Recovering Balboa Phrasing
Hi BalPals,
I've been dancing Balboa for a couple of months now and have a reasonable repertoire of moves. Still working on leading these confidently socially but there's one sticking point that consistently trips me up.
- Loss of phrasing
I come from a background in playing swing music so I have a really strongly ingrained sense of phrasing (ie. 8 beats, 2-bar call and response). I know ultimately this doesn't matter - there's no harm in leading off a basic on 5. I know the better you dance that this matters even less - the most impressive dancers I know seem to work effortlessly over the top of the phrasing.
The problem is I'm in this awkward valley where I know it feels wrong where I occasionally end up off phrasing, but I'm not quite skilled enough to make it not matter. I know people will insist it really doesn't matter, but while leading complex moves across phrasing wouldn't be an issue, sitting in the pattern of a couple basics for which ALL are off-phrasing is a little more jarring to my brain. It also makes it harder to work in the phrasing of other moves. A lot of more complex additions are practiced, drilled (and expected by follows as a result) as following a full 8-count set of 2 basics. They're used to being led on the corresponding foot (i.e. right on 1 for a follow).
I understand this will come with time but I feel like in the meantime it'd be really useful to understand how to fix phrasing when this happens. It would really make my dances a lot more comfortable and allow me to express myself better without getting 'stuck' in an off-phrasing for the remainder of the song.
I recognise why this isn't often articulated at beginner-intermediate levels because it probably needlessly overcomplicates things. For most beginners, they might not even be aware they're dancing across phrasing but with my background it feels horribly wrong - at least for now.
Whenever I've asked this I've been told 'it doesn't matter' or 'just correct yourself' but the latter in particular means also trying to correct the weight being on the wrong foot which is easier said than done when social dancing. If a follow is expecting a left-foot basic on 5 and I force another right it's understandably awkward.
I understand the solution is usually 4 steps in 4 beats (cf. 3 steps in a 4-count basic) like a crabwalk or a simple freeze for a 4 count but I'd like to understand better:
- what my options are to correct and
- which moves are likely to actually throw off the phrasing. An example would be a standard 8-count crab walk
Is there a resource that's more explicit in these terms? Any initial guidance to getting over this? 'Just work through it' is creating a lot of frustration and I feel is holding me back from being able to express myself.
TIA!