Tip

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 When you spin, use your arms to assist. If you wrap your arm in to you tummy you can get all the momentum you need without having to strain your torso or shoulders to get up to speed.

  

 Keep a straight back - if you bend your back then you're asking for trouble as your centre of balance goes completely.

  

 Keep your head up, look at your partner, and don't look at your feet or hands if you're doing a return.

 

 When you spin, spin on the spot. Don't try to move and spin at the same time. If you're travelling across the floor, step into position, spin, step into position, spin, etc. It'll look smooth and you'll stay upright during the spins.

As a style point, try to spin "upwards" i.e. go slightly down on the knee, and straighten up when spinning. Consequently, as you come out of the spin, bounce back down slightly. You'll end up with a rather nice flowing movement which also assists with balance.
Footwork - spin on the ball of one foot, and tuck the other foot out of the way under the ankle of the spin foot. If you get close enough, it'll look like you're spinning on both feet, which are together, even though you spin on one. This will also assist with centre of balance.
Hanging on to the man: the men are there as a point of support for the spin, but you should not be hanging on for dear life to his fingers. Use the man as a pivot, unless needed, THEN hang on! (Gents: if your woman is about to fall off balance, then get out of the way - they really hurt when they land on you. OK only kidding, stay close and grab hold just in case).
Footwork again: if you spin to the left, then step onto the left, spin on that foot, brake feet together, and step back on the left. If you spin to the right, then step onto the right, spin to the right, brake feet together, and step back on the right. So: whichever foot you spin on should be the foot that you step back on.
The timing for a spin: step back for one, spin on two, and step back on three. Sounds daft, unless you don't know it.
When you do a spin, it should be with the front foot, not the back. Every time you step back, the weight should be on the back leg so that the front foot can "jump into the fray" and do its stuff. If your weight is on the front foot when you step back then you end up having to do a quick shuffle or spin the wrong way round, which will throw you off. Every time you step back you should be able to lift your front foot off the ground.

Spotting: if dizziness is a problem then as your body turns, keep focussed on your partner's eyes (or whatever takes your fancy!). Eventually your turning body will force you to turn your head, and at this point whip your head around to come back to the man. Eventually your body will catch up. The aim of this is to keep your head spinning for the shortest amount of time possible. This will help reduce dizziness.

Shoes: Please don't wear soft rubber soled shoes, as these will put a lot of torque pressure on your knees while you spin. Hard rubber soles, plastic, leather, suede etc are really good. By no means do you need real "dance shoes" to do LeRoc and spins - these are usually worn by people who want to stand out a bit from the crowd. (I've always thought of them as a badge "I'm quite good now, dance with me!", though that's just a personal interpretation, and yes I do own some, but I learned to LeRoc in a pair of M&S leather soled shoes).

Stirring: ladies, you cannot expect to spin properly if the man doesn't lead you properly. This goes for returns in particular - the man's hand should go straight up over the lady's head, stop there for the beat, and come straight back down again while the spin is completing. Imagine tracing a letter "J" in the air - this will whip the lady into a spin, letting her know exactly which direction to spin in. Men, don't be afraid of leading strongly, as the women love a strong lead, and can't stand a floppy man (arms-wise that is). Ladies also hate being "stirred" when the arm describes a circle around the woman's head, leading her off balance. ** This is handy in certain circumstances but for normal spins is quite destructive.
Relax: the harder you try to spin, the worse you will do. Try not to think about it. It'll come with time, you cannot learn to run before you walk. It took me over a year to get the hang of spinning. Everybody learns, some quick, some slow, but everybody learns. So don't get wound up when you spin and wobble, as the person you are dancing with will almost certainly have gone through the same thing. I did my best learning when I stopped criticising myself and started having a chuckle each time I made a mistake.
Power: ladies, us men are always boasting about how strong we are, so when you go into a spin LET THE MAN LEAD IT. You can get all the power you need from the man, and this means you can concentrate more on balance and style. It also means that you come off the floor looking fresh as a daisy while the man's perspiring profusely! The other problem with leading yourself into the spin is that you may go before time or with too much power, thus causing any blocks or tricks coming up to "misfire".
Travelling during a spin: the ladies will spin underneath the man's hand, so if the man hovers his hand over the lady's head and behind, then the lady will "tip" backwards slightly and naturally move towards the hand. This means that when you step back out of the spin the man and woman are too far apart to dance sensibly, i.e. you start jousting at each other instead of partner dancing. The closer you are as well means that there is more chance of rectifying an emergency balance problem.
Brownie points: If a woman wobbles coming out of a spin, make sure that the man's feet are stable and that the supporting arm is firm - the lady can grab onto this arm and steady herself without anybody in the crowd noticing.
Extra brownie points: Men, having stopped the woman from visibly wobbling, pretend that YOU didn't notice either. She'll love you for it!
Keep close enough so that you both have bent arms. This is your shock absorber - if you lose balance then the "natural spring" of your arms can absorb the strain. If you have straight arms coming out of the spin then you may end up "jerking" back, causing a whipping motion to travel through your wrist, elbow, shoulder, and more worryingly your neck and head. This is a partner dance, so dance together safely.

If you really are unhappy spinning around in one go then it is perfectly acceptable to "shuffle". By this I mean stepping around in half-motions, rather than just going all the way around on one foot. So you effectively left-right-left-right on the spot until you are facing the same direction again. Every person will learn how to spin differently, and so you will have to try out many methods until you find one that works for you.
Style: yes, some women have great style when they spin, but this is done on top of a good technique. Worry more about the technique while you are learning. Once that can be done without thinking about it then you will have the time during a spin to work out how to do it in a flashy BUT SAFE way. Some ladies do purely technical spins without much personal interpretation, and they look damn good anyway, so you may decide that with something that good, who needs to change it?!
Eye contact. Might sound odd, especially in a spin, but the more eye contact you can manage with your partner, the easier he/she will be to dance with. You can "see" moves coming, you can "see" problems before they can be verbalised (very important, that extra second!), and most importantly, it's nice and social.


The information on this page is not copyright, and you are welcome to use it as reference material for your classes.  However... if you use this information we would appreciate an acknowledgement of the effort that Elmgrove LeRoc has gone to to provide you with it.
For further information contact David on (0117) 9021079