Help with an incomplete Tango routine

[Matt Sorrentino]

Hi everyone at DF, I am currently a silver level dancer, and trying to work out a American Smooth Tango routine. The routine in question is the transition from closed frame to shadow position for the next part. The current method is an oversway (not throwaway) and then on the 2nd slow of coming out of the oversway, pivoting and turning the lady to shadow position. But its not working out. The lady, both my dance partener as well as other coaches come out behind my hip instead of in front as shadow should be. I know the description of what I'm trying to learn isn't great, but any help would be appreciated. =)

[Larinda McRaven]

Hi Matt,
Not sure if you are turing her from pp in the oversway. That would be a glitch since she IS behind you in pp.
Try doing three steps of an open reverse turn, then when she is fwd on her right foot outside, give her an underarm turn swiveling to the Left on her Right foot, to end up back on her right foot, while you close and point. Timing is QQS & S

[Matt Sorrentino]

Thanks ALOT Larinda!! I had been frustrated with that for a long time since our last lesson. By the way, I'm here with Efrosyni, Tarra and Laura, and they all want to say hi, and that they think your Bunny avatar is awsome. Efrosyni wants to see it with french toast on it next :D

[Larinda McRaven]

Hi guys! French toast eh? I'll see what I can do... :lol:

[Matt Sorrentino]

Hi Again :oops: When I read it, it made perfect sense to me. When I tried it with my partener, and then failing that, my coach, I became confused. What I was doing was QQS (first half of open reverse turn) QQS (underarm turning the lady and over turning it into shadow) and then & S (doing a brush tap sort of thing). I should mention that the underarm turn was rather int - rumba - ish. So she was stepping forward onto left, turning, back onto right to finish turning and then stepping back and following me with the brush tap. And after I did this, I realized two things. One, my partener was on the opposite foot of me, instead of the same for proper shadow, and two, your description to me said she should be doing an underarm turn to the left on her right foot and ending on her right foot, which she is not. I know I must be missing something.

P.S. I realize how hard it is to describe dance moves in words, and I do plan on coming down to see you for another lesson soon. :D School has been keeping us so very busy.

[Larinda McRaven]

Yeah, it is tricky to describe and understand stuff here...
She does three steps only... QQS, RLR. When she lands on her Right foot she turns to left for another S, staying on her Right foot. You do QQS, LRL and then change weight to your Right foot on & and then point out your Left foot for S.

Did I read right that you did the first half of the reverse and then turned Tarra on the second half? If so... there is no second half... the whole thing is QQS&S.

Still working on the french toast...

[Matt Sorrentino]

Oh... Well definatly a large difference there. I will try to work that out with her tonight, and let you know how it goes. By the way, is that your bunny? It is really cute. We have a little lop-eared bunny named Autumn, and my brother Tim has a absolutely massive lop named Gandalf the Grey :) I will post some pictures later on for fun.

[Another Elizabeth]

Larinda is obviously way way more experienced than me, but there was a transition from PP to shadow in my old tango routine, based on a pretty simple syllabus figure. (It's called the Double Ronde in the ISTD silver smooth syllabus; not sure about what it's called by AM or FADS, but I've seen students from both studios do the base figure).

The base figure, starting from PP with the outside foot, is two steps in promenade, one step to the side to close, both partners cross behind to CPP, then low ronde with the man's LF/lady's RF to fallaway, one step back in fallaway, and brush-tap. SQQS(S)QQ&S (parentheses are the ronde - I think that's the timing, as far as I can tell without standing up in my cube and dancing it). The variation that ends in shadow has the lady turning to her left after the ronde, and stepping on the & instead of brushing before the tap. Ends in shadow position with the LF free for both partners.