Ballroom Blitz #050

Video

youtu.be/WnloNEe8q6I

Transcript

Ian: Hey random dancer from the inter-webs, my name's Ian,

Lindsey: and I'm Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is a Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Welcome blitzers, welcome to the channel for what is the 50th Episode Special. Less than six months ago we kicked off The Ballroom Blitz and I can't believe we've actually pumped out 50 different episodes. If you've been watching anything from the channel you'll know that, because it's a blitz series, we're keeping them nice and short, we're keeping everything just quite digestible with little hits, one figure at a time, or one idea at a time; and that's really what we're going to keep doing. But, if you've watched enough of our blitzes you'll actually start to wonder; what can I do with all these different individual figures? Well in the 50th episode special today we're going to do something slightly different, it's going to be a little bit longer, but we're actually going to chain together some of the blitzes that we've already done into short mini routines that you can dance on the floor. Of course, the Ballroom Blitzes have never been about replacing your studio learning, or taking it over in any fashion. So, this should always be something, that a little bit extra, to help you with your classroom learning or your private tuition or wherever you usually go to dance. But, if you're only entry into dancing so far has been Ballroom Blitz put these ones together. You can jump out with all your friends and get dancing up on the floor and maybe that will inspire you to hit up your studio in your local area. So, that's what the 50th Special is today. You'll see both Lindsey and I doing some Modern Waltz and some Cha slash Rumba from all the blitzes, well not all the blitzes, from some of the blitzes we have already done, and then by the end of it you'll have a mini Waltz routine and a mini Cha-Cha slash Rumba routine just from what we've done. Let's get into it!

Ian: So let's take a look at the Modern Waltz. We're going to be combining three of our previous blitzes: number 14, The Natural Turn, number 37 The Reverse Turn, and a recent one number 48 Closed Changes. All the links [are] in the description so you can go back and review them if you wish. But we're going to put them all together and show you a nice easy does it basic Waltz pattern out of just those three blitzes. Now what we're going to show you basically makes up what a lot of people consider to be the basic Waltz; the most basic pattern that you can put together and get back to the same position to just rinse and repeat. It's six groups of three, we're going to use two change steps or two closed changes of three steps each, and then two turns one to the left one to the right, one reverse one natural, and they have six steps each. To make it a little bit easier to digest, and before we have to change camera position to give you a wider angle of us going around the floor, we're going to do one half with one of your closed changes followed by one turn, and then the second half followed by the next closed change, and the next turn, and then you'll see it in action going around the floor.

Ian: So, we're going to start with what you could define as a Left Foot Forward Change, basically it's the leader's left foot that we're going to start with and it's a closed change step, then we'll be ready to go forward on the lead is right which means they would turn to the right making it a natural turn coming afterwards. So, we have, three two and left foot change turn right (natural) turn right (natural). And when we arrive here, because we've had an even number of steps through our natural turn, I'm once again ready to use my right foot and that will get us into the right foot close change. So, if we continue on leads you're now ready to use the right foot, your angle has changed because your natural turn has taken you three quarters of a turn so you're now facing diagonally into the floor. We're going to do our right foot change, ready then to follow with a left foot figure (a reverse figure), then it will be the reverse turn getting us back to our same starting angle and our same starting foot just to simply go again. So we have three two and right foot change turn left (reverse turn) turn left (reverse turn) and you can see here the similar starting angle or the same starting angle, ready to use the left foot, hit the repeat button and away you go. Now, as we have probably already mentioned in the blitzes that make up this little sequence, everything happens in a closed hold, there's no need to move in and out of promenade with this little sequence, which means we should have our heads to the left, we should have nice hip contact, keep some nice soft knees, don't rise too high, or too fast. Keep it nice and easy going and just have fun on the floor.

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And that is it for squashing three blitzes together to give you a nice easy repeatable basic Modern Waltz sequence. Of course there is plenty more that we will do, have done, and you can do in your Modern Waltz, but that will get you going round the floor. You can play with the amounts of turn, that you need to, if you need to change it on the social floor, it's adaptable to your surroundings and it's not too complicated. Just try not to, with those simple steps, make it more than it is. Have a great time with with your basic steps, there's plenty of time to add more complex ones that we will do in future blitzes and let you have a go at on the floor.

Lindsey: Okay Blitzers, let's jump into the Latin world and you're going to get a two for one because this, the figures that we have put together for you in this mini routine will work for both your Cha Cha and your Rumba. Now we will put links below but the blitzes that we are going to make good use of to put this mini routine together are blitz's number 25, 36, 49, and then we're going to cycle all the way back to Blitz number 2, to tie the whole thing together so that you can rinse and repeat. So the figures you'll see us put together are the Fan, which gets us into Fan Position. We're going to follow that with our option to do the Hockey Stick after that. A bit of a basic, and then a turn to finish. So to show you this initially we're going to be doing the Rumba version so you won't see any of the Chasse Cha Cha Cha actions, we'll put those in afterwards to show you how to translate it into the Cha Cha. So we start in a closed position, a bit of a gap between us because it's Latin dancing. We're ready to rock over on that first beat, and then we've got Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One. so that was our Fan. We are now in Fan Position, Ian's going to lead me into the Hockey Stick. Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One. We're now in an open position, so we're going to do our Open Basic. Two. Three. Four-One. And we're going to put a turn on the end and we are back to our start again.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: Now if we want to turn it into a Cha Cha all we need to do is add in that Chasse action. All the rest of it's the same, the arm positions, the amounts of turn. So, all we need to do then is we rock Two. Three. Four-and-One. Two. Three. Four-and-One. Two. Three. Four-and-One. Two. Three. Four-and-One. Two. Three. Four-and-One. Two. Three. Four-and-One. And we're back to the start again.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And there you go, a two for one for both your Cha Cha and your Rumba, a short repeatable pattern that you can try out on that social floor.

Ian: And that is it for the 50th special episode putting together a small section of the previous 49 blitzes. To bring you some mini sequences to get you going on the floor. To prove to you that you have done probably more than you realized with these 49 previous episodes. There is much more to be done, we will go through them figure by figure, we will bring you all the tips all the tricks. Keep commenting, let us know what you want to do so that we can do that first or sooner rather than later. We've got a few suggestions that will be coming out soon, that people have commented on and requested. So, we will have those coming out for you. But, keep them coming. If we can do what you want earlier, then why not why, not do that for you. So, keep smashing that like button keep, sending us comments, keep letting us know what you find helpful, and what you don't. Keep an eye out for some more Pet Peeves and some more I guess philosophical type blitzes on things that aren't just straight up figures, and who knows maybe when we get to the 100th special episode we'll have longer and different routines for you. Who knows, there's another 50 episodes to go before then, but all being well, that should come out before the end of the year. So stay tuned thank you all for our new subscribers who have come along to the channel. We've nearly doubled our subscriptions in the last six months so thank you for that. Share all these videos with your friends so they can enjoy it too. Keep getting up onto that social dance floor keep loving your dancing and we will see you soon.