Reading Ballroom Dance Scripts - Dance - Plussed.net

Alignment column for the other dances. Similar comments apply to the ‘Alignment’ column for
Samba.
Some examples:
Waltz: Chasses from PP step 1
Foxtrot: Change of Direction. Man’s step 2.
Quickstep: Natural Pivot Turn. Man’s step 4.
Samba: Stationary Samba Walks, steps 2 and 5.
(Similar issues will arise later for ‘Study Alignments’ in Jive, Rumba and Cha Cha, which can also
be Directions rather than Alignments.)
5.5 Dance dependent concepts and tango warning
For most of the remaining concepts in this section, the answer varies by dance.
Tango is a minefield with its own set of peculiarities. At this stage I don’t understand it well enough
to attempt including it in the remaining sections.
5.6 What body part determines alignment?
5.6.1 Summary
Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Samba Jive: The feet. If the two feet are pointing different directions to
each other, use the foot that took the step just completed.
Rumba and Cha Cha: Arguable. Maybe the shoulders. Maybe alignment is undefined.
5.6.2 Source Quotes
For Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep: ‘The Ballroom Technique’ states the alignment is ‘The position
of the feet in relation to the room’. It doesn’t clearly state what happens when the two feet point
different ways, but the above is my understanding based on how the term in used in the charts.
The ISTD Samba and Jives books state: ‘Alignment in this dance refers to the position of the foot in
relation to the room.’
The ISTD Rumba and Cha Cha books state: ‘… the terms facing and backing are used, referring to
the position of the body in relation to the room.’
5.6.3 Discussion
This bit is irritating. At the point in the discussion where the Samba and Jive books define the term
alignment, the Rumba and Cha Cha books go out of their way to avoid defining that term. Instead
they explain where they use ‘facing and backing’, which in only these two dances are based on
body alignment rather than foot alignment, which hints that alignment is measured by the body. But
then they explain ‘pointing’ as referring to the alignment of the foot and give a diagram of
alignments with feet draw on it. Arggh!
By failing to give a clear definition they have created the scenario where there are two conflicting
justifiable interpretations, and dance teachers disagree on which is right. The two interpretations
are:
1. Alignments are always referring to feet, unless specifically stated otherwise for a particular
step in a script. But alignment usually isn’t a useful term in Rumba and Cha Cha, so in those
dances we define the terms ‘facing’ and ‘backing’ as describing the orientation of the body
rather than the alignment of the feet.
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