8 lessons from 8 years of doing west coast swing

I’ve been doing west coast swing for eight years.

Other than about two months early in 2020, I haven’t stopped dancing at least a few times each week since June 2015. During that time, I’ve lived in three different cities, and tried to grow and give back to each of these local communities. I’ve learned from the very best in the world, traveled to learn and teach and practice, and spent some time on the competition floor, too. I’ve had plenty of ups and downs in my dance – in practice, in comps, in my partnerships, and just in raw skill development.  

This is the longest I’ve done anything in my life without stopping or wavering. I didn’t start when I was a little kid or anything, but I did recently pass the 1/4 mark of my life… which was sobering. I turned 30 just about the same time that I’d been dancing for seven and a half years.

My first novice final! 

Here are some lessons that have been valuable to me.

1.       Don’t keep doing it if you hate it

      If you don't like it... don't do it. Don't like competing? Don't compete, at least for a while. Don't like your role in the community? Work to change it. And so forth. One of my partners said something very wise about a student of mine, once: "he wants to want to get better." He didn't genuinely want to improve, he wished that he had that drive and passion, but... he didn't. That is entirely okay. If you want to love the dance, find something you love about it! Maybe it's a different point of view, different connection philosophy, different way of being present in your body while you do it, discovering a new genre of music or method of crosstraining. 

      There's no prize for doing something that you don't actually enjoy. Sure, there will be times that you might have to work at making a practice habit happen. But this work should be satisfying. If it's continual drudgery, self loathing, or the effort exhausts you, this is not the way for you. Why wouldn't you want to enjoy it? Say no to the hustle and grind culture. (Swustle is 'out' anyway, it's swouk or swacro or maybe swikTok now.) 

2. Your experience isn’t objective reality

     How many times have you heard this one... "her connection is too heavy/light/floppy"? Or better yet "eh... he's just not great to dance with." Remember that we're all adjusting to each other all of the time. So many people get weird feelings of superiority, or write off other dancers and disrespect them due to what a random social dance felt like. First off, a more experienced dancer is probably going to be altering things based on what they feel from you -- maybe due to an idiosyncrasy you don't know that you have, but perhaps even in an effort to give you a better dance.

    Plus, apart from the fact that a 3 minute social dance isn't much to go by, assessment wise, what someone feels like to you could be affected by: 

        -What they're working on/thinking about at the time

        -What they feel from you, or are adjusting to from your own connection 

        -Stylistic matchup (in terms of techniques being used) 

        -Genre of music, familiarity with the song, general comfort with what you're dancing to

        -Space/floorcraft. Maybe they're trying not to run into people and you're taking up a lot of room? Maybe they want to spread out because there's a lull on the social floor and you're trying to be compact? 

      In essence, try not to judge anything but especially someone else's abilities (in a unique form of personal expression, nonetheless) assuming that you have a monopoly on objective reality. Be kind, give people the benefit of the doubt at least to start off with, try to take various situational factors into consideration if you find yourself beginning to pass judgement on someone else's art. 

3.       You can have healthy boundaries while still being generous

      Here are some of my general thoughts on 1. why to be generous, but also 2. why not to be entitled. 

Enjoyment based on relative experience or ability level aside; you don't have to cater to the needs of others above your own. You don't have to say yes to every dance, you don't have to smile and say nothing if someone starts insulting you or trying to tell you you're doing something wrong/bad in the middle of a dance, you can simply walk off the floor if someone hurts you physically and they refuse to listen or adjust. You can do all of this while still being polite and supportive of others! You're allowed to dance with your friends often. You're allowed to sit in a corner and watch for a whole social night. Take care of yourself. 

 

4.       Learn from and respect those who came before you

        It's become really popular in some circles to discredit top ~5 champions in west coast swing because... well, actually I have no idea why. I see comments like 

        "they don't do what they teach anyway"

        "yeah but she started when she was 3" (as if the person talking could have easily been the same dancer if they'd just started trying to yank follows through patterns they found on instagram a little sooner) 

        "being a good dancer doesn't mean you're a good teacher" 

        "It's all politics, there are tons of people who are just as good in local communities"

        ....Yeah, some of this does apply to high tier circuit competitors and some champions; but I promise you that the very very top of the heap S-tier pros are 1. the best at doing this dance, and 2. have the best understanding of it. I talk a bit about what my own learning history has been in this blog. Suffice to say, at least respect what, for example, Benji or Sarah have to say about the dance and keep where the dance originated (lindy hop, which is not a white/ballroom/syllabus dance at all) in mind. It'll help you get better and you'll have better perspective and understanding of how things work... I promise.

 * History of west coast swing *

5.       Everything is a basic

      I really like using this example. These are fairly 'fancy' moves, but in reality they're just variations of a whip with an outside turn, which is a fairly standard extension of a basic whip. Pretty much everything we do is an offshoot, variant or extension of push/pass/whip/tuck, in double and triple rhythms, on a linear slot, using tension and compression to communicate. The better you get at basic actions, weight transfers, body movement, and lead and follow technique for vanilla basics; the easier it will be to add the stylish cherry on top. Even how westies do contact improv -- since it isn't straight up contact improv, or doesn't have to be -- is based on how we slot, use sides of our body, find stretch and compression, communicate requests for space/support, etc. Honestly, one of the things I really love about our dance is how it can be a lens applied to so many different forms of expression. Enhance the lens, everything you see through it will be more clear. 

6.       Find your own way/teach your friends

      Understanding is a pretty individual process. You know that studying tip, "explain it in your own words"? I've heard a lot of teachers of all levels try to simply repeat what they heard one of their own teachers say; and it doesn't tend to work all that well. Explain a concept in your own words. Tell a beginner or a friend who doesn't understand it. Try to break it down without using the same terminology. Hell, if you think you've discovered something new from watching youtube and you, like, totally get it now... great! Explain it to someone newer to the dance. This will help your own growth and understanding as well as help you become a better teacher. 

7.       Iron sharpens iron

      This is a partner dance. You need good partners to become better. You need a community behind you. If you don't have one--build it. Even if you do have one--support it! This doesn't mean that you owe people dances or always have to say yes when asked. But each and every person who dances at a high level is built up from the time they've spent on the floor, thousands and thousands of dances with different people. Practice with your friends. Help each other work on your dance. Social dance with people who dance differently. Communities become strong together, and you should want to be able to dance with everyone. As a non syllabus, street dance with more than one single right way to do things... WCS demands adaptability. 

8.       You have to make choices to improve

      This final point is extremely important when it comes to your own upward trajectory. You can't focus on everything at once. You can't be every single partner's favorite person to dance with. You can't always combine two different philosophies or technical methods of doing the dance. 

      And this is all okay! 

      You could choose to work the most on what you enjoy working on the most. This is a pretty easy way keep your own enjoyment and enthusiasm for the dance high. 

      You could try to work on the more foundational skills, which hopefully would make anything more sophisticated easier to develop (see: everything is a basic). 

      You could prioritize feedback from one coach or practice partner, and measure progress by how well you dance with them (potentially a very useful strategy in a smaller community). 

      But you have to be okay with not trying to be better at everything simultaneously. My own students all experience major jumps in ability when they finally focus on just one (or maybe two) things consistently. In the end, it's about choosing your battles and going all in, at least for a time. 

      -Perfect is the enemy of good-

      -If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority-

     Until next time! Love your dance and be good to each other.