Two Leaders - Argentine Tango

I've been spending a lot of time dancing Argentine Tango lately, and at a recent milonga, I witnessed a vision of two leaders.

The first was dancing with what I suspect was his girlfriend, she danced with him several times, though not every dance.  She also danced with other men but he didn't dance with other women.  She was definitely the better dancer, I suspect that she was introducing him to Tango.

He wasn't a total beginner, he knew salida and a few other moves.  But what  drove me crazy (and I suspect, his dance partner as well) was his tentativeness.  He didn't keep a rhythm, he was hesitant when he moved, and when he wasn't moving he was nervous and twitchy.  I kept seeing what looked like false starts and indecision. His partner seemed nervous and hyper-alert, she realized she had no idea what was coming next, and neither did he, and it could happen at any instant, without warning.  It looked as though he was second guessing himself until he figured out the right thing - he'd have been better off doing the wrong thing calmly, definitively and rhythmically.

The second was  a young man, but obviously experienced.  He was calm and rhythmic and deliberate.  His dancing was simple and unadorned, but very clear and patient.  I saw him dance with a woman I know who's had about six months of ballroom dancing and basically an hour or so of Argentine Tango, and he made her look beautiful and graceful and elegant.  When she did something different than he led, he just handled it without lifting an eyebrow.  When things got tricky, he just slowed everything down - he would just be still for a few beats, and then he would start moving again in half time.  And when he was still, he was so beautifully still.  He wasn't just static and frozen either, he'd move or sway or change his embrace but he was able to do it in a way that told his partner "we're just being still right now".  When he moved she knew it just enough in advance.  Everything he did looked (and I imagine felt) inevitable.

I so badly want to be guy number 2.

So here's my plan.

Work on frame and lead and clarity first.  Figures and moves come later.

Be willing to just be still.  Learn what movements say "we're staying here" vs "we're moving now".  Learn to eliminate anything that's twitchy or indeterminate.  Decide to be still, and communicate that.

Let go of the beat and don't try too hard to follow the music.  Remember that it's easy to dance too fast (for your partner, or your skill level, or your ability to lead), but it's nearly impossible to dance too slowly.

Dance Simply.

The UN-natural Athlete

I'm not a natural athlete, though I've known a few.  I met another just the other day.

I spent a few years kayaking and the basic skill there is the eskimo roll.  It took me months and months of pool practice to learn this, and when I tried it on the river it fell apart again and I had to rebuild it.  Now I've got one of the most reliable, versatile, powerful, dependable rolls of almost anybody I know;  I can do either side, with or without a paddle, even after bouncing over a rocky bottom on my helmet, in adverse currents, whatever.

In Colorado, I once had my paddle knocked out of my hands underwater, so I hands-rolled up, and went about an hour of class II-III water without my paddle, never worrying about getting back up on top of my boat (I even found my paddle in an eddy at the take out - it was a very good day...).  One of my paddling buddies used to joke that I was more comfortable under the water than on top of it, and my girlfriend at the time used to call me "speaker to trout".  They weren't entirely wrong.

So, awesome roll, but getting it there took a lot of learning, thinking-through, and practice.  Most of the people in my college kayaking class seemed similar, though several did learn much faster than me.  I thought that's just how it was.

One night I was teaching someone a roll at a pool session at the local whitewater club, and this dude with the weirdest collection of yard-sale boating gear you ever saw paddled up, said his name was Ed, and asked if I could show him how to roll.  I started in on my standard disclaimer how this takes a while, you gotta practice, you won't get it tonight, it takes time, blah blah blah - I didn't want him to be discouraged.  He interrupted me and said "just show me".  Well, I'm describing what to do while I'm demonstrating with my boat, paddle, body position, etc.  Halfway through that, he took a big breath and dived underneath his boat and started trying it.  He fumbled around a bit, tried once and failed, and then he just ripped off one of the nicest rolls I'd ever seen, on his second try.  Five minutes later he was rolling on the other side.  We ended up boating together for years.  Predictably, he rapidly became better than me. I watched him learning - he'd just see someone do something he wanted to learn and his eyes seemed to pour it right into his muscles without the long, distracting stop in his brain.

I know dancers like that, and they amaze me just like Ed did, but I don't seem to learn that way.  You have to point out to me that I'm not turning my foot out, and that if I do, it's more stable.  I need to have a conversation about that, I need the words to intellectualize around.  I spend some time noticing that I'm still not turning out my foot, and I have to periodically abandon all my other dancing while I focus on turning my foot out.  (ladies, if your leader goes blank, he may be having a similar challenge).  Then I need to practice that a lot while thinking about it - at first it takes nearly all my attention, then this fades to where it's only moderately consuming, and finally it's automatic and I can worry about something else.  Most of my time on the dance floor I'm like a time-sharing computer, switching my attention and the conversation in my head between body mechanics, footwork, lead, planning for future figures, navigation, seeing what's going on around me, and floorcraft.  Only after quite a bit of that does it become automatic.  Shortly thereafter, it gets boring (which means I need to start attending to my partner....)

As I build up a larger repertoire of learned tidbits in dance, I am learning faster, but I'm still going through this process, I'm just relating it back to something similar I've already learned.  I still don't seem to go straight from seeing something to doing it, I just have a shorter conversation in my head that goes something like "Remember the waltz box?  Well, same thing here in rumba, except....".

At least I figured out how I learn, and how to speed that process along:

1.  I'm verbal and language oriented.  Talk about dancing details with my dance nerd friends, read books and blogs and watch youtubes.

2.  Go ahead and have the conversation in your head.  Try not to get too wrapped up in it while you're actually dancing.

3.  Go to lots of classes and private lessons.  Once you get bored, find more challenging classes.

4.  Lots of practice.

5.  Try to focus on just a few dances for a while, so you can build rather than just skipping around.

6. Argentine Tango

7.  Ex-russian ballet dancer instructors

More about those last two soon.

The hardest move in dancing

is stepping onto the dance floor.  In public.

For me, anyway.

One of the reasons I resisted learning to dance for so long, and so stubbornly is my vanity.  I hate to fail.  I particularly hate to fail in public.

 

That's also the main reason I started by taking lessons at the dance studio rather than just showing up at the dance club and trying to copy the moves.  Or going to dancing meetups and learning there.  Or free lessons at the local honky-tonk.  The Dance studio is still my main outlet, though.

The more people are there, the less comfortable I am.  The more I feel they are watching me, the less comfortable I am.   The better the other dancers are, the less comfortable I am. 

If the other dancers are drunk, that helps me a bit, sad to say.  If I feel like I'm pretty decent at the dance in question, that helps too.  If I feel like I'm better than the average other dancer who's there, that helps.   Told you I was vain.

That "feeling confident about a dance" thing is recent. And fleeting.  Right now the chances of running into a better dancer (or several) at any random venue is essentially 100%.  And that's at the country place, where dancing is playing third fiddle to drinking and carousing.  In a Salsa club, very nearly every single person there is not only better than I am, but a LOT bett er than I am.  Some of them are stratospherically better.  Those people are SERIOUS about dancing and basically don't drink (which, I'm told, is why "Lets have a Salsa night" is often the last desperate act of a bar that's slowly dying...  I believe it too, the bar where I got hooked by the DanceEvangelista is now a Mexican Restaurant)

 I know there are people that are comfortable in the spotlight, I've met them.  Some I admire, others intimidate me, others just seem like some kind of alien.

But it's not me.  When I take the Meyers-Briggs personality test I score 75-85% Introverted.  And I've learned recently that I've got a triple threat - I'm Introverted, Quiet, and Shy.  Plus I'm definitely not a naturally graceful, instinctive athlete.  Quadruple threat.

Heck, I'm most nearly comfortable with private lessons (one person watching me fail, and she's a professional being paid to be understanding), less comfortable with group lessons (there's like 8 or 10 people in there!), even less comfortable with practice parties at the dance studio (a couple of dozen people, some of whom are VERY good dancers), and least comfortable with dancing in Real Life (panic!).  I've spent hours at dancing venues where people are dancing and all I can bring myself to do is watch.  I got into a conversation about this the other night at a swing dance when a woman noticed that I was mostly watching, and asked me about it.  She approached me, of course.  We had a nice chat, I'm pretty comfortable with words...

The best way to estimate how painful this is, is, notice how much the dance studios can charge for their services, their expertise, and most of all, their emotionally safe learning environment.   People say all sorts of things, but their true feelings are shown by how they spend their money.  And I'm happy to pay it, I prefer it to the many free options available.  Still, I think this price is actually is a low estimate.  I spent years avoiding social venues in general, and dancing specifically, rather than pay the cost in money and feeling uncomfortable.  That's cost me more than my dance hall dues, and there's no way to quantify that.

But I'm working on it.  Even just trying different studios, with different people is a challenge, but I'm doing it.  I've joined a couple of dancing clubs and I'm going to their classes and events.  I even did a couple of performance pieces at my home dance studio a few months back, and I've got another coming up (yes, I need to blog about this, but this is, in fact, one of several things that have kept me too busy to blog....)    I'm trying to get out to social dances regularly, and for the most part, I'm there (Often, I'm there standing with my back against the wall, but I'm there....)

There is no way around.  The only way is through.

2013 Day of Dance

I attended the 2013 Day of Dance on Feb 23rd.  Here are some quick impressions.

Again, it seemed the judging got more generous as enthusiasm built.  Not that there was anything nefarious going on, in fact I think it's the most natural thing in the world, just a consequence of later performances getting to build on the emotional impact of the former.  I'm glad I'm not a judge, I don't have any idea how to deal with that.

Contestants:

• Rudy Acosta - Univision / Patti Smith - CSP Dance Studios
• Sherry Aragon - Lovelace Hospital / Randy Piatt - The Dance Studio
• Donnie Chase - 100.3 The Peak / Chelsea Haining - Arthur Murray Dance Studio
• Dr Kristina Chong - Women's Specialists of NM / Bentura Madrid - Arthur Murray Dance Studio
• Jill Galus - KOB4 / Chris Quintana, CSP Dance Studios
• Gadi Schwartz - KOB 4 / Kim Piatt, The Dance Studio
• Alex Tomlin - KRQE News 13 / Nick Hill, Enchantment Dancing

Results and commentary:

3rd place went to Rudy Acosta/Patti Smith, for their Salsa to "La Vida es un Carnival".  Rudy's Bio doesn't mention dance experience, but his hips looked like this wasn't their first Salsa.  Rudy shed his shirt in a little drama that definitely got the attention of the crowd, and the judges, one of whom gave them a 11 out of 10.

2nd place went to Jill Galus / Chris Quintana, for their Hustle to "Shake your Groove thing".  Lots of energy and drama.  Jill's previous dance experience helped them out, and they did lifts and some fast, fancy moves.  The crowd loved it.

1st place went to Gadi Schwartz / Kim Piatt, for their Swing (sorry, I didn't note the music they used).  Gadi's "behind the scenes" footage mentioned that he was a fellow noob, and some of his steps didn't look terribly polished, but he had a blast, wore a big old grin the whole time, and did a pretty impressive tumbling run, followed by a partner-supported backflip.  He certainly didn't hold anything back, and the crowd and the judges responded.  It was a blast to watch.


All the performances were inspiring, but particularly so was Sherry Aragon / Randy Piatt, who danced a foxtrot.  I don't know the music, but the theme of the song was what a bad girl Sherry could be, and she totally got into it.  She vamped it up and played to the crowd and the lyrics and to Randy, who was the perfect foil.  She was flirty and playful and loving it.  Congrats to Sherry and Randy.

If anybody has corrections, feedback, opinions, or more links, please share.



Here are some links:


Highlights - Lovelace

KASA broadcast coverage

KLUZ broadcast coverage

KOB TV's coverage (article, Youtube)    KOB TV broadcast coverage - youtube

Rudy Acosta & Patti Smith's Salsa                (HT to Chris Brewington)
Jill Galus and Chris Quintana's Hustle          (HT to Chris Brewington)

A Jive Dance Presentation  by ABC               (HT to Chris Brewington)

Contestant Bios from Lovelace:
 
Lovelace Youtube page - in case they upload anything else

Private Partner Music

If you study at a busy dance studio, there is always competition for the sound system and music.  On a busy evening, there may be one or two group classes and up to 3 or 4 private lessons taking place simultaneously at my studio.  Of course it's worse just before a performance when everybody needs to practice and they need to practice to the music as much as possible.  Our studio has folding walls that do a very good job of dividing the room both spatially and acoustically, but even so, getting the music you need playing can be a bit of a challenge - which is handled graciously, as you might expect, but a challenge none the less.

Now this is a problem that you can make go away by throwing a little money at it.  I've put together a bluetooth rig with a couple pairs of headphones so that I and my partner can have music that's completely private.  The rig generally runs off my phone, but works on ipods or anything else with a headphone jack.

Headphones:

The main goal here is something that won't fall off when you spin.  Based on my experience wearing headphones at the gym, I picked a style that wrapped around the back of your head.

These are nice and solid and really stay on.  If you wear glasses as I do, there's a lot of stuff running over the top of your ears, which then stick out a little, and you eventually get a little pressure inward there, though I've worn mine for several hours without much discomfort. Plus they hold my glasses on...  Specifically, I ordered two identical GoGroove AudioActive headsets - I picked them because they looked like what I wanted and were relatively cheap.

Bluetooth:  I can't find a way to connect a single bluetooth transmitter to two headsets, so I wasted some time trying to find a way to do this with my phone's built-in bluetooth.  The answer is a pair of bluetooth transmitters that plug into a splitter cable, which plugs into your audio jack  This makes it more versatile than using your phone's bluetooth anyway - I can use my partner's phone, or a computer or an ipod. I picked up a pair of TaoTronics TT-BA01 bluetooth transmitters, because they were pretty cheap and fairly well reviewed.

Setting up is pretty easy - pair each headset with one of the transmitters (I've added yellow tape so I know which headset and transmitter to use when I'm practicing solo), and plug everything together in the obvious way.  I've had to re-pair the headsets to the transmitters a few times, but it just takes 30 seconds or so.

I'm very happy with the results.  I've danced an energetic East Coast Swing with these, and neither me or my partner had any problems with slippage.  I've used them solo for several hours now, and probably a couple of hours with partners (though one of the women I dance with won't try them for unknown reasons). We have had occasional gaps in the music stream, buy I honestly don't know if that's the bluetooth rig, or my phone.  Since both headsets seem to have a gap at the same instant, I suspect it may be my phone.  It's disconcerting because you're suddenly off the beat, but I treat it as an opportunity to dance through the obstacle, and it's better than having to do everything without music.  Usually I get about one of these skips every hour or so, but one evening we got 4 or 5 in a single practice and I was pretty worried.  That hasn't recurred, I don't know why, probably I rebooted my phone.  The other smartphone factor is that if you get a text. a call, or a calendar reminder, it's disconcerting for that notification to suddenly sound in your headphones (and with my phone, the music is interrupted and you're suddenly off the beat again).

I happened to choose headsets that insert pretty fully into your ears, which helps to screen out background noise and the other music playing, but doesn't keep you from talking to your partner while dancing (though I pop one ear out for longer, stationary conversations.  Each headset has a volume adjustment which is very handy (there's also a pause/play/fwd/back control which is inactive due to the splitter cable). Generally, I just put the music I want on auto-repeat, and let it stream endlessly.  Compared to constant negotiation to get the song on just once, it's a luxury.

Accessories:

I've added a few individually packaged alcohol wipes for the cleanliness and convenience of my dance partners, and I got a zippered bag to carry all this in - in fact I ended up with a separate bag for the chargers. I also bought a 4-port USB charger power supply so I didn't have to carry four wall-wart chargers and a power strip to get everything recharged.  It's still a rat's nest of charging cables, though I tolerate that so I can recharge everything simultaneously.  The whole shooting match came in at about $150.

If anybody else tries this, I'd be very interested to hear about your experience and what hardware you chose, and how you liked it.

Day of Dance 2013

 
Hey everybody, please attend the 2013 Day of Dance and health fair sponsored by Lovelace health systems on Feb 23rd. Last year's Day of Dance was a blast, and well attended, with a bunch of social dancing and with a "dancing with the Stars" type of contest that was inspiring and fun to watch.

Although this seems poorly advertised (which to me means, it's more difficult to find in google than I'd expect). it should still be busy and fun, judging from last year.  Of course, I found out about it via a flier at the dance studio so I imagine the dance community is already informed.

Oh, and, there's like, health stuff.  Also.

I'm looking forward to it, and plan to blog about it afterward.

Hope to see you there.

Definitive Leading

I've been thinking about leading on a couple of moves and how that's reflected in life.

As a leader it's difficult for me to be as definitive as I'd like.  Some of it is bad habits - I tend to drop my right elbow, my frame isn't as stable and reliable as I'd like, and when I get to thinking I've had several partners tell me they can feel me "go away" in my body.  Well, yes, that's because I'm up in my head.  This is particularly problematic when I'm having challenges with traffic and floorcraft, or when I'm not planning ahead on figures I want to lead.  A lot of the time, I'm late with my lead, or I just can't remember how a particular figure starts.

All this is just stuff that will more or less get fixed by lots of practice and by getting dancing out of my head and into my body.

But there are things about my lead that I have to fix in my head, and that's interesting.

I was working with Mighty Mini-Teach on Foxtrot the other day and we happened to be working on both Grapevine and Senior walks.  They both start the same way, with my second step going outside partner, and I've had a few partners pick up on that and assume we were doing grapevine, when I meant to lead Senior walk.  Or at least I thought I did.  Tenatively.

Anyway, I asked MMT "How do I lead this so you know it's senior walk, not grapevine?".  She said "You have to cut me off".  I tried, tentatively, and she stressed "No, you have to REALLY cut me off".

A lot of the vagueness in my lead is due to my deference to my partner and my lack of confidence in my own moves.  I certainly don't want to be a pushy dancer, but I bet I could stand to make that mistake for a change as a learning exercise and be just fine.  I need to get over myself and be willing to cut off my partner when I need to, and to pay her the respect of just expecting her to follow that.


Definitive, explicit, confident leads.  It's something we both want.

East Coast Swing - Lindy Timing, and West Coast swing

In one of those serendipitous moments of life, I discovered a question I didn't know I had, and got it answered promptly by the universe. I happened upon some youtube videos of local dancers swing dancing wonderfully.

My reaction is one I'm starting to be familiar with.  I could see and hear that it was East Coast swing (edit: it wasn't, technically it was Lindy Hop, or Charleston) but they were doing stuff I'd never seen at all, and I couldn't fit it into or on top of anything I knew.  It was East Coast swing at a level that I couldn't imagine reaching.  God it looked like fun, and I wanted really badly to get there, but I just didn't have basics I needed.

In particular, I could see how they started with a basic - almost, and sort of did a throwout - but not quite, and somehow the timing was being changed up.  I'm watching the dancers, going Yes, Yes, Yes, HUH?


The more you learn, the more you realize how much there is to learn.

But one in a while the universe smiles on you.  At the very next East Coast swing class I took, the teacher said "Tonight we're going to learn Lindy timing".  Well, that sounds good, I love all the East Coast swing I've ever tried, and Lindy hop is like the happiest dance ever,   So, I like the sound of that -  I'm game.  The instructor demonstrated, and what do you know, that's the move that had me looking like a hound dog trying to eat a grape.  I definitely don't have it down, but now at least I have a label, some notes, and something to practice.

I also recently had my first West Coast Swing class ever.  I'd seen others dancing it, but again, didn't have anything for my brain (or my body) to hang on to with it, but it's been on my list to try for a while, because: Swing Fan, and oh my goodness the music, the music, the music.  Al Green, anyone?  "Chain of Fools" and "Mustang Sally" by the Commitments, Eric Clapton, Roy Orbison, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, James Brown, Taj Mahal, The Eagles, Prince, Chris Isaak, the Foo Fighters, Joss Stone.  All that stuff that has the Blues in its blood.

So far I've just had the very basic sugar push and an underarm pass.  I like the fact that the dance partners are constantly approaching toward and receding from each other - that's almost a metaphor for relationships right there - and you're still dancing together, you're still connected. It Breathes.  And I like the asymmetry of the figure.  A nice box step is wonderful, but the sugar push has the not-quite symmetry of a tree or a mountain.  It feels a little fractal.

As you can tell, I'm really jazzed about West Coast (musical whiplash warning...)  Even better, my studio is doing a series of classes that build on one another focused on West Coast Swing.

I am so there.


Edited April 2013 to correct my bad guess that what I was seeing was ECS.