Ballroom Blitz #134

Video

youtu.be/l8hkInTh7eo

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsey.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome, everyone, back to another Ballroom Blitz. Two things: yes, I do have Halloween hair, because this is the first time we're recording after our annual Halloween bash. If you need photos for that, you can check it out on Facebook. Second thing, this is also the first time we are recording after hitting the 1000 subscribers mark, so thank you very much for that.

We don't give you the hard sell. But it really does help when you like, share, comment and subscribe and send things to your friends so they can enjoy what we do too. So keep that up. Keep letting us know what you would like to see on the channel, and thank you very much. For now though, today we are going to do some Foxtrot.

We're going to be doing a move in Foxtrot that we've done in Waltz already, and we will link it back. It was quite early on. This is the Closed Impetus Turn. But when we do it in Foxtrot, we're also going to add on the Feather Finish. We've also linked that in the description because we can dance that as a separate figure as well. So, this is Closed Impress and Feather Finish.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So, when we dance the Impetus Turn in the Modern Waltz, which we've linked in the description, you get three slows, three even beats, which fits the Waltz Rhythm. When you get it in Foxtrot, it follows the Slow, Slow-and or Slow, Quick, Quick of your Foxtrot construction, and this time it is the leaders doing the heel turn.

So all the same things that we want to do from our regular, heel turn type of actions. It all still fits, but it's slightly different because the leader knows they're doing a heel turn and they have to lead the follower into doing the opposite, and then, of course, because we get to the end, that position is somewhat less Foxtroty than, than what you would really like to finish it as, so we put the Feather Finish on with the follower driving forward, hitting that feather position, and it just feels much more Foxtroty. It feels like a position that you can add a lot more follows to, so it's not technically part of the Impetus Turn; the Impetus Turn is those three steps for the Heel Turn with the leader going backwards and heel turning.

But, in a Foxtrot, if you don't add the Feather Finish, you’ve got to be pretty confident as to what you do, because otherwise it may not feel quite complete and it might lead to a little bit lost. So that's what we're doing today. Revise the, the two waltz videos that will really, really help. But let's go over it in the Foxtrot rhythm.

Ian: Leaders, you've arrived at a position where the follower is going to drive forward on their right foot. You're going back on your left. So the most common way to get to here is the Natural Heel Turn, and instead of doing the Heel Pull of the Natural Heel Turn, you're going to do an Impetus Turn instead. But it's not the only way, and in other dances, but also in Foxtrot, you can have this step leading outside, instead of in line, it sort of just depends on how you've arrived in that position. In either case, the follow is driving forward on the right, you're going back on the left, and you're going to perform a Heel Turn.

Now we are going to take the power from the follower. We're going to provide the contra body movement to allow the turn. But we don't want to wrench them round. But we also can't afford to sort of sit and do nothing. So we want to make sure that we accept the power, push forward with our left side as we do, get our weight over our heel, turn on our heel like so, and then, bring us out usually to the side. Although if you're going to lead it to promenade, you can do that as well. So accepting that power, turning on the heel, changing weight in the middle and then stepping to the side, retaining that closed position.

Now whether you do this in a corner or somewhere else, you will end up having moved to the side slightly backwards so that the follower knows they're going to drive out. Very similar to how we end a Natural Spin Turn, because they're going to drive here and you're going to do the for the finish, allowing yourself to be driven back and then achieving that further position. Now, strictly speaking, your Closed Impetus is a corner figure. It's sort of been adapted in modern times, you can eek a little bit more turn out. But if you're a imagining, you're doing a Natural Heel Turn towards the corner using your Impetus Turn to close. That will get you a much more smoother amount of rotation. But either case, we're going to step back, heel turn, stepping out, being driven out, and then managing to move through our Feather Position in our Feather Finish.

Lindsey: Followers, we have a bit of a gift, we have both, drive steps that occur in these two bars. The first one as Ian said is happening on our right foot, so we'll be turning to the right through that Closed Impetus Portion, and then we'll be driving on the left, and there'll be a slight turn to the left as the leader leads the Feather Finish. So even though we've got the drives, it is up to the leader to decide ultimately what they are doing with them. So when we give this right foot drive, I'm going to go in this direction for now. All we know is that we have been invited to drive on our right foot. Don't actually know what the lead is going to do, but as we drive, we will feel them then stop on the spot.

But we will have another step around, so that is on the left foot, then we brush our feet and wait to see what happens here. We've picked up on the fact that it's an Impetus Turn at this point, but we don't know yet whether it's a Closed or Open. We need more information from our leaders. If we don't feel that shift in their frame, inviting us to promenade, we just keep our heads to the left, stay in closed, and step sideways and slightly forward on our right foot. So, that Closed Impetus will be: right foot drive, left toe to the side brush and right and lower here on the right foot coming out. This then sets up our drive step on our left foot, so we're driving still in a Closed Position at our partner and they decide to do a Feather Finish. So another two steps after that, coming into that classic feather position.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: So, there you have it, boys and girls, the Closed Impetus Turn, with the Feather Finish. Links to all the feathering videos, the feather finish videos, the Waltz versions of the Impetus Turns for some more details or some finer details, or a bit of a deeper dive. But really, leaders, you're going to step back, use the power of your follower to create a Heel Turn for yourself, which is always slightly different to creating a Heel Turn for the follow, but you're going to land yourself slightly back just like a Natural Spin Turn in your Waltz and Quickstep, and then allow the follow to drive out into the most common driving out figure, which is just a Feather Finish. There are a range of ways to get into it, there are other things apart from the Feather Finish to do out of it, but use this as a base while you're learning. Try it out on the floor and we will see you next time. Thank you to all the subscribers. Keep sharing all our content. Let us know how you go. Let us know what you want to see. But for now, 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.