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.

More is Less is More – thoughts from Zurich

The familiar adage begins “less is more”. My recent Zurich west coast swing teaching experience speaks differently – more is less then is more. Confusing? Allow me to explain.

I taught west coast swing workshops with Elissa Gutterman from Tel Aviv this past weekend. We were both excited to teach with a partner because we mainly teach alone. She teaches 4 different west coast swing level classes for Dance Tel Aviv. I specialize in teaching workshops and classes with local instructors and am often hired to be the principle teacher. It’s tough explaining both roles with, oftentimes, limited resources.

When you get two teachers that intimately understand both roles, leader and follower, two things can happen. One, you can get the never ending talkers. I witnessed this once at a Denver Intermediate workshop. At one point, the instructors had talked for at least 10 minutes, most students were sitting down. Fibonacci sequencers. This is more is more. Two, is where the two teachers complement each other and are content with the other teacher’s explanation. As each is a capable leader, they take turns leading. This is more is less.

As we were complimented on our ability to rarely talk while giving concise instructions and technique hints, you can guess we were the latter. This allowed the students more repetition and practice to music. We were able to focus on individual needs after giving group instructions. Then we could return to the center and remark on what we saw without always consulting the other. More solo teaching experience equaled less time talking equaled more students’ doing. More is less is more.

I would like to thank Nicola Fiaschi for organizing this workshop, Nadja Gross for hosting me and organizing the Bluesli workshops, Elissa for teaching with me, and the many others that made this weekend successful, including all the students and Saturday night’s social dancers.

Zurich West Coast Swing

This past Wednesday I hopped over briefly to Zurich, Switzerland. It was WestieStage’s first class day back from summer vacation. I was prepared with my single backpack and cuban heels. That’s right, I was sporting proper west coast swing footwear for the first time in over a year. Since I mostly travel for blues and lindy hop, there has never been much need to pack those shoes. However, this European journey also includes west coast swing workshops in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Classes at Salsa Mania went well Thursday. The Beginner class didn’t have any true beginners, but we still practiced push breaks (or sugar pushes). WestieStage is on a 6 week rotating schedule where each week features one of six fundamental basics.  We focused on improving their technique and threw some sugar tucks in there also.

The Intermediate class continued the push break theme as we played with right to left hand holds. This video also includes a final move that we didn’t get to in the class. It was a great class, featuring many local Zurich dancers and some out of towners. Overall, it was a great quick visit to Zurich. I hope to be back later this year or next.

Recent News from Zurich, Switzerland

I’ve been in Zurich, Switzerland for a week. I arrived last Thursday, June 7, to visit a friend and to teach. This was my second time teaching for WestieStage, Zurich’s west coast swing dancing group. They do their lessons in Club X-tra’s main dance hall from 7-9pm and then dance upstairs adjacent to the Zouk room. I taught with Jenny Cooper this time. We covered the regular beginner and intermediate lessons, which are embedded below. We finished the teaching portion with a west coast swing taster for the salsa dancers.

Next up, I’ll be in Barcelona for the European Swing Dance Championships. I’ll be competing in lindy hop and balboa divisions and frequenting my favorite restaurant and bar hidden inside Ohla Boutique Hotel.