I did not see ITT so do not know what Karen said or what she was refering to, but as soon as I see you refer to knees, I assume you mean the awful promenade runs....I nearly spat out my wine in shock, I don;t think I have ever seen them done so badly.

Hi Jennifer nice to see you back and posting | could not believe how bad some of that quickstep was AND how the judges just ignored the faults - selective judging going on imo

Hi Jennifer (pleased this thread has been resurrected!) and Bendy.

Agree with both of you about Peter's quickstep, beyond weird in parts. TBH I couldn't even register the "knees-up" section as promenade runs, though I guess that's what it was meant to be.

As for the judging - do you think none of the judges commented on it because Janette was equally as bad as Peter, and they are not meant to criticise the pros dancing? Peter could only dance what he has been taught; he has no way of knowing any better, so entirely down to Janette.

Definite selective marking, quite blatant. I thought so last week too,
Last week a CCC supposedly...there was little CCC content danced badly. The QS was really quite bad, even taking into account he has not done it before. Most others put in a reasonable to good performance for their dance this week.

Janette's paso does not look much better this week

I don't know if anyone else still cares about this - but I have finally worked out why I can hear He's A Pirate in different time signatures.

It actually is in 4/4 time, but it SOUNDS like it's in 6/8 as the main theme is comprised of triplets.

This video explains it really well;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siowg_ONsZI

Still would not wanna do a paso doble to it though!

But I bet they're going to score him high as always.

Have just listened to the Pirates track for the first time. I think it could be adapted to be really good paso music (note I say adapted) in the same way as a lot of film music and pop songs are adapted for cds produced specifically in strict tempo for bb/Lat dance.

There is definitely a tango version of it that doesn't have the main theme played in triplets. It's the triplets that really stop this being good to dance to (or make it utterly fantastic to dance to depending on how you look at it - I think in the right hands you could choreograph something amazing to it.)

I've also seen a vw version of it only that is much more like the soundtrack version too.

On the subject of the Pirates track, iirc, a few years ago on our (crap) version of SYTYCD, the final 3 boys did a Paso-inspired routine to the song which I think Katya choreographed.

If anyone's able to find it on YT (I'm off to bed), it's the one with Matt, Luke and (my favourite) Lee B in it - I remember that as being brilliant to watch, and I'm not sure if the song was rearranged slightly actually.....

That was interesting. I couldn't do a Paso if I wanted to but I do organise occasional peñas, which are flamenco socials; sort of jamming sessions for Flamenco singers, dancers and musicians. We include a palmas workshop o help get the audience involved. Palmas is the rhythmical clapping.

Clapping along to that clip I could absolutely see the Flamencera doing a figure in which the arm starts high, sweeps down across the body (drawing this sort of shape < but more curved) and out, followed by the opposite arm dong the same thing, to that one, two, three - one two three.

Could you tap to the 4/4 rhythm with the feet (tap probably not the right word) while combining arm movement in 3/4? I think it would be really hard... but maybe easier for a really experienced dancer?

Not a snowball's chance in hell I am sorry to say!

I think the point here is that they did a Paso-Inspired routine, not a paso!

exactly

I said 'Paso-inspired' because I couldn't quite remember how it went, just found the vid though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjU__bmaR4A

Would do the more experienced latin and ballroom dancers think of Jay's jive?

I was really really impressed, but I don't feel like I've danced long enough to judge truly good technique. It "looked right" to me but I coudn't really point out the reasons why...

Karen Hardy on ITT said about carol that she needed to focus on her choreography and less on practicing in hold to rectify her problem of "hanging onto" pasha. I kind of feel like these are seperate problems? Does practicing out of hold make your hold better?

No and Yes!

It's very tempting for a beginner lady learning ballroom with a professional partner, to rely on being led, and they can end up sort of hanging on for dear life, because they don't really know what they are doing.

I think what Karen was getting at, is that when someone learns to do a routine on their own, out of hold, then they will know the routine for themselves. Consequently their hold will be better because they will not have to hang on for dear life, relying completely on their partner.

I have a question that I have meant to ask for a while but keep forgetting. What exactly is "social ballroom"?

When I first started to learn salsa I went to a ballroom teacher (mistake as it turned out) The salsa class was between a jive class and something called social ballroom. This was many years ago and before I would have recognised one ballroom dance from another. So I don't know what it is exactly.

Is it a mixture of all ballroom dances or based on one or indeed none? I
Is it a lead and follow type of dance or is it set figures?
And indeed is it real or just something conjured up to satisfy a marketing need?

An Thropologist. It would be mainly the same dances (except foxtrot, which I'll explain below) but danced in a more relaxed hold (woman not stetched so far left, arms more relaxed, less body contact. Less sway. Steps would be smaller. There may be less fixed routines, and more emphasis on lead and follow, although not necessarily. Most people start with social ballroom and then may or may not move on to more serious ballroom.

Serious ballroom is danced to a more strict technique (e.g. amount of turn, timing and type of rise, use of contra body movement position) although having said that the textbook technique would not necessarily be used for competitons. E.g. You would never dance a spin turn as per text book because it would look a bit static and lacking strength, dynamics and sway.

There is a very clear distinction between social foxtrot and slow foxtrot. The steps are very different and are a lot easier. Bizarrely, you still have to dance the former for medallist exams along with the slow foxtrot, although it is an icebreaker. When I was taking ballroom medallist exams, we'd spend about 5 mins on social foxtrot.

Yes there is such a thing as social dancing and it is very popular, Basically at these social dances, there is a mixture of ballroom, latin and sequence dances. As far as ballroom is concerned, there is lead / follow, especially is you are asked to dance by a stranger, danced in hold but a more condensed hold, Dancing in a competitive style is really frowned upon and is a big no-no. Couples are not moving too much and are simply dancing socially, for enjoyment.

I thought of starting a thread about this and then decided it might be better to post here.

Has anyone here any experience of the posture corrector used by Ainsley? I have a suspicion some viewers might think it was a joke, but I remember when It first came out. I asked my then dance teacher and he was very dismissive, but in any case I assumed it was only useful for men. I had a partner tryout a while ago and the partner's teacher mentioned she used the corrector herself which surprised me. In any case I am having to go through lead steps/technique for my associate exams and so have some interest. Just wondered what people thought?

I thought Ainsley was much improved this week, in all aspects. Obviously he's not in the top half, but after his tango I was expecting a very poor waltz. I think perhaps the bounce we wrongly got from him in the tango was more of an advantage in the waltz.

We have no actual experience from using one, and I feel it would be of no use to an experienced dancer. However for a beginner, it seems to be a great tool to use to get the feel of where the arms should be and to obtain a reasonable posture to start with.

In real competitions, do dancers always tend to dance facing in the judge direction like gymnasts or do they share it around the room a bit?
Are VIP seats just the ones with the tables and booze or all of the front row?