Ballroom Blitz #117

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.