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.

Game Management – Aerials in Barcelona

Coaching aerial workshops is much like refereeing fútbol or soccer, for my American friends. You must be constantly aware of the players, the flow, anticipate their movements, and pay attention to your crew, your fellow teacher(s). After the parkour influenced warmup, the class begins with the rules. Think of it as the captain conference in the middle of the field, except everyone is responsible for themself and their classmates. 1. The flier’s safety comes first. 2. Communication is important. Don’t get ahead of the teachers. Make sure you, the flier, and your spotters agree to what you will do next whether prepping or “going over. Fliers can say “no”.

Then the teaching begins. We start with basing technique, trust exercises, jumping and landing technique. Once the aerials begin, we start off small, moving as slow or fast as we need, giving everyone time for repetitive movements, giving the couples lots of personal attention. Gradually, as aerials get more complex, we use spotters for the up preps and going overs. Oftentimes, we used Pol of Spank the Baby. Otherwise, we used volunteer couples to spot us or we spotted them. It’s a hands-on experience.

From there, you need to trust the students to take care of each other. Hopefully, they’ve paid attention to your techniques, instruction, and visual examples. Then it’s a matter of scanning the room, anticipating who needs special attention, and listening for questions. Sometimes I’ll see an error, but I see the students making an analysis of it or self-correcting. Play on. Other times, class must be stopped, advice handed out through generalities or gently pointing out corrections to specific partnerships that apply to others. I want you to learn and be successful, but most importantly, I want the students to achieve these aerials safely.

Aerials are fun and accessible. Aerial workshops are great because they have a way of making the hard seem easier. Aerials are rarely easy, but through the right training, outside support (exercise, fitness training), attention to detail, you can make them more effortless looking. It’s a different level of teamwork and partnership.

 Special thanks to Daniela de Zabaleta and Pol Prats Ferrer of Spank the Baby for having me teach at their studio, Sara Planas for teaching with me, and 23 Skidoo for helping me develop as an aerialist specialist.

Recent News from Barcelona/ESDC

Last weekend was the European Swing Dance Championships, headed by Sharon Davis and assisted by local Barcelona swing dancers. I was mainly attending because I wanted to be at a European lindy hop. ESDC seemed to be the big one and coincided with my current travels. I was also motivated because I enjoy Barcelona and my favorite European spot, Ohla Bar run by Max La Rocca, is here. My final reason is because I do too many blues events and was even asked if I do other dances besides blues. Yes, that question did hurt.

I registered for ESDC early on, originally signing up for the Jack ‘n Jill lindy hop and balboa comps, and balboa strictly with Louise Tangermann. Eventually, I added the All Star Strictly with Kate Patsky from Sydney, Australia. This is what I learned from ESDC.

1. Europe has a great lindy hop scene and I want to visit and dance with more lindy hoppers

2. Only attend ESDC if you’re serious about the competitions. And by serious, I mean you’ve trained a lot with this partner. I trained balboa with Louise in between our blues gigs, even training in Heidelberg where I met Ali and Katja. Training can supplement, but never replace social dancing. My balboa and lindy hop social dancing has been lagging behind other work. It showed this weekend. Also, you might see the announcement of *live music* *killer DJs*. It’s still a competition heavy event. Good luck with your social dancing.

3. Frankie stories still matter. At Ohla Bar, Kevin St. Laurent was recounting a story when Frankie Manning was first demonstrating lindy hop. He’d start on the count he found most interesting and did the most inspiring step as he led a swingout. Each time it was different, uniquely musical. However, it wasn’t something easily teachable, so the swingout was codified, made digestible for the masses. What does this mean to me? Be musical. Get inspired. Dance like no one’s watching.

4. Competition heavy events are like the bad dj we all avoid. I appreciated the long competition intervals solely because I needed those 30-45 minutes to dry my soaking wet clothes. Otherwise, those long waits mentally took me out of the game. Sitting down so often and for so long made me cold. But what about all those awesome competitions and great dancers? Here’s my favorite: