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.

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.

Expert lesson - Tango and East Coast Swing

My studio had a travelling expert (Urs Geisenhainer from "Dancing with the Stars, 2009  as well as other credits) in town, and (along with an amazing demonstration tango he danced with the lady instructors), he held a workshop and private lessons; I participated in both.

The workshop focused on tango and was attended by students of all levels.  Herr Geisenhainer managed the challenge of teaching different levels of students well; He introduced new steps, worked on basics, and provided styling advice all in the workshop.  Despite the fact that as I write this, I'm not sure how he could have possibly done all that, it actually flowed very smoothly and didn't feel overwhelming.  Plus I mostly learned a variation of shadow rocks that I'm anxious to work on.

My (our) private lesson was East Coast Swing, and was shared with my East Coast Swing partner.  After watching him dance Tango and teach Tango, I was tempted to stick with Tango (which would probably have been fine with my partner, as she's the biggest pusher of Argentine Tango you ever met), but of course I didn't.  He helped us with several elements of our ECS, at first it was mostly styling, and let me tell you, this guy can swing.  I've been having trouble with my walkaround turns (typical guy - I'm OK unless I'm asked to spin...), and not only did he fix that (I still have to practice, of course), but he really helped me see how to make them appropriate for swing (his demonstration of swing vs cha cha styling in walkarounds was very vivid - the Cha Cha walkarounds were upright and snappy, but with the appropriate hip movement, where the ECS walkarounds had a completely different hip and body swing that I can't describe...  Big hip swings, rather than the comparatively subtle Cuban motion from Cha Cha...

But, man, it swung.

If you ever get a chance to watch, or better, learn from Urs Geisenhainer, take it.  He's an awesome dancer, an insightful and enthusiastic teacher, and a genuinely fun guy to learn from.

Here's a Viennese waltz (my favorite), which he performed with several other dancers.

Argentine Tango and Lindy Hop

I took a couple Argentine tango classes, which are real eye-openers.  I've mentioned I'm a slave to the beat, I can always hear and hit the beat, even when there are other beats in the air.  I'm not steady enough to be a drummer, but I can get back on the beat pretty well (yes, I did play trumpet back in the day, why do you ask?).  Anyway, those Argentines consider hitting the beat an optional extra.  But god, it's beautiful and passionate and intimate, and it looks to be all about feeling where your partner is at, and communicating what you want.  Without the crutch of the beat.  Sensitivity and Leading.  Apparently Argentine is the original tango, American/Ballroom tango is the derived form. Yet another dance I have to learn.

I also ended up in a lindy hop class.  I was afraid it was too advanced for me, but it turns out it's just a jitterbug with kicking.  Actually, apparently, lindy hop is actually the original dance, and jitterbug is the later sub-form (which makes sense, it's easier).  Thank you wikipedia.  Anyway, it worked out well, because I feel pretty good about my jitterbug.  Plus, it's like the happiest dance ever.  Impossible not to smile.