Closing 2013 – The Year of the Team

Snowbound in Rochester, New York after Southwest canceled my flight. That picture illustrates the normal gear worn when trekking through the South Wedge. I was en route to Hedonist Artisan Ice Cream when the storm struck, turning buildings into misshapen unidentifiable lumps.

48 hour delayed flights equates to a busy internet time. I’m planning another national instructor led workshop March 2014 in Denver, playing Angry Birds, chatting with a Lisbon friend, uploading 11 instructional videos to YouTube, Yelping Asheville restaurants, and figuring out some way to synopsisize (new word!) my Lindy Focus experience. Where to start, where to go, how to finish?

With a nod, winks, and overt gestures, let’s start with teams. After all, it’s the year of the team for me. Michael Gamble called out for teams mid November in the Lindy Focus FB group. The team division was returning and they were short teams. I boldly inquired Denver through FB for interest. There was murmuring, but no solid chatter happened on the Merc. Thank goodness, because that would be a serious time crunch.

Then Rochester came a’callin’. 5 out of 6 members from their Groove Juice Swing aerial routine were attending and they needed an extra guy. I was visited over Thanksgiving weekend and could learn the routine, so I teamed with Rebecca Berman. We practiced the aerials, I flubbed the Stephen & Virginie rhythm section multiple times, and I learned most of the routine.

It did make life easier at Lindy Focus, though we had to still schedule extra practices at our super secret practice location and wake up early for floor trials (bah!). Couple that with early morning auditions, are you surprised I was rarely seen on the social dance floor? Results paid off for a 2nd place finish! Good times had been had.

The final team piece was “Summertime Blues,” choreographed by Dan Newsome and Lainey Silver for the New Year’s Eve show. This would prove a massive undertaking because Jesse Hanus and I would not see each other until Lindy Focus. Jesse was the most productive, practicing with Scott Lucchini, while I ran around organizing a Denver workshop weekend with Stephen Sayer and Chandrae Roettig Dec 14-15. Crazy!

Kansas City Christmas vacation was filled with solo dancing in my parent’s living room and me tracking which step goes with which beat. Do you know how hard it is to break down choreography when you can’t see the couple dance to music? Eventually, I edited all the dancing bits together, smashing 28 odd minutes to 5. Tailored learning there. Sometimes you do what you can to survive. No custom counting my steps for this guy.

So each Lindy Focus day brought a 1 hour practice where we danced to music, hammered out our formations, fine tuned our lifts, turning pieces into cohesive sections. It was interesting watching Dan and Lainey deal with our motley crew’s varied needs. And it was fun working with everyone. Some thanks goes to Joe Demers for watching my circle spacing, Mike and Ruth for the Thread the Needle tip, Jon Tigert for allowing me to work my Beyonce behind him,  Jesse Hanus for dealing with me, and Jenna Applegarth for helping organize practice spaces. Overall, I was pleased with our results.

2013 was a good year. I finished my 3 month term at Big Mama Swing, bounced around Europe teaching lindy hop, blues, aerials, and west coast swing, laid low in Denver, ran Auditions and taught at Beantown, performed with three other groups, tied Soochan Lee and Hyung Jung Choi at the Underground Lindy Hop Championships at Camp Hollywood, hop scotched around Europe some more, ran a great workshop in Denver, and finished Lindy Focus with 2 finals (blues, balboa) and 1 alternate (adv. lindy hop). What’s next, 2014?!

Blues:

Balboa:

Lindy Focus XII – Life in Audition Land

Last year, I played a behind the scenes role on Lindy Focus‘ audition team. This year, I soon realized I lacked last year’s anonymity once people found me immediately after track badges were passed out. We had several people wanting to appeal immediately, some with legitimate issues (computer glitch, illness), others not so much. Sorry, everyone, but please take tomorrow’s classes and come to appeals at Foxfire between 6-7pm.

Lindy Focus XII brought new experiences, responsibilities, and happenings into my life. Based on last year’s performance, I was asked to be this year’s Lindy Focus Auditions Coordinator. This included old responsibilities (judging audition heats, evaluating class levels, auditioning latecomers) and added new ones (training the audition judges, bumping class outliers, running the appeals session). Along the way, I learned new things, was reminded of past experiences, and am motivated to give advice.

First, it’s difficult to please everyone auditioning. Audition judges must score 20-40 people within approximately 6 minutes. That’s a short amount of time, but that’s why experienced teachers like Dax Hock, Casey Schneider, Nikki Marvin and more were judging the audition heats. In some cases, Mike Roberts and Shesha Marvin were doing extra scoring.

Immediate feedback included some people really enjoying the auditions process, remarking how they liked having two warmup songs. This allowed them to settle their nerves and get comfortable with their peers, so they were calmer during the next three judged songs. Some students didn’t like their audition heats because their peer followers/leaders didn’t allow them to truly showcase their abilities. However, these are your peers and the vastly skilled judges will be able to recognize your dance-ability. We all look good dancing with superior dancers, but it takes talent to standout among your peers. Others, as stated above, wanted to appeal immediately.

When you choose to appeal, you must stand out among your fellow competitors who are also seeking the same limited spots (1-3 available depending if leader or follower). However, as Sosh Howell and/or I said during appeals, and I paraphrase: “We will only pick a few of you due to limited space. We also want this to be the best Lindy Focus experience for you. If you are truly unhappy, please talk to me (Sosh). I may not be able to move you to your desired level, but I will try to help in some way. ”

Lesson #1: Lindy Focus cares.

The Lindy Focus organizers are sincere about wanting to make this a good Lindy Focus experience for you. During the registration process, Lindy Focus gives you the opportunity to accurately describe where your dancing is at. You’re placed within 1 of 3 groups comprised of 4 heats each and then given five songs and nine plus minutes of music to show us where your dancing is at. Then I visit each class looking for exceptional students deserving a level bump. If you’re still dissatisfied, you can come to appeals and dance to 2-3 more songs. And if you’re still unhappy about your placement, I will personally evaluate you.

Lesson #2: Looking good benefits you.

During auditions (I’m the only person that judged every partner role in every audition group) and class evaluations, I visually judged. I was looking at posture, swivels, rocksteps, body flight, triple steps, momentum, pattern transitions, arms, rhythms, and more. Each audition judge, including myself, has taught a thousand plus hours across the globe to many different skill levels. We know what to look for and how to look for it. That being said, it would benefit many people to videotape themselves, take a private lesson, and get outside perspective on how their dancing looks. One judge was booked with two private lesson students after auditions.

Lesson #3: Work hard during classes…

(especially during Lindy Focus’ first two days of tracked classes). Well, work hard all the time, but this is when I’m evaluating classes, making general notes (Track 6: “demonstrating more rhythm, started creating”), and noticing any outliers. We want to reward deserving dancers, those standing out in their tracks. I watched everyone as Track 4 tried Andy & Gaby’s slide variation, Track 7 tried Pontus & Isabella’s multi-wall swingout variation, Track 8 tried Todd & Ramona’s Texas Tommy chase variation, Track 3 tried Mike & Casey’s heel toe swingouts, and much more. I saw students struggling, most doing the patterns, some actually getting it and dancing the pieces as a whole. This leads to…

Lesson #4: Strive to be a better student.

I feel that some students only touch the surface of what’s being taught. Are you listening to every word assuming that the information is directed toward you? Are you studying the instructors’ movement as they demonstrate? Do you ask for personal feedback from your current instructor or partner? If you’re alone for a rotation, are you practicing? Do you remember that student being praised by the teachers for practicing on their own when waiting for a partner? That happened in Track 2. When the music plays, are you testing your leading/following skills without the teacher calling out the pattern(s)? What’s the class theme and can you expand on it? Are you doing enough to improve you?

One day I was watching the Track 4 followers during a Dax & Sarah class. They were working on rhythms traveling forward and backward. The two most distinct followers were slightly behind their leaders while still carrying nice through momentum and actively contributing. Other followers were tentative, passive, or mentally checked out. Tune into class and improve yourself. We all have something to gain from any  class.

Lesson #5: Check your ego.

Once you register for workshops, you’re asking for someone else to evaluate you. Can you be honest about your strengths and weaknesses? Are you comfortable having someone you may not know assess your dance abilities within 10-15 seconds? This is similar to what happens during a Jack n Jill competition. Regardless, I encourage you to check your ego, refrain from blaming others, and seek to improve you.

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Overall, I had a great time being the Auditions Coordinator. Leveling is tough business for everyone involved. Lindy Focus does have one of the best auditions processes from the front end operators to the behind the scenes workers. We do care about making this a good experience for you from the beginning until the end.

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.