Month: October 2013

Drag the Blues Away – Barcelona

Staff picture! Due to fortunate circumstances, I taught at Drag the Blues in Barcelona, Spain with Jana Grulichova. I was en route to Carcassone, France for culinary adventures and was glad I could participate in this new blues event.

Drag the Blues has a simple mission- slow blues. In a blues dancing world being dominated by speed and “authentic” blues, this event stands out. Hold your partner close, strut your stuff, be musical, be you, have fun dancing to blues music.

Because one of my specialties is dips, tricks, and aerials, Ferran gave me a Dips & Tricks class where people remained with their partner. How fun! We started easy and then advanced our way into two different lifts. Hopefully, dancers will practice these moves, be inspired to learn more, and one day use the bigger moves in a choreography.

I haven’t really mentioned my teaching partner yet. Jana Grulichova was a pleasure to work with. We hadn’t really talked about classes outside of me sharing blues lifts practice videos, so I outlined our 3 classes. We met at Swing Maniacs and went through 5 hours of material in 1 hour. Easy. She’s light on her feet, is comfortable giving me weight, does nice arm styling, takes talking opportunities (I’ve taught by myself too often), and personally helps students.

I’d like to share some more things that made Drag the Blues unique to me. They had two specialty classes Friday, 4 classes Saturday, and beach dancing and paella eating on Sunday. It was chill and I got to see more of the city. This rarely happens during weekend events. Us instructors also got many opportunities to hang out with each other and chat (another rare occurrence). The venue was at an amazing hotel with a great wood floor. There was live music both nights. I especially liked Saturday when Carrie Lewis took the stage. Then there was the Crazy Jack and Jill where each couple had a spotlight in which they had to act out a theme (casanova, hating each other, loving each other, etc).  It was quite fun and apparently my facial expressions were quite humorous to one competitor.

Overall, I thought Drag the Blues was quite fun. I hope they run it again next year. Keep your style, Barcelona.

A Nod in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is an impressive city filled with towering bridges, buildings abutting old fortress walls, and extensive casemates. Great appreciation is deserved when you discover these battlements only represent 5-10% of its original fortifications. It’s a great city to explore and I’m glad Jesse Hanus and I had the chance to teach a full weekend of lindy hop, blues, solo jazz, and aerials for Swing Dance Luxembourg.

During that crazy packed teaching weekend, one thing has stuck with me. There was the moment during a Saturday class where two extra follows somehow only had one couple between them. That’s bad if you’re the extra role, so I quickly moved one of the extra follows putting more couples between them. This happened behind Jesse and she looked behind, saw what occurred, and nodded assent. Acknowledged, moving on.

Possessing broad awareness is a great teacher skill. You need to be aware of the individual players, but also the whole group. We want the students to have fun, learn something valuable, improve or own the tools to improve during self guided practice, and dance in partnership as much as possible.

That being said, we had a great time teaching in Luxembourg. I thought the students were enthusiastic and eager to learn. They worked hard both days and finished especially strong on Sunday as we finished the entire solo jazz choreography. Well done and thanks for having us out.

Learning Lessons

I’m reminded of Mike Faltesek and Thomas Blacharz‘s solo critique class at Stompology. Two dancers would solo dance for 60-90 seconds and then Mike and Thomas would provide constructive criticism. Nerve racking! Sometimes that criticism wasn’t directed at the individuals but toward the group. Falty was saying, and I will paraphrase, that practice isn’t pretty. Practice shouldn’t be done on the social floor. Practice should involve sweat, tears, and pain. Yeah, I’m probably taking liberties there. The point? You must work to earn your knowledge. Then it’s currency.

A few weeks ago, I taught in Zagreb, Croatia for Streetcar Called Lindy. Besides enjoying teaching the hard working beginner level students, I enjoyed teaching the very last class, Tricks for Lindy.

I asked the students if they wanted to learn the difficult material first or save it for last. They chose the difficult material (yay!) – The Tango Dip as I learned it from Mike Faltesek and Casey Schneider. We spent the entire hour teaching this move and few people actually owned  it at the end. It’s a difficult pattern sequence. I applaud everyone’s effort. People worked hard and it was great to see. There was technique, solo practice, unfamiliar body movement, twisting, and power. Kudos to the students for their dedication. I hope they continue practicing this move and one day use it in a choreography, jam, or while social dancing.

Another classroom experience balances this one, the Surprise Endings class. I started the class by doing a solo warmup with an 8 count rhythm ending 7, 8, 1 Snap 2. The students were doing really well during the warmup, but incorporating this rhythm inside a swingout proved difficult. Sometimes rhythms inside partnerships are harder than solo and vice versa. Therefore, we had to talk about swingout technique, what it means to stretch/release, and making intelligent decisions.

Students were asking “what if I can’t do this?” or “what if we do it at the same time?” If you want something, you have to work hard for it and you have to make intelligent decisions inside the dance framework. I talk about this in the video and went into detail during class. Sometimes rhythm variations are going to take students outside their comfort zone. I, as the teacher, can provide methods and steps toward success, but the students have to take the final step. Though I will do my best to provide you with the right tools, you’re ultimately responsible for your success.

I related a story that was told to me at a 23 Skidoo practice about a pro that would practice  a rhythmic variation 500 times in front of a mirror before trying it on the social floor. I don’t know if it’s true, but it illustrates one person’s successful method. Immediately, a student pointed out that they aren’t a pro. So? It’s not about what you aren’t, it’s about what you can become. This pro had a method. It might not be your method, but you could probably create a way to help yourself.

Be willing to work hard

Be willing to fail and learn from this

Be willing to try again

Be willing to struggle

Be willing to have fun

Learning is tough, but the rewards are priceless.

No Rest in Bucharest

There are times I wish I still possessed my stolen smartphone. Times when I see a picture I’d like to capture, but my camera is inaccessible. Times when I’d rather map directions on my phone rather than paper. Times when someone says something insightful and I wish I could write it down for memories sake.

It seems that I learn a lot about a swing dance scene at the first meeting, oftentimes the car ride from the airport. My job isn’t always merely to teach my material, it’s to improve the scene.

Bucharest has a small west coast swing scene. They’ve been teaching for 3 years, but have 20-30 regular dancers. Cristian has calculated that he has taught at least a couple hundred people, though. However, being that people are social animals, they prefer parties where greater numbers gather. This means salsa and tango.

The WCS Intensive Weekend is meant to change that. It’s to be a catalyst where dancers from across Romania can come and learn west coast swing. It’s the first west coast swing weekend in Romania. There will be dancers from at least 3 other Romanian cities and a couple from Bulgaria. There will be dancers from salsa, tango, ballroom, and lindy hop. Lindy hop will also be offered since it’s virtually non-existent except with a very new group in Brasov.

Overall, I think the weekend was successful. I was pleased with the overall attendance. Classes seemed full for the space and, as I said before, dancers from surrounding communities came to support this event. The organizers did a great job taking care of myself, Estelle Bonnaire and Julien. We had an apartment to ourselves, received spending money for food, and there was always someone to take us home and get us to the venues on time or even early. They also took us to get great food and if there wasn’t time, food was ordered. I really enjoy events where I can focus on my duties rather than worrying about a needy chaotic organizer.

You could see the maintained energy gradually dwindle on Sunday night. Visiting dancers had already traveled home. I was exhausted, having arrived for morning classes and taught 5.5 hours. The organizers seemed happy. Attendance numbers seemed higher than anticipated. The Saturday night dance featured 7-8 performances including a social west coast swing demo, zouk, salsa, tango and more. This also meant these styles influenced the dance floor a little. It was fun to witness the intermingling. Hopefully, this means more people will seek out west coast swing and this event will happen again and grow.

Oh, and I left the dancers clamoring for more lindy hop. The joys of teaching dance.