Returning to Closed

Over the last 60 days, Anna and I have been guiding the Int/Adv West Coast Swing class through a variety of movement vocabulary. These pattens and ideas are meant to augment leaders repertoire of movement and create recognition for the followers.

Open to Open West Coast Swing Patterns

We started on the first week of December of 2012 by teaching our students to finish their 7 West Coast Swing basic patterns in closed position. Sounds easy, right? However almost every instructor, including us, teaches the basic patterns as open to open movements. We have found that open position allows both partners to see their partners better. Open to Open patterns also allow for the followers to feel their own movement in or through the slot better.

So when we asked our students to finish every move in closed position, it felt very unnatural at first. We started with a Sugar Push / Push Break. There are few moves more awkward to end in closed as a Sugar Push, but it can be a useful tool if setting up an interesting move from a simplistic moment.

Getting to Closed Position Game

We then explored closing right passes, left passes, basic tucks, progressive tucks, whips and baskets. We drilled all of these actions - first by counting out loud, then using music. We then played the "closed" game: all leaders were supposed to lead open-open patterns until we called out "closed" at which time leaders had to finish their next pattern in closed position. At first, it was a challenging exercise but within a few trials all partnerships were able to finish any basic pattern in closed.

Why Closed Position is Important

For the beginner dancer, its hard to appreciate how valuable closed position can be. In a dance like West Coast Swing, where musicality is paramount, there are times when a leader must close the partnership to create an exciting and powerful movement. Sometimes closed position can also be used to re-establish the partnership for intimacy. Best of all, closed position isn't really that hard to attain, but it does take a certain degree of proficiency with the pattern and with partnering.  It expands the possibilities  of all the seven basic patterns by 2 - in essence giving a leader 14 different moves. If that is combined with going from closed to open, that increases the possibilities to 28 ( 7 patterns, with 2 types of entrances and 2 types of endings). It is a strength of every advanced level West Coast Swing dancer and an important part of the learning process.