| Article | : | Dancing Tid-bits Issue #180, Thursday, April 29, 2004.
Today's Topic: The ISTD Test continued, Part 4, Slow Foxtrot
Nothing gets done till the foxtrot is played. This is my favorite of all and I love it.
1. Dance Feather Step, Reverse Turn, Three Step, Natural Turn (123), Closed Impetus and Feather Finish and count in Beats and Bars.
You can almost take it for granted that you will be asked to dance the above basic figures both as Man and Lady. You must show proper Feet Positions, Alignment, good Footwork and maybe a reasonable rise and fall. He (the examiner) does not expect you to dance like a champion but you must show reasonable knowledge and movement and ability to give this info to your student.
He may or may not ask you to count in beats and bars but if he does; no problem. It is easier than any where else. It is all, 1.2-34 (Feather Step), 2.2-34 (Reverse Turn), 3.2-34 (Feather Finish), 4.2-34 (Three Step), 5.2-34 (1/2 of Natural Turn), 6.2-34 (Closed Impetus), and 7.2-34 (Feather Finish again).In other words all steps are SQQ and there are 7 bars of music. It becomes more tricky if you have to count 3 slows for the 456 of Natural. Go AHED and Figure it out.
2. Call Footwork:Almost certain that you will be asked about Footwork. No tricks here. If you are going forward in down position and rising or turning at the end you will feel the HT footwork. If you are UP and coming down it will naturally be TH. If the Lady is going back it is almost always TH even if there is a rise. Remember! she has "No Foot Rise". It is the basis for footwork that you must understand rather than just cram up those terms blindly.Quest ion: When will there will be just 'H'? If there are 2 consecutive forward steps on Heel and there is no riseon the first step it is assumed that toe comes down on the first step but in the Technique book it will say only "H".Actually indeed you will not feel pressure in Toe unless there is a rise or turn.
3. Dance Feather Finish as Lady: Please study it carefully. The steps are simply LF forward, RF to side and LF back, but you spend hours and hours on this one. Remember Lady is going back after the 2nd step and Man has more forward poise so she uses TH on RF even though she is UP. Just remember that there is no such thing as NFR on side steps.She is UP also on LF on step 6 but there is no Foot rise here because she is going back. She must remember to keep the heel to floor when she moves her RF back on step 7 after 6 steps of Reverse Turn or say the 3 steps of the Feather Finish.
4. Dance Lady's Feather Step: It is not that difficult. It is all back, back, back and TH all the way and even though she rises but heels come down to floor (late)and therefore NFR should be mentioned.
I did well and I thought it was exciting? Some of you are saying it is crazy but then that's the way it is, best Wishes, Max |
