Ballroom Improver 4

October 31, 2007

The warm-up was Quickstep, which I decided not to partake in. The lessons started instead with my third least favorite dance.

Tango

measure 1 – L forward, R forward, L forward, R to side and into promenade position (s,s,s,q and pause)
measure 2 – L lean forward in promenade, R forward, L forward, R together and face follower (s,s,s,q and pause)

All these have some technical terms, but I didn’t catch most of the terms

measure 1 – L forward, R forward, L forward, R forward while turning 1/4 counterclockwise (s,s,s,s)
measure 2 – L cross behind R wide while keeping same orientation, R short back while turning counterclockwise again (about 1/4 here), L short L while continuing to turn 1/4 counterclockwise, R together (s,s,s,q and pause)

Movement is linear, same direction throughout. In the end, orientation has changed 1/4 clockwise (by going 3/4 counterclockwise). All the turns are done as unit.

measure 1 – L forward, R forward, L forward, R to side and into promenade position (s,s,s,q and pause)
measure 2 – L lean forward in promenade, R forward, L forward while turning 1/2 clockwise, R in place but rock forward (s,s,s,s)
measure 3 – rock back to L with weight transfer and turn clockwise, rock forward to R weight transfer and turn clockwise, rock back to L with weight transfer and turn clockwise (total turn of 1/2 should be very doable) (s,s,s and pause??)
measure 4 – R back, L to side, R together (s,s,s and pause??)

Moving on to one of the dances I like more.

Waltz

1,2,3 R forw, L forw and start to turn clockwise (keep the directions the same), R together
1,2,3 L back, R together and turn 1/2, L forw into promenade position (hmm – so this would require leading follower to a bigger turn than I originally thought)
1,2,3 R forw in promenade, L forw in promenade, R forw while getting follower in front
1,2,3 L forw turning 1/4 counterclockwise resulting in stepping crossed behind R, R slightly back starting to turn counterclockwise, L together finishing with about 1/2 turn counterclockwise from 1
1,2,3 R forw, L forw and start to turn clockwise, R together

Moving on to second least favorite.

Jive

Turn and back
American turn

My footwork for Jive is a complete mess right now. Timing is all off too probably in large part because of it.

Rumba

Comparatively speaking, Rumba and Cha Cha are cakewalk.

The new-ish stuff might be called back spot turn (not sure)

2,3,4 basic 6,7,8 rock back crossed behind, rock forward turning clockwise, rock back turning
2,3,4 rock forw, rock back, rock forw all while turning 6,7,8 lead follower to stationary turn
2,3,4,6,7,8 New Yorker

The dance I am most interested in among Ballroom dances is Foxtrot. Unfortunately, I have not seen any Foxtrot since the first week for Ballroom beginner class over 2 years ago.

I had an invitation to for a Halloween outing involving Salsa, but I decided against taking part in it because I felt like I would be overloading myself. I hope it was fun for everyone who was there.