Not my partner's keeper

This may sound odd but we rarely do the same actions as our partners. 

One of the most difficult ideas to convey in partner dancing is that each dancer must control their own bodies and body weight. I think that sounds intuitively obvious and correct. But to show you how little we honor that idea in practice try dancing a Waltz or Rumba box for thirty measures. I'll wait...

How many measures was it before you noticed your partner using their hands to balance on you or the other way around? Unless you are an extremely well trained dancer or extremely unaware it probably wasn't more than eight measures. In fact, doing the same action over and over as in a box (even with turn) is extremely difficult. The body tires out quickly and loses its sensitivity to what it's doing within a very short time. So if you felt a rapid breakdown don't lose sleep over it. That merely means that you are merely mortal. Rather than try to maintain perfection in a repetitive way I think it’s better to continually be involved in actions that allow for individuality.

Let's say we take a Natural turn in Waltz.

I start with the premise that each dancer must have their own line of swing. Each dancer will commence with a forward movement and lower along with a leveling of sway and equalizing of rotation from the previous figure. While complementary, the amounts of each will be different. The actions of the dancers will also be different in that one is starting with a forwards step and the other backwards and the hold is offset. When I stop to list the number of actions that are different and the reasons, they pile up.

Because the joints in the leg work differently forward or backwards we have a few different things happening in the legs between 1 and 2. For the forward moving person their weight will pass in a straighter path over step one and beyond before the leg swing for 2. For the backward moving person the leg and foot will begin to turn along with the body on step 1, but then because the leg swings open to the final alignment on 2 the body doesn’t turn very much into 2 or 3. The rate of turn is different for each person but line of the swing is parallel.

I try not to overly worry that all the pressures and tone in the hold stay exactly the same. I concern myself more with the idea of having a similar musical and special concept of the figure with my partner. Making each part of the movement complementary to one another will be matter of fact if you have a similar concept of the action. Relax your brain and chill, you’ll definitely feel the other person moving.

What Theater Arts Taught Me Part 1

Scale

All learning is a process of self-teachingto some degree. You can understand the instructions behind a certain technique, but to make it useful you need to figure out how much of the thing to do. There are forward steps, and there are Forward steps, and then there are FORWARD STEPS!!! Which one is enough for the situation?

Rotational movement like a Standing Spin in Ballroom can give dancers fits. How do I stay related to my partner? Where are the feet supposed to go? How do I create speed? Where’s my head supposed to be? Those are the most common questions and most good teachers have a few fixes for each. The unfortunate task I have as a teacher writing an article is that my pupil/readers don’t have the benefit of a visual for imitation to see the relationships of all the aspects of a movement. What I can give you is a process to use in learning any type of movement to find when you’ve done enough of a technique.

With lifts, the alignment of one’s own body and that of the relationship to your partner takes on a heightened importance because of the increased weight, momentum, and centrifugal/centripetal forces. In dancing a Three Point lift turning, we have all the same factors of force as in a Standing Spin. If you imagine the man’s center is the center of a circle, the lady’s center is on the outside of the circle, and there is an imaginary line between those two points that is the radius (the man’s arms are not the radius because we aren’t holding the lady’s internal organs). To start the turn, the man rotates and the lady’s body, because they are attached, travels around the circumference of the circle. That is a pretty accurate description of what happens but tells you nothing about how it feels.

As a teacher, even a teacher of one’s self, you need to become adept at designing games to experience how much of a given technique is useful. At some point, possibly as kids and for me on a daily basis, we’ve all taken an object (like a backpack) and spun around letting the force of our turn cause it to pull away from us. This is what’s happening in the lift or in a Standing Spin. The person at the center of the turn is applying centripetal force to the thing or person on the outside by pulling their center away. On the outside you experience velocity that moves tangent to the circumference, meaning you don’t actually feel that you’re moving on the circumference, you feel you’re constantly attempting to escape.

That theoretical understanding will only get you so far - farther than you’d get without it, but not far enough to execute a movement well. Where the lift work can help you develop a feel for figures on the ground is in the consequences. If you don’t find all the right alignments of bodies in a Natural Turn or that Standing Spin the worst thing that will happen is you’ll look bad, pull your partner, and probably get depressed. If you don’t manage to maintain your body properly in a lift, especially one with rotation, you get all of the above and you probably won’t be able to execute the movement without serious strain.

Because the scale of the forces is magnified in a lift it is easier to recognize them proprioceptively while in motion. The forces that pull on your spine to distort back or forward, the forces on your arms causing them to disconnect back, and the forces on your feet are all increased. I found that all of the techniques I had about posture and movement were correct but useless until I found that elusive quality...Enough.

Not everyone is in a position to practice lifts either because of experience, physical condition, or the availability of partners and training, but you still search the accuracy of your movement by applying more force. If your hold is in a weak or tenuous place then it will be very difficult to apply force in a positive way to the partnership. You can apply the same principle to any figure and to the mechanics of your own body. That’s where all the technique that we have comes in. In the case of the manuals that’s already worked out; direction, alignment, placement, CBM, etc. The thing that’s not worked out is how muchis necessary for each unique situation presented by individual dancers in the moment.

Mostly I have been writing from the man’s perspective since this is about my own path of discovery, but the same applies for women (because we’re all in this together). The poise that ladies take and position of their hold are designed to receive these forces efficiently. Those forces are a reality: momentum, centrifugal and centripetal forces, torsion, and torque. That feeling of all those forces balanced to produce the desired figure is like an AM radio station driving cross country; you scan past it in each direction a few times until you find it.

For the most part if you have the ability to go through the motions of a step you probably have enough knowledge. You just have found the right amounts of...Enough.

Continue Turning...

Why do they bother mentioning that we continue to turn?

Let's look at where we can find mention of "continue to turn"

1. Natural Spin Turn for Man and Lady on 5
2. Outside Spin for Man on 2
3. Running Right Turn for Man (5 and 8) and Lady (5)
4. Rumba Cross for Man and Lady on 3

Let's remember that this phrase "Continue to Turn" falls under the "Amount of Turn" chart heading. Generally when we talk about "Amount of Turn" we are trying to measure the degree of turn between two foot placements. For instance, in the Waltz Natural Turn we make 1/4 to the R between 1 and 2, and 1/8 the between 2 and 3. When we get to step 4 we say "Commence to Turn" rather than "Continue" because we finished our swing on step 3 and are beginning a new action. So if we use that logic these are places where we are following through on the strong rotational action of the preceding step and not starting something new.

In the case of the Natural Spin Turn and the Running Right Turn on step 5 that "continue to turn" amount of turn follows a pivot or pivoting action. The man's outside spin has a pivot on step 1 so he is following through that turn on the way to another foot placement. In the Rumba Cross we have basically the same elements but the man is not entering the third step backwards and lowers so he won't have a true pivot. In all of these instances that strong rotational step has set up a step in CBMP for the fwd moving person.

There are some other figures that use a similar phrase like the man's step 2 of the Weave from PP in Waltz, but that is a slightly different case (continue to turn L). In this case we have the "Continue to Turn" because of the turn before the figure following into a change of position (PP to closed).

For the Lady's part of the Hover Corte she will continue to turn 1/8 on 2 or over 3-5. The turn is made ON or OVER depending on the timing, but in both cases the body weight is on her right foot. Contrast this with cases where we have slight body turn like the Progressive Chasse or Four Quick Run. There the body turn is used to achieve a new position but there is no extra turn in the feet.

All them toes

There are a bunch of places in the ballroom technique where we step down on a toe or lower on a toe. This always befuddled me in years past. The normal footwork associated with a lowering would be TH on a step we lower or H on step where we are already down and don't have any lowering.

Let's look at some specific cases.

Basic Weave

Here we don't have any lowering through the middle of the figure: it's all toes through the end of the feather finish. We don't have lowering anywhere in 2-5 but any dancer worth their salt has a feeling of flexing their legs. We have to allow for bending and straightening of our knees and flection in our feet and ankles in any weight change, especially if there is sway or rotation. So basically every step will have some measure of bending and straightening of the legs.

Go ahead and try your straight-legged weave, I'll wait...

How was it?

Remember the writers of the technique were aiming to use language very specifically, not to allow for every variation of feeling. While we should have a feeling of compression through the legs and torsion in the body, the Basic Weave doesn't bob up and down in the middle so there is no need to rise and fall even though the heel may lower on 3 for a footwork of TH and a rise of up with NFR.

Bounce Fallaway with Weave Ending

What it is... Rise at the end of 1, up on 2 lower at the end of 2, down rise end of 3, up on 4 lower at the end of 4, down rise end of 5...on with a weave ending. It's the same rise and fall for man and lady. I'm just going to leave the man's footwork there, not because the ladies don't deserve equal time, but because the important information is all contained there and it would be unnecessary exposition to cover it. 

Footwork for Man, 1 HT; 2 T; 3 T; 4 T; 5 T; 6 T; 7 T; 8 TH; 9 T

There's a lovely note about how the knees slightly flex and the heels lower towards and may lightly touch on 2 and 4.

the Takeaway

Contrasted with the Basic Weave, we have rise and fall on these toe steps in the Bounce Fallaway because it is a different sort of movement. The slight lilting action over 1-4 is necessary for the "bounce" in the Bounce Fallaway. It's important to remember that the technique as written assumes a certain amount of movement or lack thereof depending on the figure. If you swing with the momentum and power of most competitive dancers today then lowering the heel all the way to the floor on 2 and 4 is not an option. You will most likely go KERPLUNK on the floor. Go ahead and give it a try, I'll wait...

Multiple Alignment Figures

So...you may ask, "Why the heck do we need so many different types of whisk or double reverse spin?" 

These figures are there to breakdown two things. First, they give choreographic options to link different types of figures together. Second, they gave the writers of the technique book a way to show the changes in turn, alignment, and body position with slight changes to direction. The list is not exhaustive, but I've listed most of the figures with multiple alignments below.

Waltz

Natural Spin Turn

7/8R over 456 1/2 and 3/8

5/8R ove 456 3/8 and 1/4

Whisk

man no turn, lady 1/4 R

man 1/8 and 1/8, lady no turn

man 1/8, lady 1/8 L and 1/4 R

Progressive Chasse to Right

1/4 man 1/8 1/8btl, lady 1/4btl and slight body turn

3/8 man 1/4 1/8btl, lady 3/8btl and slight body turn

1/2 man 1/4 1/8 1/8btl, lady 3/8btl body completes turn 1/8 btl

Double Reverse Spin

7/8, 3/8 and 1/2

3/4, 1/4 and 1/2, or 3/8 and 3/8

full turn, 3/8 and 5/8

Reverse Corte

man 3/8, lady 1/4 and 1/8

man 1/2, lady 3/8 and 1/8

man 5/8, lady 3/8 and 1/4

man 1/4, lady 1/8 and 1/8

Outside Spin

man 3/8 3/8 1/4, lady 5/8 1/4 1/4

3/4 overall man 3/8 3/8, lady 1/2 1/4

1/2 overall man 1/4 1/4, lady 3/8 1/8

Weave from PP

moving to center

moving to DC

Back Whisk

Man with no turn or up to 3/8 to the right

Foxtrot

Change of Direction

Reverse Wave

natural telemark

weave from PP

Quickstep

Tipple Chasse

Running Right Turn

Running Finish

Tango

Four Step

Promenade Link

Body Turn

So...I'm going through all those places with Body turn as I prep for my Examiner's assessment. These are places where the body turns on top of the supporting leg without any turn of the foot. Do you know of any others?

Body turn L

Left whisk

Natural turn in ftrot 

Contra check

Closed wing (slight on 2,3)

Open telemark and wing for lady (slight on 3)

Open telemark and cross hesitation for lady (slight on 3)

Quick open reverse (slight on 3 for lady)

Progressive Chassé and PC to R

Cross Hesitation

Open impetus and cross hesitation for man: Turn body R on 3 then left on 5

Open telemark and cross hesitation for man: BTL on 3 then body completes turn on 5

Wings

Open telemark and wing on 5 man has body turn 6, 1/8 left in foot. Lady does not make that last amount of turn in feet only body

Open impetus and wing on 5 and 6?body turn