Ballroom Blitz #109

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.