WCS Rueda

[swing4life]

Recently at a WCS practice, a bunch of us decided to have fun during a song where we interchanged partners. Wondering if anyone else has done this? I've heard Lindy Hoppers do this alot but I hardly hear it done in WCS. The closest thing I've seen is for a "birthday dance" where the birthday person whether leader or follower gets a dance and is switched off from one person to another. What I want to know is from those whose done it, when or where in a movement have you found it best to initiate the interchange (do the switch/jump in between)?

 

[kansas49er]

I haven't done it personally, but at the 2003 Dallas Dance Convention, in the Masters Strictly Swing contest, it was all over the place. Each couple did a spotlight, then their was supposed to be a one song group dance for final comparisons. Imagine the judges conflict when all the couples, throughout the song, continued exchanging partners. Some smoothly, some not so smoothly. It was great!

 

[leftfeetnyc]

At most I've seen a few pros messing around with this. This past weekend in Reno Myles Monroe, Doug Silton and Chuck Brown were doing something similar with Edwin Li as follower...but that was more for humor sake and seeing how outragous they could be.

I have seen it more with hustle here in NYC, among pros and ams at 92Y and Empire Dance.

 

[Beto]

Recently at a WCS practice, a bunch of us decided to have fun during a song where we interchanged partners. Wondering if anyone else has done this? I've heard Lindy Hoppers do this alot but I hardly hear it done in WCS. The closest thing I've seen is for a "birthday dance" where the birthday person whether leader or follower gets a dance and is switched off from one person to another. What I want to know is from those whose done it, when or where in a movement have you found it best to initiate the interchange (do the switch/jump in between)?

I have a small video clip (just over 4MB) of 2 WCS couples exchanging partners back at the Palm Springs New Years Event (02/03). If you want I can e-mail it you as it gives one example of this.

 

[jon]

Recently at a WCS practice, a bunch of us decided to have fun during a song where we interchanged partners. Wondering if anyone else has done this?

There was that Fourplay routine, and occasionally you'll see a steal, but it's much more common in Hustle. More likely to see a WCS leader with two followers, but even that is uncommon.

 

[swing4life]

Eventhough they're uncommon, it's still done. And when it's done, most of the time, it's done well. I am wondering from those whose done, if there are any tips to doing it?

 

[swing4life]

It seems like there's something called 'Fourplay' that touches upon what I'm getting at. REFER TO TOPIC: "FOURPLAY"

 

[tsb]

i have done rueda in salsa for a number of years & i recently danced one in lindy.

we adopted the salsa convention of having leaders facing clockwise in their slots while followers faced counterclockwise. in this configuration, any swingout(whip) move incorporating a release at the end will allow you to follower to move to the next leader (who must turn around to receive the next partner). after that pass, we went back into an ECS basic starting with the rockstep (incorporating the follower's momentum) and then used a tuck/turn to start various swingout (whip) figures in the configuration noted above.

to make any rueda work, attention must be paid to "drift" so that couples remain equidistant to facilitate the pass as well as to minimze collisions.
everyone must be on the same page concerning terminology - with terms short enough to be called quickly. obvsiously, everybody must be at a certain proficiency level to be able to perform the figures called. and the figures should be called with sufficient lead time to allow the dancers to process the call mentally & respond. and while mistakes can be made, better to be ready for the next figure than to try and rectify the mistake.

i hope this helps.

 

[Spitfire]

I've yet to see it done in WCS, but in LH and ECS this is done in what's called a "snowball".

 

[DWise1]

I've yet to see it done in WCS, but in LH and ECS this is done in what's called a "snowball".

Probably different uses for the same term, but the only "snowball" I've seen was a mixer at a Lindy venue in which everybody stood around a single couple. Then the caller/DJ would call to "find a new partner". Everybody who'd been dancing went to the surrounding circle and got a new partner -- if they couldn't get to anybody in the circle then they'd hook up with somebody they hadn't danced with yet. First one couple, then two couples, then four, then eight, then sixteen, etc, until finally everybody was dancing.

 

[swing4life]

Recently at a WCS practice, a bunch of us decided to have fun during a song where we interchanged partners. Wondering if anyone else has done this? I've heard Lindy Hoppers do this alot but I hardly hear it done in WCS. The closest thing I've seen is for a "birthday dance" where the birthday person whether leader or follower gets a dance and is switched off from one person to another. What I want to know is from those whose done it, when or where in a movement have you found it best to initiate the interchange (do the switch/jump in between)?

I have a small video clip (just over 4MB) of 2 WCS couples exchanging partners back at the Palm Springs New Years Event (02/03). If you want I can e-mail it you as it gives one example of this.

Sure I'd like that. You can email it to swing4life@myway.com