"Sorry ,but the problem is before the exit in our case,on the third step of the telamark usually waltz. My wife turns her head to the right and that makes her shoulder turn to the right which turns the top part of her body away from me, I am then forced to exit in her direction since I don't wan't to pull her into the direction I want to go."

You need to talk through the dynamics of promenade openings together.

The open telemark is a reverse turning promenade entry, so your wife should not be turning to the right at all in any part of her body. Instead, she needs to turn left to close to you (think of it as CLOSING to promenade) while leaving her head behind. Her head doesn't turn right, her body turns left without it.

Your job on the open telemark is to leave your frame with your partner, sideways to the direction of intended promenade movement, while opening your hips slightly further. It can really help if you leave the left toe in the position on the floor it had from the first step, dance your opening as a sort of spiral, and only then move the left toe from this original position directly into the third step - if you let your left toe start to close some during the second step, you'll tend to overturn everything in a way that encourages your partner to open out rather than close to your promenade intent.

Sorry .I should have said at the end of the overterned turning lock,promenade position,she may be turning her head to early.

"Sorry .I should have said at the end of the overterned turning lock,promenade position,she may be turning her head to early."

Simpler... natural turning promenade entry, she shouldn't switch her head until she's well on her way to the step out, or even later. Think of different parts of the body going to promenade one after another in a process that takes more than a full beat - with the head last.

Just ask her to try not to go to promenade, and when she can't resist any longer will be about right.

Thanks . will try all.Dave

Dave. This just as a training thing.
Tell your partner on an Open Telemark to keep the head to the left all the time. She will find that her shoulder has come around much further than it would turning the head into Promanade.
At that point the head can turn. In other words finish the move first.

Don. Will try. Thanks

Suomyona. Turning left or turning right as a lady. I struck this one just recently. Man and lady in Ballroom position. Man turns very slightly to the right which is clockwise. (should be felt and not seen). Now the lady turns to the right, and what did she do she turned to her left also anti- clockwise which is the same way that I turned. I had a job to convince her that she should be turning clockwise and not in the same direction as me In the end I said take a pace to your right, now turn to your right which is anti- clock . I think in the Open Telemark you might have made the same mistake. A turning to the left will take her into an open position, a turn to the right will close it and that is what you meant I think. Just out of curiosity try this. Standing in front of the man ask the lady to turn slightly to her right which is against the clock. 9 out of ten will turn the wrong way, that is they will turn clockwise. How I came across this was only a couple of years ago. This teacher must have had the same tape that I had and misread it On it John Wood. says the man turn slightly right , and lady turn slightly to her right which makes our contact point right side to right side. This clown who should have known better had the lady turning away from the man which made it right side to left side almost. Consiquently his couples apeared to have a slight twist in the spine always.

Don, terms like right and left cannot be unambiguously used to describe rotation unless a direction such as that of travel (or impending travel) has been established as a reference.

In the open telemark, the discussion was of the promenade opening, which occurs after the heel turn so the lady's direction of travel has been established as clearly more forwards than backwards. The result of this is that a reverse (anticlockwise) rotation superimposed on her forward travel out of the heel turn would be to her left.

Don. I think you have the lady.s turns mixed up. When she turns her body, shoulder or side to the right she is turning clockwise the same as the man?

Yes, the lady's turn directions work the same as the man's.

In the technique book, right always means natural (clockwise) and left always means reverse (anticlockwise). As a result, they only make sense for the person going forward, no matter if that is man or lady.

Compare man's 456 natural turn to lady's 123 - same directions are given.

When you just say right or left though, and haven't established the direction of travel, it's not possible to know if you mean natural or reverse. However if you've just taken hold, it is a good bet the lady is going backwards. But if you are just standing there talking, that is not clear.