Ballroom Improver 1

October 10, 2007

There must have been 30-40 people. Paul was the instructor.

Cha Cha

It was a turn pattern! My main partner was from the beginner class, but she was pretty good follower.

2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis lead follower to clockwise turn
2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis New Yorker followed by back-to-back basic
2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis New Yorker but instead of going back to normal position move to right bringing follower with you for chassis (patty-cake) then another New Yorker which ends with spot turn for both onto next 2,3
2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis another New Yorker and finish turn for both coming out of New Yorker then lead follower to clockwise turn
2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis essentially cross body lead (except there seems to be no forward step for leader on 2)
2,3,chassis,6,7,chassis New Yorker standard going both ways before another spot turn into next 2,3

Rumba

2,3,4,6,7,8 forward basic followed by leading follower to leader’s L side (follower steps to her R with quarter turn clockwise on 6, then turns half counterclockwise on 7,8 on spot)
2,3,4,6,7,8 forward basic followed by leading follower into travelling counterclockwise turn – it seemed like about 5/8 turn for follower (for follower this is essentially CBL the more appropriate term might be side-pass)

I find leading the first part somewhat mysterious. The partner I had did not really follow my lead much so I did not even get a chance to experiment and work out kinks in leading technique.

Quickstep

My partner seemed quite competent, but I sucked at this. She was new to Quickstep also. Too bad. She talked about some of the moves being something like four moves over three measures.

It was all about turns sometimes with chassis and sometimes without. Timing of it was a bit confusing. I might try writing notes for this another time.

Waltz

Whisk
from left forward basic
1,2,3 R forward, L side, R together
1,2,3 L forward, R side, L cross behind R without weight transfer
1,2,3 chassis R to side (in front of L foot), L to L and then R to close in
1,2,3 R forward (!) – interesting… so doing the chassis changed the leading foot – followed by clockwise turn on 2,3 and next 1,2,3 (with L backwards first)

It was pretty useless during the class segment. I went back to my Quickstep partner to work out the kinks. One try and voila.

I took about ~50 minute break before heading off to Wolfson College for their Salsa night. This outing happened for me because of an initiative made by Zhenzhi. Of people invited, Euvian, Rajiv and William showed up meaning it was not all Cuban. I also saw my Quickstep partner there as well and had couple of Salsa dances with her at Wolfson. I also saw Spyros, who is currently in charge of teaching Salsa at Wolfson. The DJ was Shila playing his typical music. My form was not great – things generally seemed more like an uphill struggle rather than free-flowing.