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
Showing posts with label blues dancing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blues dancing. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
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.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Adventures in Leading (Part II)
... And not too long later, I'm really excited about this leading thing. I'm super lucky that a few really great follows actually want to help me learn and can give me really helpful feedback while I repeatedly epic fail at trying to lead them through things (thanks for being such awesome sports, guys! :]). So I'm slowly making progress -- there are at least a couple of things that I can lead pretty smoothly now. (Shock!) It's so satisfying to be able to successfully execute a move. :D
A couple random thoughts from my Adventures in Leading thus far:
In blues, since there's no basic step, there isn't really any sort of framework or structure to rely on to know where your follow should be, or which foot her weight is on. But trying to start a move irrespective of where your follow's weight is is a sure recipe for someone tripping over themselves (or their partner). So a good lead has to kind of follow the follow after initiating a move, keeping track of where her feet are, and going with her so *he* can match up with *her* before trying to initiate anything else. Trying to do a simple inside turn, I at first had to watch the girl's feet in order to time when to pull her back into closed position, but I figured that one should be able to just feel where her weight is without looking and be able to get the timing just by the feel... and sure enough, after trying it a few times without looking, I actually got the timing down, and it feels surprisingly smooth now! Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised. It's always easiest for me to follow with my eyes closed, presumably since there's much less sensory input to distract me from the most important thing in partner dancing: connection.
The other thing is that, after getting a lot of feedback over many attempts at executing various moves, it seems that, at least in terms of the physical aspects, there does seem to be a fair amount of symmetry in the way I and my follow experience a move. That is, it seems like if it feels to me like it went smoothly, my follow generally agrees that it felt smooth; and if I think something didn't feel quite right, my follow also generally agrees. This is really, really good to know -- knowing I can trust my own perception of things will help me a lot when dancing with follows who don't give me much feedback.
I have to wonder about leads who don't also know what it's like to follow though... After dancing with a rough lead, I can't help but wonder if it actually feels smooth and enjoyable to him, or if he thinks I must enjoy being jarred and tossed around. During one recent dance, I couldn't stop myself from visibly wincing (and uttering some kind of corresponding sound) when a guy did something that felt much more like a martial arts move than a dance move (my wrist was very unhappy as a result :|).
On a related note, I'm finally starting to be able to relate to a lot of things I get from beginner leads, like how challenging it is at first to string together various moves naturally, even once you've learned to do them well individually. One point of interest for me though, is about hand-squeezing. As I expressed here not too long ago, the poor-leading habit that I hate the most is squeezing a follow's hands. I totally got caught doing that exact thing the other day. (Well, I'm not sure if I was squeezing -- I don't *think* I was -- but my thumbs were down! Bad!!) But unlike the other beginner-lead challenges I've encountered firsthand so far, this one makes me have even less sympathy for leads who do this. I must tell all my follows to yell at me every time I do it. :|!
And speaking of dance injuries, I seem to have incurred my first one. I don't mean the flesh-wound kind, where someone elbows you in the face, or stomps on your foot in heels -- those don't bother me any longer than the immediate pain distracts me from dancing (i.e., not very long at all). But last weekend, through a combination of mild foolishness on my part and what happened to be awful timing, I almost broke my arm off at the elbow. It was too fast for me to really remember what happened, but I definitely felt something like the beginnings of a snap, and it hurt like hell well after that dance. It felt more or less fine by later that night (except when I fully extended my arm), but I figured I should get it checked out just in case... I didn't end up doing so during the week, but it wasn't really bothering me until this weekend... when I stupidly tried to lead something that involved rotating quickly and building up lots of momentum, then releasing the girl from closed position (so she kind of flies away from the pivot point) and stopping her with my (apparently not-so-intact) right arm. Bad, bad idea. >_< Add to that the aforementioned kung-fu lead I danced with later that night, and it looks like I have thoroughly messed up my elbow. Not sure what to do, given that not dancing isn't an option. :\
A couple random thoughts from my Adventures in Leading thus far:
In blues, since there's no basic step, there isn't really any sort of framework or structure to rely on to know where your follow should be, or which foot her weight is on. But trying to start a move irrespective of where your follow's weight is is a sure recipe for someone tripping over themselves (or their partner). So a good lead has to kind of follow the follow after initiating a move, keeping track of where her feet are, and going with her so *he* can match up with *her* before trying to initiate anything else. Trying to do a simple inside turn, I at first had to watch the girl's feet in order to time when to pull her back into closed position, but I figured that one should be able to just feel where her weight is without looking and be able to get the timing just by the feel... and sure enough, after trying it a few times without looking, I actually got the timing down, and it feels surprisingly smooth now! Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised. It's always easiest for me to follow with my eyes closed, presumably since there's much less sensory input to distract me from the most important thing in partner dancing: connection.
The other thing is that, after getting a lot of feedback over many attempts at executing various moves, it seems that, at least in terms of the physical aspects, there does seem to be a fair amount of symmetry in the way I and my follow experience a move. That is, it seems like if it feels to me like it went smoothly, my follow generally agrees that it felt smooth; and if I think something didn't feel quite right, my follow also generally agrees. This is really, really good to know -- knowing I can trust my own perception of things will help me a lot when dancing with follows who don't give me much feedback.
I have to wonder about leads who don't also know what it's like to follow though... After dancing with a rough lead, I can't help but wonder if it actually feels smooth and enjoyable to him, or if he thinks I must enjoy being jarred and tossed around. During one recent dance, I couldn't stop myself from visibly wincing (and uttering some kind of corresponding sound) when a guy did something that felt much more like a martial arts move than a dance move (my wrist was very unhappy as a result :|).
On a related note, I'm finally starting to be able to relate to a lot of things I get from beginner leads, like how challenging it is at first to string together various moves naturally, even once you've learned to do them well individually. One point of interest for me though, is about hand-squeezing. As I expressed here not too long ago, the poor-leading habit that I hate the most is squeezing a follow's hands. I totally got caught doing that exact thing the other day. (Well, I'm not sure if I was squeezing -- I don't *think* I was -- but my thumbs were down! Bad!!) But unlike the other beginner-lead challenges I've encountered firsthand so far, this one makes me have even less sympathy for leads who do this. I must tell all my follows to yell at me every time I do it. :|!
And speaking of dance injuries, I seem to have incurred my first one. I don't mean the flesh-wound kind, where someone elbows you in the face, or stomps on your foot in heels -- those don't bother me any longer than the immediate pain distracts me from dancing (i.e., not very long at all). But last weekend, through a combination of mild foolishness on my part and what happened to be awful timing, I almost broke my arm off at the elbow. It was too fast for me to really remember what happened, but I definitely felt something like the beginnings of a snap, and it hurt like hell well after that dance. It felt more or less fine by later that night (except when I fully extended my arm), but I figured I should get it checked out just in case... I didn't end up doing so during the week, but it wasn't really bothering me until this weekend... when I stupidly tried to lead something that involved rotating quickly and building up lots of momentum, then releasing the girl from closed position (so she kind of flies away from the pivot point) and stopping her with my (apparently not-so-intact) right arm. Bad, bad idea. >_< Add to that the aforementioned kung-fu lead I danced with later that night, and it looks like I have thoroughly messed up my elbow. Not sure what to do, given that not dancing isn't an option. :\
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Adventures in Leading (Part I)
So about a week ago, I started actually trying to learn how to lead in blues. I ended up (unexpectedly) diving in face first, since the day after my first real attempt, I had to lead in a so-not-beginner progressive lesson, and the stuff we were doing throughout the class involved a crapload of elements which I had no idea how to lead (being that I couldn't really lead anything at all :P). I don't remember what it was like the first few months I started dancing, but since I can remember, dancing as a follow has involved basically no conscious thought on my part. So I never really pay much attention in lessons, since it's never particularly useful to do so. I just follow, and when something isn't working, I ask questions specific to the problems my partner and I are having. So in this class, in addition to not knowing how to lead anything that all the other leads already knew, I had to actually pay attention and take information into my brain for conscious retrieval. Epic. Fail. Being so unaccustomed to paying attention in dance class, I couldn't help but zone out every two seconds, which made remembering what the instructor was demonstrating impossible. Not that retaining it would've helped me much, since I didn't know how to lead any of the components anyway. Gah. But I tried (and tried, and tried), and it was impossibly hard, and by the end of the hour and a half my brain felt like it had short circuited and melted and was leaking out of my ears, and I wanted to collapse into a crumpled pile on the floor. Like, actually.
I think that's actually the most awful dance has ever made me feel (brain pain FTL!). In any case, I was really frustrated because the kind words of reassurance people were giving me (while I appreciated the sentiment) weren't helping anything. People seem to think that when I say I can't lead or am bad at leading, I mean I can't-and-won't-ever-be-able-to lead or lead well, in a boo-hoo, woe-is-me sort of way. That's not how I feel at all -- I just know that I currently don't know how to do anything, and I want to learn how to do stuff (properly), which requires a) being shown how to do stuff, and b) recognizing when I'm not doing it properly, so I can figure out how to fix it. This is why comments like "No, you're a good lead!" and "You'll be fine!" just frustrate and dishearten me more -- they're not constructive, don't actually help me get anywhere, and make me feel like I won't be able to get the kind of feedback I actually need in order to improve (i.e., hopeless :P).
But moving on... One observation I've made so far has to do with connection and counterbalance. As a salsa dancer, one of the biggest challenges for me as a follow in blues is connecting with my back to my lead's hand/arm. I've been told my closed position following is good (maybe from having done some tango back when I started dancing?), but that relies on connection through the front of the torso and through the legs. Once there's some space between me and my lead, we rely hugely on connection between his arm and my back, and that's something that's totally foreign to salsa -- being in almost constant opposition to one another, and trusting your partner to counterbalance you. (There's exactly one common move I can think of in salsa, called a Coca-Cola around here, that uses this same kind of connection. But even that doesn't require deliberate connection on the part of either lead or follow, since there's centripetal force there creating that connection whether you want it or not.)
This is the same thing that I'm having the most trouble with now that I'm trying to lead: I'm used to handling my own weight and keeping my own balance, and suddenly I have to handle not only my own weight, but also the weight of my follow -- and I have to do it almost all the time, because of the nature of the connection. I practiced leading a bunch in one night, and the next morning I woke up with my entire back and whole right side incredibly sore. (This despite forgetting to counterbalance my follow almost all the time, and almost toppling both of us over repeatedly as a result. :|) I made various semi-joking comments about having to work out if I want to be able to lead, but the fact that other blues leads I know who come from salsa had the same problem when they started in blues tells me that it isn't just that I'm a lame weakling -- the kind of connection in blues is indeed very different from salsa.
I think that's actually the most awful dance has ever made me feel (brain pain FTL!). In any case, I was really frustrated because the kind words of reassurance people were giving me (while I appreciated the sentiment) weren't helping anything. People seem to think that when I say I can't lead or am bad at leading, I mean I can't-and-won't-ever-be-able-to lead or lead well, in a boo-hoo, woe-is-me sort of way. That's not how I feel at all -- I just know that I currently don't know how to do anything, and I want to learn how to do stuff (properly), which requires a) being shown how to do stuff, and b) recognizing when I'm not doing it properly, so I can figure out how to fix it. This is why comments like "No, you're a good lead!" and "You'll be fine!" just frustrate and dishearten me more -- they're not constructive, don't actually help me get anywhere, and make me feel like I won't be able to get the kind of feedback I actually need in order to improve (i.e., hopeless :P).
But moving on... One observation I've made so far has to do with connection and counterbalance. As a salsa dancer, one of the biggest challenges for me as a follow in blues is connecting with my back to my lead's hand/arm. I've been told my closed position following is good (maybe from having done some tango back when I started dancing?), but that relies on connection through the front of the torso and through the legs. Once there's some space between me and my lead, we rely hugely on connection between his arm and my back, and that's something that's totally foreign to salsa -- being in almost constant opposition to one another, and trusting your partner to counterbalance you. (There's exactly one common move I can think of in salsa, called a Coca-Cola around here, that uses this same kind of connection. But even that doesn't require deliberate connection on the part of either lead or follow, since there's centripetal force there creating that connection whether you want it or not.)
This is the same thing that I'm having the most trouble with now that I'm trying to lead: I'm used to handling my own weight and keeping my own balance, and suddenly I have to handle not only my own weight, but also the weight of my follow -- and I have to do it almost all the time, because of the nature of the connection. I practiced leading a bunch in one night, and the next morning I woke up with my entire back and whole right side incredibly sore. (This despite forgetting to counterbalance my follow almost all the time, and almost toppling both of us over repeatedly as a result. :|) I made various semi-joking comments about having to work out if I want to be able to lead, but the fact that other blues leads I know who come from salsa had the same problem when they started in blues tells me that it isn't just that I'm a lame weakling -- the kind of connection in blues is indeed very different from salsa.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Unrequited dance (cont'd.)
So I pondered some time ago about the symmetry of partner dances and whether there can be a great disparity between how each partner perceives a dance in terms of enjoyment and (of more interest to me) connection/chemistry.
It seems that quite significant a disparity is possible. I find this unfortunate.
In the case where partner A experiences something in the dance that partner B doesn't, I have to wonder whether it could indeed be connection/chemistry at all that A feels, as opposed to enjoyment of another sort.
Not to suggest that I haven't been partner A (I certainly have, many times, at least with respect to general enjoyment), but there's something that bothers me about the idea of deriving enjoyment from a dance in the absence of chemistry with one's partner, especially if it's significantly asymmetrical. A very specific analogy comes to mind, but maybe I'll leave that for another time... In the meantime, I have more to ponder...
Friday, April 30, 2010
miscellaneous thoughts in no particular order
I've been having nightmares lately. The kind where you wake up, and this awful feeling of residual fear or dread or anxiety stays with you well after you've gotten out of bed and begun to go about your day. I haven't had nightmares in many months — at least — and I don't remember ever having ones like this, that affect me long after I wake up. Part of me wonders why I've been having them all of a sudden, and part of me doesn't want to think about it.
Drag blues feels amazing. It reminds me of ballroom, and I miss ballroom. Specifically it reminds me of tango, and I think it's because of the nature of the connection. A lot of the lead/follow seems to rely not on the arms at all, but rather on connection through the legs and torso. I really like it... perhaps not surprisingly, considering that my arms are pretty much the bane of my dancing existence. (Sigh.) In any case, I'm dying to learn more blues. I think it's already changing my dancing in general. I've hardly been out dancing salsa lately, but recently I danced a really great bachata (with a ballroom instructor, incidentally), and it felt different from the last time I danced with him — certain things felt easier and more natural to follow, more effortless... and from the feel of those things, it was definitely a direct result of the drag blues workshops I did not long ago (taught by some amazing instructors from Denver).
I need to develop more discipline (i.e., an amount greater than zero). I know I have enough time to do a good number of the things I want to be doing these days without continually getting myself sick (I've long since lost count of the number of times I've been sick since last summer... it is definitely greater than eight), but I've barely been accomplishing anything, and it's really starting to bother me. I'm barely treading water, let alone getting anywhere. I seem to have completely lost the ability to be productive on a regular day. This is not sustainable. I fear the only solution is sheer will power.
Eu não vivo onde moro; eu não moro onde vivo. I feel like my life is in one place, and my home and school are in another. I don't think it's going to change any time soon. Part of me is scared by that thought; part of me wants to be fine with it. Fortunately(?), if I keep myself busy enough, I manage not to think about this or its implications and just enjoy what I have at the moment.
Drag blues feels amazing. It reminds me of ballroom, and I miss ballroom. Specifically it reminds me of tango, and I think it's because of the nature of the connection. A lot of the lead/follow seems to rely not on the arms at all, but rather on connection through the legs and torso. I really like it... perhaps not surprisingly, considering that my arms are pretty much the bane of my dancing existence. (Sigh.) In any case, I'm dying to learn more blues. I think it's already changing my dancing in general. I've hardly been out dancing salsa lately, but recently I danced a really great bachata (with a ballroom instructor, incidentally), and it felt different from the last time I danced with him — certain things felt easier and more natural to follow, more effortless... and from the feel of those things, it was definitely a direct result of the drag blues workshops I did not long ago (taught by some amazing instructors from Denver).
I need to develop more discipline (i.e., an amount greater than zero). I know I have enough time to do a good number of the things I want to be doing these days without continually getting myself sick (I've long since lost count of the number of times I've been sick since last summer... it is definitely greater than eight), but I've barely been accomplishing anything, and it's really starting to bother me. I'm barely treading water, let alone getting anywhere. I seem to have completely lost the ability to be productive on a regular day. This is not sustainable. I fear the only solution is sheer will power.
Eu não vivo onde moro; eu não moro onde vivo. I feel like my life is in one place, and my home and school are in another. I don't think it's going to change any time soon. Part of me is scared by that thought; part of me wants to be fine with it. Fortunately(?), if I keep myself busy enough, I manage not to think about this or its implications and just enjoy what I have at the moment.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
More on blues dancing... and (learning) dance of various sorts
I am currently super-hyped about the chance to blues dance again in the (very) near future, particularly after watching a bunch of great videos of blues dancing the other day.
This is the first example of blues dancing I ever saw, and I fell in love with it immediately.
The rest are videos I came across recently. The next couple videos are from the San Diego Fusion Exchange, so maybe they're not strictly blues (?)... but what I love about blues is that it totally doesn't matter. :]
Man, I love how this woman moves (same woman from the two videos above)...
Gah, 1:16 kills me! So awesome...
Love this one. This woman dances likes her limbs are weightless... beautiful. And the song... mm mm mm...
God, I love her lines at 1:28, and what they do afterwards at 1:34-ish. *_* Gorgeous dancing...
I really like these guys too; their style really appeals to me (and their choice of songs doesn't hurt :]):
Their style is pretty simple on the whole, but the overall feel is cool, and I love the little things they do with their feet (what the dude does at 1:25 *kills* me -- so awesome).
But now here's the interesting thing... Blues, this super free-form style, is making me want to learn technique like I've never wanted to before -- even moreso than when I was doing ballroom. In ballroom, it seems, technique is everything, and you really don't get the feel of the dance unless you're doing it properly. [I say this based solely on the eight-or-so months of ballroom I did, which was the first dancing I'd ever done, so I had nothing at all to compare to at that point. Maybe my impression would be different now... Not that I'm not still a Very Inexperienced Dancer, after only about 1.5 years total. Hehe.. So yeah: tablespoon of salt is warranted here, for sure. That is, don't be fooled into thinking that I know (or think I know) what I'm talking about at all. :P All of my dance-related ramblings are just my personal impressions/thoughts based on my own relatively meagre experience.]
So I was really into working on technique at that time. Once I stopped taking ballroom and was pretty much only dancing salsa socially, at first I really wanted to take salsa lessons to improve, but eventually (probably as my following improved over time, and I could at least squeak by dancing passably with most leads) that desire faded and I just wanted to have fun. Although... I suppose that was part of it, and the other part was that, when I hear salsa music, the way my body feels like moving is often at odds with how salsa styling seems to be commonly taught. (Or I just suck too much at consciously controlling my movements to find out, haha.) In any case, I didn't really feel like taking salsa lessons anymore (which was just as well, since I never did get around to taking any :|!), and since then I've been kind of just messing around on the dance floor, doing whatever the music is making me do (which can feel great, but, as I've written before, has actually become problematic).
But back to blues! So I learn about this whole "blues dancing" thing and fall in love with it instantly, since it's all about dancing the music and moving how you feel. Awesome! But seeing more examples of blues dancing, I see how much more can be expressed through it, and (unlike with salsa) I don't have anywhere close to the vocabulary of movement required to express the things I'm made to feel by the music I'd want to dance blues to. It's like being at a loss for words... like wanting to convey an idea to someone but not knowing how to put it, and watching these awesome videos is like reading something someone else has written that says exactly what you wanted to say, way better than you ever could have put it yourself. It makes me really want to improve my vocabulary and precision of movement, so I can say many more varied and nuanced things through dance.
... Too bad the reasons I never got around to taking salsa lessons when I wanted to still apply (and then some). :| Maybe in the spring I'll be able to squeeze in a lesson or workshop here and there...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Unrequited dance
I often wonder about the symmetry of partner dance experiences. Like, to what extent can there be unrecognized disparity between how each person perceives a given dance? For instance, if a very skilled lead dances with a girl who's just beginning to learn, the girl might have a really fun dance while the guy might be pretty bored or even frustrated (and vice versa, in the case of an experienced girl and inexperienced guy). Or aside from differences in skill level... Say if two people have two pretty different styles... maybe person A might like person B's style and enjoy the dance a lot, while B might find A's style difficult to dance with. In this kind of scenario, I wonder whether A would necessarily feel from B their lack of enjoyment, and/or whether this would affect A's experience/enjoyment of the dance.
But beyond simply enjoyment (or lack thereof), what I'm really curious about is connection. Not physical lead/follow connection... maybe "chemistry" is a better word for what I'm thinking of? I'm not entirely sure of what people generally mean when they talk about chemistry between partners, but I think the thing I have in mind (which I've tried before to explain) is something more specific, if not altogether different. It's something like being completely in tune with the other person, really *feeling* them in a way that's not even physical... Not just feeling their movement, but feeling how they're feeling the music -- even feeling how they want to express the way they're feeling the music. For me, occasionally this happens with salsa, but I've never felt such an intense connection with my partner as I have while dancing blues. It's unbelievable, and I really don't know how to describe it other than... intense.
But beyond simply enjoyment (or lack thereof), what I'm really curious about is connection. Not physical lead/follow connection... maybe "chemistry" is a better word for what I'm thinking of? I'm not entirely sure of what people generally mean when they talk about chemistry between partners, but I think the thing I have in mind (which I've tried before to explain) is something more specific, if not altogether different. It's something like being completely in tune with the other person, really *feeling* them in a way that's not even physical... Not just feeling their movement, but feeling how they're feeling the music -- even feeling how they want to express the way they're feeling the music. For me, occasionally this happens with salsa, but I've never felt such an intense connection with my partner as I have while dancing blues. It's unbelievable, and I really don't know how to describe it other than... intense.
Whenever I'm trying to think of how to describe it, the following always comes to mind: in Dynasty Warriors, two players can perform a special attack together if they each have full special-attack meters and they're standing close enough to one another; under those conditions, you see this crackling electricity-type thing between them, indicating that you can perform the dual attack:
Despite my tendency to see many aspects of life in terms of video games, I find it more than a little weird likening blues dancing to Dynasty Warriors... but it's such an apt depiction of how the connection I'm talking about feels! When it's strong, it is like this electricity... this direct link between each person's experience of the music. (I guess in this sense the analogy can be extended, since I can't imagine that this kind of connection could occur unless both people's individual music-experience-intensity meters are at least close to maxed. :P)
Anyway... Revelations of my gamer-nerdiness aside, I'm so curious as to whether one person can feel as if they have this kind of intense connection with their partner, while at the same time the other person is just dancing normally, without feeling anything out of the ordinary. Or can it indeed only happen when two people are each feeling the way the other is experiencing the music... when this magical kind of synchrony happens... when they're not just dancing concurrently -- or even "with" each other -- but dancing together through the music?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A glassless window
I have found the solution to my problem: blues dancing.
Oh man. I tried it for the first time ever, and... wow. Just wow. Maybe there's more structure to it than I realize, but it feels like pure musicality. It's like you can do whatever you want. Well, the guy can do whatever he wants, and the girl can do... whatever the guy wants. :P
Like I said, me being a complete n00b, maybe there's more to it than I realize, but it seemed like (for the girl) it's pure following... Like, you *can't* dance it at all if you're not following properly -- if you're not really *listening* to your lead. Feeling his every movement.
As a more experienced follow pointed out to me near the beginning of the night, this does mean that it can be absolutely horrible if the guy either doesn't know how to lead well or feels the music in some strange way that you can't pick up on. But with a good lead...
Wow.
It can feel incredibly organic... even raw, depending on the music. But beyond that... there's something so intimate about a dance that relies entirely on amazing connection between lead and follow. For me, feeling someone's movement -- really feeling it -- has a stronger effect on me than even hearing them play music, or reading something they've written, or seeing something they've drawn. All of these things are like a window into a part of a person that otherwise remains invisible. A part that reflects the essence of them as a person. It always affects me, to be able to peer into such a window and to see what's there inside of them, pushing its way to the surface through a pen, or through an instrument... through movement.
Even to watch a person's movement can be incredibly powerful, but to feel it and move with it is something else entirely. Can two people be connected more closely -- more directly -- than through movement of their bodies? Structured dances with specific patterns can be amazingly fun, and you can certainly express yourself through them (though often by playing around with the patterns...). But performing specific, learned motions in prescribed patterns is like singing a song that someone else has written: maybe it perfectly conveys what you want to express (and to the extent that it does, it can be a wonderful window... but who can tell if it does?), but it isn't the same as writing your own song. Moving however you feel like moving is like making your own music; partner dancing in an unstructured style is like jamming. Only strip away the instruments, strip away the distance, make the music not the connection itself but the matrix through which two people can move together as one... More than any other dance I've tried, blues is like this. And it's incredible.
Oh man. I tried it for the first time ever, and... wow. Just wow. Maybe there's more structure to it than I realize, but it feels like pure musicality. It's like you can do whatever you want. Well, the guy can do whatever he wants, and the girl can do... whatever the guy wants. :P
Like I said, me being a complete n00b, maybe there's more to it than I realize, but it seemed like (for the girl) it's pure following... Like, you *can't* dance it at all if you're not following properly -- if you're not really *listening* to your lead. Feeling his every movement.
As a more experienced follow pointed out to me near the beginning of the night, this does mean that it can be absolutely horrible if the guy either doesn't know how to lead well or feels the music in some strange way that you can't pick up on. But with a good lead...
Wow.
It can feel incredibly organic... even raw, depending on the music. But beyond that... there's something so intimate about a dance that relies entirely on amazing connection between lead and follow. For me, feeling someone's movement -- really feeling it -- has a stronger effect on me than even hearing them play music, or reading something they've written, or seeing something they've drawn. All of these things are like a window into a part of a person that otherwise remains invisible. A part that reflects the essence of them as a person. It always affects me, to be able to peer into such a window and to see what's there inside of them, pushing its way to the surface through a pen, or through an instrument... through movement.
Even to watch a person's movement can be incredibly powerful, but to feel it and move with it is something else entirely. Can two people be connected more closely -- more directly -- than through movement of their bodies? Structured dances with specific patterns can be amazingly fun, and you can certainly express yourself through them (though often by playing around with the patterns...). But performing specific, learned motions in prescribed patterns is like singing a song that someone else has written: maybe it perfectly conveys what you want to express (and to the extent that it does, it can be a wonderful window... but who can tell if it does?), but it isn't the same as writing your own song. Moving however you feel like moving is like making your own music; partner dancing in an unstructured style is like jamming. Only strip away the instruments, strip away the distance, make the music not the connection itself but the matrix through which two people can move together as one... More than any other dance I've tried, blues is like this. And it's incredible.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Blues dancing! (and TWO sets of free dance workshops this weekend!)
The other day I heard about something called "blues dancing" for the first time. No idea what it was. So I checked it out on YouTube, and man! I am now desperate to try this myself. Man oh man! I'm sure there must be some kind of structure to it, like with any partner dance (all those that I know of, anyway :|), but it *looks* so natural. Like pure musicality. It must feel so amazing to dance. *_*!
Watching that clip makes me think of something my brother wrote about what his favourite music is: "Whatever music makes me feel like I've just been punched in the soul. IN THE SOUL." Haha... Okay, maybe that quote isn't *entirely* applicable, but I like it. :P Seriously though, when I listen to a really good song, some parts just kill me -- like the climax of an amazing guitar solo... or a trombone just slinking its way in at the perfect moment... or a single, repeated note of a piano breaking a near-silence after a slow dénouement... I only wish I could properly describe the feeling I get. It's a physical reaction: it just grabs hold of me by the heart, and I have to fight the urge to writhe with the amazingness of the music. It's almost like cringing, only really, really good...
Okay, epic fail at describing it, but oh well. In any case, actually *dancing* to those awesome parts of music is even better. Orders of magnitude better. I mean dancing *to* them. Like a build-up comes, and then *pah!* -- you hit the accent, hard, right when the drums do. Soooooo good... Man, now I want to dance -- I was thinking of salsa here (to add the the three different genres of the songs I was thinking of above). Hehe. Anyway, blues dancing looks like it's full of that kind of thing. Actually dancing the music. Estou morrendo de vontade de tentar!
I'd looked around online, right after I heard of it, for blues dancing in Toronto, and didn't come up with much. But (coincidentally?) yesterday I started seeing something about a blues group on Facebook, wanting to promote blues dancing in Toronto! And today they announced that they're organizing a social in January!! :D!! WINNNN! So ridiculously excited for it. :D
Something else I'm excited for is this Sunday: City Dance Corps recently moved to a new location, and they're having an open house with free classes from noon to 5 pm! They're offering a whole bunch of styles, including house (!), which looks insanely hard but also ridiculously fun, and I've been wanting to try it for a while now. If that wasn't enough, I came across another all-afternoon free-lesson event, also this Sunday: the Tré Armstrong Give-Back Free Dance Workshop, which will not only include house (!), but also pop 'n' lock (!!) and capoeira (!!!!). I would wish these events were on different days so I could go to both, but this Sunday would be my only chance anyway: I'm already missing all the Christmas and Boxing Day salsa parties because I leave for Brasil next Monday. :]
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