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A Few Notes
On Advanced Bolero
by Sandi
& Dan Finch
Advanced Bolero isn’t so much about a bunch of new figures, but using
figures you already know in new and exciting ways. Interesting
combinations and changes of timing can add new life to basic figures.
There are only eight Bolero figures standardized at the advanced level
in round dancing (as of 2016), but that is no problem when you can
create excitement from a basic figure. Try turning a turning basic into
a syncopated turning basic and combine it with a pivot into a throwaway
oversway. Do the familiar rumba figures—spot turn, lunge break, curl
& wrap—with Bolero timing. Take the basic right pass and check
the action to make a checked right pass. You learned a half moon to do
the first Bolero taught in round dancing, the classic Sleeping Beauty,
and now you can expand it into a full moon.
The trick to advanced Bolero is maintaining the basic characteristics
of Bolero. Without that, even the bolero basic is just a side step and
rock recover.
CHARACTERISTICS:
The basic characteristics apply throughout the phase levels. Bolero is
known for:
- Feeling: Romantic, emotional
- Timing: Say: Slow (ohhh) Quick Quick to use the music
fully
- Position & Connection: More like smooth
dances when in closed position
- Movement: Smooth, sweeping steps
- Extended leg with pointed toe
- Body rise and fall only (no foot rise)
- No heel leads—steps are generally ball flat
MOVEMENT:
Bolero is the slowest of the rhythms we dance, at 21 to 26 measures per
minute (mpm) compared to rumba at 28 to 32 mpm, or waltz at 28 to 30
mpm. The slow uses two beats of very slow music, so the first
adjustment is learning to use all that extra time.
Almost all Bolero figures start with a side step on the Slow. To start
a figure, you are standing with all weight over one foot with a flexed
(soft) knee, and the free foot extended to the side, leg long and
straight, toe pointed. Skim the free foot to the side on count 1.
Straighten the knee (rise) as full weight goes onto the new standing
foot on count 2. This is the maximum amount of rise to be done. Lower
into the first Quick (small step slipping back for Man). He will dance
forward (more than a replacing) with slight lowering on the second
Quick. As described in our Phase Manual, the transfer of weight between
step 3 and the beginning of the next measure has no rise; the step is
taken in the lowered position with soft knees. That sequence will
create the bolero form of rise & fall to achieve its
characteristic look.
TEACHING TECHNIQUES:
You will have taught the turning basic with its slip pivot type
rotation before getting to advanced work. Make sure that dancers
understand that the turning basic can be done entirely in closed
position with the standard side step to start. It can be dressed up by
adding drama on the first step: Man can step forward and side on the
slow, opening his partner for a kind of high line before the slip. She
will feel a windup into the slipping for the second step. At the
advanced level, the figure can have many different endings: turning
basic with right lunge, turning basic into new yorker, turning basic
with hip rocks. It can be syncopated.
Aida will be taught and cued slightly differently by many advanced
clinicians, to encourage dancers to more emphasize its Bolero
characteristics. Aida in rumba is QQS; in Bolero, the timing is SQQS,
meaning the bolero is done somewhat differently. Cued as just aida,
dancers will turn too quickly to reach the final pose. Try cueing:
prepare the aida (SQQ), aida line (S) and (for example) hip rock (QQ).
Teach dancers to remember that this is the other dance of love as they
prepare the aida, make sure they look at each other and emote before
turning into the aida line. This action is more characteristic of
bolero.
From
clinic notes prepared for the RAL Convention, 2016,
and
reprinted
in the Dixie Round Dance Council (DRDC)
Newsletter, August 2017.
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