Floortime

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 ...

I taught the level 3 group classes for Derek and Lauren this month! Here are the recaps.  Week 1 push/tuck Week 2 right side pass  Week 3 whips  Week 4 left side pass * If you attended any of these, thank you so much. Please tell your friends if you enjoyed it! Let Derek and Lauren know if you have any feedback, too. * Taking one basic off the skill tree each week (push/tuck, pass either left or right, whip) and incorporating higher level concepts was the goal. People coming in just had to be willing to learn and listen to their partners, and be able to do their vanilla basics somewhat comfortably.  * Every class was balanced in material between lead and follow as well as I could make it.  * Almost every class involved interaction. A similar entry point with 2-3 options for one partner or the other. The attendees were encouraged to be unpredictable with their choices, but communicate as clearly as they could. Teaching a "move of the week" as rote choreo doesn't ...

Sometimes we look at a west coast swing dancer and it's easy to see why they managed to improve rather quickly. Factors like an extensive preexisting dance background, time spent playing a musical instrument, natural athleticism, youth/starting to learn west coast swing at a younger age, learning in an advantageous location (think of trying to learn the dance in the bay area instead of, say, Alaska)… these are obvious. But there are also some less-than-tangible factors we can keep an eye out for. Not only are these extremely valuable, but they can also be consciously developed to help us grow our own dance!   1. Non-attachment to ideas or theories.   Simply put, the people I know who have improved their own dance the fastest are those who can easily ditch what so-and-so said if it doesn’t work for them. “This doesn’t feel like what’s best for me right now” is an extremely powerful thought. Combine this with the next point and you’ll have an immense advantage in terms of mak...

  Yeah, the title is a reference to supernatural  I started doing west coast swing in 2015. I'd done collegiate ballroom for about two years, and salsa/bachata for about the same amount of time. Neither very seriously!  At this point I'd also played violin for over a decade, done martial arts for about four years (both of those when I was much younger), soccer for a couple of seasons (during middle school) track and field for two years (high school), calisthenics on a regular basis since 2008, trained hardstyle (SFG/RKC) kettlebells since 2009, and done powerlifting-style barbell strength training since 2010. I also worked full time as a personal trainer/powerlifting team coach/kettlebell instructor and mentor to other certified instructors as my full time profession from 2014-2018.  Yes, all of this helped me a lot. Much more so than the limited dance experience I'd had . My very first west coast swing lesson was in Washington DC but I really started a few months la...

I. Toxic dance culture, competitions, and connecting Feel free to skip this section if you just want the useful content without the ramblings Being a westie, I'm going to start from our perspective first.  I think that people who dance wcs tend to have a weird resentment toward dancers who come in from other dances and seem to progress really quickly. Part of this is due to a cultural issue in how we teach and share wcs--the 'you need to stick with it for 6 months,' there's a high barrier for entry, don't expect to have fun right away mindset. Apart from hampering the growth of our dance, it brings a potential bitterness when westies see someone skipping the initial struggle step that they've been brought up to believe is mandatory.  This reveals itself in local communities, classes/lessons, etc. as well. Someone coming from fairly serious lindy doesn't have to go to a beginner lesson and learn to count in 6 or 8 or triple step. Sure, it's a different da...

First, the mirror here is an analogy. Looking in a mirror while you're dancing isn't wrong, and it isn't even rude as long as your partner knows you're practicing and sees the dance as such. But it's inefficient and will throw your dancing off. It'll change where your head weight is, possibly affect where your frame is at, and you'll have to abandon it if you're spotting anyway. Plus, watching yourself *directly* flat from the side or front isn't as good as a slight angle. You can get this if you have full unbroken mirrors on two perpendicular walls, but it's still not as good as a video. Or a video of the mirrored dance space! So take videos.  Everyone hates seeing themselves dance , at first at least. There are exceptions, but I think they're too scarce to mention. Even most people who are really, really self obsessed have insecurities and are surprised when the way they look doesn't match the images in their head.  You can think of thi...

Here’s a dance trick that has a good chance of helping you be more present in your body while working on a given technical aspect! Pay very close attention to how what you’re wearing makes you feel. And I mean in a directly tangible/physical feedback sense, not ‘feelin’ yourself” (although that’s always helpful). For example, skinny jeans make me really aware of my leg action. They have to be a certain kind of stretchy/snug to have a potentially noticeable impact. Yes, I know what the ideal fit and brand is to help me work through my legs the best. (American Eagle skinny/athletic tapered 360 flex in 29/32.) The feeling of compression helps me articulate my legs properly; it was harder to feel without that feedback when I was trying to learn.  Plenty of dancers obsess over how shoes look aesthetically, or how they feel throughout a long event weekend. But footwear is also a great and very underrated tool simply for skill development. A different height of heel, how long the sh...

initial disclaimer: this is all about one on one private lessons. Group classes especially at a beginner level are more than a little different West coast swing isn’t like most other dances. Even for non-syllabus, ‘street’ dances there are usually only a few clear technical variants at a high level of the dance. As such, teaching ‘good dancing’ especially from a technical standpoint tends to be a bit more objective than it is in our case. Our brains working the way that they do, we tend to teach from one of just a few perspectives:   1.        Here’s what I do, it works for me, thus, it should work for you too 2.          This is what my teacher told me, it works for them (maybe not yet for me), so it should work for you too 3.        I haven’t tried this at all but so and so said it and I think they’re smart, so you should listen to them           ...

Approaching west coast swing as a human being, Episode I   A few years ago, I came across the idea of body neutrality . I worked in the fitness industry as a strength coach and became very familiar with how negative self-talk affected people. The desire to measure up to impossible, airbrushed standards on magazine covers, web pages and tv. One of the suggestions I received from some very, very intelligent coaches (and good people) was to supplant aesthetic goals with performance goals . Rather than getting validation from others complimenting your appearance or comparing yourself to someone on a movie screen, you’d focus your efforts on what your body could DO—be it powerlifting, a triathlon, yoga, rock climbing, or anything else. For women especially the sensation of being strong, physically capable, and literally taking up space was a drastic change and improvement from where they’d been. Here’s the problem. That approach was body positivity —like the ‘big is beautiful’ ...

 "You're not shifting your weight, that's the problem," my then-girlfriend Fae told me. I assured her that I was. All the pieces, after all, were in the right places (I thought) I was checking all the boxes that I had been coached to. I could even take away the other foot and balance, to me this was proof that I was 'completing' my weight shift and my body was ending up in the proper situation.  She was right, which isn't unusual. As it turns out, weight shifts for our dance involve  more than lining up the requisite pieces (not everyone does) and contracting the requisite muscles (fewer do this), more than momentary balance. And weight shifts are really important! How we move from one foot to another is... pretty much the most important thing we do, since the bottom line of what we're doing is just shifting from foot to foot while holding hands with another person.  One of the major elements I've spent the past two years really working on is just...