Ballroom Blitz #035

Video

youtu.be/TzEheBdaihw

Transcript

Ian: Hey random dancer on the internet. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is a Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome back blitzers we are doing a Quickstep move today and it is a little known one and a far underused one called the Quarter Turn to Left also known as the Heel Pivot. Now, most people know it's bigger brother the quarter turned to right and we will probably Blitz that at some stage but let's face it it's old hat everyone does that one we're going to do Quarter Turn to Left (Heel Pivot) today so; let's get into it.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: As with a lot of our basic Quickstep moves the rhythm for this figure has a Slow-Quick-Quick-Slow. And as advertised in the name Quarter Turn to Left it turns a quarter turn to the left. So, if you do know the quarter turn to right you can now perform Quarter Turn to Right, Quarter Turn to Left, Quarter Turn to Right. But, this one is a little bit different. It does have a heel pivot for a very specific reason. We want to exit this figure in line with our partner not outside of partner like so many of our other Quickstep moves.

This means you probably don't want to do too many in a row because you kind of lose your Quickstep flow, but it's really useful if you need to keep your partner a little bit close and exit so that you can enter into a figure starting in line.

Leads you've arrived at a position where you need to turn a quarter to the left. Usually that means you'll be backing diagonal center so that you can turn to face diagonal wall, but you might find other uses for it as well. The follower will be driving forward you are going to go back on your right foot with a slow. I will let Lindsey discuss the follow steps in a moment.

What I want to do now though is perform the heel pivot or as I like to call it the penguin feet and the first part to do that is you're going to point the toe of your now moving foot your left foot you're going to point that in the direction you're going to go next and glue your heels together. So, you have like penguin feet this creates a lot of tension across the top of your legs; that's going to help you turn.

That's your first quick step to glue your heels together. The second quick step is to pivot the heel of your right foot to close your feet, that's where the name heel pivot comes from. And now all I have to do is take a light walk forward on my left foot and I've completed the figure; that's our final slow.

So, if we put those all together we have: slow back right glue the feet together quick left close the feet quick right walk out slow left.

[Demonstration of leaders steps

Lindsey: I will face you for the start of this one but then I'll switch it round. The leaders were going backwards on the right foot that means that we're ready to go forwards on the left and this is our drive step. So we make sure that we've got a nice steady standing foot, the left foot goes forward and we are going to take a drive at our partner so, that's going to go into the floor diagonal center.

Now as the leaders are doing their heel pivot for the quick-quick they're sort of on the spot at that point with their heels together but we're on the outs outside of the circle in this case, so we will have a side step and close. It's important that we're following the hip around and following the frame around to judge where exactly that second step is going to go. After our drive step we're sort of the passengers again and we need to follow where our leader is going because it could be multiple different figures.

As my left foot comes in to meet my right or my second quick I'm going to change weight, that means I'm ready on my right foot for the final step, and you will feel the leader come forward at you which means we will back it up on that right foot in the direction that the leader is going. True to its name we will have turned a quarter over that figure to the left. So we will have: a slow with a drive quick to the side quick close our feet slow backwards on the right.

[Demonstration of followers steps]

Ian: Now leaders when you are going through for your quarter turn to left in your Quickstep there's two main things you want to remember. One, this is a heel pivot not a heel turn. So we do want to get that penguin feet step and pivot your foot to close don't step back and turn on the same heel then you will be most likely to skip a step or if not skip a step you will turn far faster than your follower will will be so you'll actually essentially be out of time with your partner.

Now to help with that brings us to our second thing This is a unique step in that after you take that first toe heel backwards, you get three heels in a row; your very flat footed, there's no rise and fall because you're not actually performing a chasse. This means for the followers don't be perturbed by not feeling that rise but kind of take it as part of the lead that you're going to be doing the Quarter Turn to Left and not something like a Progressive Chasse or something like that.

This will enable that forward walk at the end to be in line with your partner kind of the reason why we would be doing a Quarter Turn to Left to remain in line and you wouldn't have risen out done less turn and end up proceeding outside. So keep those two things in mind it's not a heel turn and you don't rise through the figure. Three heels in a row.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And that is it the quarter turn to left in your Quickstep. Slightly different from the quarter turn to left in your Slow Rhythm, but a really really useful one for getting you up on the floor quickly without needing to get outside partner and do Progressive Chasses and [Forward] Locks and all those sorts of other things that you will eventually get into but can get onto the floor without when you use this one. So, cheat it onto the floor, give it a go, stay in line with your partner, stay low, have fun, and we will see you soon.