JitterBal: Spins & Turns

As noted in the Danceflix site description, this a well regarded disc. The “moves” used in teaching advanced techniques begin here with Cuddles, Cuddles with a double turn ending, Pop Turns… So far, so good… From there, however, it often gets into things -nameless things – things you see in competitions that make you go, “Wow!”

Steve and Heidi tend to go their own way in Balboa, borrowing moves from Salsa, Tango, West Coast Swing... Some of these moves are obviously taken from those sources and, with practice, work very well in Balboa - “It’s alive!” Yep, not such an old dance after all… The disc gets into things like Eggbeaters, Eggbeaters with extra turns, then fancy Apaches, and, then “snaky” elbow catches. At least you can pick and chose…

Choice? I think you have to pick a plan… You could work on this disc for months, or, you could watch it a few times, grab a couple of moves, then return it and rent it again in a couple of years to pad out your move list. It’s very good - if you’re prepared to work with it for a while to learn, for example, the handgrips and lead changes offered.

The footwork shown isn’t always needed. If you’ve done a million basics and come-arounds you know where you’ll be in a count when you see the moves. Assuming, that is, you already know many of the common Balboa moves such as Cuddles, Apaches, multiple turns, reverse turns, the Dameron, etc. If so, you can do a lot of these moves by watching and rewinding the examples. When you need clarification – for whatever reason - Steve and Heidi do an A+ job filling in what you need to know to do what you want to do – better.

Again, watch on a DVD player that can slow the disc down at least 20%. Things go by very fast on this disc and that seems a terrible way to do things. On the other hand, if they did everything slow, then you’d have very little idea what “normal” or “fast” is really like – and speeding up a slow disc doesn’t work the same way as slowing down a fast one.

This disc is all spins and turns. No slides here, no progressions, no crab walks, no histories, no jokes… Not for beginners, but very good for Intermediate and Advanced dancers who want to “keep going” in their dancing. It’s very well indexed so it’s easy to navigate, and, they certainly don’t waste a lot of time: it’s a short disc with a lot in it.