MDPE.Application:5.5 - End voluntary partnered performance
Use this method when either participant wants to finish a voluntary partnered encounter and the pair needs to turn that decision into an actual ending. A track may continue, a partner may offer another figure, or a held contact may outlast the movement. The useful result is an ended interaction: further figures are no longer being offered, both people have usable bodily support, unwanted contact has ended, and each has an available onward action.
The ordinary case here is a pair moving on the floor with each person supporting their own weight. Both already have an available small movement and way to stop. A lift, dependent lean or other action in which one person supports the other’s weight needs its own practiced disengagement technique. Establish that contribution before rehearsing such an ending; an instruction to release contact does not supply it.
Use Application:3 for a composed musical or movement ending. Use Application:5.4 when the pair lacks the movement organization or transition needed to stop. MDPE.5 supplies usable floor and exit conditions. Those contributions can be needed together: a beautiful final shape can leave a partner held in place, while an ordinary mid-track stop can complete voluntary participation successfully.
MDPE.Application:5.5.1 - Construct the ending from the present situation
Begin with the decision that changes the next action: finish at a chosen musical point, or finish participation now. A chosen musical ending can guide preparation while both want to continue. Either person’s present decision to stop removes that continuation from the joint task. Their right to stop is already present; communication makes the decision usable by the other person.
For the ordinary case, connect these actions:
- Make the finish legible. Stop proposing another figure. Give the ending information while the partner can still change the continuation. For a chosen musical endpoint, name it: “Let’s finish at the end of this phrase.” For an immediate ending, say “I need to stop now.” A previously agreed signal can supply the same distinction when both participants can perceive it. A slowed phrase alone may be read as preparation for the next figure. When the partner asks to stop, acknowledge the request and change your action immediately.
- Use the stopping action that is available now. Reduce the movement to the pair’s familiar small transfer or halt, allowing each person to keep their own support and avoid nearby people. Retain only the motion needed to settle and disengage. Waiting for a favourite ending, another figure or the end of the song would add participation after the decision to stop. In a support-dependent action, use the available technique for returning each person to their own support.
- End contact and the expectation of continuation. Once contact is no longer supplying necessary support, release it without drawing the partner into another action. A brief acknowledgement or thanks can make an ordinary ending clear. Releasing a hand does not oblige either person to accept a new handhold, an escort or further conversation.
- Take an available onward route. Notice nearby movement and use a clear route to the edge or other chosen place. If the route is temporarily occupied, remain out of moving traffic where possible and leave when passage is available. Participation can already have ended while the people are still near one another.
Musical closure, cessation of movement, release of contact and departure from the performing area have different completion conditions. Their connection explains the order above: the partner needs usable information to stop offering movement; stopping must preserve bodily support; release makes separation possible; an actual path makes departure possible. Some actions can overlap. A current request to stop changes the continuation at once even when physical disengagement takes a short available movement.
If the other person deliberately prevents release or departure, the ordinary cooperative method has met a different problem. Use the event’s available assistance.
MDPE.Application:5.5.2 - Learn the connection that failed
Start with a short passage the pair can already perform, including its ending and exit. Each participant can choose to end. Agree that practice itself is voluntary and that a stop ends the attempt. The teacher observes the whole encounter before selecting a correction.
| What happened | Contribution to develop | Return to the whole |
|---|---|---|
| One person stopped while the other offered another figure. | Compare the cue the partner actually received with the intended finish. Demonstrate an audible or otherwise usable ending signal, then let the learner use it. | Resume a short passage and let its participant choose the ending without the teacher supplying the final cue. |
| Both noticed the ending, but the stopping movement pulled one person off support. | Return to the available stopping action and its entry through Application:5.4. Reduce travel or change the preceding action if that makes the halt usable. | Restore the preceding passage and check both participants’ support through the stop. |
| Movement ended, but a handhold drew the partner back or kept them waiting. | Practice ending the contact and making departure available. Distinguish a courteous optional offer from a continued demand. | Include release and each person’s onward action in the next complete attempt. |
| Both were ready to leave, but the exit was blocked by the arrangement. | Change the floor or exit provision through its organizer, using MDPE.5. | Try the exit with representative traffic; individual repetition cannot supply missing space. |
Feedback names the observed failure and lets the learner retry its missing contribution. Then restore the whole passage. Change one condition that matters: continuous music, an earlier requested finish, an unfamiliar partner or another available exit. Ask the participants what they perceived and compare that with their actions. A partner who followed the teacher’s gesture has not yet shown that the participant’s own ending was usable.
MDPE.Application:5.5.3 - A constructed case with a changed ending
Lena and Omar can perform a short side-to-side passage and stop with their weight on their own feet. At a social evening Lena wants to finish after the present phrase. She reduces her movement, but Omar reads that reduction as a pause before a new turn. He offers the turn and she follows reluctantly. The difficulty is the information connecting her decision to his next action.
In an agreed practice attempt Lena says “Let’s finish at the end of this phrase” while Omar can still change the continuation. Omar acknowledges her, stops offering the turn and uses their familiar small stopping action. They settle, release hands and each looks for a clear way off the floor. They have completed the encounter even though the DJ has mixed directly into another track. The continuous music supplies no new agreement to perform together.
For the changed attempt, Omar asks to stop halfway through the phrase. Lena abandons the planned phrase ending; they use the stopping action available at that moment, settle and release. A nearby pair temporarily occupies the way to the edge. They wait clear of that pair’s movement and then depart. Insisting on the earlier musical endpoint would fail this attempt. So would declaring failure merely because departure took longer than release.
The next learning question comes from what actually failed. If Lena hears the request but cannot enter the small stop from the current travelling action, practice that transition. If the route remains unavailable under ordinary floor use, change the provision. These are different repairs of the same wanted ending.
MDPE.Application:5.5.4 - Grounds and use limits
Primary community guidance supplies the participation conditions. WSDC’s Social Etiquette, updated in 2019, discusses considerate floor exit, thanking a partner and stopping when uncomfortable or at risk. Its customary hand-connected exit is one local practice; wanted contact remains a condition of using it. The Victoria Latin Dance Association’s code permits ending participation for any reason and calls for clear communication. NAWCSA’s code, section 2.1, requires a requested stop to be honoured immediately.
The method connects those participation conditions to the stopping and transition construction in Application:5.4, the actual provision in MDPE.5, and the attempt–correction–return logic in MDPE.10. This changes practice from rehearsing an attractive final movement to rehearsing the complete voluntary ending. The case illustrates that construction; it does not report a tested teaching intervention.
A description of the sequence lets a reader recognize and prepare the use. Evidence that a particular pair can perform it requires the joint attempt, including the changed condition and the partner’s experience. A different support relation, communication channel or floor arrangement reopens the affected contribution. Preserve a usable ending where those conditions remain the same.