Ballroom Blitz #086

Video

youtu.be/bJd-IHONgFw

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 Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back. We are taking you into the beautiful world of the Foxtrot today and an absolutely stunning figure. It's called the Natural Weave.

Now, with this figure we're going to be taking a few ideas that we have already already blitzed and smooshed them together. Foxtrot loves weaves, and this is a really lovely way of using the Natural Turn that we have blitzed before, and we'll put a link down below, with the weave ending and putting them together. We have also blitzed the Weave Ending, so we'll put that in the description below as well, but today we'll be looking at how we can put those two moves together to create a lovely figure that really sweeps us down the floor.

[Demonstration with counts]

Lindsey: Part of the fun of this move is the switch between turning to the right, which is what we're doing at the start hence the term Natural Weave, but the weave ending still turns to the left, it turns anticlockwise, but so it's a lot of fun but we do want to be ready for it. Now, let's have a closer look at the leader steps first.

Ian: So leads your steps really are just a Natural Heel turn, link in the description, you're not doing much different with the guts of that, and a Weave Ending, you hit the critical position and they're the same steps. So really this is all about your position and the step that abridges those two things. You're still going to drive forward with your right foot to turn to the right in the natural direction, remembering that it is Foxtrot so the lady is dancing a heel turn. The second step has to swing in such a way that you're not pulling them off balance. So those two steps are pretty much already taken care of. Your body position on step three, this is where it really changes, that's the transitional step. You're not going to complete the turn and step backwards, you're actually going to halt the turn a little bit early and start to exit slightly sidewards encouraging the follow to come out to the side, hitting that critical position, just before the weave from the Weave Endings video. Once you're there it's a weave ending, just like in that video. So really let's focus on that final step. If I enter into a Natural Heel Turn, I drive forward on the right as advertised, I put my follow in a heel turn, we come around them as advertised, this step will land basically in the same position but instead of stepping backwards to enter the rest of a Natural Turn, from that I am going to turn my body so that I open this outside style position, and step back and to the right allowing that passage and achieving that critical position. So our heel turn becomes Normal Normal Critical Position follow with your weave ending.

Lindsey: Followers we're hoping that we have good control over our Heel Turn because right out the end of it after, that step two, will be taken into a different direction as the leader leads the weave. So we are going backwards on the left performing a Heel Turn, but usually we would go forwards on the left here if it was just a normal Natural Turn, not so here, we'll feel ourselves taken to the side out into the floor a little bit in a way where we will step past after that into the weave ending. So we still want a little bit of forward momentum, but it's not dead straightforward for with the line of dance, it has a sideways element which will encourage that step past your leader.

[Demonstration of followers steps 1 to 3]

Lindsey: So once the leader has successfully led that step out to that side, that critical position, for any of our weaves, and the followers have picked up on that [it] should be clear sailing with some steps through all the way to the end of the figure.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And that is the beautiful Natural Weave in the Slow Foxtrot. Little bit of turn to right, little bit of turn to left, nice and smooth and creamy and a great one for getting that little bit further down the floor. So try it out, let us know how you go, and we'll see you next time.