Standard Workshop by Andrew Sinkinson on 10/28/2010

Teacher: Andrew Sinkinson

He taught a Foxtrot workshop today at Imperial, and a tango/Waltz workshop at Stanford yesterday.

The workshop at Stanford was a real surprise. Apparently Andrea Faracci just picked him up from the airport before heading over to Stanford teaching his class. Andrew said he's bored, and would like to teach. So Stanford team got a 2 hour lesson from a former world champion for free! He was shorter than I expected. A bit of a beer belly made him a little older than I thought of him would be. But he was 46 after all. He was very humble, and conveyed his intention to give to the university by teaching the class. I am not sure if the Stanford crowd impressed him very much though.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in the right state of mind to absorb all the information he said, so the Stanford lecture was a little bit too abstract and over the top for me. But since he's changing the subject to Foxtrot today, I decided to come again. And that was a good decision. The message in the lesson today is much more clear to me. I think it is partly due to some of information are repeated from yesterday, so I got a second chance to grasp it.

1. Posture: leader has 4 point to remember for the posture:
a. stand up straight.
b. pitch forward
c. pick up arm, 90 degree, 45 degree (left lower arm).
d. head up, head left.

After the girl comes in, fit in the right position, he dropped the arm, breath out, then pick up again.

A good posture should be balanced, has space, and visually not stressed.

Then we start the study of Foxtrot based on a golden combination:
feather, reverse, feather finish, three step, reverse, impetus.

1. balance: an exercise is to pause at the second quick, Keep weight TOWARD the front foot, regardless you are going forward or backward.

2. motion: Picture foxtrot as an elongated swing/sway. count of each dance affects who it should be danced: foxtrot count is rubato (Italian stolen time) . He made sounds like "chi, chi, chi, chi...." to indicate the bit catching up. So the dancing need to convey this motion. In particular from 4 to 1, this is where they are hooked up.

In contrast, Tango counting is staccato, and Waltz counting is emphasizing one. VW only emphasize 123, 456 is really quiet. Quickstep is light. He counted the & count in W,T an R.

3. Connection: He mentioned that the bumping is due to timing not right, bumping in leg is due to posture. Exercise: moving together with connection. with small general dancing hold, with palm to palm, with no hand hold, and with Man's right arm straight out, and girl's hands pushed against man's arm.

4. movement: Move from center. There is no moving if not moving from the center. feather step is man driving, feather finish lady drive, them three step man drive etc...

5. A lady asked a question on the heel turn, where she felt that she's loosing connection with her partner. Andrew said a point to stop and check is at the second quick, where both has their weight toward forward (not on the forward foot, but toward forward). He also mentioned a changed timing of SS&, instead of the standard SQQ.

Finally some quick notes from the Tango lecture yesterday.
1. leader's upper body turn slightly left (about 45 degree).
2. use wind up to create the sharp feeling in tango.