Quickstep Basics

[gclarke]

Back to basics today. I've been so wrapped up in the turns I never questioned the basics but now .....

Down the long side of the room we do SQQS SQQS and repeat till we hit the corner,
where to my simple mind, it went (lady)
back side close side forward side close side

Of course I realise there are slight turns not just back and forwards, but which steps are these exactly?

My books describes forward or backward walks with a chasse in the middle but then I got a bit muddled as to whether the first SQQS was the same as the second, ie are they all part of block of 8 steps, 2 similar blocks of 4(1 forward, 1 back) or 2 different blocks of 4.

PLEASE some-one tell me they have a name and put me out of my misery. :(

[BallandChange]

Hi QClarke, I beleive that you are doing the Basic Quarter Turns.

[gclarke]

Thanks for that. I suspected so but I am frequently finding that when I actually see/read where the feet are actually supposed to be, it just isn't what we are doing. It then makes me doubt whether my feet and direction need some fine tuning or whether I am looking at the wrong thing altogether :)

Also it makes it very difficult to ask a question here since I don't know what the steps are called and when describing something very simple, it can sound like something completely different.

[and123]

back side close [1]side forward side close [2]side

Your side steps should probably be more [1]forward (toward diagonal center) and [2]back (toward diagonal wall), but don't get too anal about it. Get comfortable with the basic ideas and then the "decorations" (shaping, swing, etc.) come later.

[gclarke]

Thanks for that. It's a hard line to tread when you see something written that you think is the step you've been doing then the feet don't seem to match what's written.

Then once I've ascertained I have the name of the step is right but my feet are wrong, I sort of feel now would be the time to correct it without getting over picky about it.

One thing not being quite right seems to impact on other bits. It's fine until something gets added on and then your feet aren't starting where they should be, which makes it all the harder to understand what comes next.

Thursday is my last class for nearly 3 weeks while we're on holiday. I'd like to get as much as I can out of it.

Thanks again, Gay

[and123]

Yes, correct things as soon as possible, but at the same time, don't try to do everything absolutely correctly in one go. Your head will explode, and you won't be able to dance at all :p. Many instructors teach in "layers". They tell you what you need to know, what you can handle, and then develop it as you gain experience and ability. Yeah, sometimes that necessitates re-learning steps and deleting bad habits, but it's a reasonable compromise. Nobody can walk in off the street with zero dance knowledge and experience and replicate both physically and mentally what a champion-level dancer can do. There's waaaay too much going on. Work on one aspect until it becomes an almost unconscious part of you, and then add more. Keeping the "more" in mind as you are dancing is good, but too much stuff bouncing around in your head at once tends to be disastrous. And sometimes you will find that fixing one area automagically corrects another one -- *that* is a great feeling.

[gclarke]

I'm just odd I think. I seem to able to seperate the 'talking' from the dancing quite easily.

If we were progressing a bit faster I could see that it could get over complicated but at the moment there isn't much I can do with the information other than to use it to find a missing step or make minor adjustments in position.

I tend to be a bit like this with all my hobbies. If there is only an hour or two a week when I can actually 'do', I like to learn what I can in other ways.

Actually yesterday was quite fun as I tried some of the steps from diagrams in the book trying to find our new steps. Nothing fitted but it all somehow helps for things to feel less 'forced' when something new comes along.