Double Time
5th June 2010
"Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly" ~ Anon
There are a lot of different ways to approach dancing double time. This article looks at a natural approach to the problem in keeping with the Tango of Zero philosophy.
From a collect position, take a single step forwards with your left foot and stop. For the sake of keeping the maths simple, you've stepped forward one foot. Now take a single step forwards with your right foot. This time your foot had to travel two feet.
If you travel at the same speed, then the second step will take twice as long as the first step.
This means that if you make sure when you step in single time, you take steps of two feet, then to do a double time you only have to take a step of one foot. There are several ways to accomplish this.
Single time - your ankles always pass each other during the step.
Double time:
- a) Starting with feet apart - collect
- b) Starting in collect - either take a step of one foot, or weight transfer
Note that in this case if you weight transfer it will actually be faster than double time, so you can either deliberately do it more slowly, or pause slightly afterwards.
~ Christopher O'Shea, 5th June 2010