Ballroom Blitz #076

Video

youtu.be/8AOFvOWpv28

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 ballroom blitzes and welcome back to the channel. Today, we are once again in the realm of Paso Doble, and we are going to be doing a little bit of a two for one in the Promenade Link which includes the Promenade Close.

The Promenade Link as an entire figure is four steps long, but if you do just the last two steps, and we will show you why this is relevant, we call that the Promenade Close. Now, the Promenade Close starts in Promenade and it closes you back up, and it will feature in a range of other figures where at some point in the figure you have hit that Promenade position but at the end you are back in close. So it's a nice one to keep in your back pocket, helps you recognize what you need to do in more complex figures; such as the Grand Circle for example.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So, as you can see, it's super easy and short, only four steps long. The first one is of course an Appel, which crops up all over the place in your basic Paso, and we are going to Appel to Promenade position which makes the second step a walk in Promenade. So far so good. So far so similar to a lot of other Paso figures. So those are the two steps you will include if you're doing the full Promenade Link, and as you saw from the demonstration it's actually a good one for turning you a quarter because it does naturally rotate. But the last two steps, those are what we call the Promenade Close, and we're going to talk about those with a little bit more detail so that we know how to get the follower back in front of the leader and closed up nice and crisply ready to head off into the next figure commencing in closed.

So leads, if we knock off these first two steps we have a simple Appel, changing shape so that it's very obvious that we are Appel-ing to a Promenade Position, and step two we walk in Promenade. At this point if you wanted to do a figure that started in Promenade you could choreograph it such that that's how you get into it I'll leave that up to you. So, if we now jump to step three this is where the the sort of action is and where we get into the Promenade Close. We've had our Appel, we shape, we walk in Promenade, I am now going to understand that my follower is here, and I want to get them not just down the floor but back in front of me. So they have to cut across me somewhat. So my step is going to be strong, but small, and I'm going to have a reasonably steady, but not pushy, lead to enable the follow to step in front of me. Once we get that step done, three, it's a simple close of the feet, four, in your closed position ready to continue with either in Appel, or something else on your right foot.

[Demonstration of leaders steps]

Lindsey: Followers, we're starting with an Appel as well of course, and as usual it is landing our weight onto our left foot. So that is beat one. We'll feel the shift in the leaders frame to bring us to Promenade, which means that our second step will be forward in Promenade with them on our right foot that's beat 2. So we're in a nice steady position. Here we'll feel the frame shift again this is where we'll actually feel that frame really bring us around on step three, which is on our left foot again. It will start to close us up, but bring us in front of our leader, and we close on four,

[Demonstration of followers steps]

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And there you have it the full Promenade Link, including the Promenade Close. Incredibly useful for choreographing and fitting into your Paso Doble. The first two steps get you to Promenade, and you can do something else. The last two steps close you up from Promenade at the end of a figure or another piece of choreography, or you can use all four steps to turn you in a corner and just use it straight up like that. Smash it into your Paso. Paso Doble is a lot of fun, it's never as hard as people think, you should get out there, give it a go. Enjoy your dancing, let us know what you would like to see in the blitzes for Paso, or anything else, and we will see you next time.