Reading Ballroom Dance Scripts - Dance - Plussed.net

4.2.1 At what point near the corner does LOD change?
This is a common question amongst beginners. When I’m getting close to the corner, how do I
know when to switch to the new LOD?
The real answer is complex, since the decision is often based on the surrounding traffic as well as
what options for cornering your current orientation and the figure you are performing provide.
While this is a true statement, it doesn’t provide much help to the beginner who is trying to figure
out what the Line of Dance looks like near the corner and who probably hasn’t yet encountered the
traffic issues that occur at social dances and who has a very limited choice of figures for turning a
corner.
So here’s an answer specifically for beginners, which is not the whole truth
Draw a line coming out of each corner of the dance floor at 45° to the edges of the floor. Unless the
floor is exactly square, the four lines don’t meet at a single point, but instead there are two pairs of
meeting lines. Join the two points of intersection. This gives the following diagram.
The lines split the floor into 4 zones. Your Line of Dance should change whenever you change
zones. As the following diagram shows, if you walk exactly in the direction of line of dance, you
always maintain the same distance from your nearest wall and end up back where you started.
4.3 Line of dance in progressive Latin American dances
Unlike dances in the standard style, Samba, a progressive Latin American dances does not have any
moves specifically designed for a 90° corner. Hence the LOD in Samba gradually curves around the
corners as for sequence dances.
22