Help On the Swing Dance and Baby Blues

[Lutzgirl]

Dear everyone!

Please can you help me i am in desperate need!
Can someone please send me the steps to the babyblues and Swing waltz and if by chance you can find a video with someone actually skating it that would be great!

thankz

[Byzantine]

Swing Dance pattern:

www.gg.caltech.edu/~jeff/images/Dance/swing.gif (http://www.gg.caltech.edu/~jeff/images/Dance/swing.gif)

Other dance patterns are available at this page:

www.gg.caltech.edu/~jeff/#skating (http://www.gg.caltech.edu/~jeff/#skating)

. . . but, no Baby Blues there, sorry. I guess they don't perform the Baby Blues in the USA?

I found the Baby Blues pattern at some obscure German site last year, when I was working on that dance, but have searched the Net for it and now can't find it. And I tossed my printout of the pattern after I passed my Preliminary dance tests, doh, silly me!

Could you get your coach to photocopy it for you?

I'll be working on the Swing Dance this year, too. Best of luck!

[Byzantine]

Here we go . . . Baby Blues pattern:

www.uq.net.au/~zzbarneg/sk_baby_blues.htm (http://www.uq.net.au/~zzbarneg/sk_baby_blues.htm)

. . . from this dance pattern site:

www.uq.net.au/~zzbarneg/icedance.htm (http://www.uq.net.au/~zzbarneg/icedance.htm)

The dances are in roller skating terminology, but still fairly self-explanatory.

[dooobedooo]

All these dances are in the USFSA manual. It is quite cheap, only about 10 dollars. Check out their website (www.usfsa.org) and get their phone number, and ask them to send you a copy.

[Elsy2]

Well you learn something new every day....I always thought the Baby Blues was just another name for the Rhythm Blues....since the first 3 dances are sometimes referred to as "Baby dances"....Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues. I guess I was wrong about that!

[dooobedooo]

Ooops! I assumed that the Baby Blues was the same as the Rhythm Blues too, because the Rhythm blues is an early test dance in USFSA and NISA(UK) tests. Also the Swing Dance is the next level up test, the first dance with both fowards and backwards.

Is the Baby Blues a test dance anywhere? Do many people do it?

Ditto, the Swing Waltz?

I have never ever come across these dances before, at any practice, dance interval or test. In the UK, we have a few baby dances of our own which include some interesting ones in the standard test track: the Riverside Rhumba (forwards only, sinuous, very nice with a partner, changes of hold, same rhythm as a ballroom dance rhumba which is slower than the Gregory Rhumba), the Golden Skaters Waltz (forwards only, same rhythm as Westminster Waltz), and the 22-Step (forwards and backwards, fast, quite difficult but interesting and fun with a partner, march rhythm as per Killian).

Then there a few other varieties you see occasionally at recreational events, including the Rialto Samba and the English Country Polka, and a very new Waltz invented by a Dutchman called Tulips From Amsterdam. But as not many people know them, it can be hard to find a partner! There is also the Ten-Step, which is a very historical dance, and probably predates the 14-Step. It is usually done in a smallish circle, and is (lady RBO, LBO: man LFO, RFO in waltz hold) followed by the 14-STep end steps. As it is a small pattern, they usually do it as a separate dance in each half of the rink.

It might be that the Swing Waltz is the 14-Step done in Waltz time, which we occasionally see at recreational events.

Tell us more about this Baby Blues and Swing Waltz ....?

[Magz]

The Baby Blues is part of the early dances in the Canadian test stream. For the us the first three dances are the Preliminary dances and consist of Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango and the Baby Blues. From there it goes Swing Dance, Fiesta Tango, Willow, Ten-Fox, 14-Step, European...etc. the entire list can be found here (http://www.skatecanada.ca/english/info/index.html) under figure skating (on the left) then under Technical Requirements (top)then STARSkate (scroll down, the fourth one from the top) then Dance Tests (on the right) then you can scroll down to view the entire list. Usually the order in which the dances are tested depend on the coach when you get up to the higher levels, usually Junior Silver and up. Hope I helped a bit!

[Mrs Redboots]

Doobedoo could also have mentioned the Festival Quickstep, which is a dumbed-down version of the Quickstep - instead of doing the choctaw and the backwards steps, you do a change-of-hold to reverse Kilian, then a chasse, then change back again, then left, cross-behind, left, right, cross-behind, right, to bring you back to the two inside edges. The rest of the dance is identical to the real Quickstep.

There's also the Festival Cha-Cha, which is mostly forwards-only, except that right at the end you do a 3-turn and step to forward, only it's all right to wimp out on that (but not, of course, in a recreational match!). I am never too sure of the steps apart from that, except there's a left-cross-behind-left, right-cross-behind-right ("Only you aren't crossing behind, you know," says His Lordship, trying to be helpful, like I don't know I'm not!) in there somewhere.

The Riolado Samba is the Silver Samba with the backward bits taken out, and one of the very newest dances is the Bristol Gavotte, invented by Stuart Mcrerie and Judith Glushanok from Bristol Ice Dance Club.

There's also a Cha-cha 2000, which is alleged to be relatively easy; I've just been sent a copy of the steps and pattern but haven't studied them yet.

[dooobedooo]

Sorry I forgot the Festival ChaCha - that is a nice dance, and not quite as easy as the others. Worthy of an international audience, too, IMHO. The harder bit is where the lady and gent separate at the end and do side by side LFO three turn and RBO, with hands by sides, like spinning tops, then step forward and join together again in Killian hold to repeat the dance.

[Lutzgirl]

youguys are the greatest thanks for all your help im gonna check out the dance site that u gave me!

ya and actaully in canada it iz called the baby blues but i have already passed that!!!! yaa!:) :o :o :o

Well keep on writing byeeeeeee