Ballroom Blitz #041

Video

youtu.be/ucureMfJeb4

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 blitzers to today's Ballroom Blitz. If you've been with us from the beginning or indeed if you have recapped any blitzes and watched the very first one you know that we would have foreshadowed a couple of things; some blunt language and then eventually these things called pet peeves. I think we've delivered on some blunt language already but we haven't yet delivered on some pet peeves and it's just about time. This is the first, one I'm going to tell you one of my pet peeves, which is impatience; let's get chatting.

To be fair this particular situation that I'm going to use in this pet peeve is not all about impatience, but it is a big factor and we're going to hone in on that today. There are other things that go into it and there are all sorts of different reasons for this situation to occur and it's not always one person's fault. I might rag a bit on the leaders and I might rag a bit on the followers it's not always one person's fault it's usually a combination of a whole bunch of factors. But basically today I'm going to point out one situation where too often I see people being far too impatient with their steps, and then complaining that they don't work. So we're going to take a chill pill, we're going to calm down, we're going to get we're going to let people do their own work when it's their turn, and we're going to slowly shawl in in a relaxed slightly more patient way improve our dancing. let's have a look at the Natural Spin Turn in Quickstep.

[Fictional Re-enactment]

Ian: So what you saw there was a classic situation where we arrive, sometimes at a corner other times not, but in a situation particularly in the the natural turn type turns in the Quickstep, where we have momentum, we have turn, we need to in the middle of a figure basically come to a controlled stop and exchange control of who is producing the power. The leader produces power into the figure and halfway through the figure we come to a foot closed, stalled, position where he then grants permission to the follower to produce power for the second half of the figure; or at least that's what should happen! What we often see though is this transition doesn't occur and for whatever reason, but for the focus of today for a very impatient reason, the leaders will yank the follow around or the follow will then impatiently push the leader too early because they're too sick of being yanked around; this is my pet peeve! Take a moment, understand what is going on, if you are not driving forward you cannot, period, produce power. It is physically impossible, in ballroom dancing, to produce power on a backward step. Quite literally, in that moment, that is what your partner is for. If you don't let them do that you have zero, ZERO, recourse to complain that they've taken the wrong steps.

Ian: So really that's the guts of my pet peeve and any more and it would become a psychotic rant and that's not what you're here to watch; so let's not go down the path anymore. Let's talk about what we can do in that moment to fix this impatience, apart from just taking a chill pill and letting things happen, what can we actually do to improve our dancing, to improve our spin turns and pivot turns and other things that focus around this particular situation. It occurs in Waltz, it occurs in Foxtrot, it occurs in Quickstep. We see it in Quickstep the most because we have that momentum and it's Quickstep so people go too fast anyway; because it's in the name "quick". So, let's have a look at what we can do just to calm things down and turn this peeve into a pro.

Ian: So I'm going to pick on the Natural Spin Turn as I've said in Quickstep, mainly because it's just the main culprit for this, but you can even be turning reverse; it really doesn't matter. The type of setup of figure that I'm worried about today is this idea where the leader is going to move forward first with a drive step of some description, we have come to a halted position, if you're doing this in Foxtrot then the lady's done a heel turn that has other implications, but Waltz in Quickstep we've usually done a Chasse style turn, we've brought our feet together and at this point the follow should drive forward. When they don't, or when they're not given the chance, the rest of the figure doesn't work, and then we default to using our upper body yanking people around and things like that. How can we fix this? First of all if you are a leader and you are prone to getting to this position and stepping backwards and across and starting to turn; don't do that! And if I line myself up with the camera you'll see what I mean. If I have lined up here if my follow is driving they should be driving to you in the camera. If I am doing this because I feel I need to get them started, or I'm just impatient I want to go around the corner, their drive step is going to be rubbish. Even if they can give you a drive step you've stepped off the line you're in no position to absorb their power it's just going to be balls; and it's your fault, in that case. So the first thing for the leads is we take a chill pill. We settle, we relax, we be patient, we close our feet, we compress our knees, and we prepare our frame to absorb a power step that we have invited the follow to do. By leading this figure you have given the follow permission to drive and produce power in that step, it's really rude if you then don't allow them to do that. So the first part here is we're going to close our feet and settle and prepare to go backwards and wait for the follow to drive.

Ian: Follows what can you do? I will admit here most of your failures are produced by the impatience of the leader; but, it's not always the case. Sometimes there's a bit of reverse psychology going on and you're so used to being yanked around a corner you will try and get in quick, and so you will try and do this and yank and sort of get your heel step in because that's what your instructor told you to do, and so we're being impatient because we're not being waited for. That's a little bit harder to fix, my suggestion here is if you have an impatient leader, don't take the step. That is really a blunt force instrument in teaching them that if they're not waiting for you, you're not going to do your step; because you can't. It's a little bit pissy, a little bit narky, but it works. Let's say that's all fixed and they're waiting for you, and now we have this position where you should be driving forward. This is where we have to throw off the shackles of the follower and say "I've been given permission to drive, that's what I'm going to do". We're going to compress while the leader is being patient and waiting for you, we compress our leg, we are ready, we don't hold back, if we're dancing a swing dance, so anything other than Tango, we're going to be sliding the heel across the floor maintaining hip contact, and driving forward. Then your impatience can set in where once you've driven forward we have to produce the power, and then wait. And I understand that this is really frustrating but please don't power and throw yourself into a turn, because at that point anyone that's done any volume of Quickstep knows that there's eight to a dozen different options at that point, and you won't know which one it is until after you've produced the power step. So settle power and switch off.

Ian: And that is it my pet peeve bitchy turn to tell all you bastards to slow down, settle, give each other a chance to do the right steps, and then have a much more relaxed enjoyable dance. Of course it's over to you now to take that on board and just to take a chill pill. The most, the most enjoyable dance you can do has proper technique and a certain amount of relaxation. Relaxing while you're dancing and trying to think about all your steps is hard and some of us just don't like doing technique. If those two things are a bit above you, then your steps in this case will always be a bit rubbish; you might just have to accept that. For those who are willing to swallow their pride and say "how can I improve?" just take a chill pill. Do the steps that you are required to do in the figure and don't do any more. Don't do your partner steps, let them do their steps for you, and you both as a unit will reap the benefits. Throw that into your Quickstep and your Waltz and your Foxtrot all your dancing let us know if this bitchy pet peeve has helped; if it hasn't, maybe we'll still do some more who knows. But if it has and you'd like our opinion on some other common areas where you think people could improve let us know in the comments, and until we do see you, again keep dancing, stay safe, have fun, watch all the rest of the blitzes, and throw us a like and a comment so we know what else you would like. See you then.