Ballroom Blitz #068

Video

youtu.be/R_MJ9kNGf2Q

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, welcome back. Today on Blitz we are going into the land of Rumba. We are going to be dancing a popular move called the Natural Top. Let's have a look.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: Now, the Natural Top itself is actually really quite simple. However, there are various ways to get into the Natural Top, and there are a raft of ways to get out of the Natural Top. We're not going to concern ourselves today with how to get in and how to get out, we're going to have to Blitz those at future dates. So, we're just going to do the guts of the top itself. Now, the guts of the top really can be broken down into a sequence of only two steps. But, because the leader's steps and the follow's steps are different, and because your Rumba, just like your Cha-Cha, pattern has an odd number in its base, Rumba being three steps per bar, then we have to do these a certain number of times to get onto the correct foot and into the correct position. So a little bit of care is required, but once you nail that down the natural top is really fun and actually really simple.

Leaders we're going to start this figure, on this occasion, with open feet, and we're going to start this from what would be considered step one; so that's a pretty good place to start. If we have arrived with open feet I'm going to have all my weight on my left foot. I'm now going to mix the following two steps; a Cuban cross with my right bringing my right foot behind to make a little bit of a T and putting quite a bit of tension across my hips that commences me to start to turn right in the natural direction; and then I'm going to release my left foot and release that tension that allows me to turn and creates a side step. If I essentially load with a Cuban cross and release, load release, this is my pattern for the Natural Top. Now, of course, that's one part of the pattern, those two steps. We have to remember though that in our Cuban timing for our Rumba we have our two three four-one type arrangement. So, you have a effectively a quick quick slow, which means the Cuban cross and the side step are going to happen in alternate ways. They're going to happen in Quicks and in Slows over the course of several bars. So if we start with a 2, this is going to be a quick, and then this is a quick, but by the time I get to my next Cuban cross this is a 4-1, this is a slow we have to remember not to rush. And now if I keep going this is a quick this is a quick and this side step is a slow, or a four one. So you can see that every bar that we dance this arrangement we are getting to that step in a different part of the bar, this is a bit that sometimes trips people up. If we can manage that and do it with our Cuban timing you're just going to repeat those two steps basically for three bars. So it will be

[Demonstration of Leaders Steps]

Ian: At this point when you're first learning don't worry about how much turn you make, obviously don't go a bit silly, but don't worry about getting exactly a certain amount just let the steps happen, feel that tension and you'll be good to go, then you can start controlling the amount of turn later on with your partner

Lindsey: Followers, if we have a look at our starting position it's quite different from the leaders. The leaders started with a weight on their left foot and they had that foot out to the side, you'll be unsurprised to find we start with our weight on our right foot, but it's not out to the side it is crossed in front. So, as Ian said, we will cover how exactly to set this position up in another Blitz, but this is our starting position. The reason for this is that I too have a rough pattern of a side step and a crossing step that gets repeated, just like the leader, but my side step isn't at the same time as my leader. So when they're sidestepping I'm crossing and when I'm sidestepping their crossing. So I'm starting in a cross position and I'm ready to go to the side for my first step. So my pattern is a side step on my left foot, and then my cross is on my right. But instead of taking it behind as the leader did I'm going to let it draw in front of me. So this is my position when I am doing a cross, my weight on my right foot but my right foot is the one that has come in front of my left, and then I can repeat. So I've got a side step, and a cross, and a side step, and across, and I keep on repeating that pattern. Now, again as Ian said, all I need to do is match in with the timing of my leader and the timing of the Rumba, so if I'm starting here and I have three bars of quick quick slow it will look like this

[Demonstration of Followers Steps]

Lindsey: and if I've done those three bars I should end with a sideways step, my weight on my left foot.

Ian: Now, when you're setting up and executing the Natural Top, I really encourage you to think of what I have termed the "Latin Box". What is this? When you're facing your partner, because we're a lot more square on and nose to nose we don't have that slight right hip to right hip shift like our ballroom, your four shoulders and your four hips create a box. If you maintain this box then we don't get skewed as we move around, and because there's a lot of rotation in a move like the Natural Top, it's very easy for us to get pulled out of position. So, if we maintain that Latin box, what the followers will find is your steps are not as forward as possible, you don't want to trap yourself and end up feeling like you are walking around or trying to walk around your leader; we are turning around each other. So if we are in our commencing position, we're maintaining our box in between us, and we hold that for the whole figure for our

[Demonstration with counts]

Ian: This maintains all the tension, it takes all the guesswork out of how big of the steps, how much turn are we making, and it means that your exit point will be nice and crisp.

Now it should be said that your standard, if we can call it that, Natural Top in the Rumba is three bars long, and it starts where we've demonstrated. Of course you can crack in at the alternate bar, what would be step four. You can exit a bit early, what would be step seven. So you can use some of these bars to get part of a Natural Top. But, if we're going from the standard starting spot to the standard ending spot, you're going to do three bars starting and ending where we've done it today. We will leave you to explore different entries and exits but we will Blitz some of them in future blitzes.

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And that is it, the guts of your natural top in your Rumba, very very similar in the Cha Cha, but we will pick up and do the nuances of those in a separate Blitz, and we will cover entries and exits for you in future blitzes as well. Stay tuned, let us know if there's a particular one you would like us to do first for that figure but we will see you in future blitzes.