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Showing posts from February, 2023

Good stuff I want to share:

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These two dances play a lot with contrast and speed changes. Fairly  successfully. I've been enjoying this challenge a lot lately.  And here are three videos that, to me, represent large knowledge gaps in our community. Or at least, gaps that I really wish I'd had filled in for me just a little bit earlier!  What is the swing in our dance?  Easy fixes to actually make your dances work with other people (who probably had a different education than you did)  Lateral connection and weight shifts in our dance (this one has a blog, too).

We're on the same side: communicating weight transfers in west coast swing

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Be sure to watch--this blog is meant to accompany it and give a bit more detail in different places.  Maybe we call it leading sides of the body, steering the follower, or getting your partner on your timing. Maybe we call it 'Producing' a prep/anchor, letting your leader know what foot you're on, or defining your follower's footwork. Communicating lateral weight transfers is something that's talked about by the best instructors... but in my mind, this hasn't filtered down into the community enough. There's still an awful lot of disconnected solo dancing with a very nice feeling, but sadly uninformative connection in between partners.  I want to give some credit here real quick before moving on with the ideas. I have learned so much from Fae Ashley, Wee Tze Yi, Benji, Jordan, and Ben Morris. I've spent almost all my dance efforts over the last three years working on the quality of my own weight transfers, communicating them to my follows, and leading the