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.

Camp Hollywood 2013 – UJC and Weird Faces

Skidoo-wilds, weird aerial faces, Nick Peterson is again wearing eye makeup. It’s another year at the wild and wonderful Camp Hollywood/National Jitterbug Championships. This is place where LA brings its fun madness to bear on all its participants.

There’s something about LA Swing that I really enjoy. Maybe it’s because their scene feels truly unique in our YouTube cookie cutout homogeneous modern age swing world. Maybe it’s because Camp Hollywood is home to routines you wouldn’t see anywhere else.

Or maybe the most logical explanation is that I grew up on California Swing. Sometime during my early swing dancing life, I was attached to a Kansas City ballroom studio that held regular Saturday night East Coast Swing dances. Lindy hoppers were welcome to attend, but this was home to neo-swing, zoot suits, rockabilly types, and people that wanted to have fun. KC’s lindy hoppers were a bit drab in comparison (sorry, guys). My free time was eventually consumed with watching Monsters of Swing videos and idolizing Tip and Holly, Ryan and Jenny, and the Flying Lindy Hoppers. I loved the energy and aerials and still do. It’s one of the reasons I moved to Denver. I saw 23 Skidoo perform at DLX 2004 and wanted on their team.

So, once more I’m throwing mad Ballew air in Nick Peterson’s ode to NJC, the Underground Jitterbug Championship, World Edition. Allow me to explain this sweet picture James Bennett took. Some people didn’t realize what was happening. They could only acknowledge both aerials look pretty similar. This is the Skidoo-Wild, created for 23 Skidoo’s winning 2007 Lafayette routine. Heather and I helped Hyun Jung and Soochan with this aerial while they were in Denver. They were missing a handhold transition to make the finishing backflip easier. They started nailing it and we talked about throwing the same aerial together if we made NJC Open Lindy Finals. Hyun Jung was nervous and I never met them to spot this aerial for the competition. It was never thrown.

We finally met late Sunday night because we knew, if given the opportunity and space, we could throw it during the UJC comp. The competition was awesome to be in. I found it to be more a celebration of international lindy hop rather than USA versus the World. This was most evidenced during the Big Apple that enclosed the California Routine seen here. Eventually, the numbers dwindled, room opened up. We were supposed to go out one at a time, but I ran over to conspire with Hyun Jung and Soochan. Swingout, lindy circle, sk-wild. Nearly simultaneous landing.

Oh, and the plank aerial still lives. It was created for Tise‘s special request last year and re-issued for Moe‘s special request this year.

Sweet Georgia Blues – Rediscovering the Blues

Darn writer’s block. I’ve been trying to craft an opening paragraph about Sweet Georgia Blues, but it’s proving difficult. 8 opening sentences later, I’m still running dry.

How do I describe a weekend that was both torturous and invigorating? My laptop completely died Friday morning and I spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon in a state of panic.  I needed my notes, all my music with my DJ software, my Fast Blues playlist, my Spirit Moves videos. Best Buy fixed it and then my computer wouldn’t start Saturday morning. It was dead. Dead, dead, dead. I dealt with partially transcribed notes on my cell phone, recreating material in my notebook (who uses pens anymore?), and playing music off my limited iPod collection. Evin and Noah Galang helped me greatly with this unfortunate situation.

Anyway, I discovered I have people at Sweet Georgia Blues. From Virginie Jensen, Andrew Twiss, Evin Galang, and Heather Ballew, I saw great blues dancing, quality that hasn’t been matched in years. I saw great body movement, spatial awareness, individual style, momentum, and musicality demonstrated. Their blues dancing is touched by other influences and it looks great. I was home (for a weekend).

My blues dancing is influenced by my lindy hop, ballroom, west coast swing, and jazz dancing background. It’s so great to create a wide variety of movement because your partner is also widely versed and connection skilled. I say embrace your influences, keep learning, and dance to the music. Dancing to blues music will lead you to the blues.

For example, this couple was jamming out at The Speakeasy in Longmont, CO. They were shaking it, working the fishtails, leading and following a few simple patterns. They were in the moment and rocking it. I get caught up in our tiny “dancer” community subculture and forget about this entire group of people jamming at blues bars and festivals. We could all learn something from them.

Dance. Have fun. Don’t forget to breathe. Let loose.

You can find me teaching the blues I enjoy at these upcoming events:

September 21 – Teaching a Bluesli Workshop in Zurich

October 5-6 – Teaching lindy hop, blues, solo charleston and aerials in Luxembourg with Jesse Hanus

October 19-21 – Teaching blues at Drag the Blues in Barcelona