Ballroom Blitz #060

Video

youtu.be/glqDbEHXvN8

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.

Lindsey: Hello lovely dancers, welcome back to Ballroom Blitz. Today we are in the world of Samba and the figure is Boga Fogos to Promenade and Counter Promenade. It actually won't take you as long to do the figure as to say the name of the figure. Let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: So as advertised this figure is using the Bota Fogo action. We have blitzed Bota Fogos in the past, so we'll put that in the description down the bottom for you to have a look at. The figure takes up three bars and you'll notice at the start we're starting in a closed position. That first bar will get us to Promenade the second one will get us to Counter Promenade and then the third one will end Us in Promenade once more. Now, that's for the entirety of this figure, but you are able to sort of chop these up. So you can do bars two and three just by themselves, as long as you're starting in a Promenade position, you can repeat those as well if you really love that action, and you can use that first bar as a way of getting from Promenade, sorry, from a Closed Position to Promenade and then continue on doing a different move entirely. To start with let's have a look at the leader's steps, I'm going to throw it over to Ian.

Ian: Alrighty leaders, all of these as advertised are Bota Fogo actions, so to recap that recap the Bota Fogo Blitz. The first Bota Fogo is going to get us from Closed Position to Promenade Position. I'm going to be stepping forward on my left foot with a one. I'm going to take a side step for the "a" really aligning myself to prepare to get into Promenade, and then without moving that first foot in the very Bota Fogo type fashion, realigning without sliding or moving the foot into Promenade, two. So that would be

And as Lindsay said earlier we're now in Promenade Position. What I'm going to do is repeat that action where we take a walk, we plant the foot, we don't move it from forever more for this bar. I'm now going to align myself down the floor for the "a" and change the position of this foot without moving it on the floor to Counter Promenade, and that completes bar two. If I repeat that process, I walk-a two, and in that fashion we have moved from Promenade to Counter Promenade. So a One-a Two to get into Promenade, a Two-a Two to get into Counter Promenade, and a Three-a Two to get back to Promenade.

Now on the surface without a partner it does look like those walking steps in Promenade and Counter Promenade are shifting me down the floor. Once we have a partner we'll have a bit of a talk about that creative tension so that we don't shift as we would be moving towards each other, that helps keep us in check. But, we'll do that as we put them together.

[Demonstration of Leaders steps]

Lindsey: Followers we have the natural opposite of the leaders. So, we'll start in a closed position leaders coming forwards on the left, which means we're going backwards on the right, and then that Bota Fogo action. The left toe is going to, sort of, come out to the side, that allows us to reposition into that Promenade Position you want to land your weight on your right foot again. So, it is a Right-a Right for a bounce rhythm One-a Two. We're now ready to come through on that back foot so it's our left foot stepping through in Promenade, but then the Bota Fogo action will turn us a quarter. We are now ready to go back in Counter Promenade, that's a Left-a Left. Final bar Right-a Right, and we're back to Promenade again. So we have

[Demonstration of Followers steps]

Lindsey: As Ian said, when we're doing it with a partner we're using our frame to sort of keep our position with each other it stops us sort of creeping forward, you don't want to end up head banging each other. So, Ian steps forward, I step backward, and then we shift to Promenade. We step through together, through and switch, and then again through and switch, and we're able to sort of keep that distance away from each other with just that little bit of creative tension through our frame.

[Demonstration with counts]

Lindsey: Now, as flashy as, and exciting a dance as the Samba is, the movements that we do are actually a little bit subtler. We don't want to overdo anything, and this figure is a perfect example of it. So we, don't want to think that this figure is going to travel us very far, the steps are actually quite small, we don't shift our weight over the foot that goes out to the side it's just really sort of helping us to realign, we don't want to overdo the turn because that's going to pull us out of joint with our partner and make it hard to stay in that nice helpful frame. So, we kind of want to take this one quite gently and it will feel absolutely amazing.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And that is our Bota Fogos to Promenade and Counter Promenade. Try them out, you will of course have to do a figure that starts in Promenade at the end of it. But, you can start in closed, or skip that first bar if you're already in Promenade, just go for it. Have fun, as always get those hips moving in the Samba. We'll see you next time.