Hi all,

What is the absolute minimum set of steps from international standard we should teach complete beginners to tide them over until the next bronze class starts, such that the set of steps is most distinctly representative of each dance?

Here's what I came up with:

-Waltz: closed changes, natural and reverse turns, natural spin turn, whisk, chasse from PP.
- Foxtrot: feather, threestep, natural and reverse turns, closed impetus w/feather finish
- Quickstep: quarter turn pair, forward lock, progressive chasse, chasse reverse turn, natural turn
- Tango: Walk, progessive link, progressive side step, closed promenade, rock turn, back corte
- Viennese waltz: closed changes, natural and reverse turns

What does everyone think?

DG

It looks like you've essentially chosen the Student Teacher steps from the standard book with a few exceptions. You've left out a few from quickstep and I think one in tango. It looks generally fine to me, but I think I would complete the tango Student Teacher steps by adding in the Open Reverse Turn Lady Outside. Since tango is continually turning to the left, it's generally good to have a reverse turn of some sort you can use so you don't get stuck in the middle of a long side facing DC and not knowing how to realign yourself to keep moving. Just a suggestion, but I would imagine that the Open Reverse Turn Lady Outside is part of the Student Teacher syllabus for a reason. You've got the rest of them so you might as well add that in, too.

BTW, in quickstep you have Natural Turn listed -- is that the regular one? I don't think that's used very often. Using a Natural Spin Turn might be better. The Student Teacher syllabus for quickstep has four naturals though: Natural Turn, Natural Turn with Hesitation, Natural Pivot Turn, and Natural Spin Turn. I think the spin turn is the one most often used from these four, so if you only want to do one natural turn, I might pick that one over the plain natural with a heel pull. Just another suggestion.

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James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

Hi Master Marshall,

"It looks like you've essentially chosen the Student Teacher steps from the standard book..."

Hmmm... Well they are a subset of the "pre-bronze" set from the list I have. Student Teacher? What's that?

"BTW, in quickstep you have Natural Turn listed -- is that the regular one? I don't think that's used very often. Using a Natural Spin Turn might be better."

Interesting observation. I hesitated to put very many turns in the quickstep list because I wanted to not dilute "turning" nature of the waltz or the "linear" nature of quickstep/foxtrot.

"I think the spin turn is the one most often used from these four"

I am naive. But isn't the natural spin turn the waltz spin par excellance? Maybe I'll change it.

Thanks,

DG

"Student Teacher" is the first self-contained level of the ISTD syllabus, roughly equivalent to Pre-Bronze.

Re the Spin Turn in Qstep: I wouldn't avoid useful figures, especially fundamental ones, for the purpose of illustrating something about the character of a dance. The character has a lot more to do with the way you execute a movement, than it does with the movement itself. Besides, with respect to character, Quickstep is as rotational as Waltz. Rather than emphasizing rotation as a definitive element, I'd suggest focusing on musical interpretation. The tempo and character of the music should produce a "lighter" and more released type of movement, even in crossover patterns such as Spin Turn, Progressive Chasse to R, Chasse Reverse Turn, etc.

All in all, your selection of figures looks good, although I'd probably include the Spin Turn and the Natural Turn w/ Hesitation in Q-step (you don't have anything else on you list that you can precede a Chasse Reverse Turn with). You should also probably include a Change of Direction on Foxtrot unless there absolutely isn't time. And I'm definitely with James in that you need a DC-facing Reverse figure in your Tango, such as Open Reverse Lady Outside.

Sincerely,
Jonathan

Wise insights, as always.

I'll integrate you and Mtr. Marshall's suggestions.

Thanks, DG