I came up with a couple clevernesses at Friday Night Waltz last night. First of all, I realized that you could do cross-step hemiola pivots, but starting on the 4 instead of the 1. Same concept, but very different feel, at least for the lead (I haven't tried following it yet). Doing the waterfall cross behind thing on the crosses helps, too, I think. That one was pretty straightforward.
The other invention was mothered by necessity, since there were a number of waltzes last night at awkward tempos, either slow rotaries or fast cross-steps. This idea works best for that in-between tempo, preferably with some good percussion or something to keep the energy up and make the music seem faster than it is. You start off by doing Newports, which I know as part of the Bronco schottische, but which I tend to forget are actually waltz steps. For those who don't know it, you basically do rotary waltz steps, but add in extra "ands": 1-and-2-and-3, 4-and-5-and-6. You're just kind of barely pushing off on the "ands," not making real steps, so it makes it bouncier even though it's slower than a regular rotary. Now, if you want to kick it up one more notch, you start doing redowas on top of the Newports. I haven't thought of a good way to really describe this, other than "think redowa and stretch it out more." But anyway, it works and it's great because you can match redowa energy in the music, even if the tempo wouldn't ordinarily support it.
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