Leading

I've gotten compliments on my clear lead, and that makes me happy.

I've been thinking about my dancing and some recent classes, and a friend was kind enough to provide me some video.

Now that I have a clear lead, I want it to be compelling.  I want it to have drive and momentum.

I also need to keep improving my posture....


Addendum - during a private lesson I was told that my lead was too light.  Granted, the woman who said that needs only the lightest of leads, some followers seem only to respond to a very heavy lead and a lot of waiting....

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.

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.

New Studios - group Salsa classes

I danced Salsa at a couple of new studios fairly recently.  No particular reason - I just had a free spot in my schedule, wanted to learn some Salsa, and my "home" studio didn't have anything scheduled, so I went looking for group classes elsewhere I could just walk into.

The Downtown Studio I tried was a lot of fun.  Did a 1 hour beginner's class followed immediately by a 1 hour intermediate class.  Started with basic, underarm turn, cross body lead, so the same progression I was used to.  The class was about 8 men and 7 women (or thereabouts).

The intermediate class got into cross body lead variations, including leading from a handshake hold, and a cross body lead variation where the lady does a full spin rather than the normal half spin, ending up stopped (briefly) in a shadow position (I don't remember the terminology for this, I want to say it was a stopped cross body lead, but I'm not confident of that).  I've since tried that move, and don't have it even remotely down.  I think I'm not clear on how to differentiate the lead.  The last few minutes of the class were the teachers demonstrating all the variations possible with just the underarm turn and the cross body lead.  Fun time at the downtown studio, and they were cheap and friendly, and the male teacher was pretty funny.  He made a comment about his frustrated stand-up comedy career that I came to suspect was more serious than it sounded at first.  But it was fine, he was funny enough that you didn't mind it at all.  Maybe not Seinfeld funny, but, then he's probably a better dancer than Jerry, anyway.

The Northside studio was also cheap and fun, but does half hour lessons.  The teacher managed to put a lot into the lesson, and it didn't feel rushed.  One advantage here was it was me and one woman (just by chance), so it was basically a mini-private lesson - I love it when that happens, though the teachers/studio probably doesn't.  I suppose it's better for them than nobody.

The woman at Northside was a club dancer of some considerable experience, but little or no "official" instruction, and wanted to learn a move where "He combs my hair".  I had no idea what that meant, but the instructor knew immediately.  He asked me what I knew, and I said basic, mambo basic, underarm turn, cross body lead, open break, ... whereupon he stopped me and said "that's enough".

The sequence he taught us was 1 basic, alternating turns, then the "hair comb" lead into a cross body lead.  I'm probably getting the terminology wrong.  Anyway it went well, though I hate turning - avoiding turning is the best part of being a boy, in my opinion.  I mentioned that and the teacher very diplomatically reminded me that in Latin cultures, men are more expressive and showy.  I knew that, and it's not an insecurity or "real man" type of deal, I just get dizzy and fall over.  Yes, even on a little salsa step turn.  I'm sure I'll get over it, but...

Anyway, we worked on the sequence and got it down.  The fact that the lady was a club dancer was pretty obvious to me as we were dancing - her frame was way looser than I'm used to - that's not really criticism, by the way (well, a little...), it was just a very insecure and unpredictable feeling compared to what I'm used to.  I don't know of any way to deal with that except to try to get used to it and adapt to it, (which is my responsibility as the leader), or to try to figure out a polite and helpful way to ask for a firmer frame.  I suspect this is an consequence of the fact that I'm a noob and the really solid mutual frame is my training wheels.  Not that mine is all that wonderful, Mini-Teach is constantly reminding me not to drop my right arm, and rightly so.

I also felt like she was maybe rushing the walkthrough on the cross body lead a bit.  The teacher had pointed out that she could step fully forward, not stopping her back foot parallel to her front, and she had a hard time getting that into her body (I feel for you, sister, when I need to alter my semi-automatic body habits, it's a hell of a challenge for me, too).  Anyway, I didn't feel like my lead was as in control of the timing as I'd have liked as a consequence.  I've been trained that the sidestep back and away by the man (on 3) is the lead (and only the lead), and that the lady walks through on 5-6-7.  She was powering through on 3 or 4, and I didn't feel like I was out of her way enough, as I hadn't back rocked yet.  I'm not sure if she was following my lead or just doing the sequence on her own.  I'd like to lead that better.  And of course, I need 500 or 1000 repetitions.  On the other hand, I think I could work this sequence out with a new partner in a couple three dances at most.  The instructor was very helpful and explicit and clear when I asked how to differentiate the "hair comb" lead from underarm turns and other figures.

Anyway, good times.  At some point I'll post studio reviews, but I want to try several lessons at each before I do so, and time and money will make that a longer term project.  In the mean time, if you want a studio recommendation despite my limited experience, contact me.

Update:  the proper terminology for "Hair Comb" is "face loop".  Of course.  For a guy that's incredibly verbal and spends most of his time all up in his head, I sure have a hard time learning terminology.

Waltz - Promenade and Twinkle

So here's the data dump on my Waltz group class the other night.

It was a fairly full and almost perfectly balanced class, we were short one lady. We spent the first half of class working on promenade - most of us had some familiarity with the move, but we all could use work on it. The latter part of the class we spent on twinkle and left and right twinkle (or as we called the move, "George"...) I hadn't been exposed to twinkle and left and right twinkle, but I managed to pick up the basics and footwork fairly quickly. Just the last half of promenade, starting at the other end of the box, on the other foot. The nuggets I was most in need of were those having to do with my frame and lead.

The mantra "nose and toes" is something I'd heard before, and my interpretation is that the point is to signal definitively with your head and toes, without getting your hips too much out of square. I definitely have a tendency to not lead the promenade with my head, and one of my partners really helped me understand how important that is to her following, because she just had a much harder time following when I got sloppy with my head. The other thing I need to remind myself is that it also looks fabulous.

The Young Turk really helped us pay attention to what the leader's right arm was doing during the "nose and toes" setup phase of promenade/twinkle. I'd been elongating my frame somewhat, but TYT pointed out that the gentlemen should actually be executing a right turning action with his right arm, resulting in a lady that's slightly more behind in frame, and slightly pivoted open - set up perfectly for promenade. Plus she ends up cradled in your right arm which gives her the stable, supportive structure she needs to really cut loose on her develope'.

The other thing that seemed to help a lot is my focusing on maintaining a positive connection with my left hand. The right turning action and frame elongation often felt like I was taking away the strong connection we had, and a positive left hand connection made that feel much more secure and definitive. This also made it feel like I was shifting slightly inside a strong, stable frame rather than it feeling sloppy.

Social dancing and group classes

So I haven't been blogging for a long time much at all. I keep wanting to make these deep, thoughtful, insightful posts, and there's not a lot of that going on in my dancing. Maybe there never was. Lately, I've been dancing a lot (which is better than blogging about it, I think you'll agree), but I'm trying to keep all the action in my body rather than being all up in my head. Or at least, these are my excuses for not blogging. I've got drafts of nine "deep" posts, I swear.  But then, I've had them all for months, so...

I've decided just to blog everything and quit holding out for significance. So here are some random notes from recent group classes.

Lately, I'm trying to participate on all the group classes that cover what I think of as socially useful dances: Salsa, Rumba, Country, and (to a lesser extent) Swing and Foxtrot. How is this different than just going to ALL the group classes, you ask?

Well, first of all, I'm not going when the dance is totally new to me, which happens with what strikes me as surprising frequency. There's a bunch of dances in the world, and they offer most of them. Cha Cha, Samba, Quickstep, Paso Doble, Jive, Hustle, Argentine Tango, Viennese Waltz and Bolero are all stuff I've recently skipped. I probably should add Cha Cha at some point relatively soon, as there's a lot of Cha Cha-able music out there - lots of pop and rock, which surprised me.

Secondly, Before the "Socially useful" dance push, I was spending most of my time on Waltz and Tango, just because I love them so much. And down that same path I could see Viennese Waltz, Argentine Tango, and Bolero looming. Since my one of my main goals is explicitly social, it was clear I needed to emphasize the social dances more than I had been. Tango is definitely a "dancer's dance", and though waltz is fairly social, I need more venue options than Italian weddings. I think I have a lot more to say about the social vs beloved dichotomy, but if I let this post go to long, I'll trap myself in a rewriting/editing cycle, so set that aside for now.

Two Step: It was a small class, I was happy to know about two figures that my partner didn't (not bragging - the score was about four figures for me versus her two). I tried them on her anyway during warm-up, on the theory that if I timed them right, and led them definitively enough, it would all work out fine. That was interesting and instructive if not totally successful.

We did basic underarm turn right, and underarm sweetheart turn (which was new to me). We also did Promenade (new to me, very fox-trotty, unsurprisingly) and a couple of un-sweetheart turns (hey, it's my blog, I get to invent terms for things that have official names if I want to. Especially if I don't remember them). Anyway, I pretty much know one easy, basic way to half turn my partner out of sweetheart, and I've been briefly exposed to a much flashier, turn and a half version, but I know I couldn't do it without at least referring to my notes and maybe not even then.

Rumba class:  This was a pretty full class, and everybody there was pretty experienced, for a basics class. There was one person who was even less experienced than me, but he was game and so Dance-Sama took that as permission to pile on a bunch of stuff. We are working over several weeks toward an extended series, that starts with Basic, Cross Body Lead, Open Breaks, Underarm Turn / 5th Position Break, Swivel Promenade. Yes, she covered all that in one class.

This was a lot for me to take in, but it's starting to make sense, I'm starting to have some body intuition regarding dancing. I've done cross body lead in Salsa and Rumba, and it's starting to make sense that in Rumba I need the forward step that precedes the Salsa version in order to get the forward and back motion that Salsa gives you for free. Doesn't mean my body will remember to do it, but it's a start.

I'd seen most of the other figures before, so nothing earth shattering, and I certainly could use all the practice I can get. The Swivel Promenade was new, and we barely got to that in the time we had. I stayed after and practiced a little, with a partner initially, then alone.

The other insight was Dance-Sama made me feel the correct posture (or at least a better posture) for Rumba (and probably for life - I tend to have the typical nerd's horrible posture). Shoulders back, everything else in and up and slightly forward. I'm working on making that habitual.

Waltz class tonight. Social and beloved. A two-fer!