Open Natural Turn (Taken From Promenade Position) In Slow Foxtrot

Ballroom Blitz #125

Open Natural Turn (Taken From Promenade Position) In Slow Foxtrot - Aug 01, 2024

Transcript

Ian: Hey guys and gals on the internet. My name is Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again dancers, welcome back to the channel, welcome to another Ballroom Blitz. Today we are going into Slow Foxtrot. We're going to be doing a move where we've done lots that are very similar, possibly even one of these in a different dance, because it does cross over into a number of different styles. But we're doing Slow Foxtrot today and we are doing the Open Natural Turn, but we are taking it from the Promenade Position.

[demonstration without music]

Ian: As you can see, that super, super simple. It's an Open Natural Turn because it turns in a Natural direction; it turns clockwise. It's an Open Turn because it doesn't bring its feet together, which is very Foxtroty, so no surprises there. But it's a really nice, simple, easy version for getting out of Promenade back into the closed position. We close to our partner over the figure, keep that smoothness going because we don't bring our feet together, and then you basically find yourself at the same position that you would be in at the end of the first three steps of a Natural Turn.

So if we think about that, you can do all the things that you would be able to do from that situation, you just haven't put your follower through a heel turn. We've skipped it and done it this move instead because we started it from promenade. So at the end of that, you've got the last three steps of a standard Natural Turn, you could do an Impetus, either Open or Closeg. So you've got a little bit of variety and it's a nice easy get out of gaol free card if you find yourself in Promenade, but kind of are a little bit surprised, maybe, and don't know how to get out of it. So that's what we're doing today, we're going to break it down, It's only three steps, super simple. We'll have you dancing it up in no time and as I've said before, it crosses over into your other dances so it's going to be very, very useful in Foxtrot for not.

Ian: So, leaders, your steps, we have arrived in a classic swing-dance Promenade Position, so your weight is, forward over your left foot, you're ready to compress and drive off the back foot and we are going to turn in the natural direction; we've already decided that. So in classic ballroom fashion, the first power step, we can't do much with this, we have to get the power going. Don't try and turn on this step. All you will achieve there is pushing your follower around, you won’t actually close to them, so this is quite straight. Get that power going, and then use it in the next step, and then what we're going to do is bring our left side around, turning our body clockwase and... “clockwase”, clockwise, and holding our follower in position so that we close our position.

So if you were to hold all this a bit too rigidly, they would turn with you and you would end up in a Fallaway position. If you want to do that, great. But then that's not this move. So we're going to let that contract, we're going to turn around them, we've now closed the position, blocked them, if you will, and now we just have to take that final step. We're going to let the follower step forward. Their momentum is still coming down the floor. So we step backwards and we have achieved that position that we would have got to after our Natural Heel Turn. In this version, the basic version, don't overdo the turn. You really only want to do about three eights [3/8] of a turn.

We're going to step through, block, and I'm going to step back here. That keeps it nice and closed and it blocks the follow nice and easily. Later on you can do more turn and later on you can turn around your follow, take your right side back and lead them to an outside position, you get some very pretty results. But, don't jump in feet first and try going for those versions. You want to do this first, get a feel for it, then do the overturn. Then go to the outside position and just allow yourself to step up.

Lindsey: Followers let's have a look at your steps. I'm going to jump to the other side so my line of dance is now going that way. So we are in a promenade position here. These three steps for us in some ways they're super, super simple. It's going to be essentially three steps forward. So we have a timing up Slow Quick-Quick.

We will step through in promenade on our left foot with our partner. They will then do most of the hard yards by cutting across us and we are going to continue along, largely along our line, forwards, around the floor. But what we have to do here is pay attention to where our leaders are going and try and match in with them.

As Ian said, there are some different options that you could, do at this point, different amounts of turn might end it in a partner outside position. So we still have to, we can't just go “Right, here I go three steps forward,” and not pay attention to where our leader is going, and therefore where we should go. But other than that, we have a fairly sort of clear run going forward, which is nice for us it doesn't always happen. Left foot drive Slow, and then a Quick, Quick and just paying attention to that frame where it's going and trying to match in with our leader.

[demonstration with counts]

[demonstration with music]

Ian: There you have it, the Open Natural Turn in Slow Foxtrot, taken from the Promenade Position. Pretty much as it says on the tin and very, very useful and you will get a lot of mileage out of it in your other dances as well. Try it out just for fun. Once you get a handle of it, build on it and then you can get some nice pretty choreography in those slightly more overturned positions. But for now, stick to the basics. Give it a go, get out and try it on the social floor. And we will catch you in the next blitz.

Ian: Well, that's it for today's blitz boys and girls. Don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian & Lindsey: Bye!

Lindsey: That’s a keeper!

Long-Steps Ballroom DancingLong-Steps DancingComment