Floorcraft Mark A. Sheldon and Didi von Deck

• Good posture and balance, individually and as a couple.
• Experience with the figures one dances: You must learn what figures can be overturned, which underturned, which figures work in different alignments, how much space figures require. For example, an open telemark can be turned as much as you can manage into step 1, but once step 1 is taken the maximum turn is fixed. Attempts to overturn steps 2 and 3 will only result in loss of balance and distorted positions. On the other hand, a telemark can be underturned. A good rule of thumb is that the placement of the first step of a figure generally determines the maximum turn.
• A vocabulary of useful figures/amalgamations that are flexible in alignment and timing (unfortunately, there are not so many options in the syllabus). For example, the topspin in Foxtrot, chair lines (which are checked outside partner or promenade steps really), hesitations, hover telemark, body fan (tango), opening to PP. Checks and chair lines can be finished with a reverse pivot.
• Awareness of other couples and obstacles. (The 5 couples between you and the other end of the floor are doing what and headed where?) It takes time to develop predictive power, but good couples are also more predictable.
• Sensitivity to partner and sound division of responsibilities.

You must practice with other couples on the floor! Doing competitions and competitors' practices are essential for developing this important skill.

If you are aware of these issues and pay attention and practice (including practicing get out of tight places and avoiding/chasing other couples), you will gradually improve your floorcraft. You will be able to think further and further ahead.

What takes so long?

Initially, one choses each figure almost independently, though one pretty quickly develops some favorite patterns. A ballroom leader soon builds a vocabulary of commonly used patterns of 2, 3, or 4 bars, thinking of each pattern as a unit (starting here means ending there in alignment X) and picking a pattern that fits the floor and the other dancers. Over time, one develops a stronger sense of where other couples will be 2, 3, 4 bars in the future.

Becoming aware of alignments/directions takes time. You should be aware, for example, that figures like a fallaway reverse can be danced diagonally to center or down LOD. In fact, directions like DC are more malleable than you might be led to believe. DC and DW don't have to be 45 degrees to the LOD. They are angles between LOD and a perpendicular line to LOD that keep you on the floor (and hopefully free of entanglements with other couples). DW has a different meaning depending on where you are on the floor — think of heading toward the corner at the far end of the current LOD.

The transition to open level competition generally means longer units of pre-determined choreography, entire long and short walls. (In fact, I never had pre-choreographed routines until I started competing at the pre-championship level.) This is a bad time for a dancer's floorcraft because you need to figure out the variety of paths a routine can take and be able to leave and re-enter your choreography. But eventually this becomes more comfortable.

In a competition, you are dancing in one of two distinct modes: choreographed and free form. You begin with an entire dance choreographed as a sequence of long and short walls. It is a good idea to try to get on the floor before a competition in order to figure out how to lay the routines out on the floor. At the very least, look at the floor and make reasonable estimates. Together with your partner, work out any necessary changes before the competition dancing starts.

During the competition, at the beginning of each wall, survey the remaining floor and the couples and try to plan how to layout the next routine (or pick an alternative, or delay until you can get a good fit). This means arranging your choreography so that you can look down the next wall without having to distort your hold. Then attempt to dance the routine, adjusting as necessary and relying on your partner's input — we'll discuss the partner's role below).

It helps to structure your choreography so that each group has a distinct beginning. This gives a follower an indication of what she should expect for the next several bars.

For those times when one cannot continue with the choreography, one must dance free form. Simple delaying tactics can be quite useful (make a line, continue a weave, swing back and forward). Sometimes, just standing for a bar or two can work. Other times, you need to get to a place where you can pick up the choreography again. In such cases, plan a place to go and then go there. I do not generally think in terms of figures, though again, there are a lot of 3 and 4 bar patterns in my head already. Mostly, I just think of movements: I want a long continuous swoop into that corner, or a series of checks and reversals gradually moving to the outside midway down the long wall. Because this is necessarily less polished, try to avoid doing this for very long in competition, but it is important to ad lib in practice. We get lots of our choreography this way!

To practice ad libs, play games with another couple or two: chase each other around with the rule that actually hitting the other couple earns you a point. The one with the most points at the end buys dinner. If one couple stops in a series of lines, dance a circle around them.

It can be very effective competitively and also from a floorcraft point of view to dance a line of choreography as if in a very narrow corridor. This gives you greater control over the layout of the group on the floor and can produce a greater impression of movement in the audience. Exercise: Try to dance your groups in a 10-15 foot wide section of floor. Remember, often you can adjust alignments into the first step of a figure.

Good floorcraft takes two people

Sensitivity to partner and division of responsibilities deserves special attention, because dancers often develop some destructive fixations. The terms ‘leader’ and ‘follower’ help fuel these misunderstandings.

Dance is the most thorough team activity ever, and both partners must not only do their parts, but they must cooperate most intimately. No partner is always completely in charge: that just won't work.

A useful way to think of it is that there is no chief executive on the floor. The leader is vice president in charge of corporate direction, the follower is vice president in charge of sales, and each is second in command in the other's area.

The leader's job is to pick the figure and initial direction as well as the initial speed and power of a movement. All of these decisions are communicated to the partner in the lowering action. Shape is sometimes considered part of the leader's job, but in general, it is really a consequence of the items above. The leader does not determine the follower's mood, detailed interpretation, and in some cases, final direction.

Once the leader initiates the action, he must respond to whatever the follower does with it. This means supporting (following) her eventual shape and position and interpretation.

The follower's job is to take the lead and sell it to the audience. Selling doesn't just mean putting up the hair, putting on the makeup, and smiling sweetly. The follower must move in the indicated direction with the given speed and power (except as we shall see below), and then fill it out with her own interpretation and shape (which the leader will then respond to, or follow). As second in command in the sales department, the leader should always be trying to sell the dancing, but his main sales job is to support the follower's interpretation on the floor.

When these rules are followed, dancing is truly a collaboration in which each partner is constantly egging the other on to do more and more, to greater and greater heights of ecstasy!

How it works in practice

Humans are born with eyes in the front. Dance couples have two pairs of eyes often pointed in different directions. After seeing Christopher Hawkins and Hazel Newberry perform an amazing feat of obstacle avoidance, I once commented, that Chris must have eyes in the back of head, and then I realized he did! How do we reconcile our jobs as leader and follower with the fact that the leader can't see what's behind him? We trust our second in command.

When the leader is going forward, there is no issue. He should pick the direction, speed, power, and figure so as to remain on the floor, to proceed around the line of dance, and to avoid other couples.

When the leader is going backward, the follower has some options:

• She can use her hand breaks to communicate the need for less movement or, in the worst case, a stop.
• She can simply reduce her movement slightly to avoid an obstacle. If more than a tiny adjustment is necessary, she must communicate her intention with her hands.
• She can move in a slightly different direction to satisfy floorcraft constraints. Excessive changes in direction can knock the leader off balance.
• She must do the figure if the couple is not stopping, but she can take smaller steps and/or redirect the movement within a small arc (esp. in conjunction with hand breaks).

All of this must happen with little or no visible break in the quality of the dancing: the audience should not know anything has happened. To succeed at this, one must overcome certain natural but counterproductive tendencies. For the leader, the enemy is unwelcome tension that takes the weight back and pulls the lady in with the arms. In the face of a sudden change of plan, alert the follower with the hands, leave the lady on her balance, and stay forward. Do not drop the leader's left/follower's right hand unless absolutely necessary. Couples that drop their hold or go to a practice hold for no apparent reason or in the face of a potential collision from the opposite side are destroying their silhouette for nothing and communicating weakness and insecurity to the audience. For the follower, there are some instinctive responses to surprise that must be trained away:

• The lady must continue to sell the dancing.
• Do not let the head come in (up to vertical).
• Keep your weight low: Do not pull up when you feel a change in choreography.
• The arm weight is especially important: If the arms lift even a tiny bit, the leader will not feel secure in his ability to change the routine. Let your arm weight settle down when the steps change or someone is in the way.

Each partner must stay in balance. The key to perfect balance is to keep contracting the midsection of the body according to the foot you are standing on.

To practice this exchange of authority, we will do the following exercise. Half the couples in the workshop will be designated obstacles, and they will distribute themselves around the floor. The other couples will walk around the line of dance, leaders and followers taking turns going forward, and avoid the obstacles. Then we'll switch dancers and obstacles. If you know how to do reverse wave, back feather in foxtrot, you can try that. Weave actions are also a good place to practice this.