Rumba: SQQ vs. QQS

[Indiana_Jay]

My lovely wife and I have recently learned that different instructors teach the basic rumba box differently.

Our instructor at Arthur Murray teaches "slow, quick-quick," wherein the leader starts by stepping forward, holds on beat two, steps to the side on beat three and closes on beat four.

Other instructors teach "quick-quick, slow," wherein the leader takes a side step to the left on beat one, closes on beat two, steps forward on beat three and holds on beat four.

My wife and I feel that SQQ fits most of the music best, as we often hear a bass line that plays a half note (two beats) on beats one and two (slow) and quarter notes (one beat each) on beats three and four (quick-quick). Starting with the quick-quick on one and two puts us out of sync with such bass lines.

I'm interested in the opinions of others regarding which pattern seems most musical and the rationales for teaching each pattern.

Grace and Peace,

IJ

[Purr]

SQQ does seem to fit the music best, and that's what I dance now.

[wyllo]

Seems like it would be easier to start dancing on a slow rather than a quick?

[Twilight_Elena]

Definitely SQQ. It's the start of the musical metre. Even in chacha we start with 1(side)-2-3(rockstep)-chachacha 2-3 and so on.

Twilight Elena

[alemana]

really interesting little bit on this excerpted from the newsgroup rec.arts.dance and posted to www eijkhout.net/rad/dance_specific/rumba.html


"To confuse things further, there are actually two accepted timings for American style rumba.

The Arthur Murray schools use slow, quick quick: 1-2, 3, 4. The basic movement is a box step. I've seen this called "square rumba" in England.

The Fred Astaire schools use quick quick slow: 1, 2, 3-4.

And, of course, the international style has the 'slow' spanning two bars: 2, 3, 4-1 (with the hip movement on 1). Victor Sylvester, being English, covered the international style in his book. Few published books cover the American style since the Murray and Astaire chains seem to like keeping their syllabi secret."

and more:

"The Fred Astaire schools use quick quick slow: 1, 2, 3-4.

This is know as Guaracha. The oral history I been given is that the Fred's chain looking for a gimmick to get more people into their studios jumped on Guaracha in the fifties and called it the new Rumba. Musically the Murray version is correct for the typical "rumbas" played in competiton. Because Fred's owned USBCs they decided that QQS would be the rhythm of choice."

[mr bixx]

i danced at both franchises and and started at freds. i was trained qqs and all my open work was done in qqs for pro comps. when i transferred to arthur murray and started working there i had the biggest problem of dancing sqq. even more it carried over to my open work which was now to be danced sqq or i would be off time at there comps. its screwed me up and i was consistantly off time at the arthur murray comps. i find that qqs is alot easier to dance and it makes more sense to me. i think its just because i was trained in qqs.
now that i dont have to worry about which franchise timing i will be continuing to dance qqs and teach qqs. at independent comps it doesnt matter to my knowledge but please correct me if i am worng.

[mr bixx]

Definitely SQQ. It's the start of the musical metre. Even in chacha we start with 1(side)-2-3(rockstep)-chachacha 2-3 and so on.

Twilight Elena
and you would start rumba to the side on one just like chacha. now just hold the 3-4. american rumba and chacha bpm are very similar. to me its ust really easy to start 1 q in rumba.

[Fretful_Porpentine]

This is know as Guaracha. The oral history I been given is that the Fred's chain looking for a gimmick to get more people into their studios jumped on Guaracha in the fifties and called it the new Rumba. Musically the Murray version is correct for the typical "rumbas" played in competiton. Because Fred's owned USBCs they decided that QQS would be the rhythm of choice."

Whoa....what? How could anyone possibly dance a rumba to a guaracha? Rumba is in 4/4 time, right? A typical guaracha usually has one section of 2/4 followed by a section of 3/4 or 6/8. Someone want to explain this to me?

[cornutt]

i danced at both franchises and and started at freds. i was trained qqs and all my open work was done in qqs for pro comps. when i transferred to arthur murray and started working there i had the biggest problem of dancing sqq.

When I first started dancing, our studio was teaching the QQS (the owners are former Astaire franchisees; they run an independent studio now). A few months after we started, they decided to switch to the DVIDA syllabus, which teaches SQQ. We hadn't learned very much in rumba at that point, but it was still a bit confusing for a while. Then, after I finally got comfortable with SQQ, I was introduced to a gold-level rhythm dancer at a comp who asked me to rumba with her. She kept trying to start QQS, and I couldn't do it! I was beyond embarassed -- here I was, a novice, trying to lead a gold-level dancer, and I couldn't even get the dance started!

[Indiana_Jay]

Whoa....what? How could anyone possibly dance a rumba to a guaracha? Rumba is in 4/4 time, right? A typical guaracha usually has one section of 2/4 followed by a section of 3/4 or 6/8. Someone want to explain this to me?
The quilled one impresses me again! I have a degree in music and I didn't know what a guaracha was without looking it up!

[Fretful_Porpentine]

When I'm not dancing, I like to listen to a little Spanish Renaissance music now and then.
Also, there is the minor detail that my mom was born in Mexico, and she and my grandparents are pretty well-versed in Latin American dance.
And I've taken a lot of music history and theory.
And I like guaracha anyway. ;)

[gusmahler]

When I first started dancing, our studio was teaching the QQS (the owners are former Astaire franchisees; they run an independent studio now). A few months after we started, they decided to switch to the DVIDA syllabus, which teaches SQQ. We hadn't learned very much in rumba at that point, but it was still a bit confusing for a while. Then, after I finally got comfortable with SQQ, I was introduced to a gold-level rhythm dancer at a comp who asked me to rumba with her. She kept trying to start QQS, and I couldn't do it! I was beyond embarassed -- here I was, a novice, trying to lead a gold-level dancer, and I couldn't even get the dance started!

Yeah, it's kind of annoying when you learn a dance differently. I learned night club two-step starting with a back step on the left foot (which is the same way Dancevision teaches). But when I switched to a different ballroom, they teach two-step starting with a left step on the left foot. I could barely dance that night.

And recently, I was talking to someone who was explaining to me that her east-coast swing instructor teaches the rock step on the 1 instead of the 5.

[Joe]

Actually, I did initially learn using the SQQ timing, but when forced to dance American Rumba I prefer the QQS timing because it helps differentiate the dance from Foxtrot. :)