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Taking a Deep Breath

This past weekend I was at the Boston Tea Party in Massachusetts, attending in tow with a bunch of my Penn State buddies for all of us to compete in the Jack and Jill under the Newcomer category.

To make a long story short, I didn’t make the finals of the competition. To say I was frustrated afterwords, would be a slight understatement. Starting in November, I decided I would work hard to try to place in the finals in this competition. I followed all the advice that people throw out about “taking your dancing to the next level”; traveling to different events on weekends, dancing frequently, asking for feedback from follows, and even taking one of those expensive privates from a well known international instructor. That one hour after reading the call-back sheets I have never probably felt as worthless as a dancer in the last two years.

After that period of moping, I realized could either; a) Mope around more and be a downer in a room that probably had some of the best dancers from all around North America or b) Suck it up, learn from the experience, move on and dance with some awesome people. I decided to do the smart thing and go back out there, in result I witnessed an awesome jam, had a fun dance with a Canadian friend of mine to Shiny Stockings, and through that remembered the joy of Lindy Hop that I temporarily blinded myself to.  I got so caught up into proving to myself via this past competition that I have “improved” that I lost sight of the reason I wanted to improve, so I could have a better potential to connect with and have fun with dancers of all levels.

I learned from this past weekend was while it is good to have goals for your dancing, you can’t let them define yourself. If things fall short you just have to take a deep breath, step back from the situation and see what you can learn from it and move on.

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Running a College Workshop

Overview

This past weekend I was one of the organizers for a Lindy and Blues workshop held at Penn State (The Pennsylvania State University). It consisted of a weclome dance on Friday, four hours of blues instruction with a dance on Saturday, and four hours of lindy instruction on Sunday. I was happy seeing everyone learning and having a good time, however by the end on Sunday, exhaustion set in.

Mike Legett and Reuel Reis
Mike Legett and Reuel Reis

One of the key elements that allowed the event to run smoothly was having Mike “The Girl” Legett and Reuel Reis as the instructors. What I liked about their teaching is they used ‘moves’ (which keep the newbies entertained) to convey concepts (which is something that benefits dancers of all levels). I have been in too many workshops where it has seemed teachers were pulling random moves out of a hat that had nothing to do with each other.

However the more important factor is they both gave the impression that they genuinely cared about their students learning. During the breaks in classes, they helped out students with questions and issues they had.

The only complaint I could have, would be that Reuel taught screwballs (suzie-Qs with toes pointed up). But as a vintage clip snob, that is more a personal opinion.

Things That Went Well

  • We booked the rooms with extra time on top of setup/take down for the classes, in case if people were late/classes ran over. Worked out well, so we weren’t tearing down frantically like we had to for the Kobby (Bobby and Kate) Balboa Workshops.
  • Classes for the most part were balanced, we did have a slight imbalance for the first Blues class on Saturday but it evened out. However in the future registration should be watched more carefully to prevent horrible imbalances.
  • For the most part it seems everyone was getting something out of the material taught. I learned as a follow to engage my right shoulder muscles so my arm doesn’t get ripped out of its socket by over-enthusiastic newbie leads.

Things that Can Be Improved

  • We didn’t designate who was in charge of take-down and setup for the dances and the Sunday workshop. That needs to be addressed in the future for having everything running smoothly. Perhaps a detailed list of responsibilities is in order for the future.
  • Need to buy portable lighting for the club. We had people playing with the lights during the blues dance because apparently some people need it “pitch dark” to dance blues whereas some people like bright lights. [1]
  • We have always had the issue with people showing up late to the first workshop. Mike told me of a policy some workshops run that if people are late to classes they are not admitted to the workshop until the next class in order not to make the class more difficult for those who did show up on time. I may consider this for the future.
  • Need to list more details on the website in the future so it lists more relevant information. That way we do not get flooded with emails.

[1]  One thing that happened during the weekend that legitimately annoyed me was people who were not organizing started playing with the lights. Its downright disrespectful and if I wasn’t so tired that night, I would have verbally reamed out the responsible parties.

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Lost Within One’s Own World a.k.a. The Technician

This post is in reference to a blog post written a few years back by Naomi Uyama.

When I am out on the dance floor once in awhile I will see people who look like they are staring off blankly into a void or constantly looking at themselves in a mirror while they social dance. [1] I wonder at times if I replaced their lead/follow with a chair if they would even notice.

Partner dancing is interacting and communicating with your partner, otherwise it would be solo dancing. I find asking someone to dance then ignoring them the entire song the equivalent of asking someone if they want to get dinner, then ignoring them entire time to talk to yourself during the meal. Sounds awkward, even cruel when put in a different context right?

I think a lot of people get so wrapped up in wanting to improve quickly, that they lose focus of why they started to dance. While it is perfectly acceptable to want to work on and improve your dancing, it shouldn’t be at the expense of your dance partner. I will admit though it is sometimes not difficult to lose sight of that.  I have had days that I had to take a step back and remind myself to pay attention to my partner and to not get so narrowly focused on some technical detail or move.

If you are a dancer reading this, go out there on the dance floor and like Naomi said, be there to enjoy it.

[1] In Irvine, California people had created this game that consisted of spotting how many guys were watching themselves in the mirror a night. Last time I played I caught about six of them.

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T’aint What You Do

Hey everybody, this is Apache and I have decided to jump on the whole lindy-blogosphere train.

This blog will cover my opinions, experiences, travels and insights in what is known as “The Swing Dance Scene”.  Ranging from random events I attend, youtube videos I feel like rambling about or random topics that have a loose affiliation with swing dancing.

I thought I would start off with explaining the reason I chose the name of my blog, T’aint What You Do.

For those of you unfamiliar with the song, it is what the routine known to many Lindy Hoppers as the Shim Sham is performed to on the East coast.

‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
That’s what gets results

Above are lyrics from the song T’aint What You Do. Yes I chose to quote the entire chorus instead of  “‘T ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it” line once for a reason. For me as a dancer, one of the most important things in dancing is quality of movement as some people put it.  Too often (Newbie leads are especially guilty of this.) people think learning the latest flash and trash or acquiring  x amount of moves under ones belt is how one becomes an ‘advanced’ or ‘good’ dancer.

Often when watching competitions or performances, it is what some consider the most ‘rudimentary’ or ‘fundamentals’ of the respective dance, done well and with a personal flair that make me smile and inspire me.

Nina Gilkenson and Mikey Pedroza

The reason for the name of this blog is it is one of my primary beliefs in dancing is the intent and quality of motion in dancing are more important then the moves that are performed in a dance. It is a theme that will probably be prevalent in this blog.

T’aint what you do… its the way that you do it.