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.

What Level Am I? – Lindy Focus

During my first week teaching in Madrid, this couple walks into the Intermediate Lindy Hop class and approaches me stating “we’re not sure if we should be here.” I reply that the beginner level is probably too easy for them. Insulted, I hear “we’ve been dancing for 4 years”. They apparently desired entry into our advanced lindy hop class, so I kept my eye on them. They didn’t stand out enough from their peers, so I was content to leave them in intermediate. They never returned.

This past week, from December 26 through January 2, I was at Lindy Focus, the large US NYE lindy hop event. Plans included dancing, dining, hanging out, creating random fun, and volunteering. Since I used Sosh’s level testing application at the Atlanta Varsity Showdown, I was asked to assist the Lindy Focus crew during level testing.

Until you realize you’ll audition approximately 410 people within 3.5 hours, level testing seems easy. My possible duties included being on the audition team or live tracking the audition scoresheets making sure everyone received at least 3 judges votes. Michael, Jaya, and Sosh were intent on make sure the audition process was accurate, judicious, seamless and timely. It helped they provided us drinks and pizza. Through their online registration questionnaire, they were able to segment everyone into 4 tracked groups inside each of the 3 major audition groups and provide the judges with scoring notes for each heat. Michael organized and “unzipped”, Rob dj’ed, Jaya and Sosh monitored, others rotated and numbered everyone, ringers filled in, judges quickly judged using their iPad application.

The audition groups were relatively homogeneous. You danced with people near or at your level. Each group danced to warmup songs and then were judged within their peer group. It made our job easier. In the end, each dancer was scored by 3-7 judges. Averages were taken, badges reprinted.

The next morning, the non-instructor judges and Sosh showed up at 8am to  filter the late arrivals. Having seen the previous night’s 12 groups, we were able to sort everyone relatively quickly in groups of 3-4 couples. If people were unhappy with their placements from either testing session, they were asked to attend that day’s classes and come to the appeals that evening.

This brings me to my other duties, class evaluations. I was asked to attend every class and evaluate the levels, looking for any outliers. I took notes on the different levels, so I would be prepared for that night’s appeals. I was also on call with Sosh in case anyone showed up at registration and needed immediate placement. My notes, ranging from “roughly fluid, still slightly hitchy” to “fluid, body still thinking a bit or holding back”, helped me individually evaluate that day’s 10-15 extra class takers. Thank goodness I can lead or follow on different surfaces. Overall, I was pleased with every class’s participants. Between the online registration process and level testing, the results averaged out quite well.

Even so, you will always have people that think their level is too easy for them, want their significant other with them, or are hopeful they might get into a higher level. Therefore, the appeals process exists with limited spaces, a kind Sosh, and a bad cop Jo. Enter at your own risk, stand out among your other hopeful peers. We evaluated 100+ dancers that night. Less than 10% achieved their goals.

Overall, I thought the Lindy Focus level testing was successful. Each student danced with 5 different people to 5 different songs and were scored by 3-7 different judges. And, as I said before, classes were homogeneous.

My random thoughts:

Swingouts matter. Dance fluidity and body mechanics matter. Momentum matters. If dancing was speaking, aim to “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far”.

The pace the teacher sets influences the students’ self-evaluation. I received the most level questions from high level students in a slow moving class.

Some teachers demand, others coddle, some monotone, others make conversation, some waste time, others drill, some engage, others distract with short shorts. Each teaching couple is different in philosophy, work ethic, and teaching mechanics. Be open minded students and assume they’re talking about you.

If you want personal feedback after level testing, we spent about 5-15 seconds looking at you. I suggest getting a private lesson. They’re worth it.

In the end, it’s not how long you dance that determines your class level. It’s how you dance that determines your level.