Sidesteps in Standard?

[Chris Stratton]

Are there any purely sideways steps in standard technique - ie motion perpendicular to an unchanging foot alignment, with no superimposed turn or rotation in body or feet? If there are, do you ever have more than one like this in succession?

Specific question was the chasse ending to a chase in tango... but I'm as interested in the general question as the specific figure.

[dancin_feet]

In our syllabus there is a side rock in Foxtrot, basically a side swaying movement that you can do straight up or while turning the lady. Straight sideways step.

[Chris Stratton]

My general reaction is that this side rock is not the type of figure which is generally going to be taught at the same level of technical detail as the primary standard figures are documented (the real figures, not the options given in one sentance notes at the bottom of the page such as this chasse). Part of the prompting for my question is that while there a number of things that are initially taught simply as "side" in reality, I can't think of anything that I believe actaully is taken as a simply sideways action. Or for that matter a simple forwards or backwards action either. It seems like almost every dance action turns out to be a superposition of several things at once...

[Chris Stratton]

Actually, I think I just figured it out.

The chasse action in tango must be done with a slight diagonal component (changing on each step) in order to preserve the "knees veering in" character of the dance. You can't seperate your legs directly sideways and still be dancing tango.