Back Whisk in Modern Waltz

Ballroom Blitz #138

Back Whisk in Modern Waltz - Mar 20, 2025

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls on the interwebs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and I'm Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome to...

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again Ballroom Blitzers, welcome back to the Blitz channel. Today we're going back to the world of Modern Waltz. We're going to be giving you a figure that you can follow your Reverse Corte with from the last [Modern Waltz] video; it is the Back Whisk.

So, the Back Whisk is very, very similar to the “forward” Whisk, which we don't tend to call the “forward” Whisk; it's just the Whisk. But, with the exception of the very first step. So in the Back Whisk, named for what the leader is doing which is fairly common for ballroom, the leader is going to be going backwards, the follower comes forwards, but then after that we still rotate to the promenade position, whisking the foot in all the usual whiskey type ways, and then come out from a whisk position in promenade to whatever you do next. So let's give it a try.

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So you can see from the demonstration it's not uber difficult. It's not that much different from your standard Whisk. But, there is a slight change to get that initial backwards step. We’re not starting in a standard Closed Position, we do have to start from an Outside Position, which is why it fits nice and neatly after your Reverse Corte. Once you get to that outside position though, the mechanics are very, very similar. We're going to take a drive step, the follower driving forward outside of partner, then we're going to use all of our usual, mechanics of the frame to manipulate the second step into that whisking portion. A little bit of rise as we go and of course, turning to promenade, settling on the whisking foot, ready to drive out next. So let's break it down. We'll do the leaders steps, and then the follow steps and get you whisking in no time.

So leads, you've arrived at a position where whatever you have done beforehand, the follow is expecting to drive forward and we are expecting to go backwards in the outside position. So there'll be roughly here stepping outside of us. We're standing on our right, ready to be taken back on our left and at this point we say, thank you very much for the power. We let them take us back. We do all those usual things two step backwards, rolling over the ankle, absorbing the power with some control. Taking this next step backwards, and if you do choose to or need to rotate this figure, now is the time to do it. Although I wouldn't suggest doing that as the first port of call, but just be aware you can do that if you wish.

We're going to get back onto that foot and now it's time to Whisk into position. Once we have landed this foot, very much like the “forward” Whisk, we're going to rise a little bit onto the toe to give it that nice Waltzy feeling. If you want to add a Ronde action around the back that helps, lift you with some stability, but that's optional; I'll leave that to you. But the most important thing is, once we've landed this foot in place, we are, of course, going to rotate the follow into the promenade position so that by the time we get to our whisk position and we have settled on our rear foot, ready to drive forward on that inward foot, we are now in promenade position. The follow will be slightly behind us because of course we've stopped moving this way, we're moving this way, and we're ready to walk out into promenade. So three fairly simple steps. The first one, of course, backwards, back, side and whisk, and it's basically your “forward” Whisk going backwards.

Lindsey: Followers, just so you can see my footwork, I'm going to pretend that my leader is here facing that way, and they have done a move, like Ian said [it] could have been the Reverse Corte, that is going to have our momentum ready to go forward past them, usually somewhat backing line of dance; sorry, against line of dance. But it does depend on what they have just done beforehand. In any case, we've got our weight on our left foot ready to drive on our right, and that is not between their feet, this is an outside move. So, we are stepping past them, hopefully probably still nice and close on that right hip and in a closed hold, so I head is to the left. We drive past, we then take our second step, so that's a nice driving heel, our second step is a toe, and we will feel that, work through the leader's frame, turning us around as we take step three, whisking the foot and settling down. So you will end up with your weight on your right foot in a promenade position and ready to go forward again, but this time with the leader going forward as well.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And there you go, ladies and gents; the Back Whisk. So if you can do the “forward” Whisk, you can do the Back Whisk. It's just takes a little bit of effort to get to that back position. You can't do it out of something that keeps you in your regular closed position. Hit up the last [Waltz Blitz] video, we'll leave a link in the description to the Reverse Corte, that is a beautiful move to do just before this one, particularly if there's a slight obstruction on the floor where you need to hang around and not travel for a bit. But you can also do it after doing something like a Hesitation [Change] and Chasses to Right, maybe a Back Lock, and then you can actually use this as a nice, sneaky way to turn a corner and promenade down your new line of dance. So there's always ways to find, places for these moves, you just got to get out there, give them a go, try them on the floor, let us know how you go, and we will see you next time.

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

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe!

Ian: Keep dancing.

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