It's such a crazy feeling to dance with one of your students one day and think to yourself, "Whaaat, since when can you dance like this??" -- only to realize that the answer is "since they've been taking your classes".
And if that's not awesome enough: being told that they've been working on implementing the little tips you gave them a week or two ago, and really feeling the difference it has made in their dance... how great is that? :]
I'm so proud of some of my students. :3
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Towards learning to dance
The dance analog of this post on learning how to play guitar just struck me. Creation and versatility, not emulation.
I suppose this is why I'm fairly comfortable thinking of myself as a dancer, whereas I'm not at all comfortable with thinking of myself as (or other people calling me) a musician. I'm not even close to able to express my own feelings or ideas (musical or otherwise) through music. As far as guitar goes, I am the equivalent of someone who has watched a bunch of instructional YouTube dance videos and has learned from them how to execute a handful of patterns. I don't think of myself as being able to "play guitar"; I can just play some songs on a guitar. And I really enjoy playing them, no doubt -- but I wish I wasn't so limited to such a select few songs, in the specific keys and arrangements in which I learned them.
But with dance, I *like* learning the equivalent of scales, chords and miscellaneous theory; it's intrinsically enjoyable to me, to discuss and play around with the nuts and bolts of dance. I love exploring lead/follow connection and working on body control and movement, with no particular end result in mind other than getting better at moving myself and hearing/moving my partner. And it seems that this, as in guitar, is how you gain the freedom to express yourself. Knowing your way around your instrument.
I suppose this is why I'm fairly comfortable thinking of myself as a dancer, whereas I'm not at all comfortable with thinking of myself as (or other people calling me) a musician. I'm not even close to able to express my own feelings or ideas (musical or otherwise) through music. As far as guitar goes, I am the equivalent of someone who has watched a bunch of instructional YouTube dance videos and has learned from them how to execute a handful of patterns. I don't think of myself as being able to "play guitar"; I can just play some songs on a guitar. And I really enjoy playing them, no doubt -- but I wish I wasn't so limited to such a select few songs, in the specific keys and arrangements in which I learned them.
But with dance, I *like* learning the equivalent of scales, chords and miscellaneous theory; it's intrinsically enjoyable to me, to discuss and play around with the nuts and bolts of dance. I love exploring lead/follow connection and working on body control and movement, with no particular end result in mind other than getting better at moving myself and hearing/moving my partner. And it seems that this, as in guitar, is how you gain the freedom to express yourself. Knowing your way around your instrument.
Adventures in Leading (Part III)
Boston Fusion Exchange. This event sold out of follow passes at least 6 months ahead of time, so I, curious about "fusion" and really wanting to go, registered as a lead. I figured I'd do the workshops as a lead, and at least get to dance in the evenings as a follow. Looking at the DJ schedules and seeing that at pretty much all times there'd be blues playing in one of the rooms, I also figured I'd just follow the blues around, since that's what I dance (as opposed to tango, west coast, lindy, etc.). But I discovered that leading can be really freaking fun, and fusion is super cool; there's something insanely awesome about just dancing with your partner to the music that's playing, in a way that suits (your interpretation of) whatever music that happens to be, and regardless of what kind of dances your partner knows how to dance.
So despite my intentions beforehand, I ended up spending most of the social dancing over the weekend dancing as a lead, to fusion*. One of the best parts about it was that, being an exchange, the attendees consisted mainly of a) local dancers from the host city's scene, and (moreso) b) the most hardcore dancers from other scenes across North America, who travel for dance.
I've been to several exchanges before (and taken numerous workshops as a lead), but it was way more fun to social dance with such a wide variety of dancers as a lead than as a follow. Maybe the novelty factored in, but man, there were so many amazing follows there -- blues and tango follows especially -- who really knew how to handle their own movement, balance and momentum, how to wait for a lead before moving themselves (!!), and how to stay connected *throughout* a movement rather than just doing it themselves once they feel the initiation of the lead. So awesome. Dancing with such follows is like magic. *_*
But the REALLY cool part was dancing with other kinds of follows. Beginner follows, heavy follows, follows who don't listen, follows who rely on their lead for balance, follows who clamp down on their lead's right arm (ow.. ;_; ), drunk follows... It convinced me that a really good lead will be able to dance with anyone, regardless of dance background (not just in terms of level, but style of dance), and will figure out how to dance with any follow in a way that they can both enjoy. That it takes listening to how your follow moves, and learning how to lead her to do what you want her to do by working *with* her instead of using brute force. (... and if something's not physically possible to lead her through without brute force, just don't do it: it won't feel nice for her. :P)
I am very much looking forward to working more on my leading. :]
[* "What is fusion music?", you ask. There's no one good answer to this (that I can give yet, anyway), but this fellow, after attending the second Fusion Exchange, composed some music specifically for fusion dancers. He DJed at BFX as well, playing more original compositions. Other DJs in the "fusion" rooms played things along the same lines, plus other stuff ranging from pop to r&b to rumba. But fusion, as far as dancing goes, isn't about the style of music so much as the approach: moving to the music that's playing, and moving with your partner. So you can easily dance what appears to be blues or tango or lindy in a fusion way, if there happens to be blues or tango or swing music playing. But it doesn't come from picking a dance style and simply doing that dance, with a partner who also knows that dance. More on fusion in a later post.]
So despite my intentions beforehand, I ended up spending most of the social dancing over the weekend dancing as a lead, to fusion*. One of the best parts about it was that, being an exchange, the attendees consisted mainly of a) local dancers from the host city's scene, and (moreso) b) the most hardcore dancers from other scenes across North America, who travel for dance.
I've been to several exchanges before (and taken numerous workshops as a lead), but it was way more fun to social dance with such a wide variety of dancers as a lead than as a follow. Maybe the novelty factored in, but man, there were so many amazing follows there -- blues and tango follows especially -- who really knew how to handle their own movement, balance and momentum, how to wait for a lead before moving themselves (!!), and how to stay connected *throughout* a movement rather than just doing it themselves once they feel the initiation of the lead. So awesome. Dancing with such follows is like magic. *_*
But the REALLY cool part was dancing with other kinds of follows. Beginner follows, heavy follows, follows who don't listen, follows who rely on their lead for balance, follows who clamp down on their lead's right arm (ow.. ;_; ), drunk follows... It convinced me that a really good lead will be able to dance with anyone, regardless of dance background (not just in terms of level, but style of dance), and will figure out how to dance with any follow in a way that they can both enjoy. That it takes listening to how your follow moves, and learning how to lead her to do what you want her to do by working *with* her instead of using brute force. (... and if something's not physically possible to lead her through without brute force, just don't do it: it won't feel nice for her. :P)
I am very much looking forward to working more on my leading. :]
[* "What is fusion music?", you ask. There's no one good answer to this (that I can give yet, anyway), but this fellow, after attending the second Fusion Exchange, composed some music specifically for fusion dancers. He DJed at BFX as well, playing more original compositions. Other DJs in the "fusion" rooms played things along the same lines, plus other stuff ranging from pop to r&b to rumba. But fusion, as far as dancing goes, isn't about the style of music so much as the approach: moving to the music that's playing, and moving with your partner. So you can easily dance what appears to be blues or tango or lindy in a fusion way, if there happens to be blues or tango or swing music playing. But it doesn't come from picking a dance style and simply doing that dance, with a partner who also knows that dance. More on fusion in a later post.]
Why teaching is awesome
There are few things as wonderful as an epiphany: suddenly *getting* something in a way you really didn't before. I recently took a workshop that made my brain explode with new understanding on multiple occasions within the space of an hour. So wicked.
But man, being on the other side of that? Turning on lightbulbs in someone *else's* head? I think that just might be even better. :]
Fortunately for me, the only way to keep exploding other people's brains indefinitely is to continually pursue additional Brain Explosions of Learning of my own. The best of both worlds.
But man, being on the other side of that? Turning on lightbulbs in someone *else's* head? I think that just might be even better. :]
Fortunately for me, the only way to keep exploding other people's brains indefinitely is to continually pursue additional Brain Explosions of Learning of my own. The best of both worlds.
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