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DAN CALLOWAY: In this advanced class we talked about a bunch
of principles and we used a certain set of choreography
to illustrate these principles. So the choreography is:
Twinkle to Promenade Position Open Natural Turn with him crossing on the
last step then we did the Run Around
From the Run Around we had two endings the first one was promenade to do a continuity
ending. The Ladies part of that combination is
Twinkle 1-2-3 1-2-3 Run 2-3, 1-2-3 at some point we hover on the
left toe, feet together and turn to promenade and 1-2-3.
In dancing that combination the principles we've talked about
#1 - every figure in ballroom dancing is sideways either sideways to his left or sideways to
her left So if its sideways to her left, her head leads
if its sideways to his left, his head leads If its not a head lead, if its the other way
then its a hip lead so anything to her right is a right bun lead
And for him, its his right bun. An example for her was the Continuity Ending
or the chasse if we happen to be doing that She would be swinging her hips out from under
her head so its important for her not to close from
promenade like a tree upright. She must always swing
the hips past him and that enables the beautiful position and
the swinging movement. The next principle we talked about was when
we turned to promenade we stay to his right. On this twinkle we call
that opening to promenade but opening is bad, he's
actually closing to promenade is the way he should think about
it. Then we went into the Open Natural Turn where
he's crossing high in the thigh so its not a low cross in the knees. a nice
bold cross. He starts the Run Around by twisting on his
left heel then transfers weight to the right toe and
that's where he is as he paddles around inconspicuously.
At the end, its better to take too much time then to rush the ending
so hover, when he wants to turn her to promenade the principle is to use the right toe pressing
down to turn the head left use the left toe pressing down to turn the
head to the right. So he changes her position but its through
opposite foot pressure. Sometimes that's called dancing inside your
shoes - a really important principle, rather than being too toppy, or two arm-y.
So likewise then when she turns to promenade, its left toe pressure that takes
her head up and over to promenade, and right toe pressure that brings it back again.
So use your feet to get the job done. We always use the larger muscles
of the body to do the heavy lifting. From here we come out with our Continuity
Ending and Diane? May I borrow you?
Where's Diane? Oh, I'll demonstrate for the moment.
Next we did a different ending and that is the Run Around ended in a lunge.
So after he has done his same twist and gone around for whatever number of bars he's chosen
he ends facing the Wall, his weight on his left foot and he lowers down into the right
leg and then we lunge from there.
Diane, I need you. When you're ready. And from there, the lunge 1-2-3 we do the
drag 1-2 reverse pivot 3 then open left turn from there.
The Ladies part of that is to dance the same Run Around 1-2-3, 1-2
She finishes with her weight on her right foot, lowers and does the lunge
to her left, then the drag 1-2, pivot 3 then out with a turn.
One thing I'm discovering working with this group is that most of you
are not very comfortable doing a leading step on 3, a prep step.
So examples of where you need that are coming out of the hover at the end of the Run Around
as a prep step on 3, 1-2-3. Another place where you needed that prep is
after the lunge, we do a drag reverse pivot is three, one.
And it looks like everyone would rather do, one.
But it puts you on the wrong beat of the music. Other ways you can overcome that weakness
in your dancing, not having a good prep on three
is to do what International Style dancers do.
Sometimes start with a right box when you start dancing and put in front
of that a prep step. Three, 1-2-3 So that way it becomes ingrained to use prep
steps. That's what musicians are doing, you hear
lead in steps or grace notes all the time in music and that's what we want
to be able to do with our dance too as dancers. It makes your swings
a lot better to get that prepatory action.
So Diane let's dance the whole thing. We're going to do both versions. The first
version is Twist Turn to Run Around to Hover to Promenade.
So we have 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3
And the second version starts the same way we just end the twist differently.
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Thank you.
Thank you all, its been great fun.