Fourteen Step
Composed/written by Franz Schöler, 1889
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Note: The 14 Step was derived from the 10 Step, turning a circle dance into a 'rink' dance
THE FOURTEEN STEP—Are You Brave Enough To Do This Dance?
by Eli Graham You are a bronze medal level skater. You have left all-forward dances long behind. The Glide Waltz? Give me a break! You can do bronze medal dances OK, you want more. Girl, it's time to “put away your childish things.” It's time to put your teddy bear under the blanket, or in the nightstand drawer—where us guys keep ours. You are about to join the grownup skating world—the Fourteen Step. I'm mostly talking to the girls, but guys, you listen up too. You both have something to learn. Except for the Collegiate and a couple of others, this will be your first classic dance. By classic I mean those old dances that will be around forever because although they seem simple with simple footwork they demand real skating skill—dances that may have no special showpiece to wow spectators, but the entire dance is ONE big aesthetic experience, dances in which novel trick-moves fool no one. Beyond the Collegiate and the 14-Step there will be the Keats Foxtrot, the Viennese Waltz, the Blues (Dench), and some others. They call for accurate footwork and a deep understanding of the spirit and mood of the particular music they are danced to. They are dances that no matter how high up the ladder of proficiency you go you will always take SERIOUSLY. Watching a Senior Dance champion team dance the Collegiate is awesome indeed! Whether you can transform mere skating into dancing will be up to you and your pro. My self-appointed task here is to alert you some of the technical aspects of what you are facing. Remember, good, accurate skating and an understanding of how each step works to make the dance something you experience rather than just do must happen before you worry about style. And that means skating it as a couple, a unity, not just 2 people skating in formation. Enough of my sermonizing—back to the 14-Step. When you watch good teams skating it, have you noticed how fast they are moving? This dance is skated to a 100 beats per minute March. This means in a typical rink you must travel twice around the floor in less than a minute. If you skate a small pattern inside the black line, no problem. But, it looks awful, it completely misses the spirit of a march. Onlookers will yawn and ignore you. This speed, however, is your background, something you must use to make your dance stand out. The 14-Step is where you will first begin to hear your pro screaming “Out to the baseboards! Out to the baseboards!” With each centimetre, each inch, bigger your pattern grows the faster you will skate until you think you are flying. The better your footwork and your basic skating skill, the faster you can comfortably skate. The straightaway is the Society Blues, but Lady skates backwards. You will run into this sequence many times in less demanding dances. And why are you, the Lady, always skating backwards—following not leading? Well sweetheart, it's out and out sexism—which is hardly new to you. But in the 14-Step the tables turn somewhat. In the straightaway Man's job is to keep the team on baseline rather than wandering all over the rink, and to watch out for traffic. Barring surprises like a wad of bubble gum on the floor, you both should successfully reach the corner. In the meantime, look at him—in the eyes. It will keep him alert. Toy with him—smile, frown, snarl and make come-on expressions (especially in tangos). Don't stare at his ears. He can't help it, and he's insecure enough already. Partners actually looking at each other will prove increasingly importantly as you move to dances like the Harris Tango. Make it a habit. Arriving successfully at the corner, the situation changes. As in many pattern dances, the corner is the heart of the dance, the real scene of action. In the 14-Step it is also where Man relinquishes control. Lady is no longer Barbie, she is Wonder Woman. First of all, she must make sure he doesn't fall at the mohawk, Steps 8 to 12 are relentless runs, and she must skate fast enough that she can slide in front of him in a smooth slow rotation to her LOF-ROB mohawk, steps 12 and 13. By the end of Lady's ROB, step 13, they are tracking. Then they seem to relax at step 14, the end of the dance. Back to the first mohawk, when Lady turns forward and Man turns backwards. If you're going to fall, this will be the place. Oddly enough, it isn't the turn itself that is the danger. It's the next step. I won't go through this step by step, it's more complicated to write than to do. If you're unclear about the problem, get someone off skates to walk through it with you. The basic problem is that Man's free foot on his first backward step, his LIB, can easily stick out to the side and get tangled in Lady's on-coming LOF step 10. If so, down you go. To be certain here, Lady, keep him a bit farther away from you until he settles in. Hip-to-hip togetherness is not wise. This is especially important if you are not skating with your official partner, but with some random guy drinking a slurpy you managed to pick up in the snack bar before Couples Only. Man, for variety—not in a test or competition--try the USARSA version of step 11. Instead of doing just a LIB run, do a LIB-XB. It gives a little lilt to the sequence. Lady, do not match this with a RIF-XF. It ruins the effect. Speaking personally here, except for the danger of the mohawk at the first corner, the steps themselves present few problems. But small mis-steps get magnified at high speed and become more of a threat. Sometimes the 14-Step can get scary. I always faced this dance with fear. Long after I was passed silver bar level, more than once I found myself on the floor at the first mohawk, my partner standing over me, repeatedly stabbing her forefinger into her temple, yelling down at me, “Are you stupid or something!? You're roadkill—I'm outta here!” Addendum My feeling at my RIF at the corner's end was just relief that we had made it through alive. Read what Jim Moulton says and take it to heart. I suspect many of us have horror stories about the 14-Step. "Editor's note: The Man's RIF edge of the back-to-front Mohawk - Ladies LIB at the ends of the rink needs attention. If the Man doesn't bring the Lady (or let the Lady pass) well by, its VERY easy to lock wheels. The Man is usually OK, but he has no leverage to help the Lady and she is down on her back in a flash. I've mentioned this to a couple of Ladies, and maybe not surprisingly, they had a similar falls. Many official dance notes direct attention to this turn." To my mind, the key to rotation problems is the handhold [or bridge]. Handholds are not just convenient things to do with your forelimbs while you skate together. You skate with your whole body—not just from the waist down. Handholds and your arms should be firm enough that you can use them to control your shoulders—not limp and weak like jello. Here in the 14-Step, Lady is leading, she must push with her outstretched left hand, as Man pulls with his outstretched right hand to bring her around him and ahead of him for her approaching LOF-LOB mohawk, and she must get all the power she can to do it. For me personally, skating with a girl who just wilted away in front of me like I was skating with a cloud, really weirded me out. |
source: 2021 Second Edition RSA American Style Silver Tests used by AARS
use for RSA International Style Dance Tests
source: USAC 1973 International Roller Skate Dancing, Edition I
source: USAC 1973 International Roller Skate Dancing, Edition I
source: 2009 CEPA Europe Compulsory Dance Book
source: USAC/RS 1989 American Dance Roller Skating Part II (no revisions as of 2021)
source: British Ice Skating
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source: United States Figure Skating Association 2002
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source: USA/RS Edition X 1980, copyright by RSROA 1973
source: Geri's files
The sport governing boards have evolved from CEPA Comite European de Patinage Artistique
to FIRS International Federation of Roller Sports, to World Skate
The sport governing boards have evolved from CEPA Comite European de Patinage Artistique
to FIRS International Federation of Roller Sports, to World Skate
source: Amateur Skater's Hand Book 2nd edition, 1953
source: Roller Skating Dance Tests, Roller Skating Rink Operators Association of the United States (RSROA), First Edition, September 1938
note: parts of pages removed to improve clarity and flow of description, no dance diagrams were published at the time.
The flow of the description can be confusing, until looking at the step list and see the dance starts with the straightaway steps.
The flow of the description can be confusing, until looking at the step list and see the dance starts with the straightaway steps.