Category: Dance Teaching

Tracking Aerials

I hope people find this document to be a valuable resource. This is a comprehensive spreadsheet of aerials I’ve learned, hope to learn, taught, been enamored by, and whose name I know (or think I do). Aerial names vary by location and person. There are also many more airsteps and tricks out there invented by creative individuals. If you want an aerial listed in this sheet, contact me, and please provide the name, video link, and time marker. Otherwise, scroll down to click the Expanded View or Google Doc with video links.

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Expanded View

Google Doc Spreadsheet with Aerial Links

Sofia Underground Swing

This photo nicely illustrates this post about the Sofia Swing Dance scene. It exists, it’s been going on for a while, but until you dig, you may not know it exists. While this picture shows Roman ruins, Sofia swing scene has not been happening since the days of yore, but it is slightly underground. Several people were surprised I was teaching in Bulgaria, not knowing there was a swing scene. There is and let me tell you more.

Sofia is a unique city. Everywhere you turn, you’ll see a church, mosque or other religious center. Turn around some more and you’ll find the fifth place of worship, McDonald’s. There are so many McDonald’s here! There’s great Bulgarian food, but that’s another post, another blog.

I met the organizer, Yavor Kunchev, via a Facebook friend request in mid-June, 2012. This may have been spurred from a comment I made on a video posted on a Bulgarian swing dance group wall. Who knows? Facebook and YouTube bring people together in unusual ways. We kept in touch and I landed in Bulgaria for a week in late March.

First things first. Yavor knows how to take care of his instructors. I was set in two nice apartments with a great wireless connection (so important), two grocery stores nearby, and the city center within walking distance. Also, I was introduced to so much Bulgarian food. More and more organizers are realizing that I’m a food tourist. I appreciate this very much.

Along with finding the Sofia swing scene very friendly and helpful, they’re also crazy for swing dancing. The Smugglers Collective swing party was packed Saturday night. This is a very cool underground venue. They have so much happening below the streets here. I don’t know how the dancers stayed up so late. (Aside: Porto, Portugal might have competition. I’ll let the Sofia dancers attending the Porto Swing Jam Exchange decide that). I went home much earlier than the hardcore party people. Aerials were on my mind.

That weekend, I worked with two different follows, Stela for lindy and Valentina for aerials. They were great to easy to work with and dedicated to give me two extra hours of their time for training purposes. I even used Yavor for some in-class demonstrations. As a solo teacher, you must be prepared to lead, follow, and switch at any moment. The solo to partner class kept me really busy. There were definite points where I was footwork confused.

If you’re ever in this part of Europe, take the train or plane to Sofia. The airport is close to the city, the food is great, the city is lovely (free English speaking tour), and the dancers enthusiastic. Check it out.

Zagreb – Why Are You Here?

“Why are you here” was asked several times while I was in Zagreb, Croatia. I even had to answer this question before I began teaching Saturday. I think this post is the perfect place to answer the most repeated questions.

Q: Why are you here? A: I enjoy traveling and teaching swing dance. Also, I had a free weekend between two other workshops and wanted to do something en route to Sofia, Bulgaria. A friend from Cork introduced me to his friend in Zagreb and workshop talk started there.

Q: How long have you been dancing? A: For 17 years now.

Q: How long have you been swing dancing? A: About 14 years.

Q: How long have you been dancing lindy hop? A: For about 11-12 years.

This is the thing with questions. Depending on their detail, you will receive different answers. Based on the question asker’s reaction, it always seem they meant to ask the last question. But yes, I’ve been dancing a long time and been through many development stages.

Q: What’s your favorite city? A: London or Barcelona. I like Barcelona for its narrow alleyways with surprising shops, great architecture (Gaudi) and one of my favorite restaurants (Ohla Gastrobar). Unfortunately,  my favorite bartender moved. I’ll live.

Typically, I enjoy a brief mental freeze with this all-encompassing question. I keep expecting more to be added to its end. Since this question is asked in context of my travels, Denver doesn’t ever get mentioned. Why? Because I still live there contrary to others’ opinions.

Q: What city would you revisit? A: Porto. I have many friends there, I like the city’s winding streets, the Ribeira at night, and the Porto dancers are crazy (in a good way, of course). Also, I would revisit London. There’s so much to see there. The city is massive, but feels smaller with each neighborhood having its own vibe. And for foodies, this place is heaven with its amazing restaurants, bars, and markets.

Depending on the question, Berlins gets mentioned for its cool buildings, international cuisine at cheap prices (check out Chén Chè Teehaus), graffiti, and just pure uniqueness. Valencia will get mentioned because I have great hosts that love food and treat me well, there’s a beach, and it’s cool. Just is.

Q: What’s your favorite dance? A: It depends on the dance scene. Currently, it’s lindy hop. It’s what I’m dancing and teaching the most. When I was in Melbourne, west coast swing was my favorite dance. I had a dance partner, taught wcs once every 2-3 weeks, and there were great dancers and a kickass vibe.

Q: Why has it been so long since you competed in west coast swing? A: (inside my head: darn that online points registry). Out loud: It’s a combination of factors. My favorite follows moved away from Denver and my current favorites live in Melbourne and Tel Aviv. Long commute. When you don’t have dance passion in your home scene, motivation is difficult. I still love the dance and stay current the best I can. My last competition was in 2012 at Best of the Best in Sydney, Australia.

Q: You do parkour!? Interlude: This question was asked so often at the Heartland Swing Festival this year. I still don’t know who was telling people about this. I have a feeling when this question is asked with so much enthusiasm (and it was), they expect me to go outside and immediately start jumping around and flipping off things. A: Yes, but I have done most of my training indoors at Apex Movement in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. I haven’t kept up with my training when traveling and training outdoors has its own mental blocks to overcome. If you ever want to train when you visit Denver, let me know and I’ll hook you up.

Q: Why am I in so much pain after aerials? A: It’s intense. You’re using muscles you don’t normally use to this extreme. You’re also coordinating whole body movements. Your body is not used to this. If you want to keep doing aerials, workout more. Get in shape. Train as much as possible and get your repetitions in. Watch DemonDrills.

That’s all. If you have any questions, email me. I’m always happy to give advice, whether it’s for training or you want Denver restaurant recommendations. Also, I’d be glad to teach in your scene. Cheers!

Prague – 16 Teaching Hours Made Easy

How do you recap teaching 16 hours? 7 blues, 5 west coast swing, 4 lindy hop. 2 hours private lesson, 2 hours group private lesson, 1 hour taster class, 11 hours workshops. Ok, clearly there are a few ways to summarize my teaching time spent in Prague. Then add 4 or so training hours. I like making sure my teaching partners are prepared with the teaching material, the possible examples and drills I might use, and know what I might look for from the students. Let’s also add another 3-5 hours for class planning. Each scene is unique and has unique needs. Organizers are always welcome to provide guidance so I can deliver what they think their dance scene needs. Also, I run a popular YouTube channel, so I’m always pushing myself to have new material. Redundancy does occur, but it’s nice that I can give a unique video recap playlist.

16 hours is a breeze when you have great organizers. Zdeněk Kabát and Aneta Pérez represented the westie organizers, Monika Kadanková and Matus Haluska the lindy hop/blues organizers with Marie Prachenská also assisting me in those workshops. Some qualities they exhibited that I enjoyed were their organization, promotions (online and flyers), communication, great tour guides (Prague tourism sites and great food), enthusiasm for their scene and making the workshops a success. I felt very comfortable and at ease in Prague. That could be  the delicious potato salad, dumplings, and sausage talking.

Some highlights from my weekend were the westies organizing a Czech Blues demonstration for me. Marie and I taught a 50 person blues taster at the Jam Cafe Saturday night. We expected a few people and planned accordingly. I threw those plans out as soon as 20-30+ random people showed up. Wow! Secrets to teaching large taster classes in foreign cities: entertain, keep them dancing, play lots of music, keep them learning, reduce any technical information that comes to mind, have fun. A recent highlight has been the Easter decorations in Old Town Square with cute farm animals, live orchestra, and much food.

So come to Prague, dance a bit, enjoy the Czech cuisine, see the sites. I hear there is a blues festival in May.

Sideways 2013 – Loose in Lucerne

Look at us! Sideways in Lucerne. This was my second year teaching for Sideways, ran by Judith Estermann and Nadine Haller. Sideways is billed as a social dance event for lindy hoppers and blues dancers. There is much social dancing and us instructors are asked to focus on dance material immediately applicable to the social floor.

I arrived Wednesday morning, allowing me much time to explore Lucerne. Last year, I flew from Melbourne to Zurich and took the train to Basel to train with Louise Tangermann. I didn’t arrive in Lucerne until Friday evening. This year I taught with Alba Mengual and we planned everything my last week teaching for Big Mama Swing in Madrid. Freedom to wander Lucerne!

Lucerne has amazing structures starting with the ramparts, towers, colorfully understated stone houses. Then you have the bridges, covered bridges with trellis paintings, the water, and mountains. It’s a gorgeous city and I hope the other teachers and students were able to enjoy similar tourist moments.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Hearty bread, Sbrinz and Luzerner Rahmkäse cheese. The organizers went out of their way to take care of us instructors and the weekend’s guests. This was illustrated through carefully prepared dinners, potato fennel thai curry soup and cupcakes on Saturday, great venues, the Sideways Mile, and decor.

Classes were fun, the students great. We had a lot of good questions, including some particularly well timed questions in the Intermediate Lindy Hop (my only lindy hop class). I only wish that class had been as great at rotating as they were asking questions (kidding!). Themes that were running rampant during class were: reminding ourselves how we independently move and perfecting that movement when needed, connecting our bodies to our center, leaders initiating then followers following through and together finishing.

I also felt I was able to connect better with the other instructors. It helped that I could attend the teachers dinner Friday night. Over three hours, we enjoyed three different courses and snacks (thanks, chefs Thomas and Dieter!). It gave us great time to talk and find out more about each other. The teacher lineup was quite diverse, bringing instructors together from the US, Lithuania, Australia, UK, Greece, Switzerland, and Spain. And after hanging out with Martynas and Egle, I might have to visit Vilnius.

Sideways also featured quite a few favorite moments including the pictured David Zilkha rolling what became a giant snowball. Other favorites include: 1. Alba telling the advanced class they weren’t too bad for intermediates (someone didn’t pay attention to the schedule). 2. Scott Cupit actually getting Martynas’ intended fake birthday jam correct. They were both left wondering how Scott guessed right. 3. Swinging out to kickass swinging music (thanks Martynas, Kevin, and Scott). 4. Visiting Mt. Rigi again via boat and cog railway 5. Oh and I built a snowman on Mt Rigi and planked it. Go me. Cheers and here’s to more adventures.