Pretzel Merengue Dance Steps

Video Transcript

So, the last Merengue step I want to show you today, I call it a pretzel. There's many different pretzels, but this is one of them. It starts in open position, and here's what it looks like. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. It may look a little complicated, but it's really not. So, how it starts, basically, the leader lifts the right hand, drops his left, but you're not going to lift it in a way to turn your partner. You're going to lift it in a way that doesn't put any pressure on her at all. You're going to lift it closer to yourself than to her. And right away, before she can go anywhere, if she starts to try to start to turn because this is an indication for a turn, you can hold her back with this hand, and you start to turn yourself. As you start to turn yourself, watch what this hand does. This hand is palm to palm. I'm going to come through the door, and I'm going to flip this hand underneath so that we are fingers to fingers, and I'm going to in sense hammer lock myself. We'd already done the hammer lock? So, this is what is called a hammer lock position. When my arm is behind. We're locked here in the fingers. Again, so we're dancing, we're dancing Merengue. Now I lift the hand. My left hand drops down. I hammer lock myself, and I'm going to change my position a little bit. Instead of being directly square with my partner, which is going to put a little bit of stress on her arm. I'm going to shift over, just slightly, so that I'm lined up with her shoulder, just makes the whole spacing a little easier for both of us. So, I come into this position. You can take as much time as you want, this is Merengue, to get here. Now, with this hand, I start getting out of the pretzel. I place my elbow on my side. Right now my elbow is on her side. Have her arm be the divider. My elbow is on her side, so I start with my elbow. I place my elbow on my side. I bring her hand to her arm, then I slowly duck my shoulder down, and as I do my Merengue steps, I'm going to actually come over so that it's elbow, shoulder, head. And now, do you see how I'm kind of in a little bit of a pretzel with my left arm. If you can just slide it through. From there, it's a left turn for her, but for you, you're turning her to your right. So, again, out of the Merengue step: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. You can take as much time as you need or as little time as you want for this turn. If you want to take more time here, you can take more time. You can stand here for a few minutes, then you can attempt to come under. Bend the head, then the elbow, bring your partner around. Now we'll smooth it out. And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's the whole move. The pretzel in Merengue made easy just for you.

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