Round Dance Tips by Tim Eum—

Reverse Fallaway Figures

PHASE 4 TIP:  REVERSE FALLAWAY---Think of this as a Left Turning Whisk. 

If starting in Closed Position (CP) you can think of the Reverse Fallaway as if it were the phase 3 Whisk, except that you turn it left-face to end in semi-closed position (SCP) facing the opposite direction that you started from.  Step forward turning a quarter left, then step side and finally cross behind to SCP.  Unlike the Whisk, however, don’t hook the last step tightly and don’t check your motion.  Your next step will continue going back instead of forward as in a Whisk.    

PHASE 5 TIP: REVERSE FALLAWAY AND SLIP---After a Reverse Fallaway which ends in SCP, add the Slip ending in closed position. 

One of the nicest things you can do after a Reverse Fallaway is to add a slip step.  A slip step is like a back left turning step with the trail foot except that you begin in SCP and the lady has to turn left-face going from SCP into CP, as she takes her slipping step.  The Reverse Fallaway and Slip is defined in Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, and Tango.  Although the four steps in it are the same in all rhythms, the timing varies. In Foxtrot and Tango, it is QQQQ.  In Waltz, it is QQ&Q. 

PHASE 6 TIP:  THREE FALLAWAYS---Start like a Reverse Fallaway & Slip, then Vine 2 to reverse semi-closed position (RSCP), then do a another Reverse Fallaway. 

The secret to Three Fallaways is the Vine 2 to RSCP.  It is relatively easy to start Three Fallaways because it is simply a Reverse Fallaway and Slip for the first four steps (there are 9 steps in the Three Fallaways) and because the last three steps are a Reverse Fallaway.  Dancers all over the world fall apart on the middle two steps and it is simply a vine 2 (a side, then a cross behind).  What is so difficult about the vine 2? Actually it is not the steps but the position that makes it tough.  The problem is the RSCP.  If the men would only keep turning their upper body left face and keep their shoulders parallel to the lady’s as they go into RSCP, all would be well.  Alas it is all too common for men to turn their upper bodies right face.  It kills the RSCP and it kills the Three Fallaways.  

Tim Eum originally prepared these Tips for
Calls 'n' Cues, (WASCA);
reprinted in the Dixie Round Dance Council
(DRDC) Newsletter, May 2010