Ballroom Blitz #110

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.