Ballroom Blitz #129

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.