Hello,

My dance partner says that I land too soon on the 3 count in waltz. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can correct this? Would pushing off the supporting leg on the count 1 help? She is becoming very frustrated with me about this. I am not a professional dancer. I seem to have more difficulty if the slow waltz has a very slow (1,2,3). I would welcome any comments from the dance community.

Thanks for reading this message.


Jim

Are you being criticized for arriving on the step too early, or for lowering too early?

One of the real challenges in these dances is to learn to be able to make the movement smoothly continuous, instead of having sharp, disjoint steps.

But moving smoothly into a step, and lowering smoothly to begin the next one, are somewhat different problems.

Still, practicing to extremely slow music may help.

I would say that analyzing your movement will help, stick to what the technique book says. I understand that when you say you arrive early on 3 means you lower too early so it would seem that the problem is in the area of rising and lowering. Technique book states that, step 1 commence to rise, 2 continue to rise and the most important thing is step 3, RISE THEN LOWER AT THE END of 3. if one arrived early on 3 or lower on 3 instead of end of 3, your frontal movement will be much faster than the lady therefore she will have a feeling of being pulled into the following step. Hope it helps.

Thank-you.

I am definitely lowering too soon on count 3. We went to a dance last night and I continue to have the same problem. I did not know that on count 3 that you continue to rise and then lower at the end of count 3. I think I was lowering on the whole count 3. Waltz is my big problem at the moment and it's probably going to take a long time get it right. Does anyone know of any good videos on Youtube etc, or purchased CDs where the waltz technique is explained and executed very well so that a person can follow it. Thank-you for everyone who replied to my message on this message board. I welcome any other comments that dancers may have.


Jim

Jim

Videos are good reference but the explanations on details are somehow limited. I would suggest that you go and get a technique book, ex ISTD technique book. There you will find techniques in details. I would also suggest that you engage a teacher that can explain to you in much further details about lowering and rising. Ballroom dancing is very complex, I believe that the key to improvement is understanding what you are doing, also the focus in details is what will make your dancing much smoother and hopefully better. In my experience as a competitive dancer, the details of the basics is what gives you the foundation into your next stage of improvements. Patience is a must if you want to be a good dancer, it's not only the body that we should train but our mind as well. I have a saying "if you don't understand what you are doing on the floor, you are merely just moving around and you aren't dancing at all"- Romeo Queri

Jim,

As an exercise you might try using one measure to dance steps 1-3 almost as normal, but then use all 3 counts of a second measure to slowly lower. Or you might find it easier to use one measure to go up, hold there for a measure, and then lower over a third measure. If that's still too hard, you can hold onto something and without traveling rise over three counts in place and then lower over three counts.

When you rise your knee should get straight-ish, but still be just flexed enough that it is slightly forward and not locked. As you lower, the knee stays just slightly forward until the heel touches the floor. Once the foot is flat on the floor your continue lowering your body by bending into the knee (and at a more advanced level, this is when you would start pushing your body away from the foot to create movement from the standing leg).

It's good to practice this all near a mirror so that you can see yourself in profile and be certain that your body is remaining vertical with your hips under your shoulders, rather than hunching your shoulders forward, arching your back, or pulling your hips behind your back.

That usually happens to beginners and if she is that good herself she should understand that. What is happening is that your mind knows it just the body hasn't caught up yet. It takes time to wire your muscles to control the balance needed.Ask your Dance Instructor to give you an exercise you can do at home to build your technique correctly to start with.Build on your self balance to the count who knows your partner may even be pushing you off your balance.

As you are a beginner we won't go into to much detail here. The technique book is correct. Beat 1 is very important as that is when you will begin rising. In certain cases you can extend this, so beat 2 becomes shorter but you are extending beat 1. Beat 2 is probably the least important in the movement as by this point you should be 'risen' so to put it. Beat 3 is very important as you begin lowering and must have completed the movement by the end of beat 3.

It is very important to make sure you are counting the rhythm as 1, 2, 3 and not for example as slow-quick-quick as this can make you arrive at beat 3 tooooooooo early, lower toooooo early and as result make the girl feel like she is being forced into the movement.

An exercise you can try is simply practising the movement to music. You can try walking with a 1,2, 3 and try rising by the end of 1, staying on the toes by the end of 2 and making sure to have completely lowered by the end of 3 in such a manner that you are now ready to start the next movement as expected.

I think the key here is technique in when you rise and fall, and finally in understanding the rhythm. Also check your partner is not lowering too early as well, although this is unlikely as you are leading.

Also try elongating your steps as this looks nice but might help you arrive at beat 3 by beat 3 rather than before it. Be patient and work at this, because as the technique improves, the dance becomes easier and the waltz looks pretty. Bad rise and fall and technique in a waltz is a complete NO NO!!

Good luck Jim!

I have to disagree slightly. You should not rise on 'one'. You should stay low and start to rise on 'two' , be fully up on the start of 'three' and then low on the end of 'three'. The rise and fall will look odd and clunky if there isn't an obvious low step. One exercise you can do to help with rise and fall is foot pushups. With knees slightly bent, rise up on your toes and then slowly lower onto your heels. Take you time lowering and control the speed. They take strength and practice not to wobble.

In (for example) the simple Waltz box, the man's "one" step is a forward walking step--a heel lead. The natural action of the foot is for the heel to strike the floor first, then the foot rolls forward, and it "walks" up to the toe as the other leg moves forward. So, staying down until "two" is unnatural--and it looks awkward. I agree with the poster(s) who say the rise begins at the end of 1.