Ballroom Blitz #058

Video

youtu.be/aKHBNYxKSaU

Transcript

Ian: Why hello there random dancer on the internet. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is a Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again Blitzers and welcome back to the channel. Today we are far overdue to answer a special request that came in via some of our Facebook channels. Today we are comparing, in New Vogue and Sequence, the difference between the Reverse Waltz and the Natural Waltz. Let's take a look.

Before we get down and dirty with the details of Natural and Reverse, if you are one of our YouTube viewers and you've not yet subscribed, then please do that. If you would like to join the community, even though you are not in the local Hobart area, do feel free to join the Facebook groups and check us out on the Facebook page. Feel free to leave comments there as well regarding our Ballroom Blitzes; that's totally fine as well. All the links are in the description, just go down to the bottom you'll get all the direct links, everything you need to know. So, we will see you there. But, right now let's get into some Waltz.

Ian: It is an age-old pastime to end a sequence Viennese style rhythm dance with a waltz of some description. I can't think, off the top of my head, of any Waltz that does not end with one of these. So then it becomes a question of: are you turning to the left, or are you turning to the right? Are you doing a Reverse Waltz, are you doing a Natural Waltz? And there's really two things that we're going to look at today: one, how to identify which one it is, and how does that affect the setup; and then two, what is the actual difference between them so that you get a good feel. We did this for what's the difference between a Rotary Chasse and a Natural Waltz. That's slightly different because they have different rhythms. This one has the same rhythm so it's a little bit trickier to discern which one is which, sometimes you just have to remember. But certainly there are stark differences between what you need to do if you're doing a Reverse Waltz compared to a Natural Waltz, so we'll make sure we clear those up throughout the session.

Following along from our general ballroom idea of: if you are turning left then the person going forward travels on the left foot, drives on the left foot; and if you're turning right the person going forward travels on the right foot; the Viennese Waltz and indeed the Waltzes at the end of your New Vogue and Sequence follows those same rules. So, we can start to work out some of the differences just by the language. If you are dancing a Reverse Waltz you must be turning: reverse, anti-clockwise, to the left, which means when it's your turn to go forward you will drive on the left foot. If you are doing a Natural Waltz you are turning: naturally, you are turning to the right, you are turning clockwise, which means the person going forward with the drive step must drive forward on the right foot.

Let's start with the Natural Waltz. We're coming forward on the Right foot, we are turning to the right, we're turning in the natural direction. We have drive, turn to the right close your feet, be driven keep turning to the right close your feet.

In a nutshell, the difference between the Reverse Waltz and the Natural Waltz and the "cross step" that you're going to see in a moment, that comes about because of the position of yourself and your partner. We are offset with our partner to one side, and because of that offset you are turning more around your partner in one direction of these turns, and more through your partner when you turn in the other direction. Because of this you need to account for that and close your feet in a different fashion.

So, if we look at the Reverse Waltz, coming forward on the left, turning to the left, with this different step on the forward portion. I'm going to drive with my nice heel step, that's fairly simple fairly usual. I'm going to turn to the left as I take my side step, that's fairly usual fairly simple. But here instead of just closing my feet in a waltz fashion, or continuing to turn and close them side by side, I am going to retract this foot in a sliding type fashion; I often say forward-side-slide is a bit of a working reminder, if that works for you use that, if not don't worry. But we're going to slide this under and as we close our feet. We are closing one behind the other. I have definitely closed my left foot in front of my right and all of my weight is on my left foot so that I can go back side together. So we haven't bent or broken any of those rules. But I haven't closed like this, I have closed like this.

Ian: So let's have a look at that from a different angle. Turning reverse we have.

[Demonstration of Reverse Waltz]

Ian: So let's have a look at these side by side.

[Demonstration of Natural Waltz]

[Demonstration of Reverse Waltz]

Ian: So that's a comparison between the two. What's the difference between turning left or reverse in your reverse waltz, with this side slide and your natural Waltz, which is almost a simple Waltz forward side together for both the forward and the backward half. But how do you know which one you're going to do? Well most of these you just kind of have to learn it as part of the dance, but there are a few indicators and then a few key things to remember so you don't accidentally be doing the wrong waltz and turning the wrong way. Now in most of the New Vogues there really is this left-foot fetish where at every major point in the dance, and certainly at the start of the dance, the leader commences on the left foot; and therefore the follow has to change whether they're using the left or the right depending on the position they're in. So, if we apply this to our waltzes: if the leader is always on the left foot, and I say always there are a few exceptions but it's a pretty solid rule of thumb for most of your sequence dances in the New Vogue set. If the leader needs to dance a Reverse Waltz at the end they must be facing forward because they're going to go forward on their left to turn to the left or if you think of it the other way if you end up facing forward you're probably going to turn reverse nine times out of ten. If we flip that around if we have a Natural Waltz at the end of a sequence like this, if it's following that rule of thumb, then leaders are actually facing against line of dance or their backing line of dance so that when they step on their left foot they're actually going on the backward half first because the person going forward, in order to turn right, must be using their right foot which is therefore the follower. So good examples of this Swing Waltz, it has a reverse Waltz at the end the leader is facing forward; Lucille Waltz, it has a Natural Waltz at the end the leader is backing line of dance. This is a fairly decent rule of thumb but as we say there are exceptions. But, it will do you nine times out of ten unlike the is it a Waltz is it a Chasse, the rhythm is exactly the same so this all comes down to who is pointing forward. And the one guarantee, the one guarantee I can assure you is that if no one is pointing forward, if you are pointing to the wall, you won't Waltz you'll probably Chasse. So it is better to turn the wrong way but be Waltzing than turn the correct way and be Chasse-ing.

Ian: And that is it, I hope that this comparison between Reverse Waltz and Natural Waltz in your New Vogue and Sequences has been helpful. Do hit us up, whether it is commenting on the videos, or Facebook, in the group, or on the page. Please let us know how you're liking our blitzes, if you would like us to Blitz anything specifically for you, and if you would like to see more of one style of dance, whatever it is let us know your thoughts and we will catch you next time.