Has anybody wondered why in the Samba in the technique books some steps are down as 3/4 1/4 1. and some Q Q S.
Botafogas is 3/4 1/4 1. The Samba Locks are Q Q S. There is a reason, and if you unable to answer this and you are are dancing the Samba you would be well adviced to find out.

Hi Serendipity
This is a discussion page, not an exam page. Just tell us, please

Well, a complete beginner mightn't know, or care.

What's your point?

Phil. Any moves with the count of 1 a 2 is 3/4 1/4 1. and you have a Samba Bounce. Any moves which are counted
Q Q S do not have a Samba Bounce.. It is permissable to do two Reverse Turns or two Whisks with each of those counts. On one you would have the Samba Bounce on the other you wouldn't
Its also worth taking a look at the technique within a Samba Bounce. It isn't what most people think it is..
If your head was touching a ceiling and you are standing normal. If you raise your heels and at the same time bend your knees. Your head will stay touching the ceiling. If you lower your heels and at the same time straighten your knees your head will still stay in contact with the ceiling.
To mistakenly bounce up and down like a Yo Yo with your head going through the ceiling is incorrect.I won't try to explain the body tick which also takes place except to say it is forward and back and not side to side. Try that on your Voltas. Good Luck.
Clive Harrison.. It is just as easy to teach correctly as it is not to.

I would have said that it was much easier to teach wrong, than right, given the rubbish written on this forum by posters who seem to have verbal diarrhoea, but the difference between 1 a 2 and QQS is elementary. Only a complete beginner wouldn't know, and only then for a couple of weeks.

BTW, why does everyone dance the samba bounce action exactly opposite (up, not down, and down, not up) compared with the very careful and detailed explanation given by Laird? No one has ever told me that one. Go on: make my day.

Clive-- not everyone, those that know no different perhaps, those that have never been told, and, those that dont care .

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 ;)