Can anyone explain the technique of a syncopated hustle?

Thank you!

That's a pretty broad question. Perhaps you could narrow it down a bit. Also, by "syncopated Hustle", do you mean the regular Hustle danced to the counts &123 (or 123&), or is there some sort of specific regional variation called "Syncopated Hustle" I'm not aware of?

Regards,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan!

Thank you for trying to reply to my question! I am still a beginner, especially in Hustle. During last practice I saw someone doing a syncopated step in hustle. I was trying to repeat, but could not, though it seemed easy. I really do not know the difference between the two counts you mentioned. So, what I want to know is what is the technique to produce this syncopated step. I am sorry if I am still confusing!

Thanks!

Let me try to help by describing the problems I had a few weeks ago when first learning the Hustle.

I found the timing, &123 hard to follow, because I assumed that the "1" in there fitted cleanly on the "1" of a bar (measure) of music. So I assumed that there was a pause on "4". At that point I realized I was doing things more slowly than others.

My next assumption was that I was doing it at half speed, so I tried fitting &123 into 2 beats. That is crazily fast.

Finally after doing some more watching, searching etc, I discovered that the &123 timing uses just 3 beats of music. The next &123 starts straight away. So if we count the beats of three bars as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 we dance 4 groups, with timings as
&1 2 3
&4 5 6
&7 8 9
&10 11 12

and then we're back on "1".

This is probably why the term "syncopated is used. It's not a normal form of musical syncopation, but the timing moving within bars creates a syncopated feel.

With this explanation, take a look at the hustle clip on dancevision's site and you'll see what I mean.

I hope this helps.

I think I got it!!! Looking forward to practicing it at a next practice.

Many-many thanks!

Another way that some people use that term is when you kick on 1, giving you +123, then +kick+23.

Some dancers break their basic into 2 halves for a 6 count basic, and delay the 1st +1, giving you 1+2 3+4 5 6. Or 1+23 +123. Interestingly all of these rhythms will be glossed as +123.