Showing posts with label west coast swing dance tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label west coast swing dance tutorial. Show all posts

Friday 27 July 2012

Tips: Additional Notes on Tension (WCS)

Disclaimer: The notes here are mostly for my convenience. Not everyone will make the same mistakes that I do, so what I state may not apply to you. This is merely stuff that my dance teacher said to me to correct my posture. Check with your dance instructor to clarify your errors. These notes are written in the follower's point of view. Some may work for the leader's point of view but take them at your own discretion.


  • As usual, keep your frame. Your shoulder blades should feel like they're opening up like a ballet dancer's and the rest of your hands are loose and free. Remember to get back into it after moves like underarm pass and outside turns where your arms are raised.
  • There's a tendency to break from the frame when you use up all your rope from the arms during the anchor. So make sure you have enough rope to give tension. You may have to take smaller steps for this. This means less work for the girls, hooray! 
  • The weight of the tension is not by pulling your entire bodyweight back. You're adding tension as you give rope from your arms gradually during the 5 & a 6 & a counts. The "sweet spot" aka maximum tension should be on the 6 & a counts, right before count 1.
  • The best way to know if your tension is right is to feel if its right with you and your partner. Ask his opinion on whether the tension is just right for him or if you feel like a truckload. After all, these are just words on a computer screen, which cannot replace the experience of dancing a partner dance like West Coast Swing. So get out there and start social dancing!

Monday 4 June 2012

Video Vault: Tuck Pass/Turn + Additional Annotations

**Once again, this isn't supposed to replace one's dance instruction, whether it is from a personal/private dance teacher or learning with a group. It's for the convenience of anyone who happens to have learnt the steps and require a few reminders on the technique. And again, if there's any input that you have, please don't hesitate to comment.






  • Jitterbugs WCS1 students: Tuck Turn with Left Side Pass equates to Tuck Pass for us.
  • 0:23 - Girls take note of your frame. Remember to shrug and lock your shoulders back.
  • 0:30 - It's important to also have a compression going on during the counts 3 & before pushing off at 4. Guys don't cushion too much, so the girls don't end up having too much force and too little inertia to push of into the turn. 
  • 0:54 - If I'm not mistaken, guys should cushion by tilting their body leftwards a little bit, but it looks like this guy doesn't. 
  • 0:57 - I remember otherwise: the guy just pushes off, but it would look like the hand is going around the girl's head like a halo, but not intentionally flicking your hand around her head like a halo.
  • 1:04 - Take note of this exercise all the way to the end of the video. Remember that both must exert an equal and opposite amount of force on the other (and if it helps, that was a reference to Newton's 3rd Law of Motion.)

Monday 28 May 2012

Video Vault: West Coast Swing Styling video








As promised, I found a video on YouTube that talks about styling. On the dance floor you may not be thinking much as you dance, so I wouldn't really know how I look when I try out the styling here. I guess it takes practice and lots of confidence to strut your stuff and let loose.

In the meantime, I will be looking at more WCS videos to take inspiration from for styling.