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PREVIOUS
Third
Lesson
The
next day they learned something about a
whole body pivot in which he reached out
to touch the floor with his toes turned
partly in the direction into which he
wanted to pivot, then transferred his
weight onto the ball of the new foot
moving his body fully into the new
direction, finally settling onto this
axis as he found his balance once more.
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| They applied this
new skill to a move called a Forward Ocho in which
he had to invite his follower to step
around his side, pivot, return, and,
pivotting once more, face him as they had
started.. He found
the simplest way to lead this move was
from the fifth step of the Basic 8. By
turning slightly to his left and changing
his weight onto his left foot, he could
unwrap his follower's right foot from
behind her crossed left foot and, by
taking a half-step back on his right foot
and pointing it at 45 from him, draw his
follower forward around him, leading with
her right foot, as he turned the right
side of his torso so that his upper chest
was eventually at 90. By waiting until
her weight had transferred onto her right
foot, he found he could pivot her so she
accompanied him back to their original
position as he turned his chest back to
the front. He found that his follower
would continue repeating these ochos
until he - eventually - ended the move by
bringing his right leg back to join his
left as she resumed her original position.
They were then ready to complete the Basic 8 from his
left foot forward.
Then
they found how to adapt the Basic 8 by
pivotting appropriately before taking any
of his forward or side steps. He could
see this would give him far greater
flexibilty on a dance floor.
Finally
that day Marta and Manuel showed them how
to simplify the Basic 8; by-passing
steps 5 and 6 to make a six-step box
movement with optional pivots on many of
the steps.
He
felt he knew enough to move around a
dance floor - provided noone was watching!
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