Opening Our Right & Left in Rumba

Ballroom Blitz #092

Opening Our Right & Left in Rumba - Dec 11, 2023

Transcript

Ian: Hey, hey, hey, random dancers from the interwebs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome

Ian & Lindsey: to Ballroom Blitz!

Lindsey: Welcome dancers to another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are dancing the beautiful Rumba and we have a beautiful move for you; it is Opening Out to Right & Left.

Now this one is a really lovely one, the steps aren't complicated and it's nice and even on both sides, but there's a couple of things to it. Firstly the leader and the follower roles are quite different here, and it's also one of these moves that won't translate into your cha so this is just a Rumba special.

Demonstration (without music)

Lindsey: Now the leader's footwork for this one is a move that we have done before in a blitz so we'll put the link below to that one; it's a Cucaracha. They're starting on the left foot and partial weight out to the side to the left, we change and go partial weight out to the right. It's got our classic Rumba timing of Two Three Four-One Two Three Four-One

Demonstration (of Leaders Steps)

Lindsey: Now, because we don't want the follower to do a Cucaracha with us, the lead for this comes not through the footwork but through the arms; so there's some framework to be done here. We want to have our follower slightly off to the side on this one, with some energy, sort of, going off to the side so it's a great one to do after your Natural Top. Which is another move that we have blitzed before so we'll put the link for that one down below as well. You want to extend your right arm out to give your follower room to go to the side, and you want to give a little bit of pressure through the left hand to encourage that movement out. That will help them with their steps, but then we want to release that left hand so as we're catching to the left, they are going to move moving to the right so our frame is going to help them do that. We're going to bring them back in front of us as we close our feet, and then send them off to the other side. So there's a little bit of arm extension at work here.

Now followers, imagine that your leader is in front of me here facing me, I will show you our steps. The first thing that we want to do, and we're going to get some help through the leader's frame to do this, is turn a quarter. Because our first step is going to go off to the side we're now at 90° from our partner. They're still facing forward, and we're facing past them. So our first step is backwards on the right, we rock and then take a step forward, but because we are turned to face our partner ends up being a bit more of a sideways step. We do the same thing on the other side, so hoping to get a little bit of help through the frame but we've got a bit of momentum here. We're going to turn a quarter again so 90°. Backwards on the left, we rock, and then forward, and it will end up being a side way step again, as we face our partner. So those steps with the count we have

Demonstration (of Followers Steps)

Lindsey: and you can keep your hands high and sort of operating around the leader shoulders that will help keep you nicely in place with them and give you a bit more stability as well.

Demonstration (with counts)

Demonstration (with music)

Lindsey: And that's all there is to it, so that was the Opening Out to Right & Left in the Rumba. A really pretty move, gives you some options for arm styling, and you can throw it in whenever great after an Alemana great after a Natural Top. So, give it a go, let us know how you go. If you want to see any particular blitzes give us a comment, give us a like, and we'll see you next time.

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