Standard Lesson with Ieva 02/27/2011

I asked a few questions at this lesson. And some of her answers are contradicting with what I think Ikaika's answer are.

1. Is 1,2,3 on danced on split weight?
No. The &'s are on split weight. And the highest point is on 3 on the ball fo the one foot, not on the split weight position while the center of the weight fall between two legs.

2. How to do throwaway oversway?
a. move the guy out of the way on the first step so that you'll be stepping forward, instead of stepping around.
b. what is the dance position we are aiming for here? The two legitimate options are close position or contra promenade position. Decide for yourself. If you are in close position, which is the traditional choice, your right hip needs to be in contact with the left hip of the partner, as in the close position.
c. make sure the guys' righ shoulder is not falling in front of the right foot. In other words, right foot is not extended too much behind the right shoulder, because in that case, the leader is adding (out of balanced) extra load to the following

3. question on the outside spin then the open natural step: how not to block the partner in this step.
a. On the open Natural before the outside spin, need to be concious to move the guy around. Almost feel like using my arms to move the guy around.
b. On the outside spin step, Lady should sway right, because the center of the turn is on the right side. (what to do with my head here then? close or turn to right? Is it like a three step kind of a right sway?)
c. On the open natural step (or whatever that's called) following the outside spin, first is to keep the sway right from the outside spin at the beginning. Then place the left foot around (out of the way) very much left, to prepare for the guy to go around.

4. Other things to pay attention to:
a. Need to move more:
Exercise for this: Lower. extend. move.
Need to do this on all steps, especially on coming out of the right lounge. This helps to the drive a lot.