Old ceroc is not taught slotted. Just because you are (sort of) dancing in a slot, doesn't make it slotted dancing. The three major things that aren't taught:
I've never seen any of these things explicitly taught in Ceroc here (some ceroc teachers do, but they are anomalies). Dancing back in forth in a line is not slotted dancing. Other may have slightly different lists, but the point is that dancing in the slot is quite a bit more than the way ceroc is currently taught. Take the first move (a good example, even if some people want it gone). As normally taught, the lead stays on the slot and the follow steps in to their side. A slotted version would involve the guy stepping back to their left, opening the slot. The connection would lead the follow to turn so you are now basically face to face; the follow continues the turn and travel along the slot to step back. The lead can either stay put or step back; in either case, catching the follow to arrest her travel. This ends up looking like a simple right-side pass...
- The follow owns the slot; the lead has to get out of their way.
- Once the follow is led along the slot, they have to keep travelling along it; the only thing that should stop them is a lead.
- The leader is primarily responsible for orienting the dance on the slot (but it's a lot easier if the follow helps out too!)
For me it's a question of clarity. Ceroc lacks a basic pattern for the dance, which I think most other dances do have. This is actually a weakness of ceroc that makes it harder to make learning it a progressive experience. Having some sort of core pattern that is actually taught gives a foundation to build on. I'm not saying that slotted dancing is the only valid foundation, but if it's used this way (which is sounds like it will be), then it is inherently better than not having any foundation. The reason it's so useful is it give both lead and follow a template so they can more easily interpret lead and follow.
Of course, for slotted dancing to really work, you need other things that are good dance technique: tension/compression/connection, body leading, and frame. One hopes they chose to include this in the dance as well.
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