Hello,

My dance partner says that I land too soon on the 3 count in waltz. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can correct this? Would pushing off the supporting leg on the count 1 help? She is becoming very frustrated with me about this. I am not a professional dancer. I seem to have more difficulty if the slow waltz has a very slow (1,2,3). I would welcome any comments from the dance community.

Thanks for reading this message.


Jim

Are you being criticized for arriving on the step too early, or for lowering too early?

One of the real challenges in these dances is to learn to be able to make the movement smoothly continuous, instead of having sharp, disjoint steps.

But moving smoothly into a step, and lowering smoothly to begin the next one, are somewhat different problems.

Still, practicing to extremely slow music may help.

I would say that analyzing your movement will help, stick to what the technique book says. I understand that when you say you arrive early on 3 means you lower too early so it would seem that the problem is in the area of rising and lowering. Technique book states that, step 1 commence to rise, 2 continue to rise and the most important thing is step 3, RISE THEN LOWER AT THE END of 3. if one arrived early on 3 or lower on 3 instead of end of 3, your frontal movement will be much faster than the lady therefore she will have a feeling of being pulled into the following step. Hope it helps.

Thank-you.

I am definitely lowering too soon on count 3. We went to a dance last night and I continue to have the same problem. I did not know that on count 3 that you continue to rise and then lower at the end of count 3. I think I was lowering on the whole count 3. Waltz is my big problem at the moment and it's probably going to take a long time get it right. Does anyone know of any good videos on Youtube etc, or purchased CDs where the waltz technique is explained and executed very well so that a person can follow it. Thank-you for everyone who replied to my message on this message board. I welcome any other comments that dancers may have.


Jim

Jim

Videos are good reference but the explanations on details are somehow limited. I would suggest that you go and get a technique book, ex ISTD technique book. There you will find techniques in details. I would also suggest that you engage a teacher that can explain to you in much further details about lowering and rising. Ballroom dancing is very complex, I believe that the key to improvement is understanding what you are doing, also the focus in details is what will make your dancing much smoother and hopefully better. In my experience as a competitive dancer, the details of the basics is what gives you the foundation into your next stage of improvements. Patience is a must if you want to be a good dancer, it's not only the body that we should train but our mind as well. I have a saying "if you don't understand what you are doing on the floor, you are merely just moving around and you aren't dancing at all"- Romeo Queri

Jim,

As an exercise you might try using one measure to dance steps 1-3 almost as normal, but then use all 3 counts of a second measure to slowly lower. Or you might find it easier to use one measure to go up, hold there for a measure, and then lower over a third measure. If that's still too hard, you can hold onto something and without traveling rise over three counts in place and then lower over three counts.

When you rise your knee should get straight-ish, but still be just flexed enough that it is slightly forward and not locked. As you lower, the knee stays just slightly forward until the heel touches the floor. Once the foot is flat on the floor your continue lowering your body by bending into the knee (and at a more advanced level, this is when you would start pushing your body away from the foot to create movement from the standing leg).

It's good to practice this all near a mirror so that you can see yourself in profile and be certain that your body is remaining vertical with your hips under your shoulders, rather than hunching your shoulders forward, arching your back, or pulling your hips behind your back.

That usually happens to beginners and if she is that good herself she should understand that. What is happening is that your mind knows it just the body hasn't caught up yet. It takes time to wire your muscles to control the balance needed.Ask your Dance Instructor to give you an exercise you can do at home to build your technique correctly to start with.Build on your self balance to the count who knows your partner may even be pushing you off your balance.