Ballroom Blitz #061

Video

youtu.be/ZiAPkWjhpXM

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 blitzers welcome back. Today we are doing something nice and easy going, we're going into that very social dance the Slow Rhythm. We're going to just look at the basic steps, the Quarter Turns to Left and Right, but along the way we're going to have a little bit of a chat about how these relate to Quickstep, so you can get a two for one from this simple Blitz. Let's get into it.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So as you can see from the demonstration really, really easy today but incredibly useful. If you've never danced Slow Rhythm before this is a really easy going social dance where if you did nothing but the contents of this blitz today, you'll be able to get around the floor, have a chat, and sort of enjoy your dancing. If you're using this as a stepping stone into your Quickstep, or if you'd like to do some Quickstep and you haven't quite entered that yet, you can simply do these with a little bit more speed, and we'll get into how we can do that a bit later; and you're getting a little bit of a two-for-one. So, let's start with the basic Slow Rhythm rhythm. Really we're going to, for the purpose of today, stick to a pattern of Slow Quick-Quick Slow, but really we're going to use Slow Side-Together Slow, but really we're going to use Walk Side-Together Settle...

So if we continue with that line, we're going to essentially approach everything today with a walk, and then we're going to do a classic chasses; a step closed step. And if we think about that, we don't get too slow, we don't get too quick, we don't worry about anything else other than just politely getting through the steps and not having to worry about anything any more complicated than that. So, let's get into walks and chasses.

So, how does this Walk and Chasse basic rhythm idea work. Well, I'm going to walk in one direction, I'm going to take a side close, and then I'm going to walk in the other direction. Now, if I was to repeat that end to end I would continue to Chasse in the same direction I would: Walk Side-together Walk, Walk Side-together Walk, and you can see I'm moving in one direction down the floor. Now if I had a partner in front of me doing the natural opposite we would move round line of dance but it would feel a bit weird, because the walk steps are sort of going to the wall into the center and we sort of get that Pac-Man feel down the floor. So, we're going to change our Slow Rhythm so that the walks go down the floor, or more down the floor than into the floor, and we're going to be making a bit of a zigzag, a bit of a sawtooth action. So leads, you're going to start facing diagonally forward for one figure, and then we're going to turn around so the followers are going to face diagonally forward for the start of the next figure. So if I put that into action we have: diagonally forward, turn a bit, walk back, diagonally backward, turn a bit, walk forward, and that way we are walking down the floor rather than side stepping down the floor. So let's break that into the two halves, the Quarter Turn to Right [and] the Quarter Turn to Left, and see how that actually works.

Ian: So, leaders let's start with your steps for the Quarter Turn to Right. As advertised through the figure you are going to turn a quarter to your right. So you are going to start with the walking step on the right foot, walk. Over the side-together or the step-close you're going to now think of turning that quarter, step close. You've turned a quarter to the right and line of dance should now mean that you walk backwards. Back, on your left, ready to go into the next figure. So we've obeyed that Walk Step-Close Step type arrangement, but we've walked forward, we've sidestepped to make the turn, and then as we've settled, we've changed direction so we walk backwards.

Lindsey: Now, followers, we are in a closed hold through both of these figures. So, if the leaders are coming forwards on their right foot, that means, unless we want to be trumped all over, we are going to go backwards on our left foot. So that one starts our Quarter Turn to Right, back on the left, and then we are going to go side-together with our right foot. So we've got right-left, change weight there, finish off our chasse by walking forward. So, we too, are following that Step, in this case backwards, and then a Chasse, and we are achieving that Quarter Turn to Right over that Chasse. So we have Back on the left, Right-Together, Right.

[Demonstration of Quarter Turn to Right]

Ian: After the Quarter Turn to Right we are going to do a Quarter Turn to Left, and that will return us to our starting position. So we can simply chain the two Quarter Turns together, and get around the floor. If we follow directly on that means leaders you've just been walked back on your left foot so you're ready to use your right foot again. We're going to follow the same pattern of Walk, but in this case backwards, Side-Close, achieving the angle we want to that we were on at the start that our diagonal angle, stepping forward on the left foot; ready to simply walk with the right foot into another Quarter Turn to Right. So we would have: Walk, Step-Close, Walk. As simple as that.

Lindsey: For the followers, we have the forward work in this Quarter Turn to Left, we are already on our left foot because we've just walked forwards on our right foot for the previous figure. So, we're going to continue in that direction, a nice strong walk forward, we turn around on our side and close, and we will be sent walking backwards by our leaders final step forwards. So starting on my left I have: Forward, Side-Together, Back, and I've achieved that quarter turn, and it has indeed been to the left.

[Demonstration of Quarter Turn to Left]

Ian: The trick with these Quarter Turns in your Slow Rhythm really is not to overdo them. The Slow Rhythm is a nice easy going social dance. We want to get that nice easy going strolling feeling throughout. So you don't necessarily need the same level of hip contact that you would in other dances to get them going, and they are really nice stepping stones so you can have a nice social interaction on the floor. But then use the tools that they give you to upgrade particularly into Quickstep. So how do you do that? Well the Quarter Turn to Left in Quickstep we have already blitzed, and it is slightly different, and all I can say is that as the tempo moves from Slow Rhythm tempo up into Quickstep tempo, you'll need to progress more from the Quarter Turn to Left that you see in this blitz more towards the one that we do in that blitz; and there'll be a tempo range that'll suit you where you can almost get away with either. The quarter Turn to Right is much more similar both in Quickstep and in Slow Rhythm, so because of the way you get to stretch out in Quickstep, basically you can just do do the same sort of thing.

So if you think of what we've done here with the Quarter Turn but faster that will get you going. The thing that you'll notice with Slow Rhythm, because it does have that easy going feel, is that it really doesn't matter as much whether you're doing heels and toes on those slow steps. If you walk all the steps nearly with heels you can sort of do that, it's like don't get too worried about it. Of course, when you get up to Quickstep tempo, we need to be a little bit more cautious about doing that. In fact you really can't because you don't have the time or the stability, so that will be another major difference. But for now if you think of gradually building up the tempo from what you see here into your Quickstep speed, doing the Quarter Turn to Right about the same, and progressing towards that Quarter Turn to Left we've already blitzed, that gets you your two for one. Two figures in two dancers for the one Blitz. So if we put all those together we have

[Demonstration with explanation]

[Demonstration to music]

Ian: And that is it Quarter Turns to Left and Right in Slow Rhythm. What most people know is the Slow Rhythm basic. It'll get you around the floor can be upgraded into Quickstep really, really social really, really useful a load of fun. Try it the next time you're on the floor. It dances to a whole bunch of different 4/4 music it's very, very versatile. Give it a go, let us know how you go, enjoy yourself on the floor, and we will see you on the next Blitz.