Social Dancing Analyzed

Contemporary Vintage Waltzes, Whatever Swings, Redowa Racing, and others

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Cross-step Watlz New Figure #1

Skater's position, follower on the left

123: outside turn leading with left hand, catch other follower hand with right

456: continue turn ending up at shadow position, switching lanes, follower on the right

123: both hands pivaloop, lead right hand ends at left shoulder

456: slide to left, switching lane, haircomb, back to normal position

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Tokyo Polka Line Dance Modified

Tokyo Polka Line Dance by Richard Powers: detailed choreography notes, shorthand:

1-2 : heel-toe-polka diagonal to left 3-4 : repeat to right 5 : cross front rock-step 6-7 : polka turn backward 8 : back rock-step 9 : cross front rock-step to left 10 : side polka / chacha to right 11-12 : repeat 9-10 to opposite sides 13 - 14 : double polka steps to front 15 - 16 : paddle ¾ turn to the right

I like these modifications:

changing polka steps at 6, 7, 10 and 11 into pivot turns (tighter smaller turns for faster music)

for the turn at 15 - 16, cross L foot in front of R foot and twist to the R

As you can see modification #1 creates a contrast in the crowd like this (plus extra turn + bunny hop for final turn instead of modification #2):

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Reunification

Musicality is initially about thinking. What should I do to match this music?

Then it's about feeling. What does this music make me feel like doing?

Eventually thinking and feeling disappear as the 'I' ceases to exist. When it happens, movement and music are reunited once again.

[pivaloop]

First Waltz Lab

Very fruitful first Waltz Lab session:

adapted two West Coast Swing moves to Cross-Step Waltz

came up with different handhold variation from one of those (can be reused in WCS as well!)

had potential moves based off chaining cradles

adapted Swing's back-to-back turns

The first one starts off with Texas Tommy. As the follower's unwind, the leader rotates around her in the same direction at half speed. Also keep left hand by the follower's hip either to help manage her turn speed to end at the right direction. Ends with face loop with right hand while left hand stays at her left hip. 

How it looks in WCS (1:30 - 1:35)

How to do it in Cross-Step Waltz:

A variation of the handhold. Just like the previous one with the addition of taking follower's left hand by left hand as well. As she turns, bring the left hand to her left hip ending up in skater's position. Exit to sweet heart position by outside turn and catching her left hand.

The second successfully adapted WCS move was not shown off and taped. Also have a potential move or two based on chaining cradle positions which need some more time to mature. A follower suggested back-to-back turn from Swing and managed to pull that off as well. These are to-do's for next session.

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Uncommon Waltz songlist (fast & slow)

After the Rain - Cossami - Kemono no Soja Erin OST (x-step)   Stolen Kiss - Ronan Hardiman - Feet of Flames  (x-step) Tightenville (Hal's Theme) - OST Megamind (x-step) Highland Wedding - Steve Morse (x-step) Winter Waltz - Kitaro (x-step/slow) Never Forget You - Mariah Carey (x-step) Neville's Waltz - Harry Potter OST (x-step/slow)

Entremediu - Hevia (fast/redowa)

2 Hearts - Mango Groove (fast/redowa) Our Summer Dream - Tatsuro Yamashita - Summer Wars OST (x-step)

Sora wa itsumo Naiteiru - Angela Aki (fast)

The Chain - Ingrid Michaelson (fast)

Jazz Suite, Waltz No. 2 - Dmitri Shostakovitch (fast)

Sincere Hero - Jackie Chan (x-step)

Lie - David Cook (fast)

Cry - Faith Hill (x-step)

Men of Snow - Ingrid Michaelson (fast)

Rays of Hope - Hitomi - Last Exile OST (x-step)

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Dip variations

Typical dip: inside turn (follower on the right side), catch shoulder blade, dip.

Variations:

outside turn, catch shoulder blade, redirect to inside spin (keeping right hand on the shoulder blade) then dip.

leader inside free spin to follower (follower on the left), face the follower, dip. Ballroomy version here (from 2:47)

[pivaloop]

Tired of Tokyo Polka Line dance? Try replacing polka steps with pivots. Tokyo Pivot Line dance.

[pivaloop]

Dance Pattern: Travelling Loop-de-Loops

First learned this move in Richard Powers's Club 2 Step class in 2009 which is a chained inside turns. I stumbled upon its cross-step waltz adaptation sometime mid last year and has been a favorite for followers. It can also be done in faster (rotary) waltz but may need to be extended to 4 bars instead of 2 bars pattern.

The adaptation is not quite an inside turn but more like leader and follower changing lanes back-and-forth. Both facing the line of dance.

Turned out that someone else also had the same idea:

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Dance Pattern: Extending R-to-R inside turn + Free Spin

How do we incorporate the previous pattern (shorthand: R-to-R turns pattern) into cross step or rotary Waltz? First thing we need to figure out is how to start the pattern from known patterns.

Since it starts with R-to-R hand hold, we can get into it with patterns that ends with such handhold or the simplest 'just switch hand'. More common patterns are those that lead into shadow or sweetheart position. From there, follower outside turn would do the job.

NOTE: the following pattern is actually hard to pull off in social dancing due to various issue. To be discussed alternates in future post.

My favorite is the pattern from East Coast Swing: double arm or shoulder slide (0:12 - 0:17 in the video) done in cross step waltz.

To do this in cross step waltz within 1 bar:

normal cross step

leader stay on inside lane and turn his shoulder to the left and turn follower so she's backing to LOD

shoulder slide

Follow up with the R-to-R turns pattern with the follower ends up facing LOD for the free spin (at step 4) and the leader at the outside lane (transition during step 6-7) also facing LOD.

Instead of ending at free spin, we can also lead a pivaloop by sliding leader left down to follower left hand beforehand. Depending which count we end up with after pivaloop: if ending at count 6 into count 1 then face loop exit; if ending at count 3 into count 4, then free spin exit.

I'm also thinking of exiting into windmill directly but yet to be tried. This could be tricky since the leader will need to shift his footwork. Plenty of possibilities.

How about Rotary Waltz? I didn't think about this until I accidentally performed hand hold change to R-to-R while rotary waltzing. It's quite simple but could be tricky and briefly stops so watch for traffic behind.

Lead Outside Free Spin on count 4-5-6. After leading it by leader right hand, trace that right hand (middle and index) finger tips from follower ribcage, shoulder then along right arm as she spins. At the end, grab her right hand and there you have R-to-R hand hold to start the pattern.

Of course, we can use shadow position patterns and other patterns from cross step waltz.

[pivaloop]

Dance Pattern: R-to-R inside turn + Free Spin

This pattern I learned from West Coast Swing opened up a number of cool extended patterns in Waltz. This was described briefly in the previous post. Here's a much more detail:

Leader and Follower are facing each other squarely

R-to-R (cross) hand

Follower inside turn

While turning the follower, leader turn to his right (switching place)

Catch follower's upper arm (slightly above the elbow) with left hand to stop her

Leader and Follower should be facing each other again. R-to-R hand higher since leader's left hand is connected to follower's left upper arm

Leader step to the right to open up the frame at least 90 degree

Leader face loop follower's right hand to the back of his neck

Follower inside free spin led by leader left hand

Alternate exit: instead of follower inside free spin, the leader can turn himself to the right maintaining R-to-R hand hold. This replaces step 7 and after.

NOTES: for step 4-5, how much to turn the follower depends where she supposed to spin to at the end. It's 180 degree for WCS. For traveling Waltz, make sure she's facing line of direction for the free spin. The key to remember is that make sure she's facing the right direction after.

Next: extending this pattern in Waltz.

[pivaloop]

Musicality: Song Structure and Phrasing Example

Popular music usually has intro, verse, chorus and bridge. Each part has different musical patterns and we want to vary our dancing to each of them.

Let's take Paramore's The Only Exception for phrase changes examples:

We don't need to dance to the intro but if it's too long, it can be filled by basic or just walking side by side.

Skipping the intro to 0:22, the first phrase change is at 0:32. This change is  detectable by silent instrumental (no vocal) at the 4th mini phrase. A simple underarm turn or outside free spin is appropriate here. Catching the follower at count 1 of the new phrase is a nice way to accent it.

This pattern goes on for few more phrases until the last major phrase before the chorus starting at 0:53. In this major phrase, the 4th mini phrase before the chorus has vocal '.. but darling..' (1:02). For this change, we want to start a new pattern at the chorus not just basic turning because it's quite different than the previous changes.

During the chorus, we want to do patterns that aren't basic turning, such as reverse turning and side by side patterns. Then after the chorus, we can go back to basic turning. Transition pattern during phrase change is appropriate if we go for this scheme.

The next thing to watch for is the bridge at 2:55. This part is more energetic so flashy patterns are appropriate and give nice contrast here.

Different songs have different characteristics and musicality is about matching our dancing to them. Not just for the sake of it but because it's more fun that way!

[pivaloop]

Musicality: Identifying Phrase Changes

For many people, identifying phrase changes is instinctive. We listen to a song and can just feel when it's coming. I think after someone is experienced enough as in having dance patterns in muscle memory (not consciously think how to do it), he or she can do this automatically. The issue is more about how obvious it is in a song and how much attention we pay to the music. Go ahead and try listening to your favorite songs and see if you can identify phrase changes without counting. Easy right?

In these cases as well, we also instinctively want to contrast and change up our patterns to match it. The previous posts do describe this well but it's actually often instinctive without us realizing it.

Of course, some songs can be monotonous and hard to identify. This is when we can count sets of 6 to a Waltz song and identify phrase changes at the end of 4th set. Instead of repeating 1-2-3-4-5-6, we go 1-2-3-4-5-6, 2-2-3-4-5-6, 3-2-3-4-5-6 then 4-2-3-4-5-6. Or we can just count the start of the sets as in 1....., 2....., 3....., then 4.....; This is easier since our count 1 is obvious. Counting is also necessary when we want to choreograph.

[pivaloop]

Musicality: Accenting Phrase Changes

It's not so much that phrase change itself is important but rather it's the musical pattern change it signifies that's important to accent. The musical difference can be at the end of previous phrase, the start of the next phrase, or both. The more dramatic the change is, the more contrast we want in our dancing. These changes can also be subtle and not accenting is actually the better fit.

One easy way is ending the major phrase with a pattern that ends with free spin (or other turns) and continue with basic at the start of the next major phrase. The contrast between free spin and turning basic accents the phrase change. This works especially well on phrase change which difference is at the end of previous phrase.

Many Waltz songs are quite monotonous and a simple underarm turn at the last bar (2nd bar of the 4th mini phrase) of the major phrase will break the monotony.

For phrase changes which difference is at the start of the next phrase, start a different pattern immediately. The more different the new pattern is the more contrast we get.

In short, identify the musical pattern change and how dramatic the change is. The more different the change is, the more contrast we want by doing different patterns back-to-back. E.g. flashy patterns then basic turning or vice versa.

[pivaloop]

Musicality: Dancing to the Phrases

These are some rules of thumb on phrasing related musicality (refer to previous post)

1) Fit patterns into the major phrases

We want to fit our dance patterns into major phrases. This means a pattern should finish in the major phrase it started in. Most Waltz pattern have length of increments of 2 bars or 1 mini phrase. So as long as we start at the proper count 1 instead of count 4 in a mini phrase and we stick to the shortest patterns (1 mini phrase), we always fit them in major phrases.

For patterns of 2 mini phrases or longer, we should start them earlier in the major phrase so they won't cross into the next major phrase.

This is why it is important to always start at count 1 not 4. If we end up starting at count 4 or after role reversal, hold 1 bar to correct it.

2) Accent major phrase changes

We want to accent major phrase changes because they signify changes in musical pattern. How to do this depends on the music and our individual interpretations of it. The next post will discuss this in more details.

3) Prepare to modify patterns when they cross major phrase changes

We may not recognize phrase changes in advance and find ourselves in the middle of patterns when major phrase change is about to come. Although it violates rule 1), this is not necessarily a bad thing and can actually accent the phrase change better. We can try to shorten the pattern so it finishes right at the end of the major phrase. Or change it such that it accents the phrase change. It really depends on the music.

4) Start and end repeating patterns at start and end of major phrases

This is an extension of rule #1. It's usually more important to end the pattern at the end of major phrase rather than starting it at the start of major phrase.

[pivaloop]

Musicality: Phrasing

In order to discuss dance musicality, it's necessary to be familiar with phrasing units:

A measure or a bar contains 3 beats in 3/4 (Waltz) music or 4 beats for 4/4 (e.g. Swing) music

Mini phrase consists of 2 bars; it means 6 beats for Waltz: 1-2-3,4-5-6; and 8 beats for 4/4: 1-2-3-4,5-6-7-8

Minor phrase consists of 2  or 4 mini phrases (3/4: 4 mini phrase = 24 beats, 4/4: 2 mini phrases = 16 beats)

Major phrase consists of 2 or more minor phrases depending on the music

Bar, mini, and minor phrases are pretty easy to identify in a song. Major phrase is usually 2 minor phrases. You can tell by the repeating sound after 2 minor phrases.

Let's take Enya's Flora's Secret (Waltz) as example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESiRI0nI4mI

Discount the intro which is up until 0:10. First minor phrase ends at 0:20 and the second at 0:30. The 2 minor phrases is 1 major phrase.

How this fits into applying musicality will be discussed in next post :)

[pivaloop]

Swing in Waltz moves from FNW 12/16/2011

Rotary waltz:

1. swing out on 1-2-3, inside turn, catch back to basic

2. same as above except starts with pivot on 4-5-6 first

Cross-step Waltz:

1. swing out, outside free spin, catch, whip to right, outside turn

2. cross  hand, inside turn underarm moving behind, offer left hand, inside turn in front, behind head, back to basic

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A nice easy-going song for Cross-step Waltz