This presentation will include brief discussions of basic Rhythm Units, Rhythm Patterns and Step Patterns as they pertain to West Coast Swing and Syncopations. The system of annotation used here will be similar to that of Skippy Blair's great Universal Unit System™ with some additional annotation techniquies developed by H. Leon Raper.

Basic Rhythm Units

Each Rhythm Unit is either [EVEN] or [ODD]. This holds for all social dances no matter whether they are in 3/4 or 4/4 time. However, in 3/4 time there are 3 beats to each Rhythm Unit and in 4/4 time there are 2 beats to each Rhythm Unit. All further discussion here will pertain only to 4/4 time.

Basic Rhythm Patterns - West Coast Swing

Rhythm patterns just indicate the weight changes made by your feet on the dance floor without indicating any direction of movement. The following examples show Rhythm Patterns using a Straight Count. They could have been, but are not shown here using a Rolling Count.

6 Beat Rhythm Patterns (Using Straight Count): Are composed of 3 Rhythm Units - remember each Rhythm Unit is 2 beats of music.

8 Beat Rhythm Patterns (Using Straight Count) : Are composed of 4 Rhythm Units - remember each Rhythm Unit is 2 beats of music.

Step Patterns

When you take a Rhythm Pattern and add directional movement then you have a Step Pattern.

Syncopations -- What are they?

Workshop discussion and exercises will take an indepth look into the world of syncopations, basic and advanced types -- including how they would be written and how they are actually danced on the floor. But fiirst, we need to define a syncopation and the best best definition I have seen is the one given by Skippy Blair in her Dance Terminology Notebook. (see references)

Skippy's definition reads, "a Syncopation is stepping before the beat on the "&" or "a" count, then stepping again or doing something else on the beat. There is one exception which is that a basic Triple Rhythm Unit is not considered to be a Syncopation."

Annotation Worksheets

The worksheets provided in this workshop are also available on the Internet at http://www.DanceCorner.com/teacher/Annotation/

References

H. Leon Raper, Dance Instructor
PO Box 2088, Scottsdale, AZ
(480)945-9100 Phone, (480)945-9102 Fax
E-mail: Raper@Raper.com
Web: http://www.Raper.com ... main Raper web site
Web: http://www.DanceCorner.com ... main Dance web site
Web: http://www.SwingDance.com ... main Swing Dance web site
Web: http://www.SwingDance.com/whoswho/ ... "Who's Who in Swing Dance" (online book), by H. Leon Raper
Web: http://www.DanceDictionary.com ... Raper's Dance Dictionary
Web: http://www.DanceCorner.com/teacher/ ... Raper's Dance Teachers Corner
Web: http://www.DanceCorner.com/teacher/Annotation/ ... Annotation Info and Worksheets
Web: http://www.DanceCorner.com/hlr/author/ ... Dance Writings of H. Leon Raper
Web: http://www.DanceCorner.com/hlr/biodanc.html ... Dance Biography of H. Leon Raper

Skippy Blair, Golden State Dance Teachers Assocaition
10804 Woodruff Ave., Downey, CA 90241
(561)869-8949 Phone, (561)862-7219 Fax
E-mail: Skippy@SwingWorld.com
Web: http://www.SwingWorld.com
Contact Skippy Blair for information on the following excellent resources:
Universal Unit System™, by Skippy Blair
Disco To Tango & Back, by Skippy Blair
Dance Terminology Notebook, by Skippy Blair
Intensive dance training seminars held throughout the world listed at http://www.SwingWorld.com