Well, look at the "Rhythm Bounce" clip on this site. That's what everyone does. But it is the opposite of what Laird writes.

I have to assume that I am misreading/misinterpreting what he said: but his diagrammatic representation is unambiguous. Knees straight on 1, compressed on &, straight again on 2, compressed on &.

I stand, as an exercise, and make the opposite 1&2&1&2& bounce (just like everyone does), and have no trouble in overlaying a 1 a 2 step pattern. I can't do it the other way. Perhaps it's just me?

CliveHarison. This is a Reverse Basic You step forward on the LF on one and compress your knees. On (a) you straighten the knees. You use partial weight on the RF at the end of (a). Then on two you transfer the weight back to the LF. The knee compesses and then it straightens on ( a) again.
Get the heel down on the beat, which means the toe arrives before the beat. And don't get a sideways movement of the hips. All very simple to explain.
If you arrive on a knee that is straightish and then bend you wont be far wrong for the International Style of Samba. Voltas the same. Down on one . Up on (a). Down on two and so on.
Now how are you going to perform a Botafogo which is 3/4 1/4 1. It might prove difficult to do the first step with a straight knee. That's if I read you correctly. Let's not forget the heel is down on the beat and the action is the same on all steps that are counted 3/4 1/4 . What confuses some people is the count on two bars
of Voltas. How does it finish with a whole beat. Because there are seven steps and eight beats that's why the last one is one beat.

More or less - but I wouldn't agree that the timing of the bounce coincides with the 1 a 2 step rhythm, which has its own 1 & 2 & timing, so that the "a" step is "between states" (ie about half way between having flexed knees and straight ones) - but are we straigtening or relaxing on "a"?

However, what I see on the dance floor, on loads of prefessionally produced DVDs and on the "Bounce Action" clip on this site ISN'T what Laird describes: but the exact opposite.

Does anyone know why the whole dance world has adopted an aspect of technique that is 100% different from the acknowledged technique reference - or is there any other legitimate way to interpret what he writes?

I think Laird's desciption is really a little bit confusing but can be interpreted the way we usally dance the bounce when we read "straightened" as "release the compression".

So it shall mean not to get onto a complete straight leg, but more straight than totally compressed. By that description Laird points out that on the "up-movement" the knees have to be compressed, and that because we don't want to get a head rise. Logically the next position after compressed has to be straightened. But when I descibed the bounce technique I would say after the point of compression at the "&a" the leg is nearly straight while moving without weight and a little bit bended again while taking full weight at the full beat. But we have to notice: this is not so much compressed than at the "up-movement" - it's "more straight" - Laird doesn't describe wrong but not detailed enough, like in many other parts of his book.

The last question to be considered is why he painted the curve in the diagramme the other way round.
I would say this is not the visualisation of the "up-movement" which we shouldn't dance except we are beginners. He named it "beats", so it may be only a graphic interpretation of the music ;)

having been around Scriv. for many yrs (lessons , lectures etc. )this is what you may deduce.

Altho. written in very simple terms, one had to understand the sometimes more complex nature, of incorporating many of his theories, to practice .

Len always dealt with the more advanced students and Nellie worked with the beginners, hence one finds his writings pointed in that direction.

If I remember correctly, the ISTD got the bounce description back to front in their 2000 re-issue of the samba manual and had to publish an errata sheet.

I think it is a misreading of Laird's diagrammatic presentation of the bounce action to say that the wavy line is headed "Beats": it isn't. My edition (6th, 2003) has one line headed "beats" across the top of the diagram, with arrows pointing to the compressed/straightened knees position over 1/2 beats, and another line at the bottom headed "timing" with & 1 & 2 & 1 etc. The wavy line printed between those two lines goes up and down, just as the body might with the flexing of the ankles and knees. I flex my knees, and my body goes down - I straighten them, and it rises again. That's just what I see on the Bounce Action clip on this site: (and not, BTW, heels rising and falling to compensate for the knee movement, so that the head remains still - they don't, and Laird doesn't even mention the concept of such a movement).

The thing that continues to trouble me is that what Laird describes is the opposite of what I see - and I can't physically do it, if I try.

Is it just a misprint, with the diagram screwed up?

CliveHarrison. If you can understand the descriptions of the Samba Basic action from the writtings on page 52 by Wally Laird you'd be a marvel. He is probably correct in the way he wrote, he was a very clever man. But it goes right over my head.The person I go to was taught by Wally and the first step of a Volta is down onto a bent knee. The second step is up with the heel off the floor staying at the height it started with. Having said that if on the first step if my knee bends it must have been straight to start with. We could argue for ever is the knee up or is it down on step one.
One of the big mistakes that has since been corrected is that on a Reverse Basic the second step now has no weight on it. The reason it has been altered is that to do it the old way was encouraging people believe there was a hip movement sideways when the hips are supposed to be forward and backwards, not sideways. I have been told to remember that throughout the Samba the solid beat one or two is down.The (a) is up.All this without putting your head through the ceiling.
Even on a Beginners tape with David Sycamore which is all of 18 years old. He suggests that we lower and raise our knees like a bouncing a ball. One is down, (a) is up. That hasn't changed.Good Luck. In the Samba you'll need it, in this the hardest dance of them all..

It goes right over mine too. I just don't get it.

Like you, I agree that Samba technique is the hardest of all the latin dances, but for myself, I have never had any trouble with the bounce action: I have a very strong sense of rhythm (I'm a trained musician, and a percussionist, at that), and the "down" on the first step of a volta fits perfectly with dancing Laird's technique reversed. Hell, it's what EVERYONE does - why should I worry about it?

I do worry about you claiming that "a" is up: the beats "1", "2" may be down (sorry, Wally), but "a" comes exactly BETWEEN & and 1 or 2 - and it is the "&" which is "up". The "a" step is right in the middle of the flexing/straightening movement, so actully coming "down" too. That is why we have to overlay the 1&2&1&2& bounce with the 1 a 2 1 a 2 step pattern, so that we get, in combination, 1&a2&a1&a2.

The beats go 1/2 /12 1/2 1/2, but the steps 3/4 1/4 1 3/4 1/4 1 - unless of course we have a QQS - and we ALL know what that means, don't we?

"what Laird describes is the opposite of what I see"

It's probably not really. There is a lot happening in samba. There's too much for us to see and say at the same time so we use shortcuts. We say what we feel, then the brain pulls what we say into time with a rhythm, but we may not be doing what we think we are when we think we are.

We are conditioned to think of voltas as DOWN up DOWN up DOWN up DOWN, so we associate the first step as being on the first beat with a compressed knee.

It is interesting that in latin we use the terms Up and Down where we might use Rise and Lower in standard ballroom. Up and Down are positions but we are using them as actions which can cause confusion.

When we place the foot we are Up from the previous step and the knee is 'straightened' which matches Laird's description. We immediately compress the knee so that we are Down for the '&' count before rising again to neutral for
'a' and continuing up so that the knee is again briefly straightened for the next step on 2, then immediately compressed again.

When we demonstrate or practice the steps to our own count we tend to spread the vocalisation of "one" to cover the timing of 1& so we feel as if the step is Down.