Hunh!... sounds a little facetious, doesn't it? Not really. When we split a beat and add an extra step, this is commonly referred to as "syncopation". This "split beat" can be danced as "a" or "&". The beat value of "a" is ¼ while "&" represents ½ beat. It is also very important to remember that *"a" or "&" belongs to the beat that is before and not after. Some examples will clarify this: Swing and Jive: Swing chasse is commonly counted as 1 & 2 (triple step). Now we know that "&" belongs to 1. Since "&" has a beat value of ½, the beat value of Swing chasse is ½ ½ 1. Jive on the other hand is danced 1 a 2, thus beat value of Jive chasse becomes ¾ ¼ 1. Swing therefore feels more swingy and Jive more jivy (bouncy). We will keep it real brief for now and next week will apply this concept to SAMBA, get ready..... News Items: You perhaps know Luca Barrichi and Loraine are new British open (Blackpool) champions in Modern and second place was taken by Italian couple Augusto Sciavo and Katerina. In Latin, Bryan Watson and Carmen took No. 1 and Juka Happalanan and Sirpa Sutari were No. 2. American couples had good showing and each year it gets better for USA. LOUIS VAN AMSTEL and KARYNA SMIRNOFF took 5th place in Latin and that is a lot but unfortunately in Ballroom, no american couple made the last six. Andrew Sinkinson retired from competitive dancing (the best slo foxtrot in the world?). Sadly Mr. Michael Houseman, a world class coach, has died of Cancer in the recent weeks. Questions and comments to Dancemax@aol.com, thank you.