Ballroom Blitz #067

Video

youtu.be/ZDslVs4w2FA

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: Welcome back blitzers. Welcome back to the channel, to yet another Blitz. Today we're going into the world of modern, we're going to be focusing a bit on a Quickstep, we're going to have a look at this figure called the Running Finish, what it's all about, what it does, when you dance it as a figure, and when you dance it as a finish.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So let's go over what exactly the running finish is. There's a few things to break down, first of all it's a "running" figure which means that you don't bring your feet together. Now, in a lot of dances almost [all] except Quickstep, we would call that an "open" figure. But, because Quickstep is quicker it's called running. So it's basically an open finish, you don't bring your feet together, and Quickstep call it "running". The "finish" comes from the fact that often this ends something else. You can think of it as a figure in its own right, which it kind of is, but it has a very specific starting point; so it will crop up at the end of particular figures. For example, a Running Right Turn ends with a running finish, and then in brackets you could do something else at a particular point. But the Running Finish itself it's its own figure, you don't bring your feet together, but don't be surprised if you see it "finishing off" something else.

Ian: So the timing we are going to use today is Slow Quick Quick Slow. Now, if you use your Running Finish elsewhere that might change, and we will leave that to the particulars of those particular figures. But we're going to use Slow Quick Quick Slow today. Now it should be noted that the final slow of the figure will pretty much always be the first slow of whatever figure you are following your Running Finish in, so don't count it twice when you're following it along. The reason we're attaching it to the Running Finish is, as you'll see as we go through the steps, it must always be taken outside of the follower; there is no option to put it in line. You would always finish [follow] the Running Finish with a natural turning figure basically meaning the follow, beg your pardon, the leader is going to drive forward on the right foot and continue turning clockwise, if at all.

Ian: So what does the running finish actually do? Well, it basically gets the leader from backing diagonal wall or back to the wall essentially moving rightwards to back into the standard closed position where he would move leftwards. For example, you've just done Hesitation, Chasses to Right, Back Lock, you might then want to get back into your standard closed position with the leader on the inside of the circle progressing leftwards, you could use a running finish. In something like a waltz, where running is not as accessible, you would use an Impetus Turn. You can also do that in Quickstep but Quickstep, because it has access to different tempos and rhythms, you can do the Running Finish, so you won't really find it anywhere else. So, it's it's a nice easy one that you can put into your Quickstep that is not repeated elsewhere, so it gives you a little bit of flair that you won't find in your Waltz or Foxtrot for example.

Ian: So, leaders we're going to start today with the leader backing diagonal wall, I'm dancing this way, and for all intents and purposes if I kept dancing something other than the running finish, I'd be progressing to my right, my follow would always be then going forward. That's okay for certain figures, but let's say we're at the point where we need to swap back and turn it around. I'm going to allow the follow to drive and pretty much they're always going to drive outside of me at this point, which means I'm going to go back and across on my left, and now I'm going to think I need to turn about 180 degrees. I'm going to take this foot and pretty much point it down line of dance, and it will go roughly between my followers feet, this is okay. I'm now going to continue the turn with another quick, noting that I have in no way brought my feet anywhere near together, and I've achieved pretty much my desired goal. I have turned around and this next step this next, slow, it's the drive step, the drive step of whatever we're putting after our running finish. It's going to be a nice right drive heel, again outside partner. And I have run, I haven't brought my feet together, and I have achieved that desired goal of turning from doing backwards or right traveling figures back into a standard position of proceeding forward with a forward lock or forward moving figures. So we would have,

[Demonstration of Leaders Steps

Lindsey: Followers, excuse my back a little bit, because I'm going to go the same direction as Ian went. So that's our line of dance and I've been on the inner portion of the circle, having some fun with a lot of the forward work so far, depending on what we have just been doing. That's where I start, so I've got my forward drive past my leader but even though I have been, in this case the one sort of driving forward providing that momentum, that power, as with any of our drive steps we provide the power, and then we see what the leader wants to do with it. So we want to be ready to be turned, if that's what our leader leads, which they certainly will in this move. So, we drive past them on our right foot, and then we'll feel them start to swing around to swap places with us, we've got a Quick Quick next, and we want to be up on our toes Quick Quick to allow for a nice sort of even turn around. Nothing too heavy, and then we'll feel them sort of encourage us back onto our heel at the end of that second quick, and we'll feel them drive past us, Slow. So, because it's outside partner we can expect that step to sort of go across us, as well as backward, we still want to be nice and close on the hip.

Ian: So let us put these two halves together and just point out the position of that second step. Lindsey drives forward, and this step, now I am going to bring it inside of her right leg, to step down the floor. And at this point we haven't left the hip, but we have retained that closed position, so she's no longer outside of me for this brief moment. We step to the side to continue the turn and I now produce that shape that allows me to step outside without any trouble. If you miss that position of that second step you can accidentally put yourself in a position more like an outside spin, or a much more complex figure. If I step back and try and keep this foot on the outside of Lindsey we won't be able to run around because by the time I take the next step we've kept our follow too far to the outside. This is a bit that sometimes, unfortunately, trips people up, sometimes physically, sometimes just mentally, but we do want to make sure that we get that sneaky step between our follows feet; it doesn't stay outside all of the time.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, the Running Finish. Really useful for realigning you and your partner when you need to after Chasses to Right or a Back Lock, and it will crop up at the end of other figures, and now you know the basics of it. Just remember to step through your partner on that middle step, make sure that the last step is always the first step of what you're following with so don't count it twice, throw it into your Quickstep, have some fun, and we will see you next time.