that action in half on the Four-Ones. We still want to stick to our Two Three Four-One or Quick Quick Slow type of timing, if you prefer.

We're going to use that leg extension and placement on the first slow, pardon on the first beat of the slow, and then settle into that hip on the second one, to get that really nice Rumba slow settling appearance.

I will let you explore in adding the arms uh, they're not my uh, best feature of my Latin walk uh, so I'll let you add those if and when you choose. Today, we're focusing on the feet with our Quick Quick Quick-and-Settle, of course making a Slow, and our Two Three Four-One so with our beats of the bar.

(Demonstration without music)

Ian: There you have it, the Progressive Walks in Rumba. If you haven't come across them before they are really worth putting in some effort for, and once you get those working, think of your basic steps as a checked forward walk; it will really change how you go into your basics for both Cha and your Rumba. So, if you've got this far that's one last note for you. Smash them into your Rumba, try it out, enjoy your dancing, as always let us know what you would like and we will see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/Jbw4__d-IWY

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome blitzers, back to another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are heading into the Modern Ballroom world. Today we are heading into Slow Foxtrot, to a heel turn like no other; it is of course the Double Reverse Spin. Let's check it out.

(Demonstration without music)

Ian: The Double Reverse spin is a really gorgeous figure and unlike the name suggests you don't actually spin around a lot, and you don't spin around twice, and it's not as Tazzie Devil inspiring as the name suggests. You do have two separate spins, but that's more for the the theoreticians. For now, we're going to go through the basics of it, get the follows heel turning properly, get the leaders heel turning properly, and get you up onto the floor adding this figure into your Foxtrot, and even give you some suggestions for how to smash it into your Waltz and your Quickstep.

If you do need to revise your heel turns we will leave all the relative links in the description so that you can go back and watch those, we won't get too bogged down in the mechanics of that here, other than to say we are putting the follower into a Reverse Heel Turn, and then we're giving them two extra steps as they exit, which is very similar to what you see in other reverse turns Samba and Viennese Walts for example, with a crossing and a sliding of the feet; and leaders you are going to dance two steps to the followers four so that we can get all of the rotation in nice and settled and get a nice perfect figure with a balanced amount of rotation.

Ian: Leaders, you have two steps to the followers four and that means that with less steps, less mechanics, you have the job of balancing and rotating and controlling the figure; basically if you're going to dance this step you've got to be a leader and be prepared to be a leader. We're going to put the follower into a Reverse Heel Turn, that means you are driving on the left foot preparing to turn left, and you are Side-Stepping around, walking around the follower, putting them into their heel turn, and those are the two critical steps. Then you've got to keep rotating to get the follower to do their extra steps. So, steps wise for yourself you are going to drive forward, slow, putting yourself and your follower into that heel turn on the back of that drive, walking around them, and then allowing yourself to keep rotating without adding any extra steps. Now within that turning step, within that turning timing, there are options for once you've mastered the basic steps for what you can do with the other foot, some people like to Pivot some people like to Ronde, there are different schools of thought if you like. But, you can't get away from the fact that you have two steps, and you can't get away from the fact that the follow is doing a Reverse Heel Turn. So we must step forward slow, put them into the Reverse Heel Turn, and then pick your alignment that you want to drive out on. Here we're demonstrating just three quarters (3/4) of a rotation, so certainly not the "double reverse" two turns that a lot of people feel they should be getting when they hear the name Double Reverse Spin. So, we're only doing three quarters (3/4) of a rotation in this example, you can of course get more, any less and it starts to not need four steps for the follow, so three quarters (3/4) is about your minimum. If you want to go seven eighths (7/8) or one turn that's fine, start with three quarters (3/4), get the balance, and then you can get into the habit of bringing your follow round for your exit. But remember, two steps putting the follow into a Heel Turn, and those are your steps. Be a lead, and you're good to go.

Lindsey: Followers, we're quite used to being put into a Heel Turn if we've been doing some Slow Foxtrot, so the first few steps shouldn't really take us by surprise. We'll feel the leaders drive at us on their left foot, so we'll go backwards on our right. They will cut around us and we should be ready when we feel a turn to be doing a Heel Turn. So, like Ian said, we've done Heel Turns before, we've had a look at those, so we'll put a a link down below for you to have a look at if you need to revise that. So we've had our backwards on the right, we will turn on that right heel, so wherever it lands that's where we want our balance to be, our left foot comes up underneath us, as we turn around we change our weight onto it. Now, after that it could be a number of different things, it could just be a normal reverse turn, it could be some sort of Telemark, we're not quite sure. What will tell us that it is a Double Reverse Spin is that the leader, without taking any more steps, will continue the rotation. So we'll feel it through the frame, we'll feel it through the hip, that we are encouraged to keep on turning, and because of the position that we'll be in we will want to take some steps for it. So, our final two steps... Which way shall I go? ...backwards on the right, Heel Turn, we change our weight to our left here at the end of it, but we'll feel that rotation continue, that will encourage us to take a sideways step on our right, and then that classic reverse turn cross, so my left foot is sliding up underneath me. It will make me land with essentially my knees one behind the other, my weight will be on my left ready to go backwards into some other figure on the right. If I add in the timing for that I've got

(Demonstration of Followers Steps)

Ian: The double reverse spin does come with a number of timing options. Today we are sticking with the basic Slow Quick-Quick Slow, that really enables your Heel Turn for the follow to be executed in their standard timing, so this is the the easiest to get your Double Reverse Spin going. But, you can then explore different options, either exchanging where that second slow is or perhaps dancing them all slows or all quicks, you really can make it creative. But, use this one just to get the hang of the basic figure.

(Demonstration with counts)

(Demonstration with music)

Ian: There you have it boys and girls, dancers of all sorts; the Double Reverse Spin in the [Slow] Foxtrot. As we mentioned you can put this into your Modern Waltz and you can put it into your Quickstep. The principles of what we've talked about today stay exactly the same, you just have to change the rhythm for the appropriate dance that you're putting it in. That might mean that the timing needs to change but if you follow the guidelines for the dance you're in you shouldn't have any trouble. We will be running over those in due course so if you would like to see those sooner rather than later you will need to leave a comment. This is very popular in Modern Waltz, but don't forget as it has a Heel Turn in it, it is a native to [Slow] Foxtrot step. So try it in the [Slow] Foxtrot first, you will find then that the followers will not misinterpret the lead for the Heel Turn because they are expecting it as part of being in Slow Foxtrot. Just a little hint for you there. Until next time let us know what you'd like to see, leave a comment, leave a like, and we hope you enjoyed the video. For now, see you soon.

Video

youtu.be/Ug1aCKfBZ74

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely dancers, welcome back to Ballroom Blitz. We are looking at a Samba move today, it is the Traveling Bota Fogos. Now the Bota Fogo is an action that happens in the Samba, it's a very useful one. We've looked at that action before in one of our previous blitzes, so we'll put a link to that particular video down below, but there's lots of different ways that you can put your Bota Fogos into action. We'll be having a look at one of those today with the Traveling Bota Fogos, so let's have a look.

(Demonstration without music)

Lindsey: So, as you can see in this version of the Bota Fogos it's the leader who is traveling forwards. Because we're in a closed hold with the leader, followers you will be traveling backwards, but we are following the same rules of our Bota Fogo in that there is that sort of zigzag nature to them through the hips, but our overall travel is going in a particular direction.

Ian: You can do Bota Fogos, as we know, on either foot so really it doesn't matter where you start. But, if we stick to what's in the literature, I'm going to be starting on my right foot and we will progress, we will travel past our partner, on their outside. So, we've aligned ourself in whichever direction we want to be Bota Fogoing, and in such a way that when I take my step I'm not going to be in line with my partner. As long as we've got that ready to go, we're going to follow the Bota Fogo "guidelines", if you like, with a walk forward very small walk, a toe walk, walking from the hips in a very Latiny fashion, poking out to the side with our partial weight step, we don't want to turn just yet and we don't want to thrust this in front of us.

So, a little to poke out to the side and in the Bota Fogo fashion we're going to realign our first foot, in this case the right foot, to a new line of travel, about a quarter to the right in this case from our previous direction of travel. So now our legs are aligned such that the left leg is slightly back, we're going to progress past our partner once again with a walk on the left foot, poking out to the side, minimal weight step, lightweight step, realigning that foot, and we've essentially got back to where we started.

So you could rinse and repeat as many times as you like. Try not to tap your foot. If you're first learning these try to avoid the trap of step tap, because then you don't really get the hang of using your weight transfer to change direction. But if you need to it's possible while you're starting, just don't get into the habit. And then, add your Samba bounce, your Samba rhythm, all of those things that we like to sort of party down to with your Samba, as you want to, as you're ready for them. When you get there we're going to have a nice crunching action with the hips and the abs, and progress as so for as many times as you like.

Lindsey: Now followers we're going to be doing a Bota Fogo action, but a little bit unusually for our Bota Fogos, we will be traveling backwards to match the leaders forward steps. You'll find in other figures that use the Bota Fogo action, most of the time we will be moving forward as well, but in this case we are going backwards; same rules apply though. So, if the leader is coming past us on their right foot, that means that we will be going backwards on our left. We take that first step one, we have our foot out to the side "a", and then switch alignment two. So, make sure that where you land that first step, it doesn't sort of slide off its place, we want to sort of essentially stay where we land and that foot out to the side is just helping us change to our new angle. We're now ready to progress on our right foot backwards behind us a-two. So we would have our usual Samba beat of One-a Two One-a Two.

Lindsey: Now, one of the traps in the Bota Fogos is that we get a bit too excited about that change of direction with our upper body. Being Samba, we want our hips to do most of the talking, and one of the tricks that you can try here, even though your lower body is sort of sorting out those sort of quarter turns and sort of making you zigzag as such down the floor, try looking at your partner. That keeps your upper body a little bit straighter and it then emphasizes what you're doing underneath with your hips, which is exactly what we want in a Samba.

(Demonstration to Music)

Lindsey: There you go, the Traveling Bota Fogos in the Samba. You will keep on encountering Bota Fogos as you continue along your Samba journey and this is a nice supportive one that gets you moving around the floor. So, give it a go, let us know how you go, what else you'd like to see, and we'll catch you next time.

Video

youtu.be/0ydcitFvYMA

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely ballroom dancers, welcome back to another Ballroom Blitz. We are going to be looking at a Tango move today and it's a great one it is the Natural Promenade Turn.

We can glean a few things about this move just from the name, so because it's got "Natural" in the title we know that it's going to turn clockwise around each other, and it also has the word "Prominade", so we will be starting and, if we do it in the traditional way, ending as well in the Prominade Position. But, in true Tango form it's going to change around our position as it goes, so we'll go from Prominade to Closed and back to Prominade again.

[Demonstration with out music]

Lindsey: So there you go a demo of the natural prominade turn in the Tango. It's got a classic sort of sharpness that a Tango figure does, and it's a good whippy one to go around corners or otherwise make your way around the floor. So, let's have a look at the leaders steps first.

Ian: Leaders, when you first start this figure we should only be turning it about three quarters (3/4), your classic "turning a corner" type arrangement. Then, as Lindsey said, you can eek out a little bit more to get it going down a room if you choose later on. But, if we aim for three quarters (3/4) we're going to turn the corner the long way around, which is very Ballroom. We're going to be pointing along our old line of dance in prominade. We're going to have a slow, very Tango, drive forward in prominade to kick us off, Slow. I'm now going to take a faster step, but still low and still quite straight, I don't want to turn this too early just yet. I'm going to take a quick, and then I'm going to block the follow by turning around them in the clockwise direction, the natural direction, and I want to think of putting my back towards my old line of dance, Quick. And, I have now closed the position. We're no longer in prominade, we are in a closed position, and our old line of dance is that way that means our new line of dance is that way. And here's the trick, I'm going to imagine walking forward, on this foot, in that direction, like so. That's my final step, [it] looks a little bit strange without a partner, but don't think backwards, don't think sidewards. You have to walk forwards, through your partner, to get that rotation going. Once I'm here I have to return us to Prominade Position and in a very Tango fashion I'm going to bring my remaining leg, my left leg, around into that "Link" type position and we're good to go along a new line of dance. A Slow Quick-Quick Slow, but you can think of it as "Walk" or "Drive" step, close [position], and turn, so we have

[Demonstration of Leaders Steps]

Lindsey: Followers, we are ready in our Promade Position. At the start we have our weight on our left foot, ready to go forwards on our right, following the leaders lead as we go Slow down the floor in prominade, Quick step still in prominade, and then our next step is going to keep on traveling along that line, but because the leader is taking a step around us, sort of blocking us through, our frame will be quite different at the end of it. So, I'm still going to take another step down my old line of dance on my right foot, Quick, but at that point my partner has come around. So, I should be taking that step straight through their feet. This sets up a perfect position to be able to turn in a pivoty kind-of way around each other. I'll feel the leader realign, take a step, forwards for them, backwards for me, with my new line of dance, and then I should feel the frame bringing me back around to promenade position at the end. That doesn't have a weight change so my final weight change will be on my left foot, so if I count that out, here I am just like the leader a Slow Quick-Quick Slow, and I have a

[Demonstration of Followers Steps]

Lindsey: Now, these demos make a little bit more sense when we've got our partner here, you can see that we are in a Prominade Position and we're going to just walk in Prominade for the first two steps so we have a Slow and a Quick. Now, this next bit we've got two more steps to go and essentially I'm going to step at Ian and then he is going to step at me as we pivot around each other, so we have a Quick Slow, and he has got us around the corner, used his frame to bring us back to Prominade Position and now we're ready to go again, promenading down our new line of dance.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Lindsey: And there you go the Natural Prominade Turn in the Tango. So, a nice whippy one, it's a nice dramatic one, playing around with both Prominade and Closed positions, which of course Tango loves. So, have some fun with this one, use it in the corners or have a play around to see if you can get a little bit more rotation in it to make it work anywhere on the floor that you need it to. So, we'll see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/BS6m-q_b078

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to yet another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are going to be in The Jive mode doing a few variations on a theme to help you get a little bit more variety, even out of some of the basic steps. Let's get into it.

Ian: Today we are going to be tackling three variations and one development of a Blitz we have already done. It is the basic Jive figure the Fallaway Rock. For most of you it is what you would call the "The Jive Basic". It's the most simple figure we learn, it starts in closed, gets us back to closed, we can piggyback it, we can use it as a launching pad to get into a myriad of different steps. But, there's a high chance that you're doing it slightly wrong, or maybe just a little bit lazily, and if we tighten that up you will suddenly see that you can do it not one way but four ways, so the one you've probably known and three others, and then when we develop it you can get into these things called Whips, which are on the list for us to Blitz later. But, you can't do a Whip if you can't get into it, so we're going to be doing that.

Ian: For many of you this video will be maybe a "well yeah der", because you're just naturally doing these things and it's not as mind shattering. If you are in that group, two thumbs up, awesome, still give it a watch you'll probably find something small that you can even improve your Jive with. But, for many of you, you might be thinking "oh, I didn't know I could do it from that position" or "oh, I, I didn't know I could get to there from that spot", that suddenly opens up a few new ways for you to Jive certain figures, and give you a bit more of a relaxed feel if you don't get to the exact position because now you've got a few more that you can get in and out of, so it relaxes your overall Jive. Whichever basket you fall into, this is the Fallway Rock four different ways, with the development. No demos because there are too many, we're going to talk you through and let you smash it out on the floor.

Ian: So your standard, everyday, run-of-the-mill, basic Jive Fallaway Rock starts in closed, in our Latiny Closed sort of "Jive relaxed" sort of posture. The key element here is when you take your fallaway step, you actually have to go to fallaway. So, leads that means for you, you have to turn one eighth (1/8), so I'm no longer looking at my partner, my head shoulders hips, not quite knees and toes, have turned one eighth (1/8). Follows, you are going to turn a quarter (1/4), now exactly the same, shoulders a little bit less because we are attached, although this is nice and relaxed, but hips, feet, and head have turned a quarter (1/4). So, now I'm looking this way, and Lindsey is looking that way. This is the bit that people get sometimes a bit lazy on, or when the music gets a bit fast we just get a little bit too relaxed. But if we can get through this position then all of the options that we're going to run through are really easy.

Ian: In your stock standard basic Fallaway Rock type move, we're going to get to this position on the step back, and on the replace we're going to commence to close back up, and then do our chasse basically facing each other; so it looks a little bit like: Opening up, Closing up, and and then we are chassing. Now, for these moves and for a whole bunch of other Jive moves, particularly for you leaders, you have to know when to hold your one eighth (1/8), and when to come back to your follow, and when to bring your follow back to you, so you can sort of think of it you got to know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em, when to keep them there, when to bring them back.

Ian: For this first variation we are going to consider that we can do a Fallaway Rock from Promenade. So, if we are already in Promenade, which is almost sort of a forwards version of Fallaway, for all intents and purposes, we're already in this position. So, if I do my back replace I don't have to turn anywhere, yet I can take this a bit straighter, but then on the replace I'm going to bring my follow back. So, we've commenced in Promenade and closed just the same. Now, here's the trick, we can do that and stay in Promenade, so there's actually no turn through this figure. We can take this step, as we did before, we don't have to turn to get into it, we were already there and replace, and we don't have to shift, and now we can chasse in Promenade and chasse back. So we have started and finished the figure in Promenade. Now this is slightly different from if we were going to do Walks. We're not changing the chasse, we're not doing two forward, we are doing one forward one back, but that feeling of keeping in Promenade through the first chasse, does help for when we do things like underarm turns, Change of Places, those sorts of figures, because leaders, you're getting used to staying in that position.

Ian: Now we can turn that on its head. We can start in Closed and then we can end in Promenade. So we have back replace, I'm not going to turn my follow back but I'm not going to change my frame. This is possibly the trickiest of the lot because you will use this first chasse, almost as a transitional chasse, for a lot of your turning figures. But I'm going to chasse this way and then just chasse back, and the key here is we're going to hold our frame, basically in the same spot, so we're not giving any miscommunications to the followers, we're not lifting the arm, or being too loose, we don't think it's a Fallaway Throwaway, we're not going to drop the shoulder, we're not getting too big or unruly with it, but we're just simply doing our back replace chasse chasse, and now I've ended in Promenade and that may be advantageous for you as well.

Ian: So, those are your four versions of the same move, we're going to start and stop in prominade or start and stop inclosed and every which way in between. So, those are your four versions of the basic Fallaway Rock, now we're going to have a look at the development.

Ian: So what is the Fallaway Rock Development? It's actually quite a specific development that really only gets you to one, two, figures depending on how you think about your whips, and it drops an entire chasse. So instead of Back Replace Chasse Chasse, you just dance Back Replace Chasse, and that is the starting point for the Whip; watch out for those, that will come up soon. So what do we want to do? Well we actually want to turn our Fallaway Rock from that Fallaway position in the first chasse, or the only chasse, in the natural direction to get the follower to basically cross their feet, wound up, not too tight but a little bit tightly so that we can whip around. What does that look like? Well, if I start here we have our regular Back Replace, I commence to close, but now as I chasse, I don't just take it straight, I am going to continue to turn Quick-a-Quick, and we have now started to wind around entering that Whip position. Now, here I tend to to advise that you don't try for a particular amount of turn but don't try and Tassie Devil it around also. A quarter (1/4), a half (1/2), is okay. If you get a little bit more, a little bit less, that's fine. You need to take your partner with you and close you up but don't try and actually get too far around it's not a Top. So, if we have a look at how that works, we'll go from the closed position because that's what we've been doing, we have Back Replace Quick-a-Quick and there is fine. If you are together in your closed position and have turned with your partner that's all you need. What you want to watch out for when entering this position, and we'll go over it again when we get to the Whip Blitz, we don't want these to be too far beside each other and we don't want one person to have turned more than the other, so keep your frame nice and square, keep that Latin box going and you're good to go for your Fallaway Rock Development leading into Whip and Whip Throwaway.

Ian: So, those are the varieties of your Fallaway Rock, and then the Development, like I said getting you to a very specific position for Whips and Whip Throwaways, which are yet to come in the Blitz series. There's a lot of nice hidden material in there for all the leaders out there that may be having a little bit of trouble starting to lead certain closed figures, and that just can't get their follow to follow along. Basically learning how to get into that Promenade slash Fallaway type position and hold your frame and their partner in their position; that is the key to all of those moves. If you are on the follower side of that, the biggest issue that I see with a lot of followers in that particular setup is not turning their head to that quarter (1/4) over that movement, we just sort of all often suffer from this idea that if we've got to come back then there's no point going there in the first place, but taking your shoulders for the leader and the follower on that eighth (1/8) or that one quarter (1/4) really does set up all the options for not bringing it back or not bringing it back later or bringing it back and doing the stock standard Fallaway Rock, just easy as pie. So, practice those, practice the different ones, decide with your partner which one you're going to do first up so you can get a little bit of a compare and contrast on how it feels, then just smash it into your Jive on the social floor and see what combos you can come up with. So, that's it for today's Blitz we hope you enjoyed it, try it out on the floor, get up enjoy your Jive, enjoy all your dancing, let us know what you would like us to Blitz next and watch out for those Whips to come next time Jive rolls around. For now though, thank you and see you next time.

Video

youtu.be/tG9BVrV4r-E

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again, ballroom blitzers welcome back to a New Vogue Ballroom Blitz. Today we are going to be talking about Rotary Chasses and Tipsy Chasses and what's the difference, when you should be doing each, or both, and just giving you a little bit of a clearer picture on which one you should be doing in your New Vogue Marches, Foxtrots and the occasional tango as well. So let's have a look.

We have previously blitzed the Rotary Chasses, and we have compared it to the Natural Waltz as well, so we will leave links for those in the description. This isn't going to be a complete rehash of those steps, and it's not quite a pet peeve either, but it has come up when I have been watching some people on the social floor, and there's been a little bit of murkiness between what you might think of as a proper New Vogue Rotary Chasse; when that should be being danced, and when we see something that's more akin to a Quickstep Tipsy Chasse. Whether it's the steps or whether it's the shaping or whether it's the overall effect, those two have become a little bit muddy. So we're going to clear those up in a non pet peeve sort of way and give you some tips for making sure you know which one you should be doing and why you would select one over the other.

Ian: First of all, everything in your New Vogue should be, in a perfect world, a Rotary Chasse. The Tipsy Chasse doesn't exist in your New Vogue; it doesn't come up at the end. It is sometimes a necessary evil. If it's a packed, busy floor, and we'll get to that in a moment. But you shouldn't be selecting at if you have any other choice and you shouldn't be putting Tipsy Chasse shaping into a Rotary Chasse because it just doesn't work. Stop it. Don't keep doing it. Get yourself a good Rotary Chasse. So let's have a look at the difference.

Your stock standard New Vogue Rotary Chasse, again link in the description, should start with a Chasse to the side, or more accurately, a side step, and then a walking step down the floor in your quick-quick, slow or side-close, drive pattern, and it should look like this. We should have a side-close walk side-close walk, side-close walk, etc. etc. and if you need to revise those steps, you can check out the blitz on that. Your Tipsy chasse, which is a higher level Quickstep move, often socially danced quick-quick slow, but should really be danced Quick-a Quick, and therefore double the timing, tips. Some people think of it as it's the “drunken” chasse, when you are a bit tipsy and you're tipping one way or the other, or it's just a description of the shaping you're putting in. But it looks a little bit more like this, and if I emphasize it with the count, we have tip-tip slow, tip-tip slow, tip-tip slow, tip-tip slow, etc.

So you can see there are some similarities and it will travel you down the floor if needed. But you shouldn't be doing one when you need to be doing the other. So let's dissect that a little bit more.

Ian: So if you've never encountered Tipsy Chasses before, or if you don't dance a great amount of New Vogue and you're wondering what a Rotary Chasse is, that's a basic compare and contrast of the two. So why should we be doing one over the other? Well, apart from the fact that Tipsy Chasses don't exist in New Vogue therefore we should be doing Rotary Chasses, there is a very different effect and a very different shaping and styling that goes with both of them, that if you mix those up, you will just always struggle to make that feel good factor anything other than “it doesn't feel that great”. So what should we be doing with our Rotary Chasses? Without rehashing the entire video that we've already done before, a Rotary Chasse has a drive step in it. Someone should be walking down the floor. That walk should be a power heel to power the next side close, and that should come with an up and under style of shaping to account for the lowering and the driving nature of the step.

So essentially, if I give you a basic introduction to that, if I am going to drive forward on my right foot, as I would be doing in a Rotary Chasse, I want my frame to come up and under as I lower into that drive, step, compress the standing leg and get my power moving forward. So that enables us in a very “natural waltz” type fashion, and for those that have already encountered, sway and swing and turn and things like that, it's the same type of story. I'm going to use my frame to come up and around, lower into the drive and move my frame accordingly. So by the time I am doing my side close, I am swaying to start to lessen the amount of turn that I'm making and therefore proceed forward passing the power step to my partner. So in a very Natural Waltz slash Rotary Chassis way, we're driving forward and that creates our, shaping and our styling because of the drive step. The Tipsy Chassis doesn't have a drive step; it has a almost a settling sort of step that is slower than the previous two. Bearing in mind that Tipsy Chasses for those that have done them and if you've never encountered them, they should be danced Quick-a Quick so they don't have an inherent slow step. They're not designed to have that. So they won't have a driving heel. They will all be toes, which means that you don't have that shaping of being low and moving up and under like you do with a driving forward step.

You have a a tip, a tip and a settle. So I have a Tip Close Tip, and on this point I'm shifting to make any sort of turn to tip the other way and then settle. There is no drive step at all. Even if you dance those Quick-Quick Slow with a Quick-Quick Slow, Quick-Quick Slow and allow your heels to lower and settle you, you still do not have a drive step so you cannot have drive step inspired shaping with a Tipsy Chasse. So, this is where the disconnect that I see comes in. If you should be dancing a Rotary Chasse, and if indeed you are dancing Rotary Chasse steps, if you are putting in Tipsy Chasse styling, those two things will fight each other. And in my opinion, and this is my opinion, it looks god awful. Just don't do it. Learn to drive and get your shaping and styling on a drive step, and then save your Tipsy Chasse-ing for when you actually want to or need to Tipsy Chasse. So let's cover the need to next, and we'll talk about why you might choose to do a Tipsy Chasse instead of a Rotary when you need to.

Ian: So if we are Rotary Chasse-ing we need some, measure of distance in front of us or a confidence that any partners in front of us are going to keep moving, that allows for the drive step to happen without much obstacle, and we can keep moving down the floor. Sometimes on a packed floor this just doesn't happen. Maybe the couple in front are learning and they're moving a bit slower. Maybe there's just lots of people on the floor, so getting a gutsy driving step is almost not worth it, because you're just going to drive and have to pull yourself up, and that's actually harder and more likely to do you or the partners in front and injury.

So if we can't do our Rotary Chasse with a good, full blooded drive step to allow yourself to move, if that's not safe, then you might choose to tip, and we tip to keep it a bit smaller. You can keep some eyes on the people ahead because we're not powering through. We're able to stay up a little bit more, but still get the overall feel of the left and right of the dance.

The tempo of the dance doesn't have to change. The rhythm doesn't have to change, but it is a different move. So that might be when you choose to dance one over the other, and usually you're dancing a Rotary Chasse if you need, or if you are dancing New Vogue and if you need to, you can dance your Tipsy Chasses.

Ian: So what I'm suggesting you don't do, and I'm not honestly even sure I can do it, is put in your Tipsy Chasse, top line while your dancing drive steps beneath. If I do, I Tipsy here and then drive and almost bend backwards here as Lindsey's driving forward, and then Tipsy here and drive back you can kind of see it; the two things don't mesh. Your top line is fighting your feet. You're not allowing the drive to come through because your, exchange of sides and your tipping is not allowing that drive step to actually come through and move as it should, and so you're getting a much weaker version of a Rotary Chasse with some poorly, looking shaping up top.

So that's what I mean by don't do the Tipsy Chasse shaping and styling when you should be Rotary Chasses, and only use your Tipsy Chasses when you really need to micro-step it on a busy floor, or around a tight corner, or maybe to avoid someone who's maybe having a chat on the side of the room, all those sorts of get out-of-gaol, type scenarios that you might need to when you need to power down the distance.

So that's the difference between your Rotaries and your Tipsies. So that's why you would pick one over the other. Don't muddle up the shaping. If you are muddling up the shaping, learn to shape that nice driving up and under step, don't just tip side to side. Enjoy your dancing. Get out there, enjoy your New Vogue with all your various, Marches and Foxtrots, with your Rotary Chasses in them, and have some fun.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/z1FwYxD8A28

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello, lovely ballroom dancers, welcome back to another ballroom blitz. We're in the Latin world today, we're going to be looking at a cha cha move. It's the Hockey Stick, and we're going to spice it up with an alternate finishing position.

Now, the Hockey Stick is actually a figure that we have had to look at before, but previously we were looking at it in the Rumba. As you know, a lot of figures will transfer from the Rumba to the Cha Cha and vice versa, with just a couple of little tweaks. So what we'll do is we'll put the link for the Rumba Hockey Stick, down below in the description, so you can have a look at that to recap. But we are going to be adding in that, Chasse action, turning it into a Cha Cha, and like we said, giving it a slightly different position at the end.

[Demonstration without Music]

Lindsey: As you can see from the starting position, we begin this move in fan. So, it's one of your options, the Alemana is another, those are the two big ones; the Alemana and the Hockey Stick. So this one is the Hockey Stick. The leader leads the follower in front of them, turns them round to the left. But we are, instead of ending in an open position with our partners sort of square with each other Ian sort of turn it a little bit more so that we would be ready for something like a New York instead at the end of it.

So let's have a look at the leader steps first.

Ian: Leaders link in the description for the Rumba version of the Hockey Stick, so we're going to go over the basics here, but if you feel that you need a little bit more check out that video as well it will give you all the base points. As already mentioned, we start in same position. So we have just moved to the side. You've got your weight settled on your right foot, your, partner out in the standard, Fan position.

Your footwork, you're going to step forward, full weight, rocking back full weight, and then you do have cha options here for your chasse. Just start with a nice compact chasse Four-and-One, that replaces your Four-One of your Rumba. If you'd like to then upgrade it to a Ronde Chasse or something else, I'll leave that up to you. But you have returned your weight to your left foot, just like in the Rumba version, leaving your, right foot free to move next. You are still going to Cuban Cross, and you're still going to be careful not to make this a back step. That will make it very hard for your partner and the move gets too unruly. So, a nice compact Cuban Cross turning your body about one eighth [1/8] or 45 degrees, and then you are going to step forward on your left along that same line. So your two and three of the second bar is Cuban Cross on two, small walk forward on three, and here is where, we're going to change our finishing position.

Ian: If you want the stock standard version, at that point you would turn the follower as per the Rumba version, and Cha forward with your forward chasse, they would do a backward chasse, and you would enter your open position. Here though, we're going to spice it up a little bit. So we're going to take a look at the arm work, review it for the first part, and then the second part to make sure that we can lead that alternate finishing position correctly. So, if we examine the arm work, feet are exactly the same as what we have just done. I'm going to inspire my follower to close their feet with a small push out as I take my first Two step. As I rock back on Three, I'm going to inspire them to walk forward. These are pretty stock standard versions for any figure commencing in Fan. Here, as I do my compact chasse, I am going to make it very clear that I want the follow to chasse in front of me. So I'm going to take my follower here, and I'm going to Four-and-One, and I'm going to imagine that there's a blinding light that I am blocking out here. This creates a very different position from our Alemana, as Lindsey mentioned, the other main option from fan for social dancers. Your Alemana should be over here, your Hockey Stick here, and if there's not that much distance between them leaders, you're not doing your job properly.

Ian: So they have been Chassed to here. They would almost be blocking you if they were in front of me now, you wouldn't be able to see me from the camera because that's where my follow is. After the Four-and-One, I'm ready to use my right as we've said. As I Cuban cross, I have turned an eighth [1/8] I'm going to inspire my follower to turn and eighth [1/8] with a slight, lead forward. That means that their left foot would move and turn forward with their walk. We're going to walk in tandem here, and after taking this walk on the Three, but before the Four-and-One step, I am going to drop my hand to turn my follow. This gets them to face me, in the basic version, and in this alternate finishing position, I'm going to turn them ever so slightly more and instead of Cha-ing towards them, I'm going to Cha down the line. Well, not down the line, I'm going to Cha in Open Counter Promenade Position, as if to do a New York taking my hand in that direction. Four-and-One. A locking Cha, I think is best in this particular situation. That inspires the follow to move in Counter Promenade Position.

It turns them a little bit more in their spiral action, which Lindsey you will go over in a moment, and then we will have done the same Hockey Stick, the same guts of it, overturned it slightly, and gone to that alternate finishing position. So altogether, as a rough once over for the leader steps, we have:

[Demonstration of Leaders steps]

Lindsey: Followers, we have just done a move that has sent us backward with a Cha Cha action, a Chasse action, on our left foot into Fan Position. So this is where I'm starting, weight backwards on my left, ready to move my right. The leader's movement of the hand will inspire me, and also I'll know because I'm in Fan position, this is what I always do, to close my Right foot to my Left. You can put a little bit of an inverted ronde in there if you want to be fancy, but what we want to do is bring our right foot up underneath us and switch our weight onto it. That's beat Two.

Beat Three, I am walking forward on my left foot, and then I've got my chasse I action. It's just a forward little chasse which will end me in front of the leaders. So, the leaders will have done their sort of, blocking their eyes from the sun move there, and that will inspire me to shift my chasse forward in front of them. As they do the Cuban cross that's going to change my angle slightly, so I've been all on the one line at this point.

They're Cuban cross will make me turn an eighth [1/8] or 45 degrees to my left as I take that next step. So it will be Two; walking forward on the left. Nothing will change really about my position here for this next step, so I'll take my next step along that line, Three. That's my right foot, but this is where the leader's hand will drop down and I will turn. This is quite usual for a Hockey Stick, but as Ian said, he will take me slightly further and I will end up in this sort of dapper cross legged position, in a spiral position. I haven't changed my weight though. My weight is still on my right, and then I will be guided to do my last chasse ready on my left foot, forward, Left-a-Left for my Four-and-One.

We should be in a nice Counter Promenade Position, ready for something like a New York. So the following steps again I have:

[Demonstration of Followers Steps]

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Lindsey: There you go dancers, the Hockey Stick in the Cha Cha. So, remember that this move does and certainly can end in open position, where we're facing each other. Leader chasse-ing forward, follower chasse-ing backwards. So the one that we just showed you is an alternate for you to play around with. So try it out on the social floor, see how you go with it. Let us know what else you'd like to say and we will catch you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/kSLdkYB3kWI

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome back ballroom blitzers to another Ballroom Blitz. You are here to blitz ballroom steps, and we are going to do that today. We are going to do the Natural Spin Turn in the Modern Waltz. So, let's get into it.

We have already blitzed the Natural Spin turn, but we have blitzed it in Quickstep, and we blitzed it as part of the “Scary Steps” Halloween episode. We will leave a link to that in the description. It's a little bit of a ham up. The steps are good, but there's a few comic bits of relief in there, so I do think you should check it out. The guts of it is the same. It is, for all intents and purposes, the same step, the same figure in a Waltz with a few rhythmic changes to make it suit the Modern Waltz rather than the Quickstep. But we're going to go over it again just so that it has its own video, and that way you can either revise it in the Quickstep from the “Scary Steps” [video], or just, take what you know here and adapt it back into the Quickstep rhythm. But we're going to cover all the same bases and get you up and dancing the Natural Spin Turn in your Modern Waltz slash Quickstep.

[Demonstration without Music]

Ian: You saw there the demonstration of the entire Natural Spin Turn figure for the Waltz. And yes, it does start with the leader progressing forward. And it does start with a leader progressing forward on their right foot. may be foreign to some of you, because the back half is sometimes what is taught as the Spin Turn. And we're pretty lazy as teachers and students, we often just, abbreviate it to “Spin Turn” instead of “Natural Spin Turn”. But if we think of it as all of its six steps, and if we remember that it is turning in the clockwise direction, the natural direction, by reminding ourselves with the full name Natural Spin Turn, you can answer a lot of your troubleshooting questions about what it is straight off the bat. Now, also notice that a bit like our Double Reverse Spin video with the heel turns in the Foxtrot, there's not a lot of spinning in a in a “Spin” Turn and a Natural Spin Turn. We often convince ourselves that there is more turn, that there's more to do, and we often focus on that word “spin”.

When we can learn not to do that, to take a chill pill, to actually relax and get the movement, progressing through all of the steps without Tazzie Deviling the spin portion, it's actually quite an achievable and lovely figure to dance. So, let's break it down into the two halves. The first half, which will be, the same for your natural turns, and it's the same as we do in Quickstep, just with the rhythmic change. And then we'll do the back half the last three steps, which are the same in both dances, with the exception of how you count. So let's break it in half.

Ian: Leaders, you have arrived where you are facing diagonal to wall, ready to progress forward on your right foot. So in this example, my line of dancing is this way and my wall is where you are in the camera. I am going to turn clockwise. I'm turning in the natural direction and the first three steps of the figure basically block my follow, and without adding too many higher level, will leader type tweaks, basically, it will feel exactly the same as if you were doing: Natural Turn with Hesitation, leading into an Impetus Turn; or just a straight Natural Turn. So at this point, the follow doesn't have too many clues that it's going to be a Spin Turn, and that is the way that it should be. This first step, a lot of the time will progress in line with your partner, but depending on what you've preceded it, we can also progress outside of your partner.

That's okay, the second two steps are the same. I'm going to move forward, for those that are aware of CBMP and movements in of that sort. You're going to prepare to turn with your driving step on the right, stepping forward in CBMP around your partner, rising onto your toes and then lowering and compressing ready for the next drive step on three; or really after three, your classic Waltz timing with the elongated two, the nice graceful rise. Drive two closing our feet, settling and preparing for the drive step which now comes from the follower as they are facing line of dance.

Lindsey: Followers, I'm going to go the same direction as Ian, saying that that is my line of dance, so apologies for my back at the start of this. But, hopefully you'll be able to see my feet well enough for that, so they're coming forward on the right foot, either through my feet or past me, doesn't matter. Either way, I'm going backwards on my left foot, so I'll feel the drive sending me backwards on my left to the side with the right closing feet and lowering down.

We will have the drive step next, so we want to make sure that we are nice and secure there, and we should be facing dead down line of dance at the end.

[Demonstration of Steps 1 to 3]

Ian: You can see that the first three steps are quite like your regular Waltzing steps, and they're not too complicated, and you will recognize them from other figures. That is okay. That's how it should be. As you progress more, leaders, you will learn tricks to slightly under turn the last step to give yourself a little bit more to do in the next part.

But for all intents and purposes, you are going to drive side, close your feet and settle. Arranging you and your partner in a way where it is very clear that after you lower and invite the follower to drive, they are driving down line dance. So now let's have a look at the the guts of the figure, the part that makes the Spin Turn, a Spin Turn, and not just a Natural Turn, the Pivot, the Spin and the Settling Action.

Let's check those out.

Ian: Leads, we've arrived at said position; line of dance is that way, followers are going to drive forward on their right foot, which means you should be ready and waiting to go back on your left. Here, when you invite the follow to drive and accept that driving power, you are going to turn your toe inward as you step under you, creating tension across the top of your thighs, allowing you to perform a pivot. We don't have Pivot Turns in Modern Waltz, because there aren't enough steps in them. But, you do get Pivot Turns in the Quickstep, and these are a good stepping stone into understanding your Natural Spin Turn. I'll leave a link in the description to the Natural Pivot Turn so you can get a bit more on those. I'm going to turn my foot in as the follow drives.

I'm going to pivot around Five, beg pardon, Four. This is step Four of the figure. Step One of the new Bar and you’ll note that I have held my leg in position, really creating that pivoting sort of action and step. This also allows me now to walk forward into the next step, and it is going to be a bit more of a walking step. I can take a slight heel here, a little bit unusual mid, figure for a Waltz, but it is quite okay. Here we're going to pivot backwards, hold our leg in position. We're going to walk forwards, not a power drive step but a walking step for stability, and now we are going to actually perform the “spin”. So after walking on step Five I'm going to release my heel, lift onto the toe, close my feet together and spin.

And that's the only spin of the Spin Turn. You can see, it's the end of step Five and only about this much. No need to Tazzie Devil. You get a whole beat to do that. You've closed your feet without weight, that creates the balance. So, all of you is under one spot where not have any limbs holding out that pulling us off balance, and now I'm going to step to the side and slightly backwards, allowing my follow to come slightly forwards, inviting them to drive in the next figure. So the guts of your Natural Spin Turn is a Pivot, Walk and Spin, and Settle, settling slightly back, ready to be driven back on your right foot to go into the next figure.

Lindsey: Followers, let's have a look at our second half of our Natural Spin Turn, and I hope you enjoy this move because we've got most of the forward work. So we are now at a point where we are ready to drive forward on our right foot. The leaders started the figure starting with a forward movement on the right that helps turn us to the right, we're going to continue on with that, it's our turn to help this Natural Turn. Forward on the right foot with a drive, and we will feel ourselves then being pivot around so that we are back, ready to go backwards on the left. Just like the lead is doing, we're holding our legs in position, so as I walk forwards on that right foot at the start of my drive, my right foot is now forward, my left foot is back there, and as we feel that turn happen, I'm going to keep all that in place, so my left foot is still backwards there. The leaders then step forward at us, so we go backwards and we are going to brush our foot in, and that action of bringing our foot in and turning on our toe is our spin portion. We are then guided forward on our final step, that should be the right foot again, and we will be no doubt driving on our left into the next figure.

So each one of my weight changes has its own beat, but if I include the pivot action, and also the brush action gets a little bit more complicated. So we have: step one, pivot on and, step two, brush on and, step three. Or if I do that with a little bit more speed: One. And. Two. And. Three.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Ian: There you have it, the Natural Spin Turn in your Modern Waltz. Basically exactly the same as what you would do in a Quickstep from the Scary Steps video, except in the Waltz, of course, you are dancing One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, whereas in the Quickstep you are dancing Slow, Quick, Quick, and then three slows for the second half. Experiment with that toe turned in pivoting action. Experiment with slightly under turning, and then adding that pivot in to get a little bit more emphasis on what you can do with the power you get from step four, the followers drive, and then just remember that this figure it is a figure that should be danced down the side of a room.

If you only ever danced in a corner, you're not doing it correctly. Dance it down the side of a room, then learn to “linger longer”, one of my favorite sayings, and learn to underturn it in a corner. That way you can also then upskill and learn to over turn it and get into some amazing figures afterwards. You can't do that if you can only ever turn it in a corner.

So that's it. We hope you've enjoyed it. We hope you've got something out of it. If there's anything you think we've missed, leave a comment below. If there's anything else you think we've missed, go back to the, Scary Steps video and check that out. Probably do those the other way around. Check that out first, then let us know if there's anything else that we have missed that isn't in either video. Either way, I hope you've enjoyed it. Try it out on the floor. Everybody loves Waltz and Quickstep. We hope you do too. Let us know what you want us to blitz next and we will put it on the list. For now though, keep dancing and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/fSllERV7rKQ

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello there dancers, welcome back to the channel. We are going to be taking you into the world of the bullfighter today. It's the paso doble we're having a look at, and the figure is Promenade. The promenade is one of your base moves in the Paso Doble and you can upgrade it to a whole bunch of other things later on as well. So let's have a look.

[Demonstration without Music]

Lindsey: So let's have a look at the latest steps first.

Ian: Leaders, to kick off this figure, as with a lot of your Paso Doble figures we are starting with an Appel, and as always, with your Paso Doble we're going to be starting on the right foot, with the exception of the Left Foot Variation. So starting on the right foot with our Appel, and we will leave links in the description to some of these relevant figures we've already done.

We are going to, over that Appel, move from a standard closed shape into a more of a promenade shape, and there are various ways that you can do this. I'll let you investigate those yourselves. But, really they should be extending your right side and inspiring your follower to extend their left arm work as appropriate. Appel on One. Always remember to count the Appel, that is step one. Step two, we are going to promenade down the floor and as the figure suggests, we are promenading, we are moving, and we just happened to be in promenade position as well. We are going to promenade down the floor again on step two [THREE], and then we are going to start to block the follow on step three [FOUR] by turning a around and across them. This will change your promenade shape, that's fine, and we're going to now move backwards. Your step is almost in Fallaway. However, you're prom “your promenade”, your partner is not in Fallaway position with you, but this is how it will feel. We're going to step backwards in across almost in Fallaway. This step pretty much is in Fallaway position. We take our seventh step to the side. Again a lot of people will return to that promenade type shaping, that's fine, closing feet on eight. These are all quick steps counting One to Eight. Making sure we count the Appel, we have: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

Lindsey: Followers, we are starting in a closed position, and we will feel the leader lead the Appel. So, they were Appelling on their right foot, we are Appelling on our left, and we will feel that switch to promenade. So we are lengthening our left side and turning to look towards our hands down the way that we are going. So that is step one. Step two we're ready on our right foot to walk in promenade three and four across yourself still in promenade. Step five. We continue along our line as the leader cuts around in front of this. So we step there. They will then switch around to the other side. We continue along our way so steps will continue along in our direction forward as normal, but it will feel quite different because our frame was there it's now going to be shifting over to the other side. We step and step, so two more forward steps there. We are taken to the side, possibly with a bit of shaping and we close on eight. So if I do it back the other way, we have: One on left. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Side seven. Close eight.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Lindsey: There you have it, The Promenade in the Paso Doble. So, Leaders, you'll find that you can actually maneuver this around corners if you need to, but it works great on the straight. Have fun with the shaping. Followers enjoy the fact that we have mostly just forward work. Give it your all. Have some fun with it and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/PDfBHdmrQfU

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again, dancers. Welcome back to Ballroom Blitz. Today we are in the world of Quickstep. We are going to be doing a figure that we have already blitzed for the Waltz. We're going to be converting it into the Quickstep, picking apart the differences, talking about the similarities, and getting you on the floor. Today we are doing the Natural Turn with Hesitation. Let's go.

[Demonstration without Music]

Ian: The Natural Turn with Hesitation, or as it's known in the Waltz, The Hesitation Change, or for all us lazy teachers and students out there, just the “Hesitation”, is a really beautiful figure when it's danced properly. And I'm going to be a little bit honest, when it's not danced properly, it's a bastard of a figure to dance, to feel, to look at, it's just, it's just BAD. So, today we're a little bit of a mission. We're going to use the base that we set up from the Waltz video, link in the description if you want to go back and have a look at that one. We're going to get you dancing your Hesitation Changes and your Natural Turns with Hesitation properly.

We're going to be fitting your heel pull into your Hesitations, and that will even filter into your Natural Turns in your Foxtrot. So, we're going to be doing a lot today with only three simple steps. Let's go with the leaders steps for the Natural Turn with Hesitation.

Ian: Leads, as with so many of our naturally turning figures, you are going to commence with a drive step on the right; and the first three steps as with your: Natural Spin Turn, Natural Pivot Turn, or even the Natural Turn in your Quickstep, they will all commence on the right and start turning naturally with your drive step, and the first three steps will feel the same.

Drive, block your follow, close your feet, settle, ready for them to drive forward. So, those three we've already done, I'll leave some links in the description if you want to go back, and have a look at those in more detail, but they are essentially the same. But, this does get you turning in the correct direction, it passes you from using your drive step into inviting the follower to commence their drive step, and now this is where the differences from your other turns will occur, and this is where the guts of your hesitation comes in. If you're dancing a solid, Natural Turn in your Quickstep, then your Heel Pull should already be okay, and we're just going to not take the last step. But, if you're one of many social dancers that often dance Hesitation and often dance Spin Turn, and don't even know that other turns exist because you've never been taught them, or you've just learnt them and pitched them because why do them? Well, we might open a few eyes today.

Ian: You are going to accept the drive from your follow. They are driving forward on their right foot. You are accepting that on your left. This is a Slow. I release the toe of my right foot, and I'm now going to perform a Heel Pull. What does that mean? I'm going to pull this heel back. So, pretty much you do what the name suggests. I'm going to pull this heel back. My foot will naturally flatten as it comes under me, and then as it progresses backwards, the heel will want to lift. So, if we were taking a back step, that is the natural way that your foot would move under you. I'm going to resist the urge to lift my heel when it goes backwards, and at the point where I can no longer really do that comfortably, I'm going to actually lift both the balls of my feet and turn over two heels, two points of contact on the floor.

It's a heel pull. I have pulled my heel back and I have turned over two points of contact. This is super, super stable. And what are you doing? Why go to all this trouble? Your follow, you have just got to here and blocked them, and you've said to them, please drive at me, and then you have said, yeah, but I don't want all that power because I'm just going to hesitate over here for a minute I'm going to wait for a bit. So you have to brake, you have to slow down, you and your follow because you can't do anything here to say, “I want you to drive, but not that much”. You are asking them to drive you back, you do that, you now put the brakes on you Heel Pull, you slow down with that foot brake almost, and rotate to siphon off the rest of the power and of course to perform the turn. You're turning about three eights (3/8) of a turn on that last section. So the guts of it, we accept the power, we do the Heel Pull, we turn over our heels on step five and here's the hesitation on step six. You rest.

Ian: We should get here and be able to do not very much on step six. Have a pause. Survey the floor. Do whatever you do. Hesitate. So then when you drive out of the figure you are ready, Leads, to drive out on your left into some sort of reverse figure. And if we compare Natural Turn and Natural Turn with Hesitation in your Quickstep, that's the main difference. In a Natural Turn, you're going to do the Heel Pull, exactly the same, but you are going to walk out on step six, and usually you would use this to turn a corner, so you would progress with a natural figure around [new] line dance. Here we're going to take a chill pill, we're going to stop for a little bit, and you can do this down the side of the room, because your reverse style exits are a lot easier. So, that's the big difference, that's what we're trying to do. You're inviting the foot like to drive forward, then you are braking the follow with that Heel Pull and allowing them to come around.

Lindsey: Followers, let's have a look at our steps. So, we are ready to go backwards on our left foot, leaders are coming at us on the right or past us on the right. So it doesn't really matter whether this figure starts in line and they're sort of stepping through us here, or whether it's starting outside and stepping past us there, will entirely depend on the figure they have just done beforehand, either way it'll work. So we'll feel that drive, we're going backwards on the left for a Slow. We have a Quick to the side and Quick close, so I'm ready to go on my right foot. I should be fairly square with line of dance here, and the leaders should sort of be sort of hovering a little bit.

They're sort of low, they're not moving backwards into the drive, they're inviting us to drive. So, we are ready for the right foot. At this point, though, we know it's some kind of natural turn, we don't necessarily know it's a Hesitation, but all we know is that they have invited the drive, so we're going to give it to them. Straight through the middle, this will be in line, so it'll go straight through their feet on the right foot. That's our drive and we're propelling ourselves forward on a Slow and this is the one where we will suddenly work out what it is because we'll feel the effects of that Heel Pull; it will sort of bring us forward, and then turn us.

Lindsey: So that is on step five, and we have a pause on step six. You might feel the leaders sort of draw that foot in slightly, but we should be fairly low, fairly balanced, and definitely not moving anywhere. That is, the “hesitationy” part of our Hesitation. So if we go over those steps one more time, we have: back left, side right, close left, forward right, forward left, a bit sideways as we are turned, and we'll feel that slight draw in of the right foot. We don't want to put weight on it though, because that is going to be the drive step that sends us backwards out into the floor again for the next figure.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Ian: There you go, dancers, the Natural Turn with Hesitation in the Quickstep. As you can see, very, very, similar to the Hesitation Change in your Modern Waltz and uses the same Heel Pull as the Natural Turn in the Quickstep without the hesitation, and the Natural Turn in the Slow Foxtrot; links to all that in the description if you'd like to go back and scour those to see how it works. Please remember that this is not a line shape.

Do keep it nice and small, keep yourself low. If you want to add some sway you can do that, but don't turn it into the anti-oversway. I sometimes see that on the social floor; please don't do that. Do you use it though, It is exceedingly useful. You can put it in a corner, you can put it down the side of room, you can use it to surveil the floor and check out if things are getting busy. It is very, very useful, but it is much, much better when you get that Heel Pull in to make it feel nice and comfortable for you and your follower, or partner if you're a follower yourself. So, do let us know how it goes on the floor, what you want to be blitzed next and anything else you would like dancing related.

There are a few walkthroughs coming out. There will be a few polls coming out to check out what you see, what you what you want to see on the channel. So look out for those and let us know so we can give you the content that you want. Keep dancing. Enjoy your dancing. Get out there on the floor. Give it a go. It's never as hot as it seems and it only gets better with practice. So see ya soon.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/KBaf6otYJ0g

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely dancers, welcome back to the channel. We are going to be looking at a Rumba move today, it is Side Steps.

Side Steps are a nice, easy move in the Rumba. They can go either way, and you can kind of start wherever you need to, depending on what foot you are on. So, let's have a look.

[Demonstration without Music]

Lindsey: The sideways movement is actually the same for both leader and follower, so I'm going to demonstrate it by myself. Say I am ready to go on my right foot, or I want to travel to my right, so I'm going to start on my right foot in this case. Essentially, if I want to travel in that direction, the foot closest to that direction is going to have a sideways step when it moves, when it's that foot's turn, and if I want to keep on going in that direction, but I'm ready to use this foot, I am going to close my feet so I can then take another sideways step. So my motion as I go to this side is going to be side, close, side, close, side, close, and I simply repeat that however many times I want.

It’s same thing if I'm going in this direction, so if I'm going to the left, I'm going to go side on the left, close my right foot, side on the left, close my right foot, side on the left, and so on and so forth. So, the only thing that we need to make sure that we are doing as we are doing this move is make sure that we are keeping up with our Rumba rhythm.

So, we know from other Rumba moves that we always move on beats Two (2) and Three (3) and then a slower move on Four-One (4-1). So it doesn't matter whether I'm up to a sideways step or a close step, I'm going to follow that rhythm. So if I'm heading to my side here and I'm going to start with a sideways step in this case, but you needn't; we have got: Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One. So one bar would have me go: Side. Close. Side. and the next one, if I kept on going would be: Close. Side. Close.

Lindsey: This movement is actually a good one to test your footwork and how your hips are moving. One of the mistakes that we can make is to do it a little bit, to sort of square a little bit too still, and then particularly for the close steps, it can feel like, “oh, my feet are, both of them under me, I actually can't remember which one I'm supposed to go on”. Whereas if we're really sort of pushing into the floor, doing our close, particularly if we have a close on one of those slower steps, we’re sort of drawing our foot in, making quite a big deal of shifting our weight from one foot to the other, getting the hips involved and giving it that lovely Latin feel.

So this movement of idea upside and then close and then side, essentially two moves that we repeat, comes up in moves like the top. Our close is then not quite a close, it's either a Cuban Cross or a sort of step in front, but it's the same kind of idea. So, this one is quite a nice, easy version where we don't have to worry about rotation, we can just take it simply to one side or the other, and it will work in both directions, but it gets us practicing that, change between the two bars, but with a continual pattern.

[Demonstration with Music]

Lindsey: There you go, the side steps in the Rumba, so pretty much what it said on the tin. So, a nice one just to get into that Latin rhythm, get those Latin hits moving. So try it out. Let us know how you go. Let us know what else you'd like to see on the channel, and we'll catch you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/hJ-AY31aKfs

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello, ballroom dancers, welcome to another ballroom blitz. We are in the ballroom world today, we're going to be having a look at a move in the Foxtrot; it's the Feather Finish.

Feathers, of course, are a staple in our Slow Foxtrot and there, a number of different varieties. So, this particular one has the leader going backwards into that feather action, with the follower providing the drive step; let's have a look.

[Demonstration without Music]

Lindsey: And that's all there is to it, nice and easy; let's have a look at the leaders steps first.

Ian: Leaders, the best thing to do with this figure is not to overcomplicate it. You have positioned yourself in a position where you are about to receive a drive step from the follower, and you will be going backwards on your right. This might happen at the end of a Reverse Heel Turn or a Closed Impetus Turn, and you've invited the follower to drive.

So we're going to do that. That's step one, not really much you can do to that, but now we have to put ourselves in a Feather Position. We've just received power so we have to use that. So there will be some rotation, some turn, some movement away, you can think if this is leading with your left side if you like.

However you think about it, and kind of however you move, and however much turn you make, you must get to the point where you can achieve a Feather Position in the second quick, and through the first quick you then must position this foot so that you can step outside of partner. So, the classic “prepare to step out side step” is your second step, and then you step outside in your Feather Position for step three, and then you can go ahead and add step four as the drive step, which will be step one of the next figure in most cases. But other than that, it's the guts of a Feather that has been preceded by a drive from the follower. We get driven, prepare to step outside, step outside and settle afterwards. It is as simple as that.

Ian: The golden rule is take your follower with you. Try not to over rotate and get right outside of them so they're dancing in the crook of your armpit or dancing backwards, and you will find that when you achieve that feather position, you might be stepping across yourself slightly more because of the movement beforehand. That's okay, don't be afraid of that feeling, don't feel you have to reef you and your partner round to step too straight. It just won't feel as nice and you won't get as good results with your steps that you follow with.

Lindsey: Followers, like we said before, we have the drive step into this particular figure, and we should be ready to drive on our left foot. So whatever the leaders have done just beforehand, we should have settled on our right and have passage going forward, into the floor usually, it depends what we have just done. So we have a drive on the left, that's our slow. We want to make sure even though we've got the forward work here, we want to make sure that we are in a good closed position with our partner here, so when they start to turn, we keep our head to the left and we'll find ourselves more in a sort of sideways, ready to go backwards position, and this is our classic Feather step. So if I do that again, I have provided the drive, the leader then takes that energy and does with it, what they will, side and back and across, so we should get that crossed feeling. If we take it too straight back, chances are we have come off the hip, we've lost that contact with our partner, so we want to be prepared for that sort of crossing step, and then settling backwards on the right into whatever the next figure is.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Music]

Lindsey: There you are, dancers, the beautiful Feather Finish in the Slow Foxtrot. So try it out, it can work very nicely as part of your Reverse Turn, after a Closed Impetus, after a Back Feather, there's quite a few places where the leaders will find they can provide the opportunity for the follower to drive on that left foot, but end up doing the forward work in a classic feather. So try it out, let us know how you go and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/CeCoiIBHSAw

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again, Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to the channel. Today we're going to be in the world of a Latin American. We're going to be doing some Samba. It's another Bota Fogo video. We're going to go back to that favorite action of ours. Today we're going to be having a look at Traveling Bota Fogos Backward. Let's take a look.

[Demonstration without Music]

Ian: There you go, the Traveling Bota Fogos Backwards, sometimes just known as Bota Fogos Back. We have, of course, blitzed several Bota Fogo videos, we will leave links in the description. The Traveling Bota Fogos Forward is kind of, but not quite, the natural opposite to what we're doing today. When the leader is traveling forward in your Bota Fogos Forward, you're Traveling Bota Fogos Forward, you can repeat sets of two. Here, you will have noticed that we have four Bota Fogos, they're all slightly different. Some of them can be repeated to extend the figure, and as always in Samba you can chop up the figure and enter it differently and exit it differently. But this one does give you a nice rounded way of getting from start to finish in a different position. So let's break down the four different Bota Fogos here, for leader and for follower and get you up traveling or Bota Fogo-ing with your Traveling Bota Fogos Backwards.

Ian: Leads, you have arrived at a position where you can travel backwards on the right foot, and preferably putting the follower into a position where they can progress to your outside position. Now, there are a number of ways that you can do this, I will let you explore that on your own. But, you can do half of a Reverse Turn to get you into this position, that can be something that you can practice, if you've never encountered these before, or this position before. And now you are essentially going to perform a Traveling Bota Fogo, but you're going backwards, hence the name “Back”.

So you are going to walk backwards, now we're going to add our Bota Fogo bounce action, where we point out to the side with enough pressure and weight so that we can change position, and then walk backwards, swapping sides, and all the while your follower is coming forwards outside of you in a very standard Traveling Bota Fogo way. But, the leader is going backwards, hence the name. Often figures, or nearly always figures, are named for what the leader is doing. Now of course, you can start on a different leg, that's fine, I'll let you explore that, but you have to be going backwards. If you're going backwards in the wrong way around the floor, just make sure you're not going to crash into anyone.

Ian: So if we do to what you might think of is standard Traveling Bota Fogos but leaders performing the backward half. We have One-a. Two. One-a. Two. That's fine. You can repeat those if you wish. However, at some point you have to do something else to get out of this backwards position in this Travelling Bota Fogo, and as I mentioned before, the figure inherently gives you a way to do that. You can find other ways to do that, that's fine, but when you're starting out, this gives you a way of doing that. What we're going to do here is perform another Bota Fogo, but I am going to turn around so that I'm ready to look the way I want to go, and then on the very last Bota Fogo, I'm going to put me and my follower into a Promenade Position. So how do I do this? Well, I think my follower is going to be here. They're going to progress outside of me. I want to turn them roughly anywhere between a quarter and a half, but not any more than that, because that would be a bit silly.

I'm going to go back on my walking step instead of tapping out to the side here, moving out to the side and keeping on going. I'm going to move around, turning quite a way, allowing my follower to walk past me, and then bouncing back onto this foot, and you can see now I am almost in a Promenade Position, but my follower will be facing the wrong way. Now, if I do a very strange sort of Bota Fogo, where I step backwards here and quite a quite a Contra step, I don't want to step backwards very straight like the previous ones.

Ian: This has a little bit more of a backwards and across Contra style, feeling to it. I'm going to step this one pointing backwards, almost like, a backwards, Counter Promenade or Promenade Bota Fogo, you can think of it like that. I'm going to now bounce off this foot, return weight to the front foot, and you can see with no turn on the final Bota Fogo I'm still in Promenade Position, promenading this way, but I've given my follow a chance, and Lindsey will cover those in a moment, the chance to turn around and come to Promenade with me. So four different Bota Fogos where we have one going backwards on one side, two going backwards on the opposite side, three to swap to a pseudo Promenade Position, and four to swap us both to Promenade Position.

And looking at it from the other way we have, if I stand the correct direction, One-a. Two. Two-a. Two. Turn to Promenade-a. Two. Turn the follow to Promenade-a. Two. There we have four different Bota Fogos that compose your Bota Fogos Backward.

Lindsey: Followers, when we start our Backward Bota Fogos, which for us is all forward work; isn't that fun? We should be ready on our left foot, and as Ian said, the best position is to be guided into a step outside partner. So we're ready on our left and for us, it will just feel like forward Bota Fogos, at least these first two. So I've got Left-a-Left, Right-a-Right, and that sort of classic Bota Fogo action, a little bit of a turn on each to sort of get that slight zigzag kind of feel. My first step into my third Bota Fogo should feel almost as if it is going to be just another straight traveling one, but instead the leader will turn their frame that will turn us, so we'll just get a little bit more turn over that Bota Fogo action so that we're looking back the way we've come. We've still got forward momentum, I'm ready on my right foot for my final fourth Bota Fogo, and as I step through and do that turn, lo and behold, I shall find myself in a Promenade Position with my partner.

So if I do that back the other way so that's my line of dance now I have the forward work here, I have Left-a-Left, Right-a-Right, Left-a-Left, feeling that extra bit of turn, and then a Right-a-Right, will get me into that Promenade Position with my partner.

[Demonstration with Counts]

[Demonstration with Description]

[Demonstration with Music]

Ian: And there we are Blitzers, Samba goers around the world, the Traveling Bota Fogos Backward. As we've said throughout the video, named because the leader is going backward and very easy to chop up, add bits, you can repeat the first two Bota Fogos if you want to get a few more, you can just use the ending, if you find yourself in that position and want to get to promenade and get moving around the floor in a more forward fashion, and you can use the traveling versions going forwards and backwards in shadow position; it's all up for grabs! You just need to find suitable ways of getting into and out of these things, and just knowing that there are about and available for you to have a bit of a dance with. So try them out. Try all four to get a feel for it, then try and repeat some, then try and carve it up as you wish. But if you don't give it a go, you won't progress at all, so make sure you jump out on the Samba floor. Have some fun, give it a go, what can go wrong? Just make sure to keep smiling when it does. Let us know what you want to see on the channel, but for now from us, thank you and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/Pvfn1uDns4Q

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome back, dancers, to another Tango Ballroom Blitz. Today we're going to be half recapping something we've done, and doing a new figure; kind of. We're going to be looking at the Open Promenade, which will recap our Open Finishes video link in the description, of course. Let's take a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So the Open Promenade can be thought of as a Closed Promenade, with an Open Finish. But I'll leave you exploring the Open Finishes video for more on that. But we are essentially doing the same sort of figure as your Closed Promenade, but leaving it with open feet. So in this context, your Open Promenade, the “Open” part doesn't refer to being in Promenade Position, and it's very consistent with Tango language that “Open” often refers not to your frame at all; it refers to what your feet are doing. So your Open Promenade is a walking figure, a “promenading” figure, starting in the Promenade Position, and your feet never close. So let's break that down, it's a super simple figure, only four steps; the traditional slow, quick, quick, slow Tango sandwich. We will get you up and dancing it really, really soon. So let's go with the leaders steps.

Ian: So, leaders, you have arrived somehow in the Promenade Position, and in typical tango fashion, instead of having a weight on the forward foot, like in the swing dancers, we are going to have weight on the rear foot, ready to compress and take a strong walking power step on the leader's left.

We take that step. We can't do much with it, but it does power the next step which takes us down the floor. This second one is a quick. So we've had a slow driving step, and then a quick. On the next quick I am going to prepare to step outside of my partner while leading them to closed position. So at the moment we're both still in promenade. Over this step, I'm going to step slightly more forward than just sidestepping down the line. So I am going to close and side slightly forward, allowing a space for me to step outside of partner with the final slow stepping outside with open feet, the Open Finish, hence the Open Promenade.

So you can almost think of this like a Tango Feather, where you are preparing to step outside of partner, and then stepping outside. But of course we retain all the Tango ideas and rules around that, but it does give you a little bit of a picture in your mind as to what we're trying to do. We have Slow and Quick, prepare to step outside, step outside slow, to end the open finish, hence the Open Promenade. All we have to do and mix into that is close the follower between steps two and three. So here, if we are in promenade, I'm going to use my magical right hand to close the follow between steps two and three, while making sure that I get passage beyond them to take that step outside. If you do that, it's easy as that.

Lindsey: Let's have a look at the following steps. I'm going to use my line of dance this way so I can face you. But I too am starting this in a classic sort of promenade ready position. So we're in a promenade hold with each other. My weight is on my left foot. I am ready to step forward on my right, making sure that I am in a proper promenade position, I'm a little bit tucked behind the leader, so they're going to get there first. That's fine. We take a slow walk on the right. We carry through with that promenade walk on the left. So that will be a sort of across our position.

At this point, so we've had a slow and a quick, we're ready for step three, which is another quick. But we should feel at this point a change in the frame that will make us turn as we step, and this turn, it's not actually turning us around. What we're doing is turning into a closed hold with our partner, but then that final step will feel that they are still traveling, and so that will force us into step four backwards and across ourselves on the left foot and we will end in this position with feet apart in a closed hold, with our leader having taken a step outside of us.

So we have: Slow in promenade. Quick in promenade. Quick sideways closing, and then Slow backwards on our left foot across as our partner steps past us.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian:There you go, a bit more of a deep dive into the Open Promenade specifically. Links in the description to the Open Finishes video, which does compare the Closed Promenade to the Open Promenade. But it does deserve its own video. Don't overcomplicate it. Learn to use your Open Finishes. It does give you a lot more, choices for following on.

So, leaders you can add a little bit of variety and a little bit of extra spice and different ways to dance your Tango depending on the music. So give it a go. Try it out. Social Tango is a lot of fun. It should be danced more and more and you should be jumping up for it too. So give it a go and let us know if there's anything you want to say on the channel and as always, keep dancing and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/YU0hBJxRCo0

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again dancers, welcome back to the Ballroom Blitz series. Today we will be Jiving and we'll be having a look at a number of figures actually, that we've smashed all into one video. We are going to be doing Whips and Whip Throwaways.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: Alrighty, so what you saw there was two of the four Whips or Whip options that we're going to have a look at today. The whips are named kind of weirdly, and I think bunching them all together just makes, a little bit more sense of the options you've got. Essentially a Whip, if we just do whip, ends in a closed position, and if you do Whip Throwaway, then you “throw” your partner away and end in an open position; but the guts of it, the actual Whip part is the same. So you can think you've got now two options Whip that goes to closed and Whip that goes to open. But what you also saw there was the, Fallaway Rock Development link in the description to our video that covered that.

That gets you from the close position, a Fallaway Rock position into your Whip position. So we went from closed and into a Whip. You can also do that from a Link position, which is what you saw in the second demonstration. So you can go from open and into a Whip position as well. So now you've got two entries, open and closed, and you've got two exits, open and closed, and you can mix them any way you choose. So really, however you think about it, whether you're calling it Whips in Whip Throwaways or Whips to and from open the guts of it, the Whip portion is actually the same. So that's what we're covering today. All of your what I call four [4] “natural” Whip options to and from open [and closed]. So, let's break it down, let's get to the guts of it, let's have a look at it and get you Whipping around in your jive.

Ian: So leads, we're going to pick up the story from the Whip position. So I recommend you watch the, Fallaway Rock Alternatives and Developments video if you missed that one, just so that you know where we are. And if you want to get here from an open position, we're going to link into that position, which means your back replace rather than turning the eighth or quarter for the follow is nice and straight, but we get to the same position. If you think that needs its own video, let us know in the comments and we will do that. But essentially, we have done our development moving around and inspired to follow to cross their feet, and I'll let Lindsey recap that in a moment. The Whip portion now in a closed position, so you must regain or retain a closed position here. You can't do this part in open. You are going to do a Cuban cross, and I like to think of this first part it's a build step. We're going to build tension with a Cuban cross, nice and tight, and really trying to put as much tension across your legs as possible and you can see that just by doing that I have start to rotate. Now, I put all the weight on my right foot and simply let my left foot go. That is going to uncoil me at least a little bit because you put tension across your legs.

We're going to move our body and increase that turn a little bit, and that gets you your Whip nice and easy. Two steps we load and we release, and now you get a choice of Chasse. If you hold your follower in closed position, you chasse out, you'll probably have a little bit of residual turn. Don't be too strict and too straight with it and that keeps you in your closed position, that's what we would call a Whip. If I have got to the same position, load, release and over the chasse, I release my right hand and open our position. That is what we would call a Whip Throwaway. And really, if you try and do much more than that on that final chasse, you will just make it more complicated than it needs to be, certainly more complicated than it needs to be for any sort of social floor.

Ian: And that's really a difference. The two whip steps, your load in your Cuban cross and your release to, then get the turn going, they are the same. Whether you've come from open or whether you then chasse to open or closed after that; you need to get those two steps. So, if we think about it as a wind and a release to the two quicks because it's Jive but it's slower steps than your chasse, nice tight Cuban cross and you can even under turn your upper body here a little bit if your partner is on board with that, because then we can get a little bit of a whip happening on the second step, you can make it more even if you wish, and again, I'll let Lindsey handle that, that's much more for the followers. Your steps will be impacted by that a little bit more than the leaders. But then as we go, if you want that real whip crack tight action, it's a load and then a spring, you can learn to use your head to promote and give that illusion that we're turning more than we are.

Those are all options for upgrades, start with slowing it down, nice Cuban cross, feel the tension across your legs and release the tension and chasse out however you choose. That's it. That's really it. Get into it from open or closed chasse out to open or closed, and you get your Whip and your Whip Throwaways altogether.

Lindsey: Now, followers, we are, as ever, ready to go backwards on our right for a back replace, whether we are in closed or an open position. So we might be doing a the start of a Fallaway Rock or the start of a Link. Either way, when that chasse comes, what you'll feel is that the leader will start to take it around to your sort of right hand side. We, of course, will kind of follow going, hang on where are you going, and what that will cause our chasse to do, say I'm doing a, Fallaway Rock; so, we're in a closed position. I've had Right, Left, sorry that should have a bit more turn, Right, Left, but then my leader will come around here and I'll go, okay, well, I still need to chasse Right-a-Right, and it's this crossed position that we will end in. So, they might turn around maybe about a quarter, same thing happens if it's a link. So if we're an open back replace, I've still got a chasse there, and if I'm sort of following tracking where they're going, I will end in this cross position.

The leader has now set up the possibility of a Whip. I want to be ready for two steps here, and really, rather than going “this is exactly where they're going to go”, because each leader might sort of turn it a little bit, differently, a different amount or, delaying the turn, and then really going for it. All I'm doing here really is just trying to stay with them. So I want to feel where the frame is, be ready to take those two steps in a sort of forwardy kind of manner, but really just seeing where they're falling rather than deciding with they’re falling. So as the leader goes around, they'll continue to turn clockwise around, and I am going to have a Left, Right going forward ready for a chasse on the left, left, left to come out. And this is again where we will feel, whether the leader retains the hold, in which case we'll have a bit more of that, just sort of straight sideways kind of action there, or whether they're sort of pushing us away a little bit into a more open position. Don't be surprised at this point if you're not absolutely square with your partner, as long as you haven't absolutely sort of swung out away from each other, you should be good to go for your next figure.

Ian: So now that we've seen both halves individually, let's just have a look at that Whip portion with a partner in tow. So, however we have got to that position as Lindsey said we've inspired the size legs to be crossed, leaders you will have gone to the side so you're ready to load and release. So we have a Load Release. What we want the follower is to do, and you'll see here Lindsey's taken her two walks, but she hasn't allowed herself to turn and try and walk around me. She has kept her frame with her shoulders and her hips in line, our Latin box that we've sometimes referred to. So she's trying to walk forward, yes, but she's out being allowed, she's allowing herself to be walked forward in a circle; she hasn't turned and walked forward around me. If we show you what that looks like, you'll notice straight away how that tests the frame and it just makes it feel really bad. So if we use a Fallaway Rock Development to get in, if Lindsey gets to here and thinks, “oh, it's a Whip!” and sets course outside of me to walk forward that around me, and straight away she stretches and warps the frame and you just can't stay in position as as you would in a closed frame, because we've sort of warped our arms and we break apart very easily. So if you try this move, somehow you kind of break apart in the walks, just make sure that as the follow, you're not taking that walk forward to literally and trying to really walk forward out of your leader's frame.

[Demonstration of Whip from Fallaway Rock with counts]

[Demonstration of Whip from Link with counts]

[Demonstration of Whip Throwaway from Link with counts]

[Demonstration Whip Throwaway from Fallaway Rock with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: There you go dancers, a raft of Whip options for you to pump out on the social floor. Whether you think of it as one Whip that you can get into and out of a bunch of different ways or individual figures, that's kind of up to you. Just remember that the guts of it is always the same. Jive is super fun. Just remember to keep relaxed. It's never as hard as people make it out to be, and even at super fast speeds, if your technique is good, you will walk off the floor having had fun instead of feeling like you've just had a work out that you'll never go back to. You try it on the floor. Let us know how you go. Let us know what else you want to say. We'll catch you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/yKbzwVL0FiI

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello again, beautiful ballroom dancers, and welcome back to Ballroom Blitz. We're going to be having a look at something that is much more likely to come up in your New Vogue dances than your Modern or Latin today. We are looking at Rotary Chasses with the turn out to Shadow Position.

Now, the challenge of this move is that Rotary Chasses need to be performed in a closed hold with your partner. But then there is often in your New Vogue dances and other Sequence dances the need to turn it to Shadow Position at the end. So that's what we'll be looking at today. We have had a look at Rotary Chasses before, so we'll put a link down below. But let's first have a look and see what we have to do.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: So let's have a look first at the leaders steps.

Ian: Leaders, if you need to revise the Rotary Chasse itself, again link in the description, I will let you do that. Here we're just going to be focusing on that final Chasse and what we have to do, what we have to modify, what we're trying to achieve to get our follower to a nice Shadow Position for a nice, clean, easy restart in our New Vogue. Now, of course, the good thing is, if you have a little bit of trouble while practicing this, if it takes you a few goes to get it, because it is a New Vogue or Sequence dance, you can of course just pick up the sequence after you recover from whatever's happening at the end. But once we nail it, you get a nice smooth restart and it's much, much better.

We’re going to do basically two and a half Rotary Chasses basically because of where the drive step is. Then we're going to take the following final drive step change what would be the final Chasse, and then turn the follow up to Shadow Position. So if we quickly count through those, we would have One-and. Two. Three-and. Four. Five-and. We're going to drive here, or be driven here, Six, and if we just did more Rotary Chasse it would be Six, Seven[-and], Eight, and we would continue on our merry way. But, of course, that's what we have to change. So we've done our One-and. Two. Three-and. Four. Five-and. Six is our drive, I'm going to now slow down the followers power. We accept their drive. We can't do much with it before that. But afterwards I'm going to do basically a heel pull type action where I slow down. I break by dragging this foot under, allowing the follower to keep coming around and turn an extra half compared to us, to go from Closed Position facing us to Shadow Position facing down the floor, and then pull under without doing any extra changes of weight so that I'm ready to start the new sequence on my left foot.

Ian: Standard convention of pretty much all of your sequence dances is you will start on the left foot, and then the follower starts on whichever foot matches the position they are in. In this case, shadow, they are on the left foot as well. So once more we have our Rotary Chasse One [1]. Rotary Chasse Two [2]. Rotary Chasse Three [3]. After this drive step breaking the power, pulling back, taking one slow to bring the follow around holding position here allowing them to turn the extra half, and then closing without weight ready to go on the left foot. That's what your feet are doing. How can your arms help? Well, in a perfect world, if the followers were standing in a Closed Position like in that Rotary Chasse and they simply did a 180 turn, they would be in a Shadow Position. So without throwing them down the floor or around us or basically distorting our frame, we have to help the follow turn their 180 degrees.

Now the followers will know how to do this, so we need to help and control where they go, not actually physically turn them a half. But essentially what we're going to do is a polite push with my left hand in the follow ah, standard closed frame, I'm going to push it down towards the hip. That helps rotate the follow. If you push it sort of too straight, it just pushes them away, so make sure it goes down the line. And I'm going to hold them in place with my right, that's obviously on their shoulder blade. So as they turn I'm going to, this is a bit of an “Ian-ism”, flick them round so that I can rotate them in place, but hold them steady. So I'm going to do this with my arms as we do all of that with our feet and that holds the following place, allows them to do what they know they need to do, which is turn 180 degrees, and use their power to do it. But still it enough with that braking action so they don't fly down the floor uncontrollably.

Lindsey: Now followers, let's have a look at our footwork first. We're going to start our Rotary Chasses on our right foot, so we're going to have essentially three Rotary Chasses, so a Right-a-Right, Left-a-Left, Right-a-Right. But it's that final step on the right that is going to start to change things about for us. So we're in a closed hold with our partner ready on our right foot, we have: Chasse One [1], Chasse Two [2], Chasse Three [3], at the end of that, that's my drive forward through the leaders steps. If I know the sequence, I know what's coming up. But what I should feel is the leaders Heel Pull at that point that will bring me round. I actually still want to be in a closed position here, so I'm trying to keep my position, keep my contact on the right foot.

I've taken one step to match theirs as they do their Heel Pull, that puts me on my left foot. But I'm still not quite far enough around yet, I want to be facing along Line of Dance at the end here, and I'm going to use another foot fall just underneath me as I turn around, I'll describe the arms in a moment, but if I let that foot fall underneath me, it is help me turn, it's helped me brake and it's put my weight on the correct foot to go off of my left foot into whatever we're doing next. Usually the start of the next, repetition of the dance.

Lindsey: Now, I just wanted to describe with Ian here what I was doing with my hands there, because it might have looked a little bit strange. When we are doing our final turn out, we had still been in a closed hold for our Rotary Chasses, so it's very important to have a beautiful Closed Position with your partner while you're going round. But at the end here, my right hand, I will feel pressed down as Ian is helping me to turn, so that's matching in with what the leaders are doing with that push down with their left hand. So I'll feel my right hand go down towards my hip. I can't keep my left hand where it is. My fingers around the back of Ian's arm and if I just leave them there, pulls through my shoulder, I can't actually turn. But, nor do I want to put it up half heartedly, because I could collect Ian in the jaw, and have done so, with my elbow. So, the safest place for it, if you're able to, is actually to put your left hand right up near your ear.

That helps to pull you up, it will help your balance, and it gets that arm out of the way so that it is not interfering with either one of us, I can turn freely to that shadow position. So as I take the final couple of steps, I allow that hand to come up nice and time out of the way. And here I am. You will find your not probably in the perfect position for your shadow work up to that, but you can nice and gently let your arms float down, or up, to wherever they need to be, for the continuation of that. It's actually much more important to have your body position correct with your partner and make sure that you haven't taken them out as you've gone.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And there you go, the Rotary Chasse, turning out to Shadow Position at the end. It's quite a tricky one, but it is a useful one to get a hold of because it comes up surprisingly often. So give it a go. Let us know how you go. Let us know what else you'd like us to go over, and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/Xk4u8LHNfxU

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to the channel. Today we are going into the world of Modern Waltz. We have a super simple adaptation of a Foxtrot move that will help you curve and get around the floor. It is the Change of Direction for Modern Waltz.

[Demonstration without mucis]

Ian: As you can see from the demonstration, this figure is super simple and it is very functional. Now, in the transition from the Foxtrot version of the figure, I'll leave links for that in the description, to the Waltz version of the figure, there is one very important difference, and that is in the Waltz you do not take the final step.

So it is almost like the opposite turning Hesitation Change in a way, where you're going to take a step forward, if you have the leader, change direction, but then you don't continue to walk out like a Foxtrot, you will hesitate much more consistently with your Modern Waltz steps and your Quickstep style steps. So that is the main adaptation.

So it ends you in a position very similar to what a, Hesitation Change will, which means the same exits [follows] will apply and it will turn you, about a quarter [1/4] to the left, which means we don't have to turn three quarters [3/4] around to the right like you would in a Hesitation Change. So let's have a look at the steps. Super simple. Super easy. I guarantee you'll be able to get it up and running very quickly and put it to good use.

Ian: Alrighty, leaders, there's a wall. there's a line of dance, let's say I want to change direction. If I am here, you would describe my orientation or alignment as diagonal to wall; I'm dancing that way, there it is, and let's say I want to be diagonal centre, and let's say I want to be diagonal centre but ready to use my left foot for, say, Chasses to Right or a Double Reverse Spin, something of that ilk. If I was here and I was on my right foot, ready to use my right foot, I could do some sort of Natural Turn, and that would be good, I could do a Natural Turn with Hesitation or Hesitation Change as we know it in Waltz. But, let's say I'm on my left, well, I could go through a Left Foot Change and add some basic steps, and then do that. But that would progress me down the floor and maybe I don't have room. So, what I'm going to do is perform the Change of Direction. So I'm going to commence on my left foot, which means overall we are going to be turning anti-clockwise.

This drive step is going to be fairly simple. I compress and do all the good driving things, drive. I'm going to stay low, low like a Hesitation Change, but without the Heel Pull, because I don't want to inspire my follow to rise on to toes at close and change weight at the end. So I'm going to stay a little bit low, but still do the toe swivel moving into the second step to make this a side step, and then here, this is where I definitely don't want to then shoot up on their toes with any sort of abrupt late rise. I want to make sure that I can close my feet without weight. Sort of hesitation style ready to use my left foot coming out. If I didn't do that, then it's just sort of Underturned Reverse Turn, started from a wonky angle.

So we don't want to really do that. So I want to drive on the left, stay a little bit lower, a little bit Foxtrot style, close without weight and I have changed my direction. I am now facing diagonal centre. I'm ready to use my left foot now, of course, if you're in the same orientation, you don't want to use your left foot, if you wanted to use your right foot, you would pick a different figure. So, this changes your direction and conserves which foot you're on and so now you have a range of options depending on, what foot you want to be on and which direction you want to point in.

Lindsey: Followers, Let's have a look at your steps, they are the natural opposite to your leader. I'm going to be using the same line of dance, so it's scooting back that way. I am starting backing diagonal wall, I'm ready to go on my right foot for beat one. I’ll feel my leader's drive step on their left and I will feel the turn to the left commence, and then, not surprising, I'm going to use my left foot next it will go to the side. I've turned about a quarter [1/4] there and this is where Ian is quite right, the lead for this, because I'm so used to going step-side-close, step-side-closed, change weight in my Waltz, I need to feel that lack of rise to encourage me to not do that.

If we're low, if we feel our leader is low and we match in, it's actually very hard to close your feet and change weight and the result of that is we simply don't do it. We don't do what's hard, we do what's easy. So we go backwards on the right, on beat one, sideways on the left on beat two and because there's no rise, I'm going to draw my foot underneath me to be nice and neat. But I'm not going to change weight. I will be ready to go backwards on my right foot, out onto the floor on that diagonal for the next bar, into whatever the leader pleases.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it guys ‘n’ girls, the Change of Direction for the Modern Waltz. Adapted from your Slow Foxtrot, but still very, very usable. Very, very workable. Just remember, because it is adapted from Foxtrot, we're going to stay low like a Foxtrot, not rise up. That will inspire the follow to not change weight and make sure we don't get any misfires when we're stepping out using the lead is left and the follow is right. Try it out on the floor. Get round some corners. Change your direction by using this figure and put another figure in your repertoire to use for those purposes. Let us know what you would like to see on the channel, and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/egadNR2GPPw

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello there Ballroom Blitzer, welcome back to the channel! We are going to do another Paso Doble figure today, we're going to do a compilation figure of sorts from the previous two, we're going to be looking at the Sixteen. Let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So this is one of the longest Paso Doble figures we have blitzed so far. It has, as the name suggests, 16 beats; so two whole phrases. But it is a smashing together of two figures we have previously done. In fact, the previous two figures when we have visited the Paso Doble. It's the Promenade and it's the Huit, and all we need to do is have a look at the conversion of steps in between those two figures to get from one to the other, so it's not as straight as doing one and following it into the next. We just have to tweak a few steps in the middle. Once we get that down, we've got Promenade, and then a transition, and then the Huit, and that gets you your Sixteen.

Leaders, we're going to have a look at your steps first, and I'll leave a link in the description to both the Promenade, and the Huit and the first Six steps of this figure is basically the Promenade, so I'll blitz through those pretty quickly so that we can get to the transition, and the same for the Huit at the other end. So if I am doing what starts as a Promenade with my Appel, I walk forward in Promenade, I walk forward, I block around the follow and I start to step back in Fallaway, that gets me six steps through my Promenade. When I get to seven, instead of taking a side step and closing my feet, which is what we did in the Promenade figure itself. I've stepped back in my Fallaway type position I'm now going to close my feet on step seven, allowing my follower to get a little bit beyond me to commence their Huit type section, and now I'm going to Sur Place on eight. So, that gets me my transition period out of the Promenade. Instead of side close I'm dancing Close, and then Sur Place. And then in a very Huit type fashion, I'm going to do basically eight Sur Place(s) starting on the right One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, as my follow Huits from one side to the next, returning in front of me on Seven, Eight of the Huit section, which would be Fifteen, Sixteen.

Ian: So if we remember those steps into the Huit, for us not a lot has changed. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, transitioning seven, eight. Now, of course, a Huit would start in promenade, so the next two steps, the nine and ten we're going to be Sur Placing on the spot, and that is the modification of the Huit section. So we would have nine, ten, and then from there it is the last six steps of Huit, Sur Placing on the spot. So remembering those four transition steps Side-Close, and then two Sur Place, beg your pardon, Close, Sur Place, and then two more Sur Place, instead of the Side-Close. That gets you your transition between your Promenade and Huit and makes it a smooth Sixteen.

Lindsey: Now followers as far as our footwork goes and the transition that we need to make with our footwork to make the Sixteen work between the Promenade and the Huit, we actually have less to do in some ways. Our Huit is exactly the same as it was before it's just the leaders position that has changed slightly. So it's just a few steps at the end of the Promenade that we want to be ready for. To begin, we have the same as our Promenade so we have our Appel to Promenade Position, and then walking Two, Three, Four as the leader comes round. We're still keeping down our line, Five, Six, and then we're ready for our side step on Seven but because the Leaders stopped short we will find ourselves instead of going side and close, we're going to go side and replace. And we will magically find ourselves in more of a Promenade Position, which is perfect for starting our Huit. So at this point, our steps for the Huit are very much the same. So we have step through side replace, through side replace and the ending as normal we step through in front of our leader, close our feet and square up with them.

So with my counts, I have One for Appel, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, over Seven and Eight I'll feel that transition, and then Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, just enough time to go Fifteen, through Sixteen close and change weight back in a closed position with my leader.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And there you have it; the Sixteen. Two moves of eight put together and to form a move of Sixteen steps. As long as we modify the fork and joining ones in the middle, it's pretty much the same, so you are getting a two for one. Go back and revise the Up Promenade video. Go back from Revise the Huit video. There's a few extra bits on how to shape a few things there on those two sections, focusing on that nice clean transition and then give it some sway, give it some something else and make your, swooshing of the cake that little bit bigger. If you choose to, you can dress it up or down and make it your own.

But here is how you take a figure that needs to start in a Promenade Position and commence it from a Closed Position; that's how you make the Sixteen work. So, that's it from us today for the Sixteen. Don't forget to try your Paso. It's never as hard as people make it out to be. It's loads of fun, it should be danced more, and I would highly recommend you get up on the Paso floor and give it a go and give it some flair. Until next time, keep dancing and we will see you then.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/efw-XEpJ_2Y

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hi there, ballroom dancers and welcome back to another Ballroom Blitz. We are in the standard ballroom world today. We're going to be looking at a Quickstep figure. It's the Quarter Turn to Right. This figure follows a very common, pattern for your base Quickstep moves. It has a drive step, and then a chasse and as the name suggests, it turns a quarter to the right as you go; let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: As you can see, nice and easy. Progresses us nicely down the floor. Only four steps long. Let's have a look at the leader's steps first.

Ian: Leaders, the Quarter Turn to Right is probably the first move you will learn in your Quickstep and a lot of the time the first move, you will jump up and dance on the social floor or in a routine of some sort. It's going to commence with a drive step and follows this pattern of drive and chasse, and as Lindsey mentioned, as the name suggests, we are going to turn a quarter to the right. Because we're turning to the right and it's a ballroom we're going to start by driving forward on our right foot; the direction we're turning. So we're going to drive in line with our partner. Don't start this outside, it will feel a bit wonky. There's other things that we can do if we're in that position. Driving in line with our partner, get the power, use that nice and straight, and then commence to turn between steps one and two to select your quarter.

Take a toe step, close your feet in the chasse on a toe step, and then settle out. We're going to take a slow step backwards. It's a toe lower. This is going to get you nice and settled and ready for the follower to drive forward. Because we've turned a quarter, we've basically exchanged who is going to drive. So, if we look at that again, we have, driving forward, I would be usually Diagonal Wall so my line of dance is this way. Driving forward on a heel, rising slightly through a toe and turning it my quarter toe, toe keeping up, and then settling down toe lower on the second slow, ready to go backwards. So when we are doing this faster, remember to bend into that knee, release the toe of that remaining foot so that you can get a nice absorption of your follows power going into the next figure, which quite often is your Progressive Chasse.

Lindsey: Followers, our steps are the natural opposite of the leader. So as they're driving at us on their right foot, we'll be ready to go backwards on our left for a slow. We'll then feel that slight rise, and we'll be taken to the side and turned a quarter over the next few steps, right together for a quick, quick and then settling the end of that chasse slow and will be brought forward slightly. This means that this sets up a nice drive step on our left foot into the next figure, whatever it may be. So if that's my line of dance, I'm starting Backing Diagonal Wall, back for Slow Quick-Quick and by the time I have taken my slow step out toe lower, I should be ready to drive diagonal center.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And that is it the Quarter Turn to Right. So, as Ian said, it's often the figure that people start off with to get going. If you want to be cheeky about it, you can add on the Quarter turn to Left after that, and then rinse and repeat for a nice, easy, Quickstep around the floor. So give it a go, let us know how you go and we will catch you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/7_Xr-30_QSs

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and girls from the inter-webs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and welcome to Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello, Ballroom blitzers, welcome back to a Latinesque Ballroom Blitz. Today we're going to be hitting up some Rumba. We're going to be doing two figures. We've already done these figures in Cha Cha, so we're going to be covering both of them in Rumba they're almost the same (as in Cha Cha), and we're going to be giving you some alternate things to think about to spice them up.

We're going to be handling Hand-to-Hands with an alternate position and Shoulder-to-Shoulder with a developed position as well. We'll leave links below that for the Cha versions for the basics, and we're going to hit you up with all the advanced versions. So let's have a look.

[demonstration without music]

Ian: So, as you can see from the demonstrations, super easy upgrades and variations of two super basic moves. Of course, we've removed the Cha Cha Chasse, as we have shown in the Cha video, so that, of course, converts it to a Rumba, and some of you are looking at those variations going well, I do those all the time, like what's the big deal? But some of you out there are saying, “Oh, I didn't know we could do that, let's give it a go.” So, first of all, all of your basic Cha moves, or I should say most of your basic Cha moves, cross from Cha to Rumba and back just by adding or removing the Chasse. So if you've done Shoulder-to-Shoulders, it's the same in Rumba. If you've done Hand-to-Hands, it's the same in Rumba as it is in Cha.

We'll leave some links in the description to revise that if it's new for you. But here, we're going to do the Hand-to-Hands basically with the arms on the back rather than holding the hand. This gives it a little bit of a new dimension and it can be, a little bit more intimate, it can make it a bit closer on a busy social floor, and it just gives you a different appearing move, which is basically the same on your footwork. It also enables you to move into it from a particular side that I think a lot of people tend not to do on the social floor if we're just using the original sort of Hand-to-Hand type hold. Next the Shoulder-to-Shoulders, with the two hands up is the sort of, I guess, upgraded or developed version. I think most people are dancing that anyway, it is slightly weaker because we don't have as much of a hold on our follower. But it looks quite specky and it is really easy.

But what we're going to give you is the reverse option of those where the leader actually steps backwards and the follow steps forwards, rather than just the leader always going forward version, which is the one that tends to get used, and that way you just get turned around and again you get a little bit more bang for your buck, and we're going to have a look at how you can move between those, without having to stop and turn and restart again and things like that. So we're going to upgrade a few of the easy versions, put it into Rumba by removing the Chasse, and you'll be good to go with a number of different options and a bit of variety for your social Rumba and your social Cha Cha, because some of these will, of course, cross back into your Cha Cha. So let's break it down and have a look at the Leaders steps for the; let's do hand hands first.

Ian: Okay leaders, so we're going to do your steps and, draw it out of the hat, we're going to do the Hand-to-Hands. Footwork for this variation is the same, we’re not changing what the move is, we're just changing it of course from what we've done in Cha to Rumba. So we are going to have our, stepping back full weight two, rocking step three, and then we're going to return Four-One, instead of our Four-and One for our Cha Cha, and we can do the same on the opposite foot, and settling back, and what we have done is had this sort of open, two handed hold and we have exchanged hands along the way.

A simple, nice, neat and easy upgrade to this, is basically not having the hands being held like, so out to the side, but you keep this hand on the back and we step back and have this around the follows shoulder blades. Everything below the hips stays exactly the same. You get a little bit closer to your partner, so it's good for when you have not as much space. It's also nice for when you're in a closed hold and you want to go into Hand-to-Hands, you don't have to shunt this hand down and do anything like that. You hold it in its natural position for our loose, closed hold, and we step back and voila, it's already there. So that's really a nice, simple upgrade for it.

Some people will call this a Back-to-Back. I really don't like that name because it gives you images of trying to get back to back, and it's not really what you're trying to do. But, that might be a bit of translation if you have heard that term, and if you're using that term, please stop. So all we're going to do with our Hand-to-Hand instead, of holding down here, same footwork, removing the Cha Cha Chasse from the Cha video, holding our arm up. Usually it is most comfortable for the follower to slip their arm over the ladies, but if there's a big height difference, you might have other arrangements. Stepping around doing the same Hand-to-Hand footwork. Your free arm can style up or down as you like, and operating about that just under shoulder level, keeping the arm on the back. So a nice simple upgrade for your easy Hand-to-Hands.

Lindsey: So followers, this is actually a really nice, lead into this move because we don't really need to change our arm work here, we’ll feel a little bit of pressure through the leader's hand here to open us up, but they'll keep their hand on our shoulder blade, encouraging us to keep our hands up near the shoulders here at the top of the arm or you might find it sort of slipping around, behind the shoulders as we're opening up whatever is comfortable. But that's a nice, supportive hold that we've got here. We can use, and hand to support ourselves and we've got the leader's arm supporting us as well, and we are just matching in with, footwork here exactly the same as our Hand-to-Hands where we're going: Back. Rock. Side, transition. Back. Rock. Side. and we're nice and supportive, or supported all the way.

Ian: Now if you do want to transition between the two holds, you can start in one and the other. So as long as you say this is a nice supported set of position, if you get here and think, “Oh jeez, that's that's a bit too... too something I don't really know”, and you feel more comfortable offering the hand. We can take it palm up and keep doing the exact same move and transition into your Hand-to-Hand and also on the way back by reaching. So you don't have to pick just one or the other you can try it out, slip between them, and that gives you a bit more variety and sometimes a bit of an easier lead, between figures as well.

Next up we have the Shoulder-to-Shoulder move. Now in the basic video that we did in the Cha Cha, we just kept our nice closed position with our follower. We turned a little bit up to that eighth to step outside, and then of course it was a Cha video, so we were Chassing either side; and that's pretty much all we did. A lot of people will into this from a turn rather than from basic, so if they've done some sort of turning figure they’re already putting this hand up and entering it from this sort of two handed raised position and stepping outside, and either Cha-ing or Rumba-ing to change sides. That's really what we're doing, but because most people that we see are doing that anyway, and that's not really a big upgrade.

I guess the only thing we'll say about it is if you are doing that, try not to move your arms too much. That's where a lot of people will fall down. The two hand up position looks kind of cool, and it's a fun one to dance, but it is weaker because we don't have as much of, a hold of our partner. So if we have a bit of noodle arms, then sometimes we can get a little bit unruly and the signals get missed between, our partner and our, well, our leader and a follower. So if we hold those in position a little bit more strongly and say that, okay, we understand that we have two hands up and our legs are the same, once we get a little bit more rigidity without being too muscle man up top, we can now transition from the leader always going forward to the leader going backward as well.

Ian: So if I step outside of my partner here: Two. Three, and in a Rumba we have our Four-One. The basic version I would turn about a quarter over my Four-One, step outside this way, Forward. Rock. and these would be our Shoulder-to-Shoulders. That's completely fine. But leads you might want a bit of variety. So all I need to do here is recognize that I am already on the proper angle here for my follower to step outside. So as I do my rock back, I maintain that position. But now as I do my Four-One, I'm just taking a side step without rotating my body at all, and this will work if we have a nice solid frame, if it's a bit too spongy or if the follower’s a little bit sort of noodle armed as well, then we might not quite, quite get that message across. But that's as simple as it is.

The hardest part is making sure that we communicate nice and properly, because now all I'm going to do is step back. I almost assumed what I was putting my follower through we've almost exchanged roles, so if you want to think of it like that. So I step back our rock forward and now on the side step if I do my quarter turn, I'm stepping back again, and we can do that as many times as we like, and if I want to get out of that, I just choose not to, take that quarter turn. So as long as we have a nice strong frame up top, not too strong, of course, but a nice firm frame working, then this one is an easier upgrade where it's not just one person going forward, we can mix it up. You can get two on one side and two on the next. Get a bit of variety and then drop the appropriate hand to go into whatever follows. You want to come out with.

Lindsey: So followers all of these Shoulder-to-Shoulder moves, whether we are being sent backwards or being encouraged forwards into them is still following our, sort of Step, Rock, Slow, Step, Rock, Slow, or Step, Rock, Side, pattern of just one foot after the other. So we should never be in doubt as to which foot we're going on. The only information that we need is which direction the leader wants us to go in, and as Ian said, we've got a big neon sign if they don't perform that quarter turn to get between them, that is our heads up that we are about to switch.

So if Ian hasn't told me which one he is going to do, but I know which foot I'm ready on. So that one. Yep, we are ready to go and he's being going backwards sending me forwards. He's performed the quarter turn on that one so I know to keep on going with what I'm doing. But now it's gone and I'm ready to go backwards instead. So we're looking for that change in the norm to let us know when that change of direction is coming. The footwork should all be just nice and consistent. Just Step, Rock, Slow, Step, Rock, Slow, and we've got good communication between our frame. We're both gearing off of each other. No need for any heavy handedness. Leaders, but followers. We need to be keeping our spider senses on to let us know what's going on.

[demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, two nice, easy conversions from your basic moves in Cha Cha into Rumba, with a few ideas on how to spice them up as well. Nice and simple ideas so you can keep dressing them up if you like. But if you've never come across those before, or if you are new to Latin, you can give them a go and it just goes to show that if you keep up the rhythm and you make your clear signals, your ideas nice and clear for your follower, then you can make almost anything happen.

So get up on the social floor, try your Cha Cha out, try your Rumba out. Try spicing up some of the moves that you have been doing since you started, and if you are just starting out, don't get too dogmatic about your basic because just have some fun and try out anything. You'd be surprised what works when you just give it a go and have fun. Until we do see you again. Keep dancing, let us know what you would like us to blitz. Throw us a comment. We love that. But for now, keep dancing and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/1DPpDkMQ-Qs

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and gals on the internet. My name is Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again dancers, welcome back to the channel, welcome to another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are going into Slow Foxtrot. We're going to be doing a move where we've done lots that are very similar, possibly even one of these in a different dance, because it does cross over into a number of different styles. But we're doing Slow Foxtrot today and we are doing the Open Natural Turn, but we are taking it from the Promenade Position.

[demonstration without music]

Ian: As you can see, that super, super simple. It's an Open Natural Turn because it turns in a Natural direction; it turns clockwise. It's an Open Turn because it doesn't bring its feet together, which is very Foxtroty, so no surprises there. But it's a really nice, simple, easy version for getting out of Promenade back into the closed position. We close to our partner over the figure, keep that smoothness going because we don't bring our feet together, and then you basically find yourself at the same position that you would be in at the end of the first three steps of a Natural Turn.

So if we think about that, you can do all the things that you would be able to do from that situation, you just haven't put your follower through a heel turn. We've skipped it and done it this move instead because we started it from promenade. So at the end of that, you've got the last three steps of a standard Natural Turn, you could do an Impetus, either Open or Closeg. So you've got a little bit of variety and it's a nice easy get out of gaol free card if you find yourself in Promenade, but kind of are a little bit surprised, maybe, and don't know how to get out of it. So that's what we're doing today, we're going to break it down, It's only three steps, super simple. We'll have you dancing it up in no time and as I've said before, it crosses over into your other dances so it's going to be very, very useful in Foxtrot for not.

Ian: So, leaders, your steps, we have arrived in a classic swing-dance Promenade Position, so your weight is, forward over your left foot, you're ready to compress and drive off the back foot and we are going to turn in the natural direction; we've already decided that. So in classic ballroom fashion, the first power step, we can't do much with this, we have to get the power going. Don't try and turn on this step. All you will achieve there is pushing your follower around, you won’t actually close to them, so this is quite straight. Get that power going, and then use it in the next step, and then what we're going to do is bring our left side around, turning our body clockwase and... “clockwase”, clockwise, and holding our follower in position so that we close our position.

So if you were to hold all this a bit too rigidly, they would turn with you and you would end up in a Fallaway position. If you want to do that, great. But then that's not this move. So we're going to let that contract, we're going to turn around them, we've now closed the position, blocked them, if you will, and now we just have to take that final step. We're going to let the follower step forward. Their momentum is still coming down the floor. So we step backwards and we have achieved that position that we would have got to after our Natural Heel Turn. In this version, the basic version, don't overdo the turn. You really only want to do about three eights [3/8] of a turn.

We're going to step through, block, and I'm going to step back here. That keeps it nice and closed and it blocks the follow nice and easily. Later on you can do more turn and later on you can turn around your follow, take your right side back and lead them to an outside position, you get some very pretty results. But, don't jump in feet first and try going for those versions. You want to do this first, get a feel for it, then do the overturn. Then go to the outside position and just allow yourself to step up.

Lindsey: Followers let's have a look at your steps. I'm going to jump to the other side so my line of dance is now going that way. So we are in a promenade position here. These three steps for us in some ways they're super, super simple. It's going to be essentially three steps forward. So we have a timing up Slow Quick-Quick.

We will step through in promenade on our left foot with our partner. They will then do most of the hard yards by cutting across us and we are going to continue along, largely along our line, forwards, around the floor. But what we have to do here is pay attention to where our leaders are going and try and match in with them.

As Ian said, there are some different options that you could, do at this point, different amounts of turn might end it in a partner outside position. So we still have to, we can't just go “Right, here I go three steps forward,” and not pay attention to where our leader is going, and therefore where we should go. But other than that, we have a fairly sort of clear run going forward, which is nice for us it doesn't always happen. Left foot drive Slow, and then a Quick, Quick and just paying attention to that frame where it's going and trying to match in with our leader.

[demonstration with counts]

[demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, the Open Natural Turn in Slow Foxtrot, taken from the Promenade Position. Pretty much as it says on the tin and very, very useful and you will get a lot of mileage out of it in your other dances as well. Try it out just for fun. Once you get a handle of it, build on it and then you can get some nice pretty choreography in those slightly more overturned positions. But for now, stick to the basics. Give it a go, get out and try it on the social floor. And we will catch you in the next blitz.

Ian: Well, that's it for today's blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian & Lindsey: Bye!

Lindsey: That’s a keeper!

Video

youtu.be/QuXFaT-hMPw

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and gals on the internet. My name is Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello, lovely dancers, welcome back to the Ballroom Blitz channel. We are going to be looking at a Samba move or two today, so the action is Walks, and we're going to have a look at a couple of different versions. We're going to be looking at the Promenade Walks and also the Side Samba Walks.

Walks in Samba have a particular action that it's quite important and fun to get used to. Both of these types of walks will make use of it in slightly different ways, so let's have a look at the promenade walks first.

[demonstration of Promenade Walks (without music)]

Lindsey: So, as the name suggests, Promenade Walks are always done in a Promenade hold with your partner, which means that we'll be on opposite feet as we go. So, we're either both on the outside foot, and then both on the inside foot, you can do any number, you can start on whichever foot you are ready on, but yes, in a Promenade Position. So let's have a closer look though at that walking action in the Samba. So say I'm a follower in my Promenade Position, I'm ready to go on my right foot, I will take a walk forward, so I'm going to go toe lower on beat One of the bar, and then it's actually a hip action that produces that sort of Samba bounce kind of version that we get in the walks. So I'm going to, if I've taken a walk on my right, think about lifting my left hip next, so my foot back you will get readjusted slightly back and that will cause my foot, my forward foot to do this little slide; and that happens on beat two. So what we end up with is a classic kind of Samba rhythm happening with a One-a. Two.

When I land my first step of the walk, I put all my weight on that foot. You can see my knee is flexed and my foot is flat on the floor. Now, this flatness of my foot on the floor won't change as I do this next bit. So as I readjust to this hip and therefore that back foot, what's not going to happen is that I'm going to sort of release my heel or my toe or any other part of that previous foot. I'm actually going to take my weight over it and that slight action back, if I've got a lot of weight into, it won't happen. That's actually not a problem at all. If it doesn't slide, it doesn't slide as long as you've got your balance. But if I give a bit of hip, you can see that it's just come back slightly. What we don't want to happen is we take a step, and then we do something like this and end up in almost like a Pressed Point position. So you don't want to release your heel, you don't want to release your toe, and the slide back shouldn't be very far. What you sometimes see when people do Samba walks is a bit too much of a slide back, and they end up in this sort of position doing a bit of a teapot.

Lindsey: So you want to keep your weight fairly, sturdily over that foot. It's the hip that's moving, not the rest of your body, and that will result in, sort of nice balanced position at the end, even with that slide back. When I do this in a Promenade Position with my partner, I'm not absolutely square with the way I'm walking of course, because I need to take into account, my frame and where my partner is; so I'm slightly cheated towards my partner. So when I take my inside foot through a walk, that would be my outside foot, this inside foot, my left foot, in this case, coming through the one closest to my partner, what you'll feel is a slightly different sort of tension across yourself here. This outside foot will feel slightly sort of sideways. This middle foot coming through will feel across. That is not a problem at all. We still sort of release the hip and get that same, slide action coming through, but it will feel different from one side to the other.

So with the Promenade Walks, they can happen and often do on both feet. The Side Samba walk wants to be on the foot closest to your partner. So the inside foot, when that walks forward, that is an opportunity to lead a Side Samba Walk, if that's what the leader wants to do. So let's have a look at a normal Promenade Walk followed by a Side Samba Walk. So if we're here and we're ready on our outside foot, we can take a normal Promenade Samba Walk, so we go forward and slide when we come through it on this next one this is the opportunity that Ian has to lead a Side Samba Walk, so we come through on that foot, and then instead of leaving the free foot back, it actually comes out to the side with an action through the frame to let me know, the follower, what's going on.

A lot is similar in what is happening in the action for the Side Samba Walk, so we're taking a walk coming through landing on a flat foot and our weight is over that foot. The only difference now is that instead of shifting our foot backwards, it is going to shift out to the side of us, so when we slide and lift that hip, the foot slides slightly away from each other towards your own pointed foot.

Ian: So, leaders, the Side Samba Walk as Lindsey just said, is characterized by that sideways movement. The bit that you have to do is communicate if that's what you want to do, and as we'll see in a moment there are different versions and finishing positions that you can get to. So we want some idea of where we want to take the follower.

The first step will always be planted the same way, we can't do much with that. But, we need to communicate here that we're taking that sideways hip action. I like you to try and without over overdoing it, be a little bit exaggerated with the arms, and then push away, and then use the tension of the push to help communicate to the fellow how much to the side I want them to go, depending on where I want them to be for my next figure that I'm going to lead.

So we have a little bit of a build up, so that there is a big neon sign that we're going to the side, and as you can see here, I've taken Lindsey to the side, but not so much that we've broken any sort of hold. So if I just kept Promenade Walking, we could chain these together, and that straight away gives you a little bit of variety, from just your normal promenade moves.

Lindsey: Now, the chances are pretty good that you'll encounter the Promenade Walks first in the Samba, but the Side Sample Walk is a great move, just by itself, as Ian just said, you can go for a normal Promenade Walk, and then do a Side Samba Walk, it just sort of mixes things up a little bit, but it's also great for setting up a couple of other moves.

One is any Criss-Cross work that you want to do, with either Voltas or Bota Fogos, and it also sets up a third, walking action, figure that is called a Stationary Walk. So that Side Samba Walk is well worth, just getting your head around, trying it out because there's a lot that it can lead to.

[demonstration (with music)]

Lindsey: And there you go, beautiful dancers, the Samba Walks in both Promenade Position and the Side Samba Walk as well. So a little tip to the leaders, make sure that your frame is fairly still through the Promenade Walks, because then when you actually use it, to gear up and indicate the Side Samba Walks for the follower, it'll just make it easier for them to pick up that that's what's going on. So, try both of them out. Let us know how you go. We will at a later time show you some Criss-Cross work and the Stationary Walks as well, if we haven't already, so look out for that. Let us know what else you'd like to see and we will catch you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for today's blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian & Lindsey: Bye!

Lindsey: That’s a keeper!

Video

youtu.be/-NxI9KoODcA

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and gals on the internet. My name is Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to another Ballroom Blitz. We're in the Tango world today. We're going to be smashing out a super easy, very underused move. It is the Open Natural Turn in your Tango. Let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: Now it is quite common to do the Open Reverse Turn in Tango, and there are three versions of your reverse turn that are listed in most of your dancing resources; with the Lady Outside version, the Lady In Line version, and then the Basic version with the Viennese Cross. This is modeled pretty much exactly off the Lady In Line version of the Reverse Turn, but we're turning in the natural direction.

It follows all the same ballroom rules, it's a natural turn, it's turning clockwise, it's an open turn, there's no bringing your feet together, although being Tango, you could do that at the end, although I don't personally recommend it, but I'll leave that up to you; and if we think of it as the In Line version, where in the middle, in the guts of that, section, we are stepping in line down the floor, Follower coming forward, Leader going backward, then it's pretty much the opposite, of your Open Reversed Turn (Lady In Line). If [if] you know that, well, you might be able to stop the video here and just say “I'll try it on the other foot”, if it's a little bit new to you or if you want to play it out, stay tuned.

We're going to take you through step by step, but you will see a lot of similarities with this move that will come up with other figures in other dancers. We're turning clockwise. We're taking six steps. We're turning about three quarters (3/4) of a turn and we're turning in the natural direction. So let's have a look at the Open Natural Turn.

Ian: Leaders, my line of dance is this way. I'm ready to turn clockwise by using my right foot. Being a Tango, we're going to adopt the Tango-esque rhythm of Quick-Quick Slow, so there's no real, power drive step. But that's kind of common in some of your Tango figures, where we're starting with quicker beats and having the slow in the middle, and if I follow my, in line, taking my partner with me idea, I'm going to step forward Quick; I'm going to turn in a clockwise direction around them, Quick; and I'm going to let them step in line with a nice heel step, Slow; and I'm going to do the back half of that letting them step forward at me, Quick; I allow them to turn around me, Quick; and then walk forward out, Slow; and it really is as simple as that.

If we obey our Tango “rules”, such as they are, we're going to stay low, we're going to be, taking our choice of slow. Whether you want to dance early or slower or have a staccato type slow, however you want to style it up, that's fine. But if we adopt our tango position, frame and rules, we have our Quick. Quick. Slow. Quick. Quick. Slow. and that's that's pretty much as easy as that. The reason it doesn't get used as much is the entrance and exits; there aren't as many. But, that's why I think it's a really great social figure to have in your back pocket. Because if you get into a position that's a little bit foreign, if you know that you can do this, you might be able to wangle your way out of it without having to stop on the floor, and then restart in a more familiar position.

Lindsey: Followers, let's have a look at our steps. It's the natural opposite of what the leaders are doing. So, that's my line of dance, just so I can start facing you. I'm going to head backwards towards, diagonal wall ready on my left foot, and again, I have a Quick Quick Slow. By the end of this first half I will be the one going forward down line of dance.

So I have a: Quick, going backwards on my left foot, I'll feel my lead to start to take us around to the right, which means my next step will be a bit of a side step, and then by step three, I will have a nice sort of forward step in line with my partner's slow on my left. This is perfect because now I'm ready to sort of give some power with my right foot to keep that right turn going in the second half.

So another Quick Quick Slow. I start by going forward, Quick; that's through my partner's feet, it's in line, they take me to the side to continue the turn, Quick; and finishing off with a Slow backwards on my right foot. So, the whole thing should, turn about, three quarters (3/4) of a turn and great for getting a little bit of distance down the floor.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: Well, guys and gals, there we go, the Tango version of the Open Natural Turn. Of course, like most of these turns, you will get crossovers into other dances, and like all of these turns, you can pretty much break them in half and just use the first three steps or the last three steps as needed. But you get all six of them, if you want to, and it's a really good one if you're needing to get around the floor a little bit more and you just find yourself in maybe a peculiar position for your Tango, you know that you can do pretty much the opposite of your Open Reverse Turn, which I think is more broadly used; but only because it's in the books and this one isn't! So keep it in your back pocket, get out and dance your social Tango. It's a lot of fun. You will really, really enjoy it. When we just get up and get a little bit more experience on the floor. So try it out, let us know how you go. Tell us what else you would like us to blitz on the channel, but for now from us, we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for today's blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian & Lindsey: Bye!

Lindsey: That’s a keeper!

Video

youtu.be/Z-ZygY_KUSk

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello, Blitzers, welcome back to the Ballroom Blitz channel. We've had a couple of months hiatus while we've got through a busy period, but we are back to it. We're going to be finishing off the blitz series, filling in all the gaps with all the figures that we want to do before we move on to other content, and we are going to kick off after our short break with a request from one of you. This goes out to David Miller, he requested Three Cha Cha’s, but with a little bit of a different Patacake action. So we are going to be doing that one today.

So we have already looked at the Three Cha Cha Chas, and I will leave a link in the description for that video, but we'll go over it in a little bit more detail. A little bit of different detail for you here, and adding a little bit of something different up top, which gives it the Patacake appearance, which is a very easy, nice upgrade to make your Three Cha Chas a little bit easier to execute and a little bit funkier to watch.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So the simple key to getting this out on the social floor and leading it without pre arranging it with your partner is simply allowing the side of your body to lead forward when you are taking the appropriate foot forward. So as you saw there with the forwards and backwards, when I was coming forward on my right side, I have my right side leading and that would pancake across to Lindsay's right side and then we would cross in this fashion.

This also happens if we are doing them in a sidewards type of Cha Cha arrangement, because you are leading facing your partner with the side that you're traveling towards, and you will Patacake on that side as well. So it has a very good feel factor, and it's very easy to lead when you change hands and alternate from one side to the other with that side lead your follower knows exactly what's going on. Really, really nice out of a Hockey Stick. If you’re going to do a Hockey Stick and then Three Cha Cha’s. It's really nice to pimp it up with this Petacake style, just for a little bit of extra flair. I'll leave a link for the Hockey Stick in the description as well. Same timing for your Three Cha Cha’s as always Four-and One, Two-and Three, Four-and One, that doesn't change at all; and a little bit of rotation in the arms can sometimes make it: a) bit easier; c) look a little bit better; and c) easier to follow as well.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: There you go, boys and girls. A very simple, easy upgrade to your Three Cha Cha Cha’s. Adding those Patacake arms. Easy does it, a nice, easy one to ease back into the blitzing scene after a break. Thank you to David Miller for the shout out. Sorry it took so long for us to get to it, but we'll always get that in the end. Try it out on the social floor, try it out in your Cha Cha, find new ways and new ways of Three Cha Cha-ing to add it in and let us know how you go. For now, we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/9UbWbgA1u5I

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello, lovely ballroom dancers, welcome back to the channel. We are going to be looking at a lovely Modern Waltz figure today; it is called the Reverse Corte.

The Reverse Corte is a lovely move, and it doesn't take terribly long, but it wants some careful setting up, and it does set up for a few different moves afterwards, so it takes a little bit of explanation. So, let's have a look.

[demonstration without music]

Lindsey: As you can see, the Reverse Corte has quite different work for the leader and follower. The leader only has one step, while the follower still has that regular three weight changes for that particular bar. Let's have a look at the leader steps first.

Ian: Okay leaders, you have arrived at a position where the follower is driving forward at you on their left foot, so maybe step 4 of a Reverse Turn, and we're going to use this as the entry for our Reverse Corte. We're going to allow our follower to power through us, so they're regular driving step, but as Lindsey just mentioned, we only have one step.

Effectively, what we are going to do is absorb that power, and then basically swivel, on, on this foot. So we're going to kill the step by lowering the heel so that we know how far the step is being taken. Then we lift the heel retract this foot and swivel on the spot, around about 3/8, your body might turn a little bit more or less, depending on exactly where and what you want to follow up with, that's a little bit up for grabs. But what we're doing here, we can't lead the follow to take fewer steps, that's not something that we can really do in any sort of practical way. So we drop two steps, the follower gets three steps, and they don't know that they shouldn't do a drive side and together type construction of step, which means we will turn on the spot with our swivel and they will keep traveling past us a little bit.

This gets us to an outside position where they will want to drive forward again, but the leader will go backwards. So we want to make sure that we are being driven back and taking our step on the spot, ready to go backwards, and we don't want to step and sort of feint or fake a side step, even if it's small enough to let the follower keep going past us. So the difficulty of our steps is in the control, in the lead. I imagine that we should, keep a little bit more flex in the leg so that as we absorb that power, we can hold position and not let our follower get too far beyond us at this point. But we are going to put them in a position where they're outside here and ready to go backwards this way into the next figure.

Ian: If that's a little bit challenging, straight off the bat, you can paddle your feet, but you must remember that you are not traveling on steps two and three, so you don't want to, as I say, feint or fake that sidestep and then, give mixed signals to your follower. So if while you're practicing and leaning, you want to take this step, kind of use this as a little bit of a push in and to help that turn, to use some pressure through that foot, that's fine, as long as you don't take your weight over it and come back. That will give the follower mixed signals.

Lindsey: As Ian said, this particular figure starts with the follower's drive, so whatever has come beforehand, it should have set us up to drive, probably straight down the line of dance on the left foot. So maybe the start of a Reverse Turn. But here we are on beat one, ready for a drive on the left. So we give that drive, we're ready to turn to the left more most likely than not. But, what we will feel is that the leaders will sort of stop on the spot. Not soon enough so that we don't take our side and close. So we're ready for probably step side and close, but it won't be that big because our leaders will have stopped, and that's one of the things that helps, create that turn the fact that the person in the middle has stopped and the person on the outside has kept on going.

So we will still have a drive side and close, but because we'll feel our leader stop, that side in place will be quite small. We may very well sort of come a little bit further away from their hip than we usually are, so don't be surprised if you get a little bit of, distance at that point. But of course, one of our big jobs as followers is to try and stay in the frame. So that will naturally mean that we have a smaller movement in that side and close. We still want to change weight. We'll be ready on the right foot after that, and we'll find ourselves wanting to drive kind of back the other way past our partner into the next figure. So maybe a Back Whisk or something similar. So we still have our classic Waltz timing of One, Two, Three, and then ready for a One drive on the right outside partner.

So if we try demonstrating from this angle, you may see that slight gap that happens. You can see that we are nice and close here when we start. But because you stop his movement down the floor, on beat one and two, you can see that we've swung apart just slightly. It shouldn't be so much that we end up miles apart and having to lean forward to keep together. But leaders you may find that your frame wants to relax a little bit out, particularly on this right side, to allow for that. Don't worry, we'll very quickly gather in that contact at the hip with the very next step.

[demonstration with counts]

[demonstration with music]

Lindsey: There you go, the lovely Reverse Corte. It will take a little while to work out your balance with this one, how much it will turn, how to keep it nice and soft and controlled. But it's well worth pursuing when you get it right it just floats about and it's a really nice addition to your Modern Waltz. So give it a go. Let us know how you go. We'll have some more for you in the future to build on that idea. In the meantime, enjoy your dancing and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/ksCj3QEzafo

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Well. Happy Halloween, ballroom dancers. Today we have a second Halloween Special. We'll leave the link to last year's Scary Steps in the description. But, today we are going to do a Killer Combo. We have just finished doing it with our Advanced Class on Tuesdays. So this is partially for them to go back over what they have done in the class, but also for you, and if you would like more detailed videos on exactly how to put this combo together, do let us know in the description. But we're going to be building and smashing out some basic steps that we're going to upgrade to allow you to do more fancy steps on the end that we're going to upgrade again, and then upgrade and then double down on and form one massive killer combo in your Modern Waltz. We're going to be doing Overturned [Natural] Spin Turn and a pair of Turning Locks to Right. Let's go.

[Demonstration of full Combo]

Ian: So we're going to start this combo in this build up with a standard Natural Spin Turn. Of course we'll be doing it in the Modern Waltz. Six steps, we're going to start it diagonal wall. We're going to go down the side of the room, and at this stage there's really no, no difference to what we've done in other Blitzes. We blitzed it in last year's Scary Steps. I think we have done it in a separate blitz as well, so we'll leave all those links below. But, it looks exactly as you would know from our previous Blitzes we've got a One. Two. Three. Pivot. Spin. Brush-Settle. And with the standard spin turn, the follower has been encouraged to drive forward on the following step, because we've gone to the side and slightly forward, and that driving step is going to be diagonal center, and we would usually follow with some form of reverse turning figure in in this standard version. So we're going to start with that. But what we're going to do first is build up so that we can encourage the follow NOT to drive out of our [Natural] Spin Turn.

When we encourage the side to come to the side and slightly forward, we give them the indication in the invitation that they're going to compress and drive out; that's what they're expecting. But if we're going to add the next figure and start building this up, we need to not do that. We need to put the follower in a position where they can't do that without wording them up beforehand. So what, leaders, you are going to do is land your Natural Spin Turn, but continue to rotate your hips ever so slightly between step six of your spin turn and step one of what you're going to follow with, and that will basically disable the follower from being able to give you a proper drive and force them into syncopating beat One of the following figure; which we're going to turn into a lock. So we're going to have a One-and Two Three timing rather than a driving One. So, let's have a look at how that works, and we're going to now follow our Natural Spin Turn with a Turning Lock like so; One. Two. Three. Pivot. Spin. Settle and keep going. One-and. Two. Three.

So we added that Turning Lock. We disabled the follow up from being able to drive, enabling them to lock forward with us. We were back locking that was forward locking, and then ending the Turning Lock with a slight leftwards turn in a very “Change of Direction” type feeling, which would lead you to an outsi- or lead you to follow with an outside figure. So that's one upgrade. How do we change the exit or the transition from the end of our Spin Turn, our Natural Spin Turn into making sure that the follower doesn't drive out, that they lock, and that's the upgrade where we're going to land the step and then continue rotating ever so slightly after. But, if we're going to turn our Turning Lock into a Turning Lock to Right, which continues to rotate in the natural direction, then we need to overturn our [Natural] Spin Turn. So we're going to do this in two ways. We're going to under turn the position after step three, give our pivoting step our step for a little bit more sauce, and that will give us a little bit extra oomph to spin around in step five, settle Backing Line of Dance in step six and continue to over rotate so that the follow knows that even after all of that rotation, they still can't drive out after their [Natural] Spin Turn.

Ian: So if we over rotate and do an Overturned Natural Spin Turn down Line of Dance, we have One. Two. Three. Pivot. Spin. Brush-settle; and you notice here, it's even really hard to stop here. We've overturned. We have that momentum. We're coming down the floor in this direction, and we’re going to keep rotating so Lindsey knows she's not to drive. So, it may have been hard to see in the video, but what I did there, if I just isolate that section. At the end of step three, if we have One. Two. Three I’ve underturned this position. I would usually be a bit more Backing Line of Dance. I’ve underturned it ever so slightly, so that when I turn my toe into my pivot step, Lindsey’s going to provide me with her usual drive, but I get much more tension and I can rotate around with that pivot, and that starts the oomph to get the over rotation of the Natural Spin Turn. So we've started with our Natural Spin Turn. We've talked about how to get a lock afterwards without the follower driving.

We've pimped up our [Natural] Spin Turn so that we've over rotated, getting ready for the Turning Lock to Right. So now we're going to add the Turning Lock to Right. But we're going to pimp that up even more so that we can add a second one on afterwards. So you'll usual Turning Lock to Right ends in promenade, and we will eventually end in promenade, but before we get there, we're going to keep rotating in closed so that we can do not one, but two Turning Locks to Right after our Overturned Natural Spin Turn. So let's have a look at that first, Turning Lock to Right, the one that ends in closed, it should get us to the same position that we got to after our [Overturned] Natural Spin Turn so you can essentially go again. Starting with our Overturned Natural Spin Turn, we have One. Two. Three. Pivot. Spin. Settle. One-and. Two. Three. And you can see here we've got to the same position after that Turning Lock to Right. So that if I wanted to do it again, which is what we do want, we can.

Alrighty. So we've pimped up our [Natural] Spin Turn. We've put in a lock. We've turned it into a Turning Lock to Right, and now we're going to put in the second Turning Lock to Right where we're going to double down, even triple down, on our natural rotation ending in promenade where you can finally do something that maybe turns you the other direction, maybe a Weave from Promenade or any of your other promenade figures. So let's have a look at: Overturned Natural Spin Turn to a Turning Lock to Right (ending in closed) to a Turning Lock to Right (ended in promenade). We have One. Two. Three. Pivot. Spin. Settle. One-and. Two. Settle. One-and. Two. Out in Promenade.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, boys and girls. Whether you're in the Tuesday class or whether you are just tuning in for this Halloween special, a killer combo in the Modern Waltz for you there. Two Turning Locks to Rights of different sorts, followed by or preceded, I should say, by our Overturned [Natural] Spin Turn down the side of a room. Not for the faint hearted. If you want more detailed Blitzes on these figures, you will have to request them because they are not on our list to blitz at all. So if you don't ask for it, you won't get. We hope you've enjoyed this Halloween special. Until next time, keep dancing. Have fun. We'll see you soon.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/hkEq88lrvQE

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello, Blitzers and welcome back to a Ballroom Blitz. We're in the Jive world today, and we're going to be upskilling a very basic move. We've already blitzed the Jive Walks, link in the description, of course, but we will be adding some alternate methods and you can add or exchange these as you like just to make your Jive Walks a little bit different. So let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So, a super easy edit or exchange in yourJjive. We're going to use those 4 Quicks, those were “Ins and Outs”, however you want to think of them. We're going to be exchanging our chasses for those, or you can, and a lot of people do, add them on after the set of chasses that are in the most basic version of the walks. So we didn't show you any Back-Replaces there. We didn't show you any exits. It's a pure upgrade. So when you're using these, it would usually be a Back-Replace Chasse Chasse, and then a few of these as well, and you would follow on with 3 to 8 of something, either a Change of Place (R-L) or a Fallaway Throwaway. Again, links in the description to put all of those together. It's super easy though. It's sort of the mirror image for Lead and Follow. So, let's break it down. Get you swiveling, get your alternate walking, and then we can just leave it up to you to smash it out on the dance floor.

So we're going to take this from the Fallaway position. This could be straight after your, Back-Replace and ending up in that Fallaway position as if you were going to walk without having done the Chasses. This could be after the Chasses. But in either case, your, inside foot, you can have your weight on that slightly forward, still in your Promenading or Fallaway type of position and then all we're going to do here, instead of continuing to Chasse moving forward in that, not boppy, but that very Chasse form. I'm going to hold my position and I'm going to swivel on the ball of my rear foot. Point the toe into the ground and give a sneaky look to my partner as well, sometimes. Quick.

We're now going to exchange weight and get back to the position we just came from. Quick. That's a 2. That's our second Alternate Walk; and we just repeat Quick-Quick. So 4 Quicks that takes up the same amount of time as 2 Jive Chasses. So we often get 2 Chasses or 4 Alternates. You really don't have to abide by that timing rule though; you could do six, you could do eight, you could do one chassis and then mix it up. It's not very common, but there's no rules against it. So if we put that into, probably the most common variation you'll see we walk through with our Back-Replace, our Chasse, our second Chasses, gets us to that position. That ends the basic version of the walks and we can add four alternates on One. Two. Three. Four. and they just go nicely after one another. If you want to do just the Alternates just because you can, you can of course do Six Quicks in a row, which would be your Back-Replace. Alternate. Alternate. Alternate. Alternate, and then follow along in exactly the same way. You could even Chasse out and do the Chasses of the walks after that, it's entirely up to you. Exit the same way as you would out of your normal walks, because it gets you to that same position. There you go.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: So there you go, guys and gals, a really easy, simple upgrade with some alternate walking actions. You can do a lot with it. Leads remember not to set a wrench your follow around sort of hold firm without too much of a push and pull keep it nice and light. You can use Merengue style actions if you want to once you get a little bit practiced, or if you want to choreograph something with your partner, you can go tapping forwards and moving backwards as well. So there's a lot of things that you can do that, with these alternate versions that you probably couldn't do with the Chasse versions. But the basic upgrade, adding those extra four is a nice, easy addition.

Ian: It cuts straight into what you've been using your walks with. You can follow it out with all the same things, so you can just plonk it in and have a little bit more fun and travel a little bit on the floor if you need to find that little bit of extra space. So it's over to you now. You got to try it out on the floor. Have fun with your dancing. We hope you've enjoyed it. We will see you next time. Until then, keep dancing.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/UaKw4KBEKbs

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello, Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to the channel. Today we are going to be revisiting the Quarter Turn to Left in Quickstep. We're going to be upgrading your Heel Pivot taking you from the “penguin feet” in the previous version to a true Heel Pivot. Let's go.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So what exactly was the difference? Well, when we Blitzed this many moons ago, again a link in the description, we gave you the “penguin feet” version, which, if this is your first stab I highly recommend that is the one that you do. It gives you all the angles, keeps you in time, and it doesn't carve up the rhythm that the lead in the follow is dancing; so very, very useful to start out with. But we have also recently Blitzed the Reverse Corte in Waltz, and it did give me an idea that the true Heel Pivot, the real beauty of the Heel Pivot when danced in the Quarter Turn to Left, is that the leader basically dances two steps while the follow dances four.

So this is what we're going to upgrade you to today, and then if you start with the “penguin feet” version and then upgrade into this one, it will feel a bit different. It will feel a bit weird, but it will make it much stronger, much more useful, much more balanced, and much, much better. So let's have a look at how we upgrade from one to the other for the leaders. For the followers your steps are exactly the same. It will feel different but leaders this video is pretty much for you. So we're going to leave the followers as they are, and we're going to go over your quick revision, your upgrade to get you working a little bit better.

Ian: So leaders, I will let you go back and watch the previous video again, link in the description, that will give you the “penguin feet” version, but essentially there we were playing with four steps. We were accepting the drive from our follow Slow, and then the middle two steps was a Quick-Quick, with our “penguin feet”, and then walking out slow at the end.

Here, essentially, we're going to cut out the “quick quicks” in terms of foot changes and weight changes for us, and we're really going to pivot on the heel of our right foot. So the follower drives forward there driving forward on the left, we're going back on our right, that still hasn't changed. That cannot change. When we get our weight over a heel, we are going to lift the ball of the foot, retract the left foot slightly, but not quite into a closed position, we're going to pivot on the heel of our right foot over the, basically the quick-quick, while the follower is doing their side together, and then we are already ready on our left foot to take our walking step out. Still a heel walk and non-power heel step. So we're not really trying to drive out yet. We're trying to prepare for the drive in the next figure at the beginning of the next figure.

But this becomes for us, Slow “Quick-Quick” and Walk, and you can see there over the “quick-quick” over there would be “penguin feet” of the last time. I'm not doing anything. I'm not not adding any steps. I'm pivoting on my foot. Slow Quick Quick Slow out. Let's have a look at that with a partner.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And there it is ladies and gents, boys and girls, Quicksteppers of all sorts, the Heel Pivot in the Heel Pivot slash Quarter Turn to Left. Upgraded from your “penguin feet”. Both of them incredibly useful. I highly recommend you try adding them between your Quarter Turns to Right and just remember that it's the easiest way to retain your follower in that closed position if and when you need to. Very, very versatile. You obviously can't follow it with your classic Forward Lock, but you can with all of your Natural Turns; they will go in line and outside. So, give it a go. If you've used the “penguin feet” version, then upgrade to this one. See how you go. If this is the first time you've heard [of] this figure, check out the “penguin feet” version, and then try upgrade into this one.

Find out which one is best for you. I hope you all arrive at this proper Heel Pivot version in the future. Just remember as when you're cutting out steps, you can't lead your follower to do the same, so you have to hold back and give them time to do all 3 or 4 of their steps in this one and in the Reverse Corte video, which gave me the idea. Until we do see you again, have fun with your dancing and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

Video

youtu.be/kj5hCMpf1SU

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely dancers, welcome back to a ballroom blitz. Today we are going to be having a look at a Rumba figure. We have actually done this figure before, it's called the Closed Hip Twist. But it has three alternate endings, so that's what we'll be looking at today.

Now we will go over, briefly, the first few steps of this Closed Hip Twist, but for more details we'll put a link in the description below from when we did this before, we'll be largely focusing on the last few steps that set up these different finishing positions. So let's have a look.

Our classic Closed Hip Twist ends in a Fan Position. So let's just have a very quick look at that one first so that we have a base to work off of.

Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One. and you can see here that we are in our classic Fan Position, so I am perpendicular to the alignment of my leader, off Ian's left side backwards on my left and Ian has ended sideways on his right; so our classic Fan Position.

Lindsey: The first alternate finishing position that we're going to have a look at from this Closed Hip Twist is the Counter Promenade Position. So we won’t to end in Fan at all. It starts the same though, so we have this closed hold ready for the leader to go sideways on the left, follows to swivel backwards on the right. We rock on Three and then swivel for the follower land Four-and-One. We swivel again and start heading past our leader. Two. Three. and then they open us up and guide us through to take a step in Counter Promenade.

Ian: So, leads, the first part of this figure for us is exactly the same. We want to get through the actual Hip Twist portion. We want to have turned to follow across. So at this point they would almost be thinking that they're going to end in Fan Position as normal. Instead of allowing them to continue to walk across, pulling out with this hand, etc. I'm going to guide them with a little bit of my right hand, a little bit more. Turn in a little bit more as they take this step. Over rotate them so that they're not going back perpendicular to us in fan, but actually out on one eighth (1/8) angle more. Step slightly forward for us into our count promenade position. So here it shouldn't feel like the follow just closes their feet. In fact, I haven't stepped back at all. They've stepped forward into Count Promenade, so we need to convey that in our lead. If we do it at speed, you can see that it action like so. And here, very definitely, we are not in fan.

Lindsey: The second alternate finishing position we'll have a look at is an Open Position. So this is one where the leaders essentially chase the followers out as they go in their usual direction. So we have the start the same the Closed Hip Twist. But as I'm being sent out, Ian's going to follow along with that final step so that we end in this classic Open Position; leaders forward on their right foot, follow his back on the left.

Ian: So leads, this one's actually quite easy for us to lead. You can almost cheat and decide very late as a bit of a bailout; although planning ahead at this point is easier. We're going to get through this point just as normal, and we're going to walk the follow forward as normal, and they're going to turn as if to go to Fan as normal as well. What we are going to do as they take this second walk and as we turn them to face us, we are going to turn to face them. So our last walk of the figure, instead of stepping to the side and moving to Fan, we are following them out in this Open Position. If we have a look at that at speed, we can see it's quite easy, it happens very, very late, no need to panic. We have: Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One.

Lindsey: The final alternate finishing position that we're going to have a look at ends us in contact position. So, it's quite similar to the one that we just showed you in Open, but the leader is going to use their frames to draw their partner closer to them so that we actually finish with some contact through our bodies. So once more the start is just the same. We have the start of our Closed Hip Twist. As the forward is sent out, the leaders muscle in with their steps using that frame to draw us in and you can see we're in a nice cuddly-close hold at the end there.

Ian: Leaders, we're going to do almost exactly the same thing here as we did for the Open version, but at the critical moment we are going to, walk into the follow a lot more getting that light contact. So, [this] shouldn't be a big ball room frame, but getting that light contact. A Closed Position hold with our right hand, and then depending on what you're following with, and the reason you've gone into contact position, this can either be up in a Closed Position or down in an Open Position hold, ready for whatever you want to do next.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: So there you go, one figure with four different endings, so definitely more bang for your buck on that one. Now, we will put the closer look at the Closed Hip Twist, in the description below. But just to note, that one was for Cha Cha, so if you’re Rumba-ing it up, just make sure that you take those Chasses out and there you'll have it. And ultimately, if you want to try these different, finishing positions in your Cha Cha, you just put those Chasses back in again. So try them out, let us know how you go, and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.