WEEK 8 - April 16th

GREAT JOB LAST NIGHT EVERYONE!!!!! Well done!

We did set you quite a challenge, and as ever, you really impressed us.

In Salsa, we added a new move: with a right-to-right handhold and on 123, the follower turns into the leaders right side. On 567, the FOLLOWER does a back step on the left foot and turns out again to face the leader, still in a right-to-right handhold. Remember followers, keep that right arm flexible and don't tense up, otherwise, it will look like you are being arrested!!!!

LEADERS, your footwork is just 2 back basics, one on each foot (first right foot, then left). Your movement will indicate to the follower to turn into you, or turn back out again. You can use a little push-pull motion with your right hand lead too for a little added encouragement, but mostly, the lead comes from your movement.

Do this action twice, and then, to get out of it, both partners will pass each other using an outside turn - that is, while still holding right hand to right hand, both turn toward your left shoulder.

And as if we hadn't set you enough of a task, I decided to throw in a little CHA CHA CHA into the mix. We'll spend more that 10 minutes on this dance another time (my fault! this one is a little harder). Cha cha cha (or 'cha cha'.....or even 'cha', if you are trying to be cool ; ) is another Latin-American dance, which you will find being danced in salsa clubs. It has some things in common with salsa - a forward part, and a back part, but between these, there is a little 'stomp-stomp-stomp'. This 'stomp-stomp-stomp' is the 'cha-cha-cha'.

LEADERS:
-- forward left, back right
-- step on left (CHA), close right to left (CHA), change weight and step to the side on your left (CHA)
-- back right, forward left
-- step on right (CHA), close left to right (CHA), change weight and step to the side on your right (CHA)
-- repeat.

FOLLOWERS: the same, except you start by going back on your right..etc.

This is the Cha Cha basic step - later, we'll add more exciting and cool stuff to this dance too, just as we have done with the salsa.

That's it for this week! See you again next Wednesday - have a super week until then.