Balboa is a form of a Swing. It is danced with the lead and follow dancing where their chests touch for a body lead connection.

Balboa can be danced to much faster music than is possible with Lindy hop. Balboa is danced to a wide variety of tempos. Because the basic is so simple, it can be danced to fast music, well over 300 bpm. However it can also be danced to slow lindy music.

Balboa moves are commonly used in the Lindy Hop, and in the mixture called Balswing .

Balboa is more of a dancer's dance than a viewer's dance. A lot of what goes on is very subtle communication between the lead and follow, and most of the moves lack the flash of lindy hop moves.

Some of the original Balboa dancers once said "We can't tell you how to dance Balboa, but we can tell you when you are not dancing Balboa."

History

Balboa was invented in the 1930s and 1940s in California and is a contemporary of Lindy hop. Balboa is a dance named for the Balboa Peninsula, in Newport Beach, California where it was invented. A world-wide resurgence of Balboa is going on.

Forms

Balboa has two main forms.

• Pure Balboa: In this form, dancers remain with their torsos touching, doing variations based on footwork. Main footwork variations include single-time Balboa, double-time Balboa, and triple-time Balboa.
• Bal Swing: In this form, dancers separate their bodies for spins and turns, much like in swing dance, returning to pure Balboa on occasion.

Description

Body Position

The dancers stand very close, touching from hip to upper chest. This makes it very easy to communicate with body language. The man places his right front torso facing the woman's center front torso. They are offset by about 45 degrees.

Body Lead

There are many variations on how dancers move during the basic step. Each variation looks different. Each variation communicates movement to the follow differently. Dancers do all of the following (from the lead's point of view):

• Stay in place while doing the footwork.
• Move back and forth between 2 positions on the floor, about 4 to 8 inches / 10 to 20 cm apart.
• Walk forward and backward in a line: back, back, forward, forward, forward, back.
• Move in a box: back - side - middle - forward - side - middle.

Basic footwork

Typically both dancers alternate between two positions on the floor, 6 or 8 inches (20 cm) apart.

Leads:

• Step back left.
• Step together right.
• Kick forward left.
• Step together left.
• Step forward right.
• Step together left.
• Kick back right.
• Step together right.

Follows:

• Step forward right.
• Step together left.
• Kick back right.
• Step together right.
• Step back left.
• Step together right.
• Kick forward left.
• Step together left.

Footwork Variations

Dancers vary their footwork, to match the music, match or vary from their partner. The following footwork patterns can mostly be done independently of the partner.

The three standard footwork rhythms are.

• Single time or down hold: Counts 3-4 and 7-8 become a step-hold.
• Double time or up hold: Counts 3-4 and 7-8 are the standard kick-step.
• Triple time: Counts 3-4 and 7-8 become a triple step.

There are lots of other footwork patterns.

• Fan step: In single time, the left foot fans out to the left, on the 3-4 for leads or 7-8 for follows.
• Slide step: When moving the left foot back or the right foot forward, slide it.
• Dig Dig Step: On the 3-4 or 7-8 do a kick - kick - step. This is a cross between double time and triple time.
• V Slide: On the 3-4 or 7-8, slide both feet out in a V to hit a break. Use the following 1-2 or 5-6 to return to the basic pattern.

Main Variations

Five loose categories of variations are pure, throwouts, lollies, crossovers, and fancy.

• Pure: In pure Balboa, dancers stay in contact torso-to-torso. There is a lot of freedom to change direction, to change footwork.
  • Paddles: Clockwise, counterclockwise.
  • Move: Forward, backward, sideways.
  • Shuffle Step:
  • Crab Walk:
  • Come Around: This is the first part of many fancy variations.
• Throw Outs: See also Throwouts (dance).
  • Swing Outs:
• Lollies: Kick step, kick step. Usually, the lead slowly walks around the folow, who spins in place. See also Lollies (dance)
• Crossovers: Crossovers have an in-out feel. See also Crossovers (dance).
  • Push and Pull: with twists
  • Swivels:
  • Fall off the log:
• Fancy: These are special variations that are part of the history.
  • Texas Tommy: The follow spins away with a Texas Tommy, which the lead does a heel slide.
  • Pop Turns: The follow does rick - step - spin - spin. The big diffence is that the lead closes and moves forward on the 5-6.
  • V Slides: The follow does standard footwork. The lead pushes the follow a little bit on the 5-6 to create some space between them. Then the lead does a V Slide on the 7-8.

As a rule, transitions are made on the slow (3-4 or 7-8) counts, because there is more time to signal and make adjustments.

Famous dancers

• Maxie Dorf
• Dean Collins
• Willie Desatoff

External links

• History of Balboa
• Balboa Nation Website