the country waltz

Subject: the country waltz
From: stevethesqueeze
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 09:15 AM

Hi folks

Can anyone help.

Can anyone reccomend a book or internet site that can help me learn to dance the waltz. Not the ballroom waltz but the simple folk waltz sometimes called the one step waltz. I teach a children country dance club and I just can't find anyone locally (the vale of glamorgan wales) or any instruction on how to do it. any help greatly appreciated.

very best wishes

stevethesqueeze

Subject: RE: the country waltz
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 11:14 AM

I would get them to try first without a partner. I think of it as 1 step to move, 2 to change direction.
So all stand in big circle (not holding hands).Start with R foot. 1 step sideways, 2 steps on the spot, turning. You will be facing out with weight on R foot ready to start again with L foot.
Now waltz round the room (anticlockwise, but turning clockwise)to the music without a partner (no overtaking).
Now with a partner, the one with back (dancing as man if you have mixed couples) to centre starts with L foot. Without the music, then (after you've unplaited your legs) with the music.
You will already know that the music is not played at the same speed as a ballroom waltz

Simple.

Hope that helps

Subject: RE: the country waltz
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 11:27 AM

Ermm, possibly.

I can't recommend a book, but that would really be overkill for something so simple. I am assuming you have some good waltz tunes you can play. For teaching beginners, a really strong rythm helps alot. The best and easiest way is for you to find someone to show you in person

The way we teach it, for our country and ceilidh dances in Edinburgh is as follows.

First demonstrate it, just walzing round in a circle. Then, get the class in a large circle, facing inwards, and get them to do the basic step, which is as follows.

With your right leg, step right(1). Then bring your left leg just past it (2) so your legs are crossed, and pivot on your feet, pulling your right shoulder backwards, to turn your body 180' degrees. You then repeat, leading with your left foot.

This is two bars of basic waltz, and the step pattern is RIGHT left right LEFT right left. The emphasis is on the one beat, the side step, and the 2-3, the turn is fairly much on the spot.

Once they have got the basic movement down, get them to face outwards, and do it agin, starting with the left leg. Then, you pair them up in ballroom hold, with the men on the inside, ladies on the outside, so pointing anti-clockwise. Then get them to have a go at waltzing as a couple. The men will start with the left leg, ladies right.

It's not something that easy to describe in words. PM me if you have any questions.

James

Subject: RE: the country waltz
From: Rowan
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 09:04 PM

Many, many years ago (when in 5th Form at Northcote Boys' High School) I convinced the teachers to allow dancing classes after school. The waltz was probably the hardest to learn, for some of the lads. One of my mates never quite managed it; his version of waltzing was to take his partner in the standard ballroom hold and then run clockwise around her. Most of the rest of us (I had a mother who was a ballroom champion so I was blessed in this regard) learned how to waltz by learning how to do a "quarter turn" and just using that.

To see a bunch of boys walking down the corridor from the English room to the Maths room (around a square corner of the corridor, to the right) was truly a sight; all carrying their books, they would reach the corner and do a quarter turn in unison.

With primary school kids (who often seem to expect they'll get germs if they have physical contact with the opposite sex) I often found it useful to avoid asking boys and girls to take a member of the opposite sex as a partner. Instead, I'd tell them that the taller ones were to be called kangaroos and the shorter ones would be called wallabies. All subsequent instructions would be couched in those terms, allowing the kids to sort out their own partnering.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: the country waltz
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 11:16 AM

Quarter trurns, and going clockwise show youre doing a ballroom walz of some kind.

We had a couple from the Czech republic in our group for a few years, and they tried teaching some of the different waltzs they knew.I'm not sure if it's possible to get more confused than I was at the end of that. The hardest thing in dancing is always to take a step you know properly, and then do it just a bit differently.

Subject: RE: the country waltz
From: GUEST,stevethesqueeze
Date: 05 Nov 06 - 06:13 AM

Many thank friends. stevethesqueeze