Thanks.

I only meant that the man's palm was facing upwards in the preceding L to R hold, so it seems easiest, in moving to the new hold, to keep the arms in that position, rather than reverse them. Obviously, both will have palms down in the new hold.

I assume this is in the Sun Samba.
If so just put your arm behind your partners neck in a close side by side position. It does not matter whose arm is on top, whichever is comfortable.
After the walks, kick and walks back, move apart with the ball change and slide your hands down each others arms to take L to R hand hold.


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Sorry for the double post. I'm on holiday and using a foreign system. I'll try to delete this message but so far have failed.

Yes, this is the Sun Samba. It looks like a very simple routine that might suit a class of complete beginners to tackle. What does anyone think of THAT idea?

BTW, the sequence appears to end with standard "Samba Side Chasses", and the script that I have times the figure 1a2a12, when I have always timed this figure 1&2&12 (QQQQSS). Is this a script error, or a legitimate alternate timing. Which do we prefer?

well this isnt a standardised figure. and theres no technical reason to favour one over the other. beware, though because a lot of today's scripts do have errors. in these cases i would not adhere to the scripts. if ever any of these dances were adopted for medal tests etc. they would have to be rescripted anyway.

as for the sun sumba - depends what youre looking for, but I think you could do better. have a look at shadow samba (also on Christchurch). simple (ie botofogos, voltas, whisks, samba walks), yet authentic samba figures true to the rhythm. the sun samba is more of a "fun dance".

I suppose the question might be whether the creator of the script intended to end the sequence with Samba Side Chasses, or some similar side-closes: but surely, Side Samba Chasses IS a standard figure, and Laird gives no alternate timing. My copy is 6th Ed. (2003), and the figure is charted on p78.

I've been asking around, this week, at a couple of social dances in my area, and I find that this particular sequence is the only samba regularly danced at typical 50:50 dances - so I might stick with it for now, but I'll take a look at the alternative you mention. Thanks.

sorry ..... i forgot this figure became standardised in 2003. i still tend to use my older editions for reference.

The "a" timing is used on going from one open position to another ie moving the foot through a relatively large distance whereas the movement to a close is much smaller. The normal bounce action would I think naturally pull the non-standing foot through to a close by the second 1/2 beat.

Laird writes

"The rhythmic interpretation required is unusual for this fig. A slight Samba Bounce Action is achieved by pushing off the standing foot from a compressed knee."

yes - but, contrary to how it might be read (and I think it is misleading), it is not the bounce action that is unusual - that is fairly standard (albeit reduced) it's the combination of normal bounce and an unusual step size that produces the different timing.

I can't see how the step size can be "unusual", because the chart says nothing about the step size (which, surely, must depend on the couple and the available space). What are prescribed are the timing and the method by which the bounce action is achieved. I would say the step size is incidental to both.