Round Dance Tips by Tim Eum—

Slow Two Step 

BASIC — Side, then cross in back, recover.

Most slow two step figures begin with a slow side step.  The Basic then continues with a quick cross in back (XIB) and recover.  Often the Basic is done in pairs, first to man’s left and then his right and is thus cued “Basics Left and Right.”

This figure begins with picking the lady up, but it is done with the outside foot so it feels a little strange until you get used to it.  In order to pick up, the lady must step in front of the man turning left face.  On her next two quick steps she continues turning left face in a twirl two under the lead hands.  Often a common mistake is for the lady to go more towards center of hall instead of towards line of dance (LOD) – doing this pulls the partners apart.  While the lady twirls, the man must run forward two quick steps angling to his right.  If the lady correctly travels diagonally towards LOD and the man runs two they will successfully be together and can complete the figure by toe turning to face each other.  Most often the following figure is a Side Basic Ending (slow side, cross in back, recover).

CROSS CHASSE —Cross in front, side, cross in front again.

 This is a new unphased figure (approximately phase 4) that has shown up in some recent dances like “The Rose.”  Note that although it is like a Crab Walk, the timing here is Slow Quick Quick.  In Slow Two Step you do not do Latin motion but instead “travel” more by taking longer steps.  One side note is that the quickstep Cross Chasse is a totally different figure (It is a Fwd, -, Sd, Cl; XIF, -)

TRIPLE TRAVELER — Start and end the Slow Two Step Triple Traveler like a Left Turn with Inside Roll and Basic Ending.

Many have trouble with the Slow Two Step Triple Traveler.  What many do not realize is that if they know how to do a Left Turn with Inside Roll and Basic Ending, they already know two of the four measures that make up the Triple Traveler and that another measure is simply walking forward slow, quick, quick.  That means that they have to concentrate on only one measure to get the whole figure to work beautifully.

The first measure is simply the Left Turn with Inside Roll.

The second measure, the Lady simply walks forward 3 (SQQ).  The Man must step forward and do a left face spiral and then run two.  The spiral is a full turn done on the toe (one of the most difficult things to do).

The third measure, the Man simply walks forward 3 (SQQ).  The Lady steps forward slow and then rolls right face in two quick steps with lead hands circling clockwise and joined throughout.  Two things to watch are the lady turning too early (do not turn on the first slow step) and the lady rolling into the center instead of towards LOD.

The fourth measure is simply the Basic Ending.  Turning to face partner, each steps slow side, XIB, recover

Tim Eum originally prepared these Tips for
Calls 'n' Cues, (WASCA);
and reprinted in the Dixie Round Dance Council
(DRDC) Newsletter, April & May 2009