Ballroom Blitz #075

Video

youtu.be/NzFHUHK0b08

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. We are ballroom blitzing some Tango today, the figure is the Progressive Side Step Reverse Turn, which is more of a mouthful than it should be and it's an easier figure to do than to say. We've done both of the major parts we're going to take you through from start to finish. Let's get into it.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So, as you can see from the demonstration, and if you have been following our blitzes for some time, portions of that seem quite familiar. All the way back in Blitz number 009 we did the Progressive Side Step, that pretty much covers the first three steps of this figure. And back in Blitz number 051 we did the Rock Turn in Tango, which pretty much covers the rest of the figure, with a few tweaks. So this figure rather than being called the Progressive Side Step Reverse Turn in practice you can think of it more as the Progressive Side Step Rock Turn and that will get you going. So, we're going to do the step side walk of the Progressive Side Step, we're going to take a sidewards walk into our rock with less turn than in the Rock Turn. A bit more of a sideways throw adds a little bit of drama and flair. We're going to rock to the appropriate angle, and then basically dance a closed finish out of a standard, what many of your Tango figures, particularly the Rock Turn to end up on the correct angle at the end. That's the guts of it, let's break it up and get through it Blitz style.

Ian: Alrighty, we're going to break this up into the three major portions. For a bit more in-depth and analysis on the Progressive Side Step portion hit the link for Blitz number 009 it takes you through that as the actual figure. But, leads you are going to be pointing diagonal center at the beginning and you are going to commence with all your weight on your right foot ready to use your left. You're going to take a Quick Quick Slow, you're going to take a contra body movement step across your body, not too hard, commence to turn to the left by taking a step to the side with the right, and then walk forward in a very Tango walk style with your left foot. Quick Quick Slow.

Lindsey: The followers steps of that those first three steps, our Progressive Side Step, is we're in a closed position we're going to head backwards diagonal center, so our line of dance is going down that way. Ready on my right foot I've got back side back, making sure that I am following my leader steps as to exactly where I land those steps and how far the turn is.

Ian: So leads we've arrived at the bit that's slightly different for this particular figure than if you were just going to dance a Progressive Side Step and follow with a Rock Turn. Here I'm not going to turn to the right, I'm ready on my right foot if I was in a corner or needed to turn right I could certainly do that, and dance a Rock Turn proper. But here, I'm going to lead with my right side a little bit and take a little bit more of a side step and a little bit of a Tango throw action, that's our middle slow, that gets us into that nice figure in the middle. I'm now going to commence my rock and I'm going to allow my left foot to kind of end up pointing down line of dance. So we don't want to stay purely on this angle and sort of do our rocks and we certainly don't want to balloon over our feet we want to keep nice and low. Allow your frame to move as required and we have our Rock Rock Rock and now we're ready to step back into our closed finish.

Lindsey: We have just done our first three steps we are ready for that sort of lungy step that Ian was talking about. I should be ready on my left foot and as Ian sort of leads strongly with his right side I'll feel my left side sort of being turned, almost to a sort of sideways position. So that's our lunge, that's our slow, and we've got the first forward rock so again we're sort of following that turn around, if there's any turn there that's happening and I've got a Rock Rock, and a little bit of a push on that last one.

Ian: To finish off the figure we do have a standard closed finish. The follow has already been encouraged to commence moving forward at us, we're going to encourage them to take a second step at us and we'll have a Quick Quick. Here we want to achieve our desired angle, which should be pointing diagonal wall, so that when we close we are facing diagonal wall in a closed position.

Lindsey: Followers, we've just taken a slow forward on our right. As Ian said, we'll be encouraged to come forward again strongly on our left foot, but with a quick walk. So we have forward at our leader, they take us to the side and we close our feet, and we should be backing diagonal wall.

Ian: Now, as with all your Tango moves, the real thing that polishes this off is your good quality nice and connected Tango frame. The amount of turn, the the exact amount of rock, the exact throwing action, we can talk about that for days, but really it comes down to if you're going to dance this on the floor you need a good solid connection with your partner; and then leaders you lead, follows you can be secure in that lead and follow along and you can get through the figure without much trouble. If you're trying this out and things are a little bit disconnected just go back to the frame before you harp too much on your feet and see how you go.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And there you have it, the Progressive Side Step Reverse Turn, better thought of as the Progressive Side Step Rock Turn; and starting to smash together a lot of the skills you've already learned from earlier blitzes. Check out number 009, check out number 051, put those together and the new skills that you've got here. Try it out on your Tango floor, let us know how you go, enjoy your Tango, it is a lot of fun and it's never as hard as people think it is. So, get out there give it a go, and we will see you next time.