I would to find out if there are different types of natural spin turn in the international waltz style of dance. I am being taught a figure but find that it is different from an illustration in a textbook which I use.

regards.

Hello, Keh, James, Jonathan,

Thanks for your replies. I don't feel competent to accurately describe the figure I am doing in detail. It is now being called Natural Spin Turn with Underturn. However with practice it feels good and looks good and Jonathan's response is comforting.

What is more comforting though, is the sudden realisation that there are people in other parts of the world who are readily available to share your concerns and willing to offer assistance. Thanks to Ballroomdancers.com

While we are at it could someone explain what is underturn and overturn?

Regards,
Andrew.

I would say that the overturned Spin is a very different beast than the basic spin, because it's not just a matter of a little more or less rotation. It turns it into an entirely different movement -- steps are described differently, different technical execution, and with different figures to follow. In fact, the overturned spin is almost exactly halfway between a normal Spin Turn and a Natural Pivot, or maybe just a hair closer to the pivot, beleive it or not.

There's also something that's been coined a "Running Spin Turn", but it's not really a Spin Turn at all. It's one pivot (count "1") followed by 1-3 of an Open Natural Turn (count "and 2,3").

Just about anything resembling or containing Natural Pivots might be described as a Spin Turn of one sort or another, so it suffices to say that there are many possible variations of the Spin Turn. But as it is written in the book, there are basically three versions: Basic, underturned, and overturned (the overturned usually to be followed by a turning lock).

Sincerely,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

Hi, Andrew:

Can you give us a little more detail about the natural spin turn that you were taught? Personally I think natural spin turn is a wonderful figure which I danced a lot in q-step, waltz and foxtrot and I think there is only one natural spin turn. I was taught a reverse spin turn but never really like it and seldom danced it.

Regards,

Keh Gough

Keh Gough