I got told off the other week by a teacher for counting during an AT with a her.

"Stop counting" she said.

"No. I am not counting. I am singing the song". I replied:

I have been biting my tongue on this one Henry but as you have mentioned it several times now I have to say the thought of a strange man "singing softly" in my ear during a dance weirds me out.

I guess we are al different but if I accepted an invitation from a guy I didn't know and he started singling to me I would go out of my way to avoid dancing a second tanda with him. So it just might not be everybody's cup of tea. To me it presumes an intimacy that doesn't exist and since tango involves allowing a stranger into the personal space normal reserved for very intimate friends any further encroachment on my space, even non physical space, would feel really freaky. .

Good point. Thanks. I've only done it with people I have danced several tandas before and reached a level of relaxation. I'll make sure I don't do it with strangers. .

Counting should only be used when learning choreography or steps. Once learnt, the music should be sufficient.

Sometimes it can be difficult to resist singing if it is a song you particularly love, but it can be off-putting to a partner.

Singing itself isn't a problem. There is a guy I dance salsa with who sings along to every track. I don't mind this. In fact I am amused by it because he doesn't speak a word of Spanish so he sings 'aserejè ja de jè de jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva,
majavi an de bugui an de buididipi,
aserejè ja de jè de jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva,
majavi an de bugui an de buididipi '

or wtte.

Its the whispered singing into the ear that is a bit freaky. It seems to me to be a very intimate thing to do. Fine from a lover or a mother but other wise bit eeeeww for me. But if your followers are happy who am I to argue?

You know what the only thing worse than a man counting the steps during a dance?

A man who can't.

Never a truer word.

Won't do it again unless I am sure it will be appreciated.

I'll think the song through and try to sing the lyrics with my lead.

Thanks.

I suppose particularly given that many tango lyrics are about break-ups or unrequited love. And the downside of singing something is that translation is sought. So it becomes a statement rather than just a song. And that's deeper than meant.

http://www.planet-tango.com/lyrics/Poema.htm

That Asereje dictation isn't bad considering the original is mostly rubbish.

http://youtu.be/8D_O4J1U1Z4?t=35s

Salsa lyrics are much lighter and fun.

I hope people don't mind me asking this, but irrespective of what they actually scored, who was technically the strongest tonight? I'm interested to see how they would be marked if the entertainment aspect was removed

I would also be interested in getting an answer to this.

Judging from twitter, James Jordan seems to think Caroline but he is weirdly biased against Frankie who I thought did really well with a tough dance this evening.

Yes me too. I liked Frankie's dance best but I am a sucker for a VW.

Simon's salsa wasn't all bad (music and lifts aside) IMO. The first half was quite reasonable by SCD standards. There were some good double handed turns, which SCD like to call armography, like it is some bolted on style feature. It is simply the consequence of doing turns without an open break.

His footwork could have been better. He wasn't pushing out of the floor enough but more stamping on it. His steps got bigger as the dance went on and he was pulling Kristina over in that series of under arm turns. There were whiffs of disco but all in all it wasn't bad.

for me Frankie was the best technically was a good VW - (think James problem is with Kevin and not Frankie btw) Camilla thought it was worth a 9 or 10

My Father who judged for years (In his eighties now) thought the best tonight was Frankie and Simon

Caroline's routine was good BUT it was too much out of hold and she fluffed it so James was wrong

In my opinion Frankie was the most technically correct. Her footwork, what we saw of it, was pretty accurate. They didn't show the footwork on the fleckerl, but when she did it in training, shown on ITT the other evening, it was very good - and it is very tricky, most SCD couples just do a simple run-around.

Although you didn't ask, I think the worst dance technically was Jake's samba. It was horrendous. The couple of samba steps he attempted were very poorly danced, and the rest was just made-up Dad-Dancing.

I loved Simon's salsa, but apart from knowing his steps were too big, I couldn't comment on it technically as I have never danced salsa.

I am pretty sure the way the feet use the floor in salsa is pinched from Cha Cha and rumba Kaycee. I am pretty sure you can be a fair judge if you look at it with your cha cha specs on. The idea is that you step on the balls of the foot, kiss the floor with heels and push out of the floor with the ball of the feet.

Kaycee my brother always says salsa step wise is similar to rumba too like you is not a dance I have done my brother does but he is out at dance school tonight and not seen the show

That makes sense, thank you.

Something some teachers don't appreciate is that it is not obvious to many a dad dancing bloke that he should land on the beat rather than take off on hearing the beat.

I wonder if those of you who teach have any tips for overcoming this problem.

From time to time we encounter absolutely beginners who don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of weight changes. We have one at present. He is on week 2 of the rudiments course. I can't get him to understand that when he takes a step it means transfer your weight to the other leg and keep it there until the next step.

We do flag up a number of times to all our students (adult who have never danced before in the main) in the early weeks that in dance the term step is synonymous with weight change.

This guy bless him will step onto his free foot, changing weight and then randomly move his weight back again.

So in a side step he will start on the left, for example, step onto the right (all good) then as he brings the feet together for the collect, randomly put his weight back on the left.

If shown a rock step he would stick one foot forward, but rather than step on it simply withdraws it again while remaining fixed on the standing leg.

We have tried demonstration, explanation, appeal to logic, appeal to normality - its the same as walking, But the penny isn't dropping and as I am sure you can see until it does progress is hampered to say the least.

Any tips?

on the bbc twitter they are showing the fleckerl from different view - great feet no tip toeing - proper crosses https://twitter.com/bbcstrictly/stat...81051527221248

Get a recent beginner / improver bloke to help him. They will speak the same language. It is much easier to learn from someone just better than someone who whizzes through it.

Just seen

Troels Bager & Ina Jeliazkova - International Championships 2014

http://youtu.be/TzkX87J0p7s

I don't mean this to sound silly (it's actually quite a common problem) but just get his to walk normally round and round the room, till he gets bored! Then get him to walk again, but this time actually being AWARE of what his feet are actually doing. It can take time, more often or not more than 1 hrs private lesson, but it invariably works in the end.

Get him used to standing on one foot at a time.

Exercise: They / He walk one or a few steps; you call "stop"; he / they have to be on one foot only.

I get confused over the timing in foxtrot. Ive always been taught to step on the count so with a 'slow' the foot is placed on the 1 whilst the next step is dragged out and place on the 3rd count. When I watch the pro's on youtube etc, they seem to count on the passing of the feet. Is this correct?