Charleston Dance: Hold Partner

Video Transcript

"Okay, now we've got to put the leader's part together with the follower's part. The most important thing to talk about is how we're connected. Yeah, so Charleston you'd be fun on its own, and if you don't have a regular partner, you can still practice it on your own, but let's talk about the connection. So we're going to start standing side by side. So I as the follower am standing on the leader's right side. So my left side is lined up with his right side. That would put me on the left side. True. Okay, so now think focusing on the connection in the back. I've just got my arm around Tara's waist and relaxing comfortable. And so it's not up here, it's not here, it's not all the way around her front, it's just right wherever it lands. Yeah, so it's just kind of resting there and Jason has me kind of securely, but he's also not squeezing me in and mashing me up against him because that's going to through off my posture. And it's not so relaxed that I have no idea what's going on. The idea is not to leave fingerprints on her right side. Generally, ill advised. Yeah. For my part, I'm using my left hand to connect with Jason's right shoulder and how I'm actually going to do that is going to depend on our relative heights. If I were a lot shorter, and if I were really taller, it might look like this. Yes. Or if I were taller, and Jason were shorter, than it might be kind of like this. The idea is I want to have as much connection as possible, so I'm not just putting my hand there and leaving my arm sticking out, I'm trying to drape my arm as much as I can."