Floortime

The dance journal – how to get better at getting better   If you’re trying to improve, a dance journal is going to be one of   your best friends.   I feel like a lot of people take notes/keep video summaries after private lessons, group classes at events, etc. This is great! But a lot of times you’ll forget these or not use them simply because the information isn’t relevant to you.   Keeping track of your own process, what works well for you and why, what feels good in your body, and what you’re working on, is going to make all this information useful to you as an individual.     Here’s a minimal way of doing this . First, you need a list of 5 or so things to work on and rank them by priority. The top priority is what you think will help you toward your overall dance goals the most . It’s entirely okay to be wrong about this, keeping track over time will help you figure this out.   Each time you dance, make a bulleted list of thos...

Dan John, one of my mentors in the strength and conditioning world, often uses the ‘Park Bench/Bus Bench’ theory of setting up fitness programs.  The concept is really useful for anything else you might be working on–a skill or hobby, self improvement, mental health, or… your dance.  Here’s the basic idea.  If you were sitting on a bench waiting for a bus, you expect the bus to get there at a certain time. You have somewhere to be, and want to operate on a schedule. If the bus doesn’t show up or you miss it, you’d likely be frustrated.  On the other hand, if you were going for a walk in the park and sat on a bench there, you might not have anywhere to be for a while. You’re enjoying the day, and the amount of time you’re sitting there isn’t contingent on a strict schedule or plan.  A lot of workout plans are more of the former; and this isn’t a bad thing but often makes them unsustainable in the long term. You might also burn out if you took this approach to lot...

  Some backstory What I've learned June 2016  September 2017 August 2018  August 2019  Late spring/early summer 2020  Summer 2021 June 2022  August 2023  ...Present day ***** Until next time! Love your dance, and be good to each other.  Reach out anytime with questions, for a lesson or video critique, or just to chat about dance stuff :) 

 "Did you just come back from an event?" I asked. I hadn't seen or danced with this friend in several weeks, but she felt tuned in--well connected and balanced.  She was surprised that the difference was that noticeable! If you've gone to many events you're probably familiar with the post event high and then crash, in terms of how good your dancing feels. But our dance can also fluctuate a decent amount week to week or even day to day.  Being more consistent in your own dance is a great goal to have, I wrote about it a little bit here .  We can also be aware that every day is going to exist somewhere on a spectrum of ability, comfort, thinking about one element vs another, and so forth. While becoming more consistent ourselves; we can also strive to become more adaptable to our partners.  ***** The best WCS dancers--social, competitive, of any level--are the ones who can maintain their own dance while still adjusting to their partners.  If you became the be...

 First off, the title is something of a misnomer. This is the name of a workshop series that is being revived -- this was the second time back -- and in fact, neither covered whips or dips! But it's a fun name and we might keep it.   Here's the basic idea. This is mainly the brainchild of my friend Nick.    1. The workshop series will focus on building the community with three pillars:       -Social and emotional wellness      -Positive gameplay      -Financial accessibility    2. High quality of instruction, with the allstar (or higher) tier instructors on board with the guidelines for teaching and interacting in the group   3. A fund/other means for scholarships and community opportunities built using proceeds from the workshop series.    In essence, this is a safe and fun place to learn. Passive aggressive commentary, tearing other people down (from workshop attendees, or instruct...

"I don't know why Billy made finals when I didn't! I'm just so much better at [xyz miniscule aspect of technique] than he is!"  With sloppy feet, bad posture, lack of phrasing, a stiff upper body, etc. how could someone make finals in a jack & jill?  Everyone has a confirmation bias toward technical elements that they're either working hard on, care a lot about and value in themselves, or both. And this tends to show up when we're judging quality of dance and general dance ability in other people.  The typical response to these complaints is something like "well, were your worst moments better than their best ones" or something similarly unhelpful.  I think that a great lesson to take away from 'who makes it' is to think about why they did  rather than trying to think of reasons why they shouldn't  or why they don't deserve to .  More about growth mindset:  dance image neutrality how to get better at getting better whose fault...

Something that a lot of people struggle with when dancing is, simply, applying what they’ve learned while actually dancing. It’s often easy enough to access a new skill in an isolated drill or during a practice with an instructor, to a very slow song or no music at all. But out in the wild on the social floor, or even during a practice wherein you’re actually improv dancing, things just… fall apart.  I think that this is largely thanks to trying to do too much. Maybe the 'too much' is simply in terms of information overload. Maybe it's too many differing and maybe diametrically opposed instructor points of view. Maybe it's highly qualified instructors giving tips that are more of a technical analysis than actionable cues, I talk about that a little bit  here. ----- The first antidote to trying to do too much  is... focusing more, on fewer things. As with many other aspects of how I think about west coast swing, the initial idea came from Fae Ashley. Essentially, she wou...

Maybe because it's the end of the calendar year and we're stressed about tangibly progressing; maybe it's simply because the fall events have been stacking up recently... but I've been hearing a lot of frustration from friends and students (and random people online) regarding their competition draws.  "I just didn't like any of my partners, really." "My first draw was good, my second one was terrible though. I hope the judges weren't looking at me for that one."  "My finals partner was awful and I just hope people don't think I'm a bad dancer after watching that. That wasn't my fault!"  Then there's my friend who tells me that their (romantic) partner seems to get frustrated dancing with them when they can't do everything that they want to happen in the dance/make it their ideal.  There's the instructor who blames having "all bad draws in prelims" when she doesn't make finals.  And so on, and so...

I've been dating dancers since 2011. And, accompanying that, practicing with romantic or at least non-platonic partners for the same length of time. It's only natural that we become interested in people who share our hobbies, passion projects, and way of life. It's also very natural to want to practice and get better with these same people. It just makes sense, right? You want to improve, you support their improvement, maybe you even live together.... And it doesn't have to be unhealthy. It can be constructive!  Twelve-ish years (more than eight of them, now, doing west coast swing) have included a fair share of ups and downs, healthy and unhealthy interactions with partners.  It's also included plenty of purely platonic practice partners, and range of different levels of success and productivity there, too.  Maybe due to this experience, and a lot of thought (and therapy, and discussion with uninvolved friends, and working with my own teachers and coaches) I've...