Hi to All,

/* I wish to thank Ken Akrill, Fellow and Examiner and author of the UKA Latin technique book for explaining the following. */

In the Latin dances it is often necessary to dance three steps to two beats of music. Originally the common practice was to refer to the timing of each of these three movements as,
Q and Q; or 1 & 2; or 4 & 1 and sometimes when the Time Signature was 2/4 to count the three movements as,
S Q Q.

This terminology for the three movements often lead to confusion and poor interpretation by the dancer.

Now, no difficulty arose due to the use of, S Q Q for the three movements that required a beat division of,
1, 1/2, 1/2, when the Time Signature was 2/4 time, since the three movements took one bar of music with the second beat evenly divided.

The difficulty arose from the use of the same word for a quarter beat. The main objection was the rhythm count of 'and' took too long to enunciate when the beat division was only a 1/4 beat. What was needed then was a word that was phonetically shorter.

It was the late Jack Dixon from Bradford, UK, who suggested that the best method of achieving this was to use the sound of 'a' or 'eh' for all 1/4 beats, irrespective of whether the Time Signature for the dance was 2/4 or 4/4.

He also suggested that the word 'and' could be retained for all half beat movements when danced to a Time Signature of 4/4 time and the term QUICK can be used for the beat division when danced in 2/4 time.

This method of counting was adopted by all dance societies when revising their technique books or when the book came up for a reprint.

Who on earth dances Slows and Quicks in the Samba. You've got me here. What difference does it make if a 1/4 of 1 beat is so in 2/4. A 1/4 of a beat is still a 1/4 of a beat in 4/4. I dont think I have a 4/4 Samba to listen to anyway.

Don,
You are struggling! Here's a life-line for you. Why not revive the Natural Spin Turn. It's quite a while since since you had the pro's laughing about that one.

Why not stick to the Samba. How would Ken Ardel describe a 1/4 of a beat using slows and quicks. A slow is two beats and a quick one. So what does 1/4 of a beat go under the name of acording to Ken or anybody else. As I said . Who dances counting slows and quicks in the Samba.

Sorry, Don, you're still struggling.

"Originally the common practice was to refer to the timing of each of these three movements as,
Q and Q; or 1 & 2; or 4 & 1 and sometimes when the Time Signature was 2/4 to count the three movements as,
S Q Q."

I hope everyone is aware that by custom, these two timings (SQQ vs 1&2) are not simply the same rhythm stated at speeds differing by a factor of two, but instead two fundamentally different rhythms with different internal proportions!

S Q Q with slow defined as equivalent to two quicks (for the rhythm dances or tango) works out to:

long, short short

But 1&2 actually works out to:

short short long

This is because an "&" takes time from the preceding beat, while the number always falls on the beat itself.

The rhythms that actually are comparable (but a factor of two of each other) are instead QQS and 1&2

I hope we are still on the Samba. How does one get the count of 3/4 1/4 1 from Q Q S. Also what needs to be mentioned is that in the Samba the heel must touch the floor on the beat itself and not after otherwise we are chasing the music. So I have been told.