Ballroom Blitz #071

Video

youtu.be/3A77rGz_uZY

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 blitzers and welcome to a very special Blitz. In the comments of one of our other videos we had a request for this one; Charles asked us to demonstrate the Barn Dance.

Now, first things first, Barn Dances have been around for ages, and you will find that there are lots of different variations of them out there. We're going to show you our version of it, but look out for those regional differences.

Now, we'll do our best with this one. It is actually a progressive dance, which means that you change partners as you go. So, the demonstration with just Ian and I might look a little bit strange, we'll try and explain exactly what's going on as we go.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: You essentially have four different elements in this one and one of them is repeated. So, you're in a Promenade Position with your partner, all the leaders will be on the inside of the circle, the followers on the outside. We take a three step forward and an aerial, or a kick. We take three steps backwards, square up with our partner, and then do Rotary Chasses. Now, we have done a blitz for the Rotary Chasses, I think that's the one that Charles commented in about the Barn Dance; so we'll put a link below so that you can have a look at how the Rotary Chasse works. After the Rotary Chasses we turn back to Promenade and again we repeat those three steps forward and kick, and back, and then we change partners.

So we can assume at this point that we have just met up with our new partner. We're going to start on our outside foot, so Ian is ready on his left foot, I'm ready on my right foot; it's the one sort of furthest forward down the floor. And we take a three steps forward, and if you can do a proper Three Step with a heel-toe-heel, you'll find it's got a nice swoop to it. So we've got one two three, rising up into the aerial, use the swing to go backwards, and it's very important at this point to square up into a closed hold with your partner, so this is our classic ballroom position. Leaders facing the wall they're closest to, followers we're looking into the floor, and we have four Rotary Chasses. So we have chasse one chasse two, chasse three and chasse four.

At the end of your four Rotary Chasses, you want to use your frame to turn back to promenade again. Because we have our three walks again, one two three and kick, back two three square up. But, this can be a little bit loose because we're about to push away from our partner, away two three, we give a clap on that fourth beat, and you're looking for your next partner. So you'll find if you turn a little bit to your right, so for Ian that's looking backwards around the circle, for me it's looking forwards around the circle, you should see your new partner, and you take three more steps to meet up with them, and we're ready for our walks.

Now as we said there are lots of different versions of this dance out there Barn Dances have been around for a long time. One of the versions I know that I've seen is instead of your second lot of walks and kicks they do a Chasse in one direction Chasse another, and then the Rotary Chasses, or maybe they change partners at that point; I can't remember. So you're going to have to check in with your dance community, wherever you are, to find out if there is some variation to what we have just shown you today.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And there you have it, the Progressive Barn Dance Long-Steps Stylez. If you've got a different style, maybe let us know in the comments below. Charles we hope that helps everyone. We'll see you on the dance floor, have fun.