A Few Notes On Quickstep (2024)

by Sandi & Dan Finch

Quickstep is spectacular to watch andthrilling to dance because of its bubbly, energetic music and dynamicmovement. Moving briskly across the floor, you should get a feelingof wind whistling through your hair.

Most quickstep figures are taken fromwaltz or foxtrot -- that’s the good news. But learning to dance itrequires some new thoughts about timing and movement.

Quickstep is the fastest smooth rhythmwe dance. It is characterized by steps made up of locks and chassesdone on the forward part of the ball of the foot (usually referred toas the toes). To make it do-able, you need to master two techniques:

♪ Dancing with one side or the otherleading through the chasses and locks.

♪ Keeping your knees and anklesflexible, to be light on your feet but well grounded.

For starters, remember that quicks areusually closing or locking steps. Slows going forward to start afigure are done with heel leads, but the slow after a combination ofquicks will be taken on the toe, lowering to a flat foot, because thenext figure will likely start with a slow and a heel lead.

History:

In the 1920s, with ragtime music therage, new dances such as the Charleston, the Shimmy, and the BlackBottom were in full swing. Foxtrot was new too, having come onto thedance floor out of Harry Fox’s vaudeville routine. Most dancersfound the fast foxtrot too fast for a night of dancing, soinstructors began slowing it down. In England, the faster versionwas modified as the “Quickstep” and in America, it became the“Peabody,” named for a New York police lieutenant popular indancing circles.

The new quickstep moved a little likewaltz, added some flourishes of Charleston, and kept the runs,chasses, skips, and hops of Harry Fox’s “trot.”

Discussion:

Three questions come up when quickstepbecomes the topic of discussion: Is the basic timing SQQ or QQS orSSS? What figures should be taught first? And what is the deal with“running finish” being only three steps, not four, and thus not“running” at all as we know it in other rhythms and figures?

Tempo & Timing:

Quickstep is danced to music in 4/4time, meaning there are four beats of music in each measure. Youwill find figures with timing combinations of SSS, SQQS, QQQQ, QQS,and even QQSSQQ. Roundalab has standardized the basic timing as SQQ,meaning the “slow” will use two of the four beats of music andeach “quick” will use one beat of music.

When the timing switches to SSS or SQQSor some variation, you will be dancing through split measures. Manywaltz figures used in quickstep—such as the impetus turn and spinturn—will be danced as slow, slow, slow. This means the figuresrequire more than one measure to complete. For example, the spin turndone as SSS will be danced over a full measure (four beats) and ahalf (two more beats). If you are only used to starting a figure onthe strong downbeat that signifies the start of a measure, you willfeel a bit uncomfortable with split measures.

You also have to learn new vocabularyfor some strictly quickstep figures, such as V6, woodpecker, runningforward (or back) locks, and tipsy.

Dance Position:

Quickstep is identified as one of theInternational standard rhythms, meaning it is danced in closed (orsemi-closed) position. Dance holds are the same as waltz and foxtrotbut your poise should be more forward over the foot, still keepingthe spine straight. Being forward allows gravity to work with you togenerate movement. Visualize your “center” of gravity andconnection with partner as being higher than in the other dances. This mental picture of elevating your center will lighten the lowerpart of your body so your feet can move more freely through the speedof quickstep. Quickstep music is played between 45 and 52 measuresof music per minute, compared to the modern foxtrot at 28 to 30measures a minute.

“Side leading,” instead of havingthe bodies square to each other, will make it possible to move morefreely and make turning figures easier. When moving line of dance,partners will be in Banjo and their shoulders will have a diagonalalignment.

Movement:

Don’t dance flat-footed. Use yourknees and ankles like shock absorbers. Feel like a tennis player onthe court, switching from foot to foot, ready to receive a serve tohis backhand or forehand. Steps are slightly shorter than in foxtrotbecause of the faster music.

In lower levels of dancing, you focusprimarily on moving your feet from place to place and the body justhappens to get there. But at advanced levels, especially inquickstep, you need to think about moving the body and let the feetmove as a natural reaction. When you move the body forward, yourpartner can feel that and react to it. If you just move a foot, thepartner can only guess where you are going and your bodies will beout of sync, an especially uncomfortable feeling in the middle of achasse.

Rise & Fall:

Quickstep figures have less rise (andtherefore less fall) than their waltz counterparts because the speedof the music and your body flight requires that you keep some flex inthe knees and ankles at all times to stay grounded. For most figures,maximum rise occurs on step one and stays at that level until weightis fully transferred on the last step of the figure, then lowers. Inchasse figures, the rise occurs gradually from the end of step onethrough the last step, then lowers.

Basic Steps:

The Roundalab Manual of Standardsstarts its basic figures for quickstep in phase III. You could alsogo to I Wanta Quickstep, the classic (phase III+1) Hall of Fame Danceby the Palmquists. Figures in the earliest versions of its cue sheetwere step-cued, not identified by the international terms we usetoday, but there they are just the same – quarter turn progressivechasse, forward forward lock forward, and fishtail. Those samefigures are in the pre-bronze (newcomer) level of the English (ISTD)manual and are the first listed in the (American) DVIDA bronze(beginner) syllabus.

The late Alex Moore, MBE, author ofBallroom Dancing, first published in 1936 and considered the dancer’sbible, said the walk and chasse are the basic figures of quickstepand should be taught first, then quarter turns left and right, thenthe progressive chasse. The quickstep was first performed in 1927 ata championship competition won by a 20th century ballroom pioneer,Frank Ford (history courtesy of the Ballroom Dancing Times). Hisroutine was much like a foxtrot but consisted of quarter turns, crosschasses, zig-zags, cortes, open reverse turns, heel pivots, and theCharleston step, and that remained the basic routine until the end ofWorld War II. By the 1960s, competition quickstep became faster,full of scatter chasses, hops, and skips. Still, ballroom masterssay that to do quickstep, you must first be able to dance a goodfoxtrot.

The Mystery Figure:

That Running Finish is perhaps the mostdebated figure in dancing. “Running” generally indicates foursteps in most figures. But, the standardized running finish is threesteps, turning the partnership from banjo with Man generally facingRLOD to banjo with him facing LOD. It is the ending of an old figurecalled “running zig zag,” according to Sir Alex Moore. Takenapart, the finish of the running zig zag consisted of four steps(SQQS) which made it a typical running figure and it went into theEnglish manuals as running finish with that timing. But, Sir Alexadmitted the last step is really the first step of the next figure.RAL and American ballroom manuals show the running finish as SQQ(like a turning feather finish) and leave the fourth step to be partof whatever follows. Thus round dancing has the anomaly of a“running” figure that really only has three steps.

Classic Quicksteps:

Let’s Dance (Stone, 1964, phaseIV+2)URDC Hall of Fame 1979
I Wanta QS (Palmquist, 1967, phaseIII+1) URDC Hall of Fame 2002
Fortuosity (Rother, 1980, phaseV+1)URDC Hall of Fame 1993
St. Michel’s QS (Casey, 1984, phaseV+2) URDC Hall of Fame 1996

Danand Sandi host two weeklyCarousel Clubs and teach a weekly figure clinic on advanced basics inSouthern California. These notes were originallyused in their classes, © 2012. Danand Sandi have additional dance essays and helps on their site. This article was reprinted in the Dixie Round Dance Council (DRDC) Newsletter, October 2012.