Ballroom Blitz #052

Change of Place Left to Right in Jive - Jul 24, 2023

Transcript

Ian: Hey random dancer from the inter-webs, my name's Ian,

Lindsey: and I'm Lindsey,

Ian & Lindsey: and this is a Ballroom Blitz.

Ian: Hello again blitzers and welcome back to the channel. Today we are going into the wonderful world of Jive; a bit more a back replace action! We're going to do another change of place, we have done one of these previously, we've done the change of place right to left, and today we're going to be doing change of place left to right; the other way you can change places I guess, so let's take a look!

[Demonstration without music]

Ian: So, unlike the change of place from right to left, link in the description, this one is open-ended. What do I mean by that? I mean you finish in the same position you start. So, quite often we piggyback them and do more than one at a time. Starting in the open position we move through our general Back-Replace Chasse Chasse type construction, returning to open position in just eight steps.

So let's take a look at the leaders steps first. We're in an open position to start so we have a very straight Back-Replace, remember not too big and not too fancy. Nice and wall presenting here, pushing off Back-Replace; pretty much just like all our other open moves. Now what I want to do is reel the follower in towards me, contracting our position slightly. I often tell leaders imagine you're going to ricochet them off your hip and ping them in another direction. We're only going to make about 3/8s of a turn over this figure, we don't want to exchange sides directly, so we're not trying to get exactly where each other is. So on the first Chasse what I want to do is bring my left hand across almost to my right shoulder. I'm going to do a compact Chasse. Lindsey's going to talk about her steps in a moment, so follows don't worry about that. I'm going to do a compact Chasse as I bring my arm up, inspiring the follow in front, that's our first Chasse, after the first Chasse I am going to drop my arm, and we've now you can see we've achieved a bit more of an angle here, so roughly 3/8s of a turn. The second Chasse after I can see the whites of my follows eyes, I'm going to Chasse towards them, they're going to Chasse back. And this is how we get back to our open position ready to do another Back-Replace on my left and follows right.

Lindsey: So follow us at this point we can be pretty sure we're going to do a Back-Replace, but other than the fact that it's a figure that starts in this open position we're not quite sure what this is. Our key is that we're going to follow the hand, so we feel that pressure encouraging us to do our Back, and then Replace on the spot, so that was onto my right foot then my left foot. I'm now free of my right foot for my first Chasse and Ian's going to bring my hand across, that's going to encourage me to take a bit of a turning sideways Chasse, and I'm going to end up in front of him. So, I've got my way to my right I've just done my right-a-right Chasse, the hand drops that encourages me to turn. So again I'm kind of following where the hand is going, and then I'm pushed backwards to go left-a-left for my final Chasse.

Ian: So, as you can see from the explanation of the leaders portion and the followers portion the figure does follow our standard Back-Replace-Chasse-Chasse pattern. However, we really do want to take a moment to just examine those arms and make sure that we understand exactly when we're trying to do things. The Back-Replace has to be quite straight, so we don't want to start flinging our arms off and leading this too early. But, we also don't want to hang around leads, so after the Back-Replace as soon as you're stepping into your Chasse, coordinate your left hand. Bring it up towards the right so that the follow has no option but to turn under that arm and turn into that direction, and there's really no hesitation there. So, there's no time for her to wonder whether it's anything else, or accidentally go into a different sort of step. But then we want to make sure that we get the first Chasse done so the first Quick-a-Quick, we get the follow onto their foot, and then we drop the arm to finish the turn. You don't want to halo the head and turn it too quickly. You also don't want to yank it down. We really want to get the follow onto their foot, and then before commencing the second Chasse, drop the hand. If we can get command of this sort of timing nuance, you'll not only be able to turn in a really correct easy fashion, where the follow gets a lot of help and the leader gets the opportunity to maintain timing, but you'll also then set up the best opportunity for you to get a nice forward and backward Chasse in that second Chasse.

[Demonstration with counts]

[Demonstration with music]

Ian: And that is it for your Change of Places from a Left to Right in Jive. As you can see from that final musical demonstration you can just piggyback these so you can do two, three, don't do more than three, the you know, it gets a bit much. But, you can just do one, and then the other. So, give it a go, remember to stay calm, get a nice small Back-Replace, do both Chasses, work on coordinating that arm, and have some fun with your Jive. Keep it nice and small, enjoy yourself on the floor, we'll see you next time.