Hi everyone! My two coaches disagree on how many times I go around for the swing dance. My dance coach says that 2 patterns of the swing means all the way around twice. My freestyle coach who coaches at the rink the competition is at says that it is only once around.

Can anyone shed light on this? I meant to ask the skating director at the competition rink, but I forgot.

Thanks and hugs!

ps) I am one of two adults and the only person at all skating dance! :-( The other adult is a level higher in freestyle so I am skating against the book in both cases.

I don't know what the ISI rule is, but the general, overall, ever-abiding rule is:

you skate until the music stops!

...unless, I suppose, you have a fancy way to get out of the dance & into an ending pose, in which case I've been no help....

(USFSA you do 2 patterns.)

[quote:516317c4d3="dani"]Hi everyone! My two coaches disagree on how many times I go around for the swing dance. My dance coach says that 2 patterns of the swing means all the way around twice. My freestyle coach who coaches at the rink the competition is at says that it is only once around.

[/quote:516317c4d3]Your dance coach is correct - a full pattern of the Swing Dance is one circuit of the rink. It would have to be, if you think about it, as the first half of the pattern you are going backwards, and the second half you are going forwards (assuming you are a woman - if you are a man, the reverse applies!

To further clear up any confusion, the first step of the dance is the first chasse, with the woman going backwards and the man going forwards. The last step of the dance, by contrast, is the swing roll that comes after the woman's mohawk and the two-beat edge up the rink.

Hope this helps.

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Mrs Redboots
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Your dance coach is right. On a dance like the Fiesta or the Cha-Cha, where you dance halfway around the rink and repeat the same thing, halfway around is considered a pattern. But because on the Swing you go halfway around forward and switch to backward, all the way around is a pattern. It makes sense if you think about it, b/c half-rink pattern dances usually require three pattern, but if you did the Swing that way, the girl would do two pattern of forward and only one backward, while the guy would do the opposite. That hardly seems fair! (well, as a girl, it seems fair enough to me, but you know).