As a lead, your job is to architect the high-level structure of the dance. Align the dance to the music, hit the phrase changes. This article builds on the original Hitting the Music in West Coast Swing article, describing a more concrete structure for how to build contrast in the dance by utilizing acceleration and texture when delivering phrase changes.

This article is under construction and may be subject to change.

Macro-Musicality for Leads

• Macro-Musicality for Leads
  • Major Ones
    • Basic Formula for Hitting a Phrase Change Like a Champion
      • Royston’s Maxims
        • Anticipate
        • Accelerate
        • Deliver
      • The Phrase Change Equation
        • Synchronization
        • Turn Entry
        • The Base Turn
        • The Transition to Texture
          • Texture Options
        • Marinate
    • The Equation In Practice
      • Terminology
      • Steps
    • Entrance Options
    • Transition Options
      • Dynamic Stillness
      • Slow Continuous
      • Fast Continuous
    • Examples
      • Example 1 – Simple Entry
        • Planning
        • Execution
      • Example 2 – Advanced Entry
        • Planning
        • Execution
    • Cory’s Favorite Patterns
  • Minor Ones

Major Ones

Basic Formula for Hitting a Phrase Change Like a Champion

Royston’s Maxims

“Anticipate, Accelerate, and Deliver.”

– Robert Royston

To cite some sources, Robert Royston taught this concept in a workshop where he explained his methodology for hitting a phrase change. I’m just putting actual patterns and methods to the abstract concepts of anticipate, accelerate, and deliver.

Anticipate

Build anticipation between yourself and your follow. Get yourselves on the same page. You, your follow, and the audience all hear something coming in the music. Acknowledge that you hear it and prepare for it.

Accelerate

Build contrast by accelerating in the lead up to the phrase change. Get the audience wondering “are they going to hit it?” as they watch.

Deliver

Hit the phrase change and build additional contrast by texturing the ending to match what the music changed to.

The Phrase Change Equation

Synchronization & Planning + Turn Entry + Base Turns + Transition to Texture + Marinate = Success

Synchronization

This is where you as the lead come up with a plan and communicate that you have a plan to your follow. This communication comes from body language and facial expression.

Turn Entry

The turn entry is whatever pattern gets you into a position where your follow is prepared for a left or right-turn. This can be as simple as a Left Side Pass (LSP), or a Right Side Pass (RSP), or as complicated as a Maxence-style hustle-whip with a behind-the-back topspinner into a duck-turn.

The Base Turn

Dancers generally refer to turns as inside turns or outside turns. This terminology gets confusing once you start modifying the patterns and changing handholds. Thus, this article will utilize Left and Right to indicate the direction of the turn. This is relative to the follow, meaning on a Left Turn the follower turns to her left, regardless of what handhold or where the lead is.

In general, it is best to have the follower on the audience side of the leader. So, if the audience is on the leader’s left side, he wants to lead a either left-side left turn or a left side right turn.

KISS Principle: To reduce initial leader cognitive load, while practicing stick to Left Side Pass with Left Turn or Right Side Pass with Right Turn variations with extra spins for acceleration.

The Transition to Texture

The transition to texture is the pièce de résistance. It is the final moment where you transition out of the turn and the audience watches with baited breath, wondering if you’re going to make it in time for the phrase change that they all know is coming. You complete the ending on 1 and then groove it out to match the chosen texture.

Texture Options

1. Dynamic Stillness
   • The music calls for a pause, so you take a breath and utilize very subtle motion in your stillness.
2. Slow Continuous
   • In between dynamic stillness and fast continuous is when the music calls for slow, but constant motion to match the vibe. 3 Fast Continuous
   • When the music is bumping and you need to keep the energy up to match.

Marinate

To marinate is to let the moment sit in the sauce. You just accelerated and nailed the phrase change. Let the audience absorb it. Acknowledge that you’re a champion by grooving to the texture, and then possibly on (1, 5) changing the texture slightly to add a little bit more contrast. Afterwards you can continue with celebratory sugar push or something else simple.

The Equation In Practice

Terminology

We are using the terminology developed in the original Hitting the Music in West Coast Swing article. We are assuming measures of 8 beats each, with 4 measures constituting a phrase. We will use (measure, beat) notation to denote what measure and what beat we are referring to. For instance, (4, 1) is the 1st beat of 4th measure.

Steps

1. By (3, 1), choose a texture based on the next hit coming in the song
2. Given the texture, choose a turn entrance -> base turn -> texture transition
   • Note: It is better to do turns on the side matching the audience. ie, if the audience is to the leader’s left, do turns on that side. They don’t want to watch you spin her, they want to watch her spin
3. Give your follow the “hey, I’ve got a plan” eyes/body language
4. Align yourself to optimally arrive on (4, 5) at the beginning of the turns
   • For instance, if doing a simple Left Side Pass with a Left Turn, you would have to begin the LSP on (4, 3), because the first two beats of a LSP are the turn preparation
     • You need to know how many beats each of your turn entrances takes up so that you can pad the (4, 5) arrival time
   • (4, 1) is too early to begin the turns because you turn your follow for a full 8 turns and it looks like you didn’t count properly and jumped the gun on the phrase change
   • (4, 3) is still a bit much, but you can make it work if you start the turns slow and accelerate (which your follow may hate you for)
   • (4, 5) gives time for a double or triple turn if your follow can whip it
   • (4, 7) gives no time before the ending
5. Accelerate into the turns (don’t do a single turn when you can do two or three–add contrast by changing speed)
6. At (4, 7) transition into the ending and deliver the phrase change with the appropriate texture
7. Marinate. Bask in your own glory. Do not immediately start dancing into another sugar push on (1, 1). Groove for a little bit and then you can get back into the swing of things on (1, 7) or even (2, 1).

Entrance Options

Recall, these are your options to get your follower prepped for the turns you’re about to lead.

• Left-Side Left-Turn Entrances
  • Left Side Pass (2 Beats)
  • High-Hand Baseball Throw (2 Beats) [Check this with a follow]
  • Telemark (6 Beats)
  • Sugar Tuck with Leader's Right Turn into a Rock & Go (6 Beats)
• Right-Side Right-Turn Entrances
  • Right Side Pass (2 Beats)
  • *Any Whip Variation into an Right-Turn on 5 (4 Beats) [Check the timing on this with a follow]
• Right-Side Left-Turn Entrance
  • Right Side Pass (2 Beats)
  • *Any Whip Variation into an Left-Turn on 5 (4 Beats) [Check the timing on this with a follow]

Note: Whip variations generally switch the side the follow was on before starting the turns. For instance, if the leader starts a standard Whip into a Right-Side Left-Turn with the audience on his left, the follow will end up on the leader’s right with the audience also to his right, as desired.

This list is currently underpopulated since I am sticking with easy LSP and RSP variations to begin with and this was just off the dome without much thought. I’ll have to brainstorm more entrances.

I don’t think I’ve ever led a Left-Side Right-Turn. Maybe I should try that.

Transition Options

These are your options for exiting the turns and transitioning into the texture that you want to hit

Dynamic Stillness

• Left-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Duck Turn into Dip
  • Send Out into Follower Hook-Unwind Turn Styling
  • Handshake Hold Topspinner into Dip (Monkey Bar Styling Optional)
• Right-Side Right-Turn Endings
  • Handshake Hold Duck-Turn into Under-Arm Dip
• Right-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Duck into Facing-Each-Other Side-by-Side

Slow Continuous

• Left-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Handshake Hold Leader's Drape to Backward Walks (Moonwalk Styling Option)
  • Send Out into Follower Hook-Unwind Turn Styling
  • Handshake Hold Topspinner into Dip with Monkey Bar
  • Handshake Hold Topspinner into Circular Walks
  • Directly to Crowd Charge (can style with Leader's Drape if in Handshake Hold)
• Right-Side Right-Turn Endings
  • Handshake Hold Duck-Turn into Under-Arm Dip
  • Handshake Hold Duck-Turn into Ride
  • Leader's Right Arm to Follower's Right Armpit Connection into Circular Walks
  • Leader's Right Arm to Follower's Right Armpit Connection into Reverse Monkey Bar into Ride
  • Directly to Crowd Charge (can style with Leader's Drape if in Handshake Hold)
• Right-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Duck into Facing-Each-Other Side-by-Side

Fast Continuous

• Left-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Handshake Hold Leader's Drape to Backward Walks (Moonwalk Styling Option)
  • Handshake Hold Topspinner into Circular Walks
  • Directly to Crowd Charge
• Right-Side Right-Turn Endings
  • Directly to Swivels
  • Leader's Right Arm to Follower's Right Armpit Connection into Circular Walks
  • Directly to Crowd Charge (can style with Leader's Drape if in Handshake Hold)
• Right-Side Left-Turn Endings
  • Duck into Facing-Each-Other Side-by-Side

Examples

Example 1 – Simple Entry

You just anchored and are about to start a fresh pattern on (3, 3). The audience is currently to your right. Based on the music, it seems like a dynamic stillness style hit should come next.

Planning

• You decide you want a simple, 2-beat, Left Side Pass entry, with a Left-Side Left-Turn base turn, and a Duck-Turn into Dip transition
• A 2-beat entry means you need to be ready to go by (4, 3), and the Left variations require the audience to be on your left. The audience is currently on your right
• Thus, you have 8 beats to get turned around
• What you need is essentially a standard 6-count pass with a 2-beat extension, since 8-count Whip variations don’t turn you around
• A standard Left Side Pass with a Telemark would work well here, but the audience is on your right and you’d be blocking the view of the follow
  • I am unsure if champion level leads take blocking the follow into account when it is NOT the phrase change
  • Another option is an Under-Arm Pass with a 2-beat stall in the middle. This won’t block the view of the follow

Execution

• Give your follow the “hey, I’ve got a plan” look so that she knows you two are on the way to hitting something
• Completing the 8-beats Telemark, which brings you to (4, 3) with the audience on your left
• On (4, 3), lead your pre-determined 2-beat entry
• On (4, 5), start your acceleration into your Double Left-Turn
• Somewhere around (4, 7) or (4, 8) lead the transition
• On (5, 1), hit the final Dip and texture with dynamic stillness.

Example 2 – Advanced Entry

The scenario is the same as Example 1, but we want a more advanced entry than a 2-beat Left Side Pass.

Planning

• We know we want the Left-Side Left-Turn with a Duck-Turn into Dip
  • You cannot use a Whip variation to enter this. Whips are fundamentally Right type patterns.
  • You can use a 6-count Sugar Tuck with a Leader's Right Turn into a Rock & Go
• A 6-beat entry means you need to be ready to go by (3, 7), and the Left variations require the audience to be on your left. The audience is currently on your right, and your entry does not turn you around
• Thus, you have 4 beats to get turned around
• What you need is essentially a standard 6-count pass with a 2-beat reduction, (ie. a Rock & Go)
  • A Rock & Go is not ideal, because follows generally do not like being thrown from a Rock & Go into a Sugar Tuck variation, but tough luck this time.
  • Another option is to just do a 4-beat pass with all walks
• We can do a Right Side Pass with the Rock & Go into our entry

Execution

• Give your follow the “hey, I’ve got a plan” look so that she knows you two are on the way to hitting something
• Complete your 4-beat Right Side Pass + Rock & Go to align yourself
• On (3, 7), you are in the midst of your Rock & Go, which is the start of your Sugar Tuck variation
• On (4, 1), you are in the midst of your Sugar Tuck entry
• On (4, 3), you are starting the last two beats of your Sugar Tuck entry
• On (4, 5), start your acceleration into your Double Left-Turn, and switch hands mid-turn, since your entry put you into handshake hold
• Somewhere around (4, 7) or (4, 8) lead the transition
• On (5, 1), hit the final Dip and texture with dynamic stillness.

Cory’s Favorite Patterns

• Hustle Whip entry into Leader's Right-Hand to Follower's Left-Hand Right-Side Right-Turns with a Duck-Turn into Dip transition
  • Start this on (4, 1) with the audience on your left-side

Minor Ones

Easy patterns to acknowledge the minor 1 and display your follow to the audience.

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