Footwork1

The video tutorial of the dance course "First Steps, The Footwork" is led by Eden, with a leader and follower roles demonstrated. The sequence "foxy dancing" involves specific steps for each role, emphasizing weight transfer and movement memory. The tutorial provides detailed instructions for both the follower and leader, focusing on coordination and practice. The importance of repetition and visual aids, like diagrams, is highlighted for better understanding. The course encourages practice and offers the flexibility of rewatching as needed. Hello and welcome to First Steps, The Footwork. This is Eden and I will be guiding you through your course. This video will be split into six sections. As this is a course of dance, there are two roles. There is a leader and a follower. So my name is Eden and I am wearing the white skirt and the black boot heels. I will be demonstrating the role of the follower. And my partner is wearing black trousers and flat shoes and will be demonstrating the role of the leader. Okay, so the first sequence we are going to learn is called the foxy dancing. This step consists of two walks and two side trunks. While in our couple we are doing the same steps, we are going to be starting on different legs. So the first set of videos will be for the follower. My advice would be to watch this small section of the video and then scroll back so it is easier for you to understand the steps. So starting with our feet together, we are going to sit back on the right, then the left and take the right leg out to the side, taking this weight transfer and back over to the left to join the feet. All we've done is walked backwards and shifted our weight to the right and then back to where we started. So from backwards stepping with the right leg and then the left leg, transferring out again to the right, over to the left and joining the feet. At this point, I invite you to pause the video and practice for yourself. Repetition is really important in dance because the more you practice, the better your movement will be. Movement memory is just the recall of movement without conscious thought. When I talk about transferring your weight, it's about shifting onto one leg and shifting back onto the other leg. The final part for the follower is going to be the video from a different angle and just so you can see the weight transfer is a bit clearer, you can see the different pathways. I'm going just backwards and forwards and then to the right. Something that really helps me is literally saying walk, walk, side, side, together. This next section will be for the leader and they will be stepping on their left leg first. This will then allow for the leader and the follower's movements to link. While before I was saying to the follower to go backwards and to the right, the leader will be facing them, so therefore they will be going forward and then to the left. We're stepping forward on the left and the right, transferring out to the left and closing back into that right foot. Although the left foot is joined into the right foot, there needs to be no weight on that foot so you can step back straight away. Continuing that step, left, right, out to the left, joining it back in, stepping back on that left again, out, side and together. As you can see from this video, we're moving forward and backwards in a straight line and as we transfer to the left, we're staying horizontal and joining back together. Feel free to practice this as many times as you need on your own before joining together. Close the video now and practice this step. You should find if you're facing each other, you'll still be moving in the same direction. Now it's time to join our partner. For this specific sequence, I have set this hold, I am holding on to my partner's thumb as we hop into the hand and the elbow can be out or tucked in for a more relaxed step. As a follower, my arm is on top and my partner's arm is supporting me, holding my back. Options are in the hold that you can either have your elbows lifted or relaxed, it just depends what style you want to go for. Here I encourage you to pause the video and try this hold for yourself. Now we are going to join the pieces together with our partner, both taking a step with their leg closest to the back. We take two steps, down directly to the side and closing back in. We repeat this either going forwards or backwards, again starting with our legs close off to the back. Repeat this as many times as you feel comfortable. Again, repetition is so important but within the dance we only do this step twice. If I were speaking this out loud, I would say step, step, side, out, again. Feel free to pause the video and have a practice. If you'd like to practice alongside us, there is a video after this where you can do so. So in our first dance, Conversations in the Dark, the routine includes the same steps, however the last two steps change directly. The next few videos will break this down for you. I would recommend watching this breakdown first before attempting. Again, same setup, we're stepping with the foot closest to the back, out to the side and we're closing in. We are then going to take two more steps and wake up. Here I have drawn a diagram that hopefully helps you visualise the direction. From the star travelling to the circle 1-2 are the first two steps, leaving on the diagonal, we're going to step out to 3 and back to 4. As we've done before, we are moving back towards the star 1-2. From there, this is where it changes, where before we would have stepped directly to the side out to 3 and back to 4, we are now stepping on the diagonal. This will then shift our direction either to the front or the back, as shown here. This can be confusing, so if the diagram is confusing, don't worry, focus on the first two steps are exactly the same, the next two steps are out to the side exactly the same, the next two steps exactly the same and the last one is the diagonal and to the left. Take a moment to look at this and we will show you from a different angle. Exactly as we were before, I will be stepping back on my right leg and my partner on their left. Then we will take one more step forwards or backwards, out to the side, transferring the weight and joining the feet back together. Now stepping with the same foot we first stepped, we're going to follow that with one more step, then we are going to step to the diagonal corner, towards the back, back diagonal corner and out to the side and then join our feet. This can be confusing, so please feel free to scroll back through the video. Congratulations, you have just finished your first footwork sequence. The best thing about this being a pre-recorded course is that you can scroll back and watch it as many times as you need. You are now ready to move on to the second video in this section.