Length of Routines

i have never been that talented...it has always taken me much longer than I would like...but, that's life...no whining here
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me neither.... I try to contain my jealousy but the mrs can tell sometimes:oops: im like you tho

ill rep it out till I get it or die trying
 
We have two "sides", each made up of a long and a short wall. For changing up levels, we switch out one of our sides for a more advanced one...so for basic quickstep, we have side A and side B, then for a level up we do side B (the fancier syllabus side) and side C as well. I don't know how long our latin routines are, but in an average comp dance, we get through it about 1.5-2 times.
 
My personal experience (i.e. ymmv) is that a) different comps and studios have different floor sizes, and the disparity can occasionally be huge, b) the (maximum) distance each individual figure covered changed significantly as my technique improved. When I started out, I'd be lucky (or suffering through what felt like a split) to get a natural turn moving more than a metre, metre and a half. Now, with a prep step, it's closer to three (in a straight line distance, with full body flight, and still feels light to execute and balanced).

My teachers used to, and still do, choreograph routines mostly according to the studio floor (although it's usually anywhere between 32-48 bars for waltz, typically in multiples of 4 or 8 for phrasing). I take it as a personal badge of pride when the originally fitting routines become too big for the floor (assuming maintenance of technique rather than "try-hard", of course). A visiting pro (top 12 in the world) once made the throwaway comment that a long side was around 8 bars and a short side around 4 bars. During the demo at a workshop later that day, they covered the long side of the studio in 4 bars of foxtrot - I think they were talking about a Blackpool-scale floor when they made that comment!

This reminds me of part of a competition review I read, written by Lindsey Hillier-Tate -
... showed nice floor craft in Foxtrot, which was quite an achievement for Ukrainian dancers. As my own experience of having worked as the Ukrainian National coach for quite a few years tells me, it is quite recent for them to start to comprehend what the floor craft really means, while taking it as a form of choreography or a collection of pre-programmed patches that should be utilized on cues. For example, one time a young Polish couple came over to take my lessons at my studio. The boy not once but twice in a row bashed the girl’s head against the wall. When I told him, "You cannot do that, " he replied, "Your studio is too small for my program."

I remember laughing so hard I ended up snorting my soft drink that I was about to gulp down. (Although I'm not sure how the Polish feel about being lumped with the Ukrainians and vice versa.)
 
There are technique workshops abundant in the US for all four styles of dance. Where do people go to find training for choreography, or is this a dark, sacred mystery one only achieves through a secret handshake in a back alley? I'd love to learn to choreograph better, because other than "Hey, that looks pretty cool", I want to know I'm doing it "right" according to a more ballroomy standard. You know, before I go back to just throwing stuff together and doing what seems fun.
 
I dance pro/am scholarship open rhythm - I haven't yet been to a comp where the music doesn't start fading at :60. My coach has choreographed everything to loop, but I've requested we not have routines that last beyond about a minute, a minute ten. (side note: none of my routines this year have ever "looped" on the floor; the music is over at about my last measure or slightly before). I got tired of running the ends of my routines and working hard on, say, the susie Q sequence at the end of my mambo for hours on end, only to go to three comps and then the music dies before I even GET to the suzie Qs. I'd rather spend the technique time on the elements a judge is likely to see. So basically, when my coach gets a wild hair and wants to add new things, I make us dance it full out... with a timer. :)
 
After my medal exams many moons ago, I've only had amalgamations of 2-4 figures, each with a specific direction in mind---so much better for floorcraft.



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I dance standard, and of the dances for which I have routines, 2 are 4 walls (waltz and QS), and the other 2 are 2 walls (foxtrot and tango). The intention is to bump them all up to four walls immediately after my upcoming comp.

Four walls of QS take me just under 60 seconds (known because of the rather distinctive change in the music at 60 secs in one of pros fav songs); 4 walls of waltz considerably more time.

On the competition floor, I expect that foxtrot will repeat once or twice, QS will once, and tango will a couple of times. I'll be surprised if we get through the waltz routine and have to start repeating, but as these are all new routines for me, I don't know for sure!

I suppose I should really time them all, but I'm not sure I want to know when they're supposed to end. I think I'd rather just keep dancing until the music fades!
 
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