I'm confused with the new Intl. Jive basic step. I have learned Jive for 3 months, and its basic step was just like a ECS basic step, as described at ballroomdancers.com :



But yesterday my teacher told me that this is "jump-like" technique, and it is obsolete for now . And he showed me the new "swing-like" basic, which looks like:

1-3 1a2 LF steps close to RF, LF sidesteps away from RF. RF is not moved.

4-6 1a2 RF steps close to LF, RF sidesteps away from LF. LF is not moved.

So there is no more Chasse in the Intl Jive basic step?

I'm confused.

Well, yeah, jive is kind of the international style equivalent of American style east coast swing, sort of standardized and adapted to fit that style. But it's not like they just took the exact same dance and gave it a different name. There are differences in the way swing and jive are danced. It can be a little hard to explain them in words as I noted before, but watch people dancing and you'll see the differences.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

According to what I have written down from an older USABDA rulebook the standard tempi are 44 measures per minute for int'l jive and 36 measures per minut for American east coast swing. That's 176 beats per minute compared to 144 beats per minute if you like that better and/or are more familiar with the way musicians note the tempo. They could have revised the rules since then, but if you go to their web site and look in the rule book (which should be available on line) you can find out what the current standard tempi are.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

Thanks to all of you . . . believe it or not, I do get the picture!

When I compete in the ECS, I am more grounded and into my knees more . . . because that's what the judges are looking for! Although I could argue that some of the songs that I've competed to have been extremely fast . . . in fact, I've competed to some of the songs recommended for jive in another topic - "jive music."

However, when social dancing the ECS, I have a tendancy to combine the two - very high knees, wider foot patterns, and more pointed toes. I really must like the "look" of jive???