Rumba Fifth Position Rocks

Terry teaches the basic patterns and techniques of the Rumba, such as the fifth position rocks

Hi, I am Terry Dean from Terry Deans Dance studio, we are doing the Rumba. Today we are going to do, the Fifth position brakes. Fifth Position Brakes are rocking steps. So first of all, let me show what a rocking step is. A rocking step is just a shifting of the weight back and forth from one foot to the next without actually traveling anywhere. So I am going rock, step, rock, step, my weight shifts forward and then it shifts back, if I start back wards then it goes, rock, back, then forward. Now on the rhythm dances, we are going to do these rocking steps and use our hips at the same time. So when I am shifting weight, I am doing a rocking step. Now the name of this step is called Fifth Position Rocks, because we have five positions of the feet in dancing and one of them is the fifth, and that's where you take the toe of one foot and put it to the heel of the other foot and of course you can do that on both sides. The toe of one foot to the heel of the other foot. So now, if I am here in this position and I do a rock, step, rock, step, I have just fifth position rock. Rock, step. Now what we are going to have to do is take a side step in between and then do another fifth position. Fifth position rock, step with the side step in between. Rock, step, side, rock, step, side. One of the most complicated parts about dancing is going from one pattern to the next. So what we are going to be doing is the box step in the Rumba is the basic home base and then you going to have to go from the box step to the fifth position rocks and then back to the box step, and hers how that's done. We started off with the basic top of the box for the man and bottom of the box for the lady, which is one slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick. Now instead of doing the next part of the box, I am going to go into the fifth position rocks, which is the side step first, side and then a fifth position rock. Then we go to the other side slow, quick, quick, and notice how we are switching side and releasing arms and going back and forth, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow. Our bodies square up on the sides step and then open up on the fifth position brake. Square, fifth position, Square, fifth position, square. Now, in order to go from the fifth position brakes back to the box step, for now we are going to do just three of these, you can do more if you like later, but we are going to do three fifth position rocks, I am going to start with the top of the box slow, quick, quick, then we are going to do three fifth positions, one, quick, quick, two, quick, quick, three quick, quick and then back to the top of the box for the man and the bottom of the box for the lady. Let me demonstrate that one more time then I will break it down. So we are going to do the top of the box for the man, and bottom for the lady, quick, quick and here goes our fifth position, side first, slow, threes one, slow quick, quick, two slow, quick, quick three and then back to the box step. So again it's always important to get back into the box step once you have let it. Now its not really hard to do that but there is one little thing that has to happen to get back into dance position because this is what we call close dance position and this is going to be a Promenade position, or open left or open right position. We have to get back to that close position. So let me demonstrate first, then I will use Cindy. So, first of all the man after he does his box step and his fifth positions, one, two, three, he has to turn his body to bring the lady back in front of him in order to do the box step, because remember when I do this last one, she is over there and I am here, I got to bring her back to me and then do the top of the box, so I am kind of going all from an angle, Ill demonstrate that again. The top of the box to start with, that I do side, fifth position rock, side, fifth position rock, side, fifth position rock. I turn my top slightly to the left and then do the top of the box. Now I am just back in the box step, that's the mans part. Ladies part, she does the bottom of the box, slow, quick, quick, step side, fifth position, side, fifth position, side, she does three times just like the man. On the third one quick, quick, she has to do, what we call a recovery step. So she does, rock, step, she just turns back to face the man and then she does the bottom of the box. That little bit of turn is so important, so you have to make sure you get that, Ill do that one more time, lady, slow, quick, quick, side, fifth position, side, fifth position side, fifth position recover and then the bottom of the box. Again it's just an 8th of a turn but it's important to make sure, your feet get back together. Let me demonstrate that with Cindy. So we are going to do the basic step slow, quick, quick, three fifth positions. Now, on this third one we are going to go slow so you can see this, quick, she turns back to face me and then we go back into the top of the box for me, the bottom of the box for her. Lets demonstrate one more time. Slow, quick, quick, side, fifth position, side, fifth position, real slow now, quick, she turns back to face me and then I step into her with the box step, so that's how you get into and out of the fifth position rock. I am going to demonstrate one more time. This time with normal speed. Slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick. That's the fifth position brakes. Now the next thing we are going to do is the open brake and under arm turn.