Lesson Recap - June 21st

Hello dancers!

Thanks to all of you who came out to open floor night last night! I thought it went unusually well. I saw everyone working on technique and moves, and there was enough mixing of partners to allow some of our newer dancers a chance to learn from the more experienced ones. That's good stuff. And SPEAKING of new dancers, we've had a recent influx of them, which is awesome!

During the 2nd class, we worked on bal swing, which is a mixture of Balboa and, obviously, swing. After discussing some of the theory behind what makes bal-swing work (rotational momentum as opposed to the linear we use in lindy, for one) we did 3 versions of a throw-out: one with a left-to-right connection, one with a right-right, and another left-to-right one where the lead turns away from the follow during counts 8-3. After those, we worked on some Peter Loggins-style bal-swing basics. A rock-step-step, rock-step-step pattern is pretty adaptable for a lot of swing moves and we played with that. At the last minute, we also worked on a Texas Tommy version of a throw-out.

On a personal note, I ADORE bal-swing and I hope everyone who was there last night can put it into practice a little more. It's fun, relatively simple, versatile, and doesn't make you look like a tool. What could be better?

Here's a video, from me to you, of some bal swing from Seattle Balboa Swing Festival of 2008: