4 or 6b/m; 16-32m/m

The nightclub or California two step was originated by Buddy Schwimmer, Lee & Linda Wakefield, & Ron Montez during the 1970s in crowded dance clubs on the west coast as a rhythm one could use to the very slow love ballads that are otherwise hard to know what to do with. When you are young and in love, you can clutch and sway to a slow tempo, but such a dance does lack the interest of variety.

But the nightclub two step encourages you to draw out a side step and use up some of the “extra” time that way. Schwimmer taught the dance as a quick rock, recover, and then side, or a cross behind, recover, side. Apparently, Slow Two Step was introduced to round dancing in the early ’90s by Bill and Carol Goss, but they presented it as a “slow, quick, quick” rhythm, with the side step done first and the rock/recover second. In 1992, they published a cue sheet for Kiehm’s Are You Still Mine, and they wrote their own, Even Now. Jim & Bonnie Bahr released What Am I Living For in 1993.

Most choreography is written as though the timing of the figures is “slow, -, quick, quick;” and if the music is 4/4, that is a good description, but if you have good 6/8 music, it would be better to think of the timing as slow, -, slow. -/&;” but even this representation is approximate. Out of the six beats of music, the first step uses three, the second uses two, and the last is a quick of just one beat. The steps can still be called SQQ, but the two Quick’s are not even.  The weight changes are on beats 1,4, and 6. [The beats are sometimes described in compound rhythm as “1 and uh 2 and uh.”]  The first step, the Slow, takes 3 beats.  Step 2 takes 2 beats, and step 3 takes only 1 beat.  This creates the uneven, lilting kind of feel. Because there are so few figures in STS, choreographers typically borrow from other rhythms such as Bolero, Rumba, and Foxtrot.   Example: Side Basic; Open Basic to ½ Open; Forward and Run 2; 2 times to Face; 

Credits: http://haroldsears.com, www.roundalab.org

ROUND-A-LAB PHASE III Figures

  • BASIC
  • BASIC ENDING
  • LUNGE BASIC
  • OPEN BASIC
  • OPEN BASIC [to ending position]
  • REVERSE UNDERARM TURN
  • SIDE BASIC
  • TRAVELING CHASSE
  • TWISTY BASIC
  • UNDERARM TURN

ROUND-A-LAB PHASE IV Figures

  • CHANGE SIDES UNDERARM
  • INSIDE ROLL
  • LEFT TURN WITH INSIDE ROLL
  • OUTSIDE ROLL
  • RIGHT TURN WITH OUTSIDE ROLL
  • SWEETHEART RUNS
  • SWEETHEART WRAP
  • SWITCH 
  • THE SQUARE
  • TRAVELING CROSS CHASSES

ROUND-A-LAB PHASE V Figures

  • ARM TO ARM
  • PASSING CROSS CHASSE
  • TRAVELING RIGHT TURN
  • TRAVELING RIGHT TURN w/OUTSIDE ROLL
  • TRIPLE TRAVELER

ROUND-A-LAB PHASE VI Figures

  • PULL PASS