It Can’t Be That Easy

On my last couple of lessons, we’ve been working on footwork in the rhythm dances. More about trying to be grounded meaning that some part of the foot generally remains in contact with the floor. In the midst of that, PJ decided to add a new Mambo step to our pattern because our little Mambo pattern is relatively short and we end up looping it multiple times at Showcases.

I don’t know who comes up with the names of the various steps at the Famous Franchise. Sometimes, they are just basic descriptors of the actions and other times, they just seem to be words that may or may not be related to the actual movements.

This one was in the first category – Open Box and Runaway. Shown above is the basic box step. Start with your feet together. Left foot forward, right to the side, bring the left in to close the feet, right back, left to the side and then bring the right in and close the feet. Called a box step because it obviously traces a box on the floor.

In the open box, you leave the box open although it may be more like when you flatten a box for recycling. Guess Flat Box wasn’t a good name. Really just changes the third and sixth step because you don’t bring the feet together but pass one by the other. In dance instructor terms, it is typically stated as Forward, Side, Back, Back, Side Forward. So the left goes forward, the right goes to the side and the left goes backward. Then the right goes back, the left goes to the side and the right goes forward.

There’s rotation involved so it does move down the floor but it is pretty standard in all the dances.

In the runaway, you lead the lady to turn away from you and then she’s moving forward (in front of you) while you come after her. Hence the runaway. Then, you lead her to turn back towards you and you move backwards as she comes forward to get back into frame.

The step finishes with a second open box and then you are free to go back to a basic or some other pattern.

Anyway, the idea as you get further along is to lead through the body and not the arms. I was trying to follow what was being suggested – it was being described as some kind of hip settling so I was doing my version of it. My hips settled a long time ago so I’m not really sure how much more they can do.

It was at a point where I could make the pattern work but I wasn’t convinced I was actually leading it the way it should be lead. Just a little bit of overthinking which I’m good at but it was because I couldn’t translate what I was hearing into the right body action. Or at least I had convinced myself that I wasn’t doing it right.

Because this was a new step, PJ had booked one of the other instructors to come out for a bit to help us through any rough patches. After we did it once, he thought it looked fine and was wondering what the issue was. It can be rough to explain my thought processes since it typically comes down to me just feeling like I’m doing something wrong. I mean there has to be more to it. It can’t be that easy!

But we did discuss the whole lead and “settling” and he phrased it differently – talking more about using rotation to make the leads happen. Well that just made more sense to me. If it was a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over my head. Funny how choice of words can make a big difference when you are trying to learn something.

Anyway, we did it several more times and it seemed to be working just fine. I mean three instructors said it looked good so I should probably just believe them and accept it. Still kind of walked away thinking it just couldn’t be that easy and that maybe there was something I was missing.

We found a place for it in our pattern and now we won’t have to loop it as much. The open box does travel so that might also be good as it can change our position on the floor. So it was a very good lesson.