Teaching Triple Step – A simple system anyone can use

Teaching Triple Step – How to spice up your step class without increasing the complexity of your choreography.

I was recently booked to present in the Czech Republic.  I had a great time and the people were amazing.  I was booked to teach 2 step classes which normally would not be a problem, except for some reason I have recently been really short of inspiration and creativity.  Doesn’t happen often but when it does it really is panic time for me

Anyway I had worked out a step class that I thought would go down well, so happy days there.  But I still had this other class to do.  I wanted to offer a class that offered something different and introduce another teaching system to the participants.  No pressure then.  So I came up with the idea of teaching a triple step class.  Now bear in mind that I have never taught a triple step class, and you can begin to understand the challenge that was ahead for me.

But I like stepping out of my comfort zone so I quickly developed a way that I was going to teach each block and then progress that to moving around the other steps.  This is what I came up with;

All combinations begin and end at the home step.  This way people always have a reference point to work to. Then you teach your combination.  I will walk through 1 of the combinations that I taught to illustrate the point.

Counts	Lead Leg	Approach	Facing	Movement
1-3	R	Behind the step	Front	Chasse over the step
3-6	R	Behind the step	Back	Chasse over the step to face front
7-10	R	Behind the step	Left	2 x knee repeater ball change
11-13	L	Left side of the step	Left	Step mambo on the floor
14 – 16	R	Behind the step	360 turn	Full turn
Repeat combination Left Leg Lead

This combination would be taught as if I would be teaching a normal step class so my base move would be;

1. 6 point mambo, 2 knee repeater, 1 basic step, repeater,
2. Layer in the chasse over the top x 2 over the 6 point mambo
3. Layer in the knee ball change over the repaters
4. Add the step mambo after the repeater and march back to step, instead of the basic step.
5. Layer in the turn over the marches

Now the fun bit……… Once people have mastered that routine you then visually preview the changes that make it a triple step class..

And the result  Well a relatively simple routine is brought alive by using the 2 other steps.  As long as you use the home step as a focus, you really can’t go wrong. As you can imagine I did a lot more within the class in the Czech Republic, including using split and mix and insertion but that is for another article……….

I will post a video of the routine soon, promise!  If you have not already done so, add your name to my list so that you are notified when I do add more videos, and also to get your free video  tutorials 🙂

Press the like button if you found this post useful, (please)