starting on 2 with no prep feels like a blunt/cold start...just to me...just an opinion...

However, the beat you start on is really arbitrary once you get deeper into the dances. It's just the entry point, and in theory, you can start moving on any beat as long as your partner can follow you

Vanessa

Thanks for answering my questions.

Last night I was listening to newly arrived 3CD set by Swiss Ballroom Orchestra with great disappointment. The CD set clearly indicated "all tracks are played in strictly dance tempo". All the Rumbas are played in such faster tempo even to dance American style comfortably. None of Rumbas has near recognizable 2 3 4 1 beats. Even Foxtrot and Slow Waltz tempo are played too fast. I would think Swiss Ballroom Orchestra would played International Style strictly tempo unless this Orchestra just barrowed the name "Swiss".

One more quick question, do all gentlemen dancers start with right foot in all dances in UK?

Regards,

Keh Gough

A couple of weeks ago, a lady who is an excellent dancer from L.A. visited our studio. I asked her to dance a Foxtrot which took us 3 trials to start. Every time I started with left and so did she. We both laughed. I jokingly asked her if she was usually dancing to International style. She replied "yes".

Have you watched the movie by Chavy Chase, titled "European Vacation" ? As I viewed the movie, I couldn't help myself thinking if I had to drive on the left side of the road, I would have had just about as much problems as he had in the movie. I was in Japan not long ago, while riding in the mini bus on the left ("wrong" side for U.S. drivers) side of highway through the turns and curves, I thought the driver was heading toward a collision, it seemed. If for an American dancer to go dancing abroad with the left foot or right foot start differneces, perhaps it would be quite a new experience? no?

Keh Gough

About the 3 CD sets, they are issued under license from intermusic SA by 2000 IMC music LTD. I suspect the recording was done sometimes ago as you had described.

I would like to discuss more on the right foot or left foot issue particularily in Samba. In order not to go off-topic on this Rumba thread, I would start another topic.

Regards,

Keh Gough

Much of this only applies with true rumba music though. Rumba can be danced to almost any 4/4 music of suitable tempo, but there may not be the feeling that it should be danced on two. If you look around the floor during one of these tunes you'll probably see people dancing on one or even three, as well as two.

Here in the UK, sequence dancing is popular. Everyone repeats the same 16 bar step sequence at the same time. Despite the dance scripts describing the timing of a sequence rumba as 2 3 41, they are always danced 1 2 34. The reason is lost in history, but woe betide anyone trying to dance on two. Probably as a result of this, music played for sequence rumbas has a very definite "dance on 1" feel. I never play these tunes for latin rumba. Some example clips of tunes are at www.socialdancer.btinternet.co.uk/music

Howard

It is all International style, but I'm talking about social level dancers, not in comps etc. I find if people learn latin/ballroom rumba first, then they generally dance on two and can switch to dance on one for sequence dances. If they learn sequence dancing first however, they seem to have real problems dancing on two. They usually try a prep step on one then start on two OK but tend to drop back onto one at the slightest hiccup. If the music has a definite "break on 2" sound to it, they are liable to make their prep step on two and wind up dancing on three! It's wrong, they may even know it's wrong, but they're happy!

Howard

James is right. There is no universally accepted starting foot in the UK. The man will generally start with whichever foot is appropriate for the pattern he intends to dance. Any individual man may always start with the same pattern however.
Personally, when joining the floor I tend to start left foot into a reverse figure, thus I am facing into the room and that gives me the best view of oncoming traffic. If I am already on the floor and dancing a follow-on dance, I tend to start right foot into a natural figure. Either way I always make a very definite weight transfer before starting and assuming the lady matches that, then there's no way she can move the wrong foot as she will be standing on it!
I find the left/right confusion is most likely to happen with slow foxtrot. I tend to go straight into a feather step with my right foot, but many schools teach a left foot walk as a type of prep step.
Many competitors prefer to use a prep step as it gets them moving into the figure better. The trouble is, the prep step then appears stilted so they add a pre-prep step, then a pre-pre-prep step, and before you know it they're dancing for twenty minutes before their first figure.

Sorry to hear about your CDs. I've had some bad ones too, generally cheap ones from an unknown company with a great sounding name. Were they old recordings? Many of the older recordings are way too fast by todays standard. Also many European CDs have fast versions of foxtrot and waltz and specifically mark the others as slow. I don't know about Swiss bands but on German CDs look out for Das Slowfox and Langsammer Waltz.

I am surprised to learn that dancers in UK would dance Rumba on beat 1 or 3. As my understanding, UK ballroom dancers do only international style Rumba, therefore would always dance on beat 2. As for myself, after many years of dancing American style Rumba, I have great difficulty dance on beat 2.

Regards,

Keh Gough

In most of the old-time rumba songs (take "Cuban
Pete"), and that includes the slow 'guaracha'
(or cha-cha-cha) songs, you often will hear the
bongero (or 'bongo drummer) do a slow slapping
high 'backbeat' on the 2nd beat, and on the
4th beat (the first half and the second), you will hear the bongero do a two-eighth 'secondary backbeat'.

To put it simply, 'slap accent' on the 2nd beat, and two low secondary accents on the 4th beat.

A good way to practice the basic International
rumba rhythm is to do the Basic Movement this
way: Put on some rumba music (preferably a p r actice number involving only the percussion so that you only hear the bongos); begin to settle (on beat
1), so when you hear the 'slap' on the second
beat, step forward or back, and on the 4th beat,
step forward or back in the opposite direction,
and settle again to go on the next step on 1.
That way, you will feel the accent on the '2' beat.

Charles Smith
'The Little Lily Of Ballroom Dancing"
(cjsmith2@uiuc.edu)