The way he explains the phases of the rumba/cha cha walks is really wrong. He starts by saying that high hip is wrong, then he says that its impossible to have stretched knees the whole time - yeah that is the reason the high hip exsists. In the WDSF books this is called extend, if you extend, high hip then it is possible. And you create very nice lines, bent knees are not pretty to look at, in dancing it is all about creating lines! Also he talks about turning the shoulders, which basically means twisting the waist. That is called Twist, you are not allowed to use a Twisting muscular action in Cha cha and Rumba, what is this teacher even talking about? The twisting !effect! in rumba and cha cha comes from the squeeze > settle+translation muscular action. The whole point of this is that you are dancing with your whole body, otherwise your center will look boring and unengaged. If you use Twist your technique is wrong, if you feel like you have to because the music is too fast then you are cheating and you are very wrong. Fun fact he also dances merengue wrong, there is general action called: Merengue action, this has to do again with the squeezing muscular action, which he doesn't use. Probably wrost lecture i ever saw. - This is a very wrong teacher imo.
So I can think slow and fast like this in cha-cha timing....like this, according to the lecture....like in this timing combination example..... 2 3 4 and 1 2 (hold 3) 4 (hold 1) 2 (hold first half of 3) and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 (hold on the "and" of 4), 1... ....and finish with a funky Kunitz guapacha ending (named for the Latin ballroom dancesport greats, James and Jaana Kunitz) like this..... (hold 2) and 3, uh-4-ah-and 1! Now that is a way to mix slow and fast timings in International cha-cha! :) :)
