Closed Hip Twist (Alternate Finishing Positions) in Rumba

Ballroom Blitz #133

Closed Hip Twist (Alternate Finishing Positions) in Rumba - Nov 21, 2024

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsay.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Hello lovely dancers, welcome back to a ballroom blitz. Today we are going to be having a look at a Rumba figure. We have actually done this figure before, it's called the Closed Hip Twist. But it has three alternate endings, so that's what we'll be looking at today.

Now we will go over, briefly, the first few steps of this Closed Hip Twist, but for more details we'll put a link in the description below from when we did this before, we'll be largely focusing on the last few steps that set up these different finishing positions. So let's have a look.

Our classic Closed Hip Twist ends in a Fan Position. So let's just have a very quick look at that one first so that we have a base to work off of.

Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One. and you can see here that we are in our classic Fan Position, so I am perpendicular to the alignment of my leader, off Ian's left side backwards on my left and Ian has ended sideways on his right; so our classic Fan Position.

Lindsey: The first alternate finishing position that we're going to have a look at from this Closed Hip Twist is the Counter Promenade Position. So we won’t to end in Fan at all. It starts the same though, so we have this closed hold ready for the leader to go sideways on the left, follows to swivel backwards on the right. We rock on Three and then swivel for the follower land Four-and-One. We swivel again and start heading past our leader. Two. Three. and then they open us up and guide us through to take a step in Counter Promenade.

Ian: So, leads, the first part of this figure for us is exactly the same. We want to get through the actual Hip Twist portion. We want to have turned to follow across. So at this point they would almost be thinking that they're going to end in Fan Position as normal. Instead of allowing them to continue to walk across, pulling out with this hand, etc. I'm going to guide them with a little bit of my right hand, a little bit more. Turn in a little bit more as they take this step. Over rotate them so that they're not going back perpendicular to us in fan, but actually out on one eighth (1/8) angle more. Step slightly forward for us into our count promenade position. So here it shouldn't feel like the follow just closes their feet. In fact, I haven't stepped back at all. They've stepped forward into Count Promenade, so we need to convey that in our lead. If we do it at speed, you can see that it action like so. And here, very definitely, we are not in fan.

Lindsey: The second alternate finishing position we'll have a look at is an Open Position. So this is one where the leaders essentially chase the followers out as they go in their usual direction. So we have the start the same the Closed Hip Twist. But as I'm being sent out, Ian's going to follow along with that final step so that we end in this classic Open Position; leaders forward on their right foot, follow his back on the left.

Ian: So leads, this one's actually quite easy for us to lead. You can almost cheat and decide very late as a bit of a bailout; although planning ahead at this point is easier. We're going to get through this point just as normal, and we're going to walk the follow forward as normal, and they're going to turn as if to go to Fan as normal as well. What we are going to do as they take this second walk and as we turn them to face us, we are going to turn to face them. So our last walk of the figure, instead of stepping to the side and moving to Fan, we are following them out in this Open Position. If we have a look at that at speed, we can see it's quite easy, it happens very, very late, no need to panic. We have: Two. Three. Four-One. Two. Three. Four-One.

Lindsey: The final alternate finishing position that we're going to have a look at ends us in contact position. So, it's quite similar to the one that we just showed you in Open, but the leader is going to use their frames to draw their partner closer to them so that we actually finish with some contact through our bodies. So once more the start is just the same. We have the start of our Closed Hip Twist. As the forward is sent out, the leaders muscle in with their steps using that frame to draw us in and you can see we're in a nice cuddly-close hold at the end there.

Ian: Leaders, we're going to do almost exactly the same thing here as we did for the Open version, but at the critical moment we are going to, walk into the follow a lot more getting that light contact. So, [this] shouldn't be a big ball room frame, but getting that light contact. A Closed Position hold with our right hand, and then depending on what you're following with, and the reason you've gone into contact position, this can either be up in a Closed Position or down in an Open Position hold, ready for whatever you want to do next.

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: So there you go, one figure with four different endings, so definitely more bang for your buck on that one. Now, we will put the closer look at the Closed Hip Twist, in the description below. But just to note, that one was for Cha Cha, so if you’re Rumba-ing it up, just make sure that you take those Chasses out and there you'll have it. And ultimately, if you want to try these different, finishing positions in your Cha Cha, you just put those Chasses back in again. So try them out, let us know how you go, and we will see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.

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