Ballroom Blitz #014

The Natural Turn in Modern Waltz - Mar 13, 2023

Transcript

Ian: Hey random dancer on the interwebs my name's Ian

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey

Ian & Lindsey: and this is the Ballroom Blitz

Lindsey: For today's blitz we are delving into the beautiful Modern Waltz. We're going to have a look at one of the classic foundation moves; it's the Natural Turn.

[Demonstration without music]

Lindsey: So, in dancing when we turn we essentially have two main options we can turn to the right or we can turn to the left with our partner. If we turn to the right it's called a Natural Turn. So, what you just saw there was our base foundation for turning to the right with our partner. There are many different ways that we can do this so you will encounter a lot of figures that essentially are variations of the natural term but this is where it all starts.

The Natural Turn has two halves and they're essentially a mirror image of each other. So, one of us is going forwards while the other one is going backwards and then we essentially swap roles. So, here we've got the leader going forward first, one of the big rules of thumb in ballroom dancing is that if you want to turn to the right the person going forward has to step has to drive on their right foot first So, if we have a look at the first half of our natural waltz Natural Turn it's following our basic waltz pattern of a drive a side step and a close.

So, if we do the first half Ian's going to drive forwards on the right. Side. And Close. And over that turn we have turned three eighths (3/8s) of a turn. It's now my turn to go forwards. I'm going to go forwards on the right that will keep us going turning to the right so I go forwards at Ian on the right. Side. And we close our feet.

Depending on what move we've just done those drive steps will travel through your partner's feet. This is one of the things that we get used to pretty quickly when we start dancing, but it takes a little bit of courage. So, that drive on the right foot will travel through your partner's feet if you're going forwards and all the usual waltzy rules apply; the drive step is nice and low a nice drive, we then rise it up onto our toes as we take that sideways step, and then we close our feet and bring it back down to earth ready for the next person's drive.

As I said before this has two halves and each of us gets a turn to go forwards. It's very important when it's the other person's turn to go forwards that the person going backwards has their balance and waits for that drive step we want to stay nice and close nice and comfortable in the frame we don't want to go without our partner.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Lindsey: And that is your classic Natural Turn, turning to the right, turning about three quarters (3/4s) of a turn. There are so many different variations that you can do of this idea of turning to the right with your partner, but this is the foundation move. So, practice practice practice, get on that floor, and happy Waltzing!