As a lady make sure you know the mans steps. As you complete the cross the man is on his two toes with his feet together on the spot Hoping to lower verticaly. Because of the nature of the step at the end your feet are crossed up. The experienced lady dancer knows that her next step into maybe a Open Telemark. The first step must not be taken under her own hipline, but out of it. Otherwise the alignment will be severly underturned. Then the wrestling commences followed by the argument.

I beg to disagree!

While the description of the man's part is more or less accurate visually, he will be standing on his right toe only. He must not have weight on both toes, or the lady will be unable to complete the couple's turn as she dances her cross. It's important for the man to neither rush nor retard the lady as she finished her action.

"The first step must not be taken under her own hipline, but out of it."

I'm not sure if you are referring to the first step of the double reverse, or the first step of a following figure, but regardless, the lady always steps under her own body on the first step, because she moves her body not her foot. She must never step with her foot alone while leaving the body behind. Failure to maintain the body in vertical alignment over the foot when entering a heel turn will result in off balance posture and a forcibly faked heel turn.

The lady will finish with her feet crossed. She must clear a path for the man and not occupy the space that he needs. Try the ladies step and see were it finishes. If you stay in that finished position and extend your right leg back under your body line you will have difficulty with, for instance a Open Telemark. Just try it.

"Try the ladies step and see were it finishes. If you stay in that finished position and extend your right leg back under your body line you will have difficulty with, for instance a Open Telemark. Just try it."

The reason you have to do this is only because you are approaching the action of stepping incorrectly. One should not extend the leg to take a step, rather one first moves the body and the leg swings naturally underneath it, without nearly as much specific effort.

Because the step features CBM, the hips will turn as the body is moved for the step. This provides sufficient "uncrossing" and means that the leg falls in the proper position, out of the partner's way. Any subsequent extension of the leg itself will go in the proper direction because the hips are already directed there.

I wondered how long before CBM came into this. It is exaxctly as i wrote. If you apply CBM unless you get into something like a Yoga position. Doesn't the leg alter its position in relation to the body Try it. This is happening all the time. Step four Spin Turn Waltz. The mans step will actually move to diag wall 'naturally .Whilst the ladies step goes down the line of dance.
For the man this is a very polite way of moving out of the ladies space', allowing her to swing past and not dawdle or be pulled through. Also ladies turn your head a little more to the left on step four making sure that your head arrives last of all. Try , if you don't like then dont do.

"If you apply CBM unless you get into something like a Yoga position. Doesn't the leg alter its position in relation to the body Try it."

When you apply CBM, the position of the leg with respect to the body does indeed change, but stated against this frame of reference it's very confusing. CBM requires that the orientation of the hips in the room change, but it does not required the orientation of the leg to change (yet). So if the hips turn and the leg goes straight, then the body-leg relationship has changed. In most swing dance figures, alteration of the actual direction in which the legs swing over the floor is not advisable until step 3.

From the lady's cross in the DRS, she can in fact step straight down LOD into another heel turn simply by using CBM to neutralize her hips. But even if you desire to send her more to DC to accomplish a lot of turn (open telemark ending LOD?) All that is required is that you send her body in the proper direction. We never send a leg anywhere on step one - we send the body, and the leg finds itself underneath.

I should have put this in before. On the Double Reverse Spin both the man and the lady turn your head , for want of a better description, Hard left. Try it it solves a lot of problems and makes the step a breeze. From the preceeding step usually a Reverse Fallawy get the head over before the Slip Pivot and hold it there through the Double Reverse into the Open Telemark.

"I should have put this in before. On the Double Reverse Spin both the man and the lady turn your head , for want of a better description, Hard left."

Yes, one school of thought holds that the use of reverse CBM is first visible in the hips and head, but no so much in the shoulders. So in the initial stages of a reverse turning action, the lady can have a feeling of really looking over her shoulder.

As leader I'm going to have to experiment with keeping my head left - I know I usually allow it to spot somewhat in a telemark, so it will be interesting to see if this helps magnify the difference.

I would like to know if anyone both man or lady on a Double Reverse Spin have tried keepng their head hard to the left through the Double Reverse into an Open Telemark, and found that it does not help make the move more flowing and less like a wrestling match.

Hi Don, I started this thread to better understand the DRS and am so pleased that people have discussed the before and after moves namely fallaway, slip pivot and the open telemark respectively. During this time I have been having private lessons and yes the left lead helps alot. This is head and shoulders in a "left lead" position. I have also learned that the lady needs to execute the slip pivot correctly in order for the DRS to be comfortable. My problems were "not turning the whole body throughout the pivot" and "not allowing the man to move first after the slip". The whole sequence is now much smoother. Cheers Sandra