Ballroom Beginner Fast track week 3 & Beginners Practice

October 22, 2005

Waltz
Right corner turn
1 R foot forward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new L with L foot
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 turn 1/4 clockwise and step to new R with R foot
3 L foot together

Box step
1 R foot forward
2 L foot to side L
3 R foot together
1 L foot backward
2 R foot to side R
3 L foot together

Quickstep
same basic step as last class

Cha Cha Cha
New Yorker (very similar to New Yorker in Rumba)
2 let go R-L (possibly as early as 1) and point to L with L foot
3 weight on R foot
4,5 chasse reconnect L-R and let go R-L
6 point to R with R foot
7 weight on L foot
8,1 chasse (if continuing with New Yorker – let go L-R and reconnect R-L)

Rumba
same basic step and New Yorker as was done in previous class

Beginners practice

Most participants in the beginners practice were with the Beginner Dancesport team. Apparently, interest level for Ballroom dancing this year is much higher than last year. As for taking part of the practice, I would say that it makes more sense to go to Saturday class followed by beginners practice. This is because of the way classes are scheduled; Thursday to Saturday classes have one extra day’s worth of lessons compared to Sunday to Wednesday classes. I figured out how to start going backwards using the first half of Right corner turn in Waltz; second half of the Right corner turn can be used to go back to walking forwards for the leader. I was feeling quite pleased about figuring all this out myself, at least until some of the hot air was released from my head when it was pointed out that I lost track of the music and was dancing on-2. One of my first dance partners for the Cha Cha Cha taught me a simple turn maneuver; I figured out that the same thing could be used for Rumba as well. I think I’ll wait until they get into the official syllabus before putting them on my notes though.