how much do you stick to your routine when competing

[ballroomdancertoo]

just wondering those competitors out there, how much do you stick to your routine in latin or standard? When you start out are you fixed on starting with your routine or do you make little changes before you begin. how much does following a routine affect your emotions when dancing. sorry if my question sounds vague, but im guessing that if you can have emotions while dancing you stand a better chance of being recognized by the judges. Just wondering...

 

[Dr Dance]

Although I do not compete, my dancing friend Carol does compete (open standard) with her partner John. Although they dance to "set routines," it's not always possible to adhere to them due to floor craft issues. John has what he calls his "plan B" for each move just in case he's blocked on the floor, a different move in a different direction to keep the same timing to "somehow" pick up the same general location on the dance floor. If John is "doubly blocked," then his generic "plan C" is to stay put and shape until the traffic clears one way or the other. It takes a great lead and a quick mind to change plans on the fly. Fortunately for Carol, John qualifies!

Yes, it does help for the couple to be "expressive" when they dance.

 

[Mr 4 styles]

Agree. You need to have a plan b and c. You also need to have good stationary and traveling basics you can use to realign or get out of traffic. This goes for Latin smooth and rhythm as well as standard. As a lead it's my job to have these figures mentally on standby and lead them clearly. For the follow they have to be present and aware but not overreact to the change. And smile like it was all planned

 

[Loki]

Agree and agree. You can't always start at exactly the same place, comp floors do vary in size, people block you, etc.

 

[Miss Silly]

As a follower, sometimes i find that doing our routine is easier to create the expression because I don't have to concentrate as hard on following compared to if we were doing freestyle. Plus, unless the lead is really clear, following freestyle ends up being a lot of guessing sometimes and it makes it hard to really go for it in the emotional department when I have to focus hard to do my job as a follower. For me at least ;-P

We compete with choreography. We're also in syllabus still so i think unless you really know all the syllabus rules about which figures can connect with which, a planned routine would be a lot easier haha. Even so, I think for pretty much all competitors, stuff happens on the floor and i do think quite often people have to deviate from routines due to floor craft, starting position, even different floor sizes. We've been to some comps where our foxtrot standard routine didn't even fit on the floor where it does on a 'normal' floor (even with trying to zig-zag deeper to make the long wall shorter).

I really appreciate all the responsibility that the lead has for this task. I think also, having a strong understanding of music will likely make a lead's life so much easier so it's not necessarily quite so hard thinking about trying to pick back up in the correct phrase (not just on the beat)..... this is what we're currently experiencing. I'm happy at least my partner feels the pulse of the music now, but re-starting off phrase after a slow foxtrot collision feels like riding in a wheelbarrow with a square wheel. We have some back up plans too... but I admit, sometimes i get a bit too involved in feeling the music (and what MY opinion of the musicality should be) that I can be a tough lady to lead when things go off course LOL

 

[Mr 4 styles]

I dance open but my pro and I intentionally run routines off phrase for practice

 

[cornutt]

I'm not competing much anymore, but when I was, we usually did this:
1. For rhythm, we'd have four (five for faster dances) patterns that we would plan to do. What order they were done in was up to me. I'd decide based on the music, where we were on the floor, where the judges were, what had worked or not in practice, etc. Usually I'd save whichever one I thought was weakest for last, figuring that by then the judges will have already marked, or the music might end before we finished it.
2. For smooth, I had gotten where I always started on a short wall -- a lot less crowded. We'd have two short walls and one long wall. After that, it was improv the rest of the way.

 

[ballroomdancertoo]

thanks for the great comments and insights!

 

[Mr 4 styles]

My routines are structured so that the vast majority of the time they go off as planned. But it really helps to practice a bit of lead and follow for those moments when it's needed

 

[MaggieMoves]

It really depends on the dance, but here goes in which applies to my amateur partner:

Paso Doble: Pretty set routine, if we get blocked we're pretty much screwed. This dance I have the least experience in though, and I'm probably the least comfortable in as well.

Samba: Set "groups" of moves that we generally always do, and try to in the same succession. We move a LOT in Samba though, and if we're blocked we'll skip a group or two.

Rumba, Cha-Cha-Cha, and Jive: Set openings, but that's it. The rest is just us pulling moves from the syllabus. I've recognized his favorites though depending on where we are on the floor.

So with a lot of floor traffic, we're probably finishing last in Paso. Everything else we're pretty much set on, and it's primarily been the reason we've been working on Paso the most lately. There are some variations we can do to our routine to make it move in a different direction, but it's still locked in the same sequence.

 

[ballroomdancertoo]

nice comment, MM. does the changing in the groups help to express the moves or is it already "ingrained" in the movement, meaning does changing the groups help express the music more or is it just a maneuvering thing, or none of the above.

 

[Mr 4 styles]

MM for Paso work on having your lead choose different angles to lead figures when blocked. Put some chairs on the floor and have him lead you around them. I can always run my Paso routine as set as I have practiced thus a lot. If you are really hemmed in we just split and walk agressively to a new spot skipping that 8 mentally and picking it back up. Again practice this too

 

[MaggieMoves]

nice comment, MM. does the changing in the groups help to express the moves or is it already "ingrained" in the movement, meaning does changing the groups help express the music more or is it just a maneuvering thing, or none of the above.

Exactly right, especially with the samba. It really depends on the song. Jive is more or less the same, as I noticed he loves side by side work when the chorus comes around.

Cha cha and rumba we're both comfortable enough to do almost anything with, and that's highly dependent on the song.

 

[MaggieMoves]

MM for Paso work on having your lead choose different angles to lead figures when blocked. Put some chairs on the floor and have him lead you around them. I can always run my Paso routine as set as I have practiced thus a lot. If you are really hemmed in we just split and walk agressively to a new spot skipping that 8 mentally and picking it back up. Again practice this too

There's a variation of the twists that I love doing in lieu of this, but we're not quite there yet.

 

[Mengu]

I try to stick to my routines in standard, but there are definitely times I have to deviate (and on a crowded floor there may be more deviations than planned steps). My Plan B is to fly by the seat of my pants. In the moment, if I feel I need to navigate with another step, I do. If I need to skip a line and jump to another, I do. I might need to navigate around a jam with a telemark and a curved feather, or top spin, or extend a line with a running right turn or tipple chasse, or dance a tight progressive side step reverse turn to circle around in a small confined space. When I practice at the studio, the floor is often crowded and I'm trying to stay out of the way of other couples, so these solutions come fairly easily to me.

In smooth, navigation seems a bit easier when we are open. We just go where there is space, and can stick to the routine. I haven't had to contend with an overly crowded floor though. I'm still a newbie in competing smooth. And in closed position navigation is no different than standard (though I do have to pay attention not breaking some silly syllabus rules).