Standard Geekery
- Thread starter j_alexandra
- Start date
Two ways.
From the follower's side, charging a connecting is an alternative response to a signal that causes them to act later. In general, later = faster. This ties into the "timing" version of the idea.
In addition, surplus force in the connection can be used to amplify an action. Consider, for example, American Spin in swing. The follower can use the hand pressure to make the turn snappier.
All of this is quite a bit more difficult to feel and use in Standard, but it is still there (and as I said at the jump, Standard coaches don't seem to have consistent, defined language for it). I think one of the clearer examples would be Tango swivels, which play out a lot like Latin Hip Twist.
Last edited:
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
Use CBM, side lead, and outside partner, and make sure the feather step is correct before worrying about making it beautiful.
Windup, the WDSF’s sudden movement, what Fiesta calls charging - those may accentuate styling elements. But, one of the problems with today’s ballroom is too many people want to skip to the styling without first learning the basic technique needed to dance the figures correctly.
For all practical purposes, windup is prerequisite to good CBM. It's pretty hard to get one side moving past the other when they start square.
ETA: charging vs. moving a connection isn't a styling thing, it's a communication/partnering paradigm. In Latin, Rhythm, & Smooth, it is a foundational concept nearly as basic as frame or footwork.
It can also have an effect on aesthetics and styling, but that's not really what it's for.
Last edited:
Although feather step is a kind of linear moving figure, it includes quite a lot of rotation between hips and shoulders as part of CBM and CBMP, so there is also a wind up. The same with all figures moving in PP etc
I'm afraid it's impossible to separate ballroom technique from ballroom styling - it's pretty much the same thing. But I agree with you in a sense that less attention is being paid to very essential things making a good dancer of any genre (balance, usage of legs and body, movement itself ...) and more to less essential things including those you listed (it's pretty much the same situation in other dance genres I'm familiar with). Our RIP member Terrence called them flash & trash ...
flying_backwards
Well-Known Member
Maybe "charging" refers to a compression. Whereas "wind-up" can refer to torsion, with the release of the potential energy stored in the torsion creating rotational movement, the release of the potential energy stored in compression would create linear movement.
Compression in partner connection could not be practiced solo. But compression against the floor can create what some teachers call "push". My teacher suggested practicing pushing horizontally against the floor by walking in a swimming pool waist deep. The resistance of the water makes the action more obvious.
In this context the word "charging" fits because it is a way of storing potential energy, the definition of charging. (Because the word "energy" is so often used to describe aesthetic characteristics of dance, I should clarify that here I used those words in the context of classical mechanics.)
Yes!
Although you can charge a connection with tension as well (outside of Standard).
flying_backwards
Well-Known Member
Totally agree. I was going to mention tension in the WCS context but this thread's title...
Although... I think there are times I feel tension in the topline, like when we "breathe out", or in 2 of a Nat Spin. Or on the fullest extension moment of an outside swivel.
We have reverse turn with open finish and swivel in our tango choreography. I would say I lead it only with rotation of my frame. I step into open finish in CBMP as stated in the book, but I leave the frame to rotate a bit to the left while stopping the partner (essentially killing the CBMP from the last step). It produces some windup in both my core and core of the lady. Then I just do a short/sharp rotation of my frame to the right (with some help of that windup) and stop sharply. It causes lady to step forward around me with RF and unwind her hips into PP (partially because of windup and partially because her hips are rolling around my hips). So essentially no charging and discharging our connection here and no double action
It's different when I'm using double action - in that case I do it similar way like Hurley said not to do but did it several times in his demo anyway ...
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
Or in any rotational movement, such as a standing spin or a double reverse spin - or in a more complex interplay, in the fleckerls.
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
That belief would explain a lot about current objectionable trends in ballroom.
I’ve found the only hard thing is realizing that the feet and knees need not line up with the hips at all times. And that realization is needed for all of CBM, side lead, and outside partner position.
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
For me, the difference is that styling, in this sense, is optional, while technique is not - failures of technique will cause the dancing to fail, in ways ranging from forcing mild discomfort and body distortions to colliding with partner or simply falling over.
While there is also technique applicable across types of dance, I’m thinking of ballroom specific technique that makes the figures work.
Sticking with the feather step for now, doing it without side lead or CBM related technique will result in ungainly execution at best. Maintaining a normal square hold, the man’s right hip and leg will run right into, and be blocked by, the lady’s right hip and leg. There won’t be space to step outside partner without scoliotic (sideways) distortion of the spine.
Advancing the hips at different speeds for the side lead allows a following step outside partner without distorting the hold or the individual partners’ spines.
It’s this kind of enabling technique that permits smooth execution of the figures and dancing. And I think many today don’t realize just how much this enabling technique pervades English ballroom.
He's discussing an idea from physics.
First think of an actual spring you can by at Home Depot. You can compress it. (While you compress, physicists say "you do work on the spring". But while doing work, you also use "energy" in your muscles and to do this work. ( The origin of this energy comes from burning calories-- which are energy stores as things like glucose. Glucose stores "chemical potential energy". )
While the spring in compressed it "stores energy". This energy is often called "elastic potential energy "-- because springs are an elastic element.
If the spring is released, the energy in the spring can be converted into another form of energy. (Notice that one form of energy changed into another form.)
So, for example, if you had a pin ball in front of the spring, the ball could be pushed by the spring and the stored energy in the spring could become "kinetic energy"-- which is "energy in motion".
I described a linear spring-- because you are more likely to have seen that. But torsional spring exist.
In dancing, certain actions load the muscles-- which can store spring like "potential energy". So you store energy in the muscles. Later on other actions allow this energy to be released and transferred to something else. If it's done efficiently, you end up with 'kinetic energy' -- which might be moving your body rapidly across the floor, or could be rotating rapidly.
I don't know if this helps.... but it's what he's talking about.
Mostly people rarely think in this way while dancing. It can be helpful for some... but not always. I have heard of teachers talk about energy, but most only perceive what scientists call "kinetic energy"--- that's in motion. But potential energy is in the muscles.