Feather Position in Slow Foxtrot

Ballroom Blitz #091

Feather Position in Slow Foxtrot - Dec 07, 2023

Transcript

Ian: Hey, hey, hey, random dancers from the interwebs. My name's Ian,

Lindsey: and my name's Lindsey,

Ian: and welcome

Ian & Lindsey: to Ballroom Blitz!

Ian: Why hello there Ballroom Blitzers welcome back to the channel. Today we've got a nice, easy, short, sharp one that will set up a few future blitzers and clarify maybe a few that we have already done. We're going to talk briefly about Feather Positions in Slow Foxtrot; let's go.

Now, way back when when we did the Feather Step, link in the description, we alluded to the fact that depending on who you talk to there are either, eight different feathers, or one feather danced eight different ways. Really I don't care which way you fall on that, but there are lots of options for getting into this fabled Slow Foxtrot thing called "The Feather". But, what do they all have in common? Well, it's what I call the Feather Position and I think this is a really handy thing to know that if you know where you're going in your feather position, both forward and backward, where the follow's going, where the lead's going; then how you get there is somewhat irrelevant because at least you know what you're aiming for. So whether it's a Feather Step, Feather Finish, Feather Ending, Hover Feather, any other feather you are going to dance, you know where you're going it makes getting there far easier.

Ian: So, what is this feather position? What is the guts of the feather? Where are we going? Well it's the two Quicks of a Feather Step. So if we think of slow-quick-quick-slow or slow-slow-and-slow, it's the middle portion. It's the prepare to step outside partner step, usually on the leader's left, and then the step outside of partner step. This is the feather position, this cross-legged position where I'm slightly twisted, my knees are much more together, I am not stepping dead forward, I am not stepping, strafing, to the side, but kind of halfway in between. So that so I have stepped outside of my partner. If we reverse that either in a Back Feather or for the follows portion, then they have been taken preparing to have the lead step outside, and then the natural opposite stepping underneath and across and again, it's not straight back, but it's not strafing with too strong a contra to the side. That position that you get to, that is what we call the "Feather Position", and it's going to be the same no matter which feather you are dancing. In a Back Feather roles are reversed, but it's the same position. But you also get there at the end of other figures which is really really handy to know so that you know how to end the figure. A great example of that are the Weave Endings that we've blitzed recently. All of those move through the Feather Position at the end before driving into the next step. So, Feather Position is, here.

And there you have it, a nice brief one on what the Feather Position is. Hopefully this will clear up some of the things we have already done, so Feather Positions at the end of Weaves and Top Spins and other things like that, but also will form the guts of all the feathers to come. We have already blitzed the Feather Step, we've already alluded to the Feather Finish at the end of Impetus Turns and the Reverse Turn in particular, but there are many more to come; six in fact. So, this will set you up for all of those. You will start to see that position in the middle of your Foxtrot. Don't be afraid of it, embrace it, drive through it, and go after it; and it will start to make your Foxtrot feel nice and free flowing and give you a little bit more energy as we move through our straighter figures in between our turns. Try it out, watch out for future blitzers where this is going to come up and we will see you soon.

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