Ballroom Blitz #119

Whip & Whip Throwaway in Jive - Jun 20, 2024

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.