What is rock dance?

Rock dance or Rock step or the break step refers to the rocking action during the move. The steps are based on the weight that is transferred from one foot another and then back. It is used in several dances such as East Coast Swing, Zydeco, Lindy Hop, Tango etc.

It is often known as the two-step dance move executed in two beats music as in Rock back and Rock forward. Rock back is about the dancer stepping backwards and will transfer the full weight to another leg and back to the front leg. Rock ahead is about shifting the weight to the back foot first and keeping it in place. In some dances, the rock step is used to change the direction of travel. In such cases, one or both steps the dancer may perform a certain amount of pivot turn. Coming to Lindy Hop, the turning rock step is also known as a rotational rock step due to the rotation of the body's centre to change the direction of preparing for the move. The degree of rotation in the rock step and turning varies on how further the dancer wants to change the direction.

Most of the times, the terms of Rock step and break step are used interchangeably as in forwarding Rock and forward break. The difference is that in rock step the emphasis is actually in the rocking action during the step, so here the term break is the change of direction into the opposite that is the forward break changes the direction of the movement from forward to backward.

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