Become adaptable

 "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. 

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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 best at doing your own ideal dance regardless of who you were dancing with (and not changing anything for your partners) you'd probably have amazing dances with a small group of people... but you might become frustrated with everyone else. 

If you tried to change your own dance to your partner's ideal preference every dance, maybe all of your partners would enjoy your dances pretty well. But you might struggle with enjoying your own dance or being present in your own body, as you prioritized each and every partner and what you thought they wanted, over what really works best for you. And you probably wouldn't have that many really great dances, without a strong baseline of your own preferences, habits and actually knowing what works for you. 

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One source of frustration is feeling entitled to a certain kind of dance. A specific technique, an exact sensation of connection, a shared philosophy, or even just expecting a friend or partner to feel the same from one day to the next. 

Here's a drill to fix it. 

You and your practice partner will be taking turns being 'chaotic.' I think that it's most challenging to switch every single song, and a bit easier to have one person be chaotic for a few songs in a row. 

It's also a good idea to start off with easy music to dance to. Something in the 90bpm range with a clear, strong boom-tick and not a lot of complex layers you might be tempted to play with musically. 

Your job is to adapt. Lead, or follow, efficiently as your partner is (carefully) changing how their dance feels and interacts with yours. 

Spacing - traveling not at all, or much further than normal. Can you adjust to make the communication work, and maintain your own quality of movement and controlled weight transfers? 

Connection weight through directional intent - if your partner gives you a ton more energy down slot, or vanishes entirely, can you adjust to keep up? Going from dancing with someone super light/almost nonexistent in the connection, to suddenly having to counter energy or maintain your frame as you're led with a ton of force is a great challenge to accustom yourself to. 

 Frame shape and size - this one is probably the riskiest to play with, so be cautious. But a very wide or narrow frame is going to change the shape of every interaction. 

Body tone - is their core super tight and rigid, or not engaged at all? Arms tight or floppy, fingers squeezing (again, be careful here) or do you feel like you'll slip out? Pushing with their legs or just stepping. 

Some of these can be isolated elements, others might affect each other. Traveling way further down slot as a follower is going to naturally increase connection, for example. 

Guidelines: 

1. This should be a game, and it should be fun! If one person is deliberately switching things at just the right time to mess their partner up, or not being encouraging, it's no good. Be supportive. 

2. This isn't the place to randomly throw bad/dangerous habits into the mix. No pulling down while your follow is coming out of a sugar a tuck, doing neck dips, throwing yourself onto your leader without warning, etc. The ability to keep yourself safe and bail out of those situations can be practiced another time. 

3. Try and find the sweet spot for progress. Imagine you're running along with a child, trying to set a challenging pace but not exhaust them right away or make them feel like they can't keep up. You're trying to help your partner improve when you're being chaotic, and vice versa. 

4. Keep that original key word, efficiently, in mind. If you're adapting, it isn't your job to change them back or try to force what you're doing onto your partner. Your job is only to make things work. And try to maintain as much of your own baseline as you can, in the process. 

5. Set whatever restrictions you need in order to fulfill these other guidelines. Maybe Being Chaotic is only changing one element at a time. Maybe you only do basic patterns. Maybe you stop after dancing for two minutes. Whatever you need for it to be a friendly, fun, constructive environment. 

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

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