Awhile back I wrote a post about using youtube as a medium for event advertisement. It was no big surprise that Hollywood (L.A.) threw in some amazing contributions to this idea.
Hollywood’s Contributions:
Swing Pit: Back from the Dead…Again! (2007)
For those of you who have never met Sailor Mike, besides being a badass Collegiate Shag dancer (Seriously, who enters a competition in a coffin?) also works in the film biz. He did a great job, this video is hilarious and is a good way to get publicity for an event.
Even though the event was over a long time ago, I know I have linked it to a bunch of my friends just to watch the psycho reference when Mike kills Tip West. I can’t even imagine how much buzz this got when the event was actually in the near future.
Camp Hollywood 2001 – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Old school hilarity. I could try to explain this, but seriously just watch. Nothing like nationally recognized instructors doing a parody of a movie to advertise an event.
Raleigh Doing Its Part
EBC Good Clean Fun
Aptly named, this EBC promotional video explains what to expect if you attend the event. In addition with hilarity makes sure this one advertisement that will be hard to clean the video out of your mind.
So, if you have a crazy funny idea on how to advertise for an event. Grab a camera folks.
Friendliness of the instructor, its a phrase that comes up constantly when people talk about why they liked a certain instructor or even hired a certain instructor. I am myself am guilty of that. As an organizer for a college club, after the quality of teaching abilities, usually one of the big factor of why I hire instructors is if they are good fit for my demographic a.k.a. college students.
However personally when it comes to instruction for myself, I could care less how friendly an instructor is. Maybe it is because of my grandfather raised me on too many kung fu movies where a good portion of the instructors believed in hard-work, fundamentals and the school of hard knocks.
Jackie Chan practicing Horse Stance.
There is a topic on yehoodi “Meanest things a dance instructor has ever said” that the topic of how mean or nice an instructor should be comes up. Two quotes in this yehoodi topic from Damon Stone really stand out to me, the first one is.
“I’d rather someone be direct and even mean and brutal to drive home the point. I hate being coddled. I’m an adult, if I can’t take your honest opinion I don’t deserve to have you as a teacher and probably shouldn’t be taking lessons.”
I was actually talking to my roommate who teaches violin this past weekend and seeing the overlap in musical and dance instruction. He went into anecdote about when he used to take lessons in his younger years, from an instructor who had him play what he was instructed to practice the previous week at the beginning of each lesson. If he didn’t perform up to his instructor’s standards, his instructor would tell him to get the hell out and stop wasting his time.
I chuckled and responded if I I did that in any of my classes, I would probably get the reputation as the worst swing dance instructor on the East coast. His response to that statement struck a note with me though. He commented that; the weeks he earned his teachers ire, he worked harder then ever to improve.
The second quote by Damon that stuck out to me was,
“I’m not sure I’ll ever quite get why intermediate dancers and above are sensitive about their dancing. I mean beginners are just that they want to learn enough to get out on the floor and have fun. By the time you are intermediate you should know everything you need to do that.
If you are taking lessons after that point I’d assume it is because you really want to improve, you want to be a kick-ass dancer. I can’t imagine going into a jazz or ballet, or contemporary, hell even Hip-Hop class and expect the teacher to be all sunshine and rainbows.”
Now, I think the issue at hand is differing opinions. I have had friends in my international dance performance troupe with backgrounds in ballet, jazz, and et cetera go into horror stories about how strict and demanding their instructors were that would send most people I know reeling.
But those are all instructors who see the material they are teaching as a serious art form and if you use their time, they demand respect for their experience and the material they are teaching. However, I would say for the most part not out of disrespect but being truthful, that the swing dance community as a whole are hobbyists.
In result it is often difficult to offer a class with the same serious framework like ballet or music without potentially touching some nerves or hurting feelings. Even often when I hear people talking about other dancers within the community, its usually a long list of their strengths and they are loathe to point out weaknesses.
Personally, I want someone to tell me my dancing is garbage. I want someone to point out my weaknesses and criticize me harshly about them. For me, its not the words of encouragement but these harsh criticisms that drive me more then anything to work harder on my dancing. I want knowledge, not a self-esteem boost.
Slightly Related Clip (For those of you just using my blog to procrastinate):
One of the biggest problem I had when I taught my first larger classes (like 50ish people) was at times getting all of their attention so they could hear what my partner and myself had to say and demonstrate.
Over the last few years, I have witnessed some instructors creatively deal with this problem in their classes which I will list below.
Teaching Tricks to get Students to Pay Attention
Shave and a Haircut: Described on the wikipedia page as a “7-note musical couplet popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comic effect.”
The way to use it is teach it at the beginning of the class, then you clap out the rhythm whenever you want the students attention and they respond with either a stomp-off or clapping back the “two bits” (Ba-Ba) part. Repeat as necessary.
One, Two, Three, All Eyes on Me: Many of you may be familiar with this from grade school, where teachers sometimes employ this. It is a simple rhyme that grabs attention. The way to use it is at the beginning of class go over the rhyme, then during class employ it as necessary. I remember my grade-school teacher would just say the part and have us students reply “All Eyes on Me”.
Side By Side: I actually witnessed this for the first time when taking a class from Erik Robison in California. He explains at the beginning of class when he says the phrase “Side By Side” he wants follows to get to the right of their leads and for everyone to remain quiet and watch whatever he is demonstrating. Its great because the phrase initiates movement, so people who might be zoning out catches on they should pay attention and it gets people in a position to immediately start dancing afterward.
Observation Goggles: I got this from watching part of one of Mike Faltesek and Casey Schneider’s classes at Jammin’ on the James last year. At the beginning of their classes they explain the importance of paying attention to the body movement (they or other people you are trying to learn from)and translating it to yourself, they refer to it as putting your observation goggles on and demonstrate what they mean. I can only explain what this looks like with this picture:
Observation Goggles
Its goofy but it works like a charm, especially among a younger crowd.
What I Do Personally
Well I have liked everything, so I combine a little of it all. At the beginning of classes that it is students I am unfamiliar with, I explain I have this thing called “Side By Side”. When I say that phrase to make it easier on both parts for myself teaching and students learning I ask them to:
Follows stand to the right of the lead.
Please remain quiet so other students can hear what I am saying.
Put on your “Observation Goggles” and not just pay attention to what my footwork is doing, but my full body movement.
I’ve found combining both of them works extremely well, at least for myself.
If you have any tricks you use in your classes or noticed other instructors using that works well, please feel free to comment about them.
Most people when starting to learn swing dance can remember a certain pattern they were taught in their introductory class, usually the “Rock-Step, Triple-Step, Triple-Step” pattern.Often there is this solid framework because an issue that John White writes about in his blog post Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition.
In the post he comments how many novice level dances will often look for hard and fast rules for swing dancing. However as many people learn quickly (especially follows) if you try to dance within only patterns, you are only getting a small subset of the dance known as the Lindy Hop.
Positives and Pitfalls of Patterns
Don’t get me wrong though, I am not saying that patterns are rubbish and should not be utilized in instruction or on the social dance floor. They are great at providing a simple model of dance where dancers can work on fundamental technique and isolate external variables that they would normally have to deal with and could crowd out their understanding of the issue.
However the important thing to convey is in fact that patterns are simple models that are not completely representative of the actual social dance floor. Groovy Movie actually lampoons the idea that you can completely learn swing dance through step patterns here at 3:00:
As a follow if all you try to do anticipate the patterns in class, if you dance with anyone outside of that class it can easily become a difficult dance as many new follows quickly learn. For leads if you just lead patterns you learned in a class, often one can technically be on time but still be completely ignoring the music.
The difficult thing for me as an instructor in beginner classes is still providing newer dancers patterns that provide them an isolated environment for them to get down steps to at least survive one social dance, yet still attempting to provide them with instruction technique and give them perspective of where to use these steps. It is a difficult compromise that I am always attempting to fine-tune each lesson.
The struggle for an dancer who moves on beyond the novice stage is often breaking free from this framework. I remember out in California one of my biggest struggles the first summer I was out there was not defaulting to the six-count footwork from open. I had to have several nights where I completely forbid it from my repertoire and forced myself to do other things.
I could ramble on about this topic for awhile, but I’m curious to hear the rest of your thoughts. But before that I will leave you with this quote.
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.” – Bruce Lee [1]
[1] Mainly known for his prowess in the Martial Arts world, it is actually a not as well known fact that Bruce Lee was an excellent dancer as well and won the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship in China at the age of 18.
It’s been talked to death on Yehoodi, local discussion boards, and countless organizer meetings around the world – PokeAlex on Yehoodi
The “Newbie Problem” as shown in the quote above is something that is often brought up in the community. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, I’ll explain it below.
The “Newbie Problem“
A newbie shows up at a dance venue excited to dance and mingle with people.
Said newbie sees all the good dancers or “cool people” are hanging out amongst themselves (often in one part of a room such as a corner or near the DJ booth) and feels excluded.
Newbie reacts to their inferred situation by possibly; having self-deprecating thoughts on their own personality and/or dancing, negatively have feel and express opinions that assumed “cool people” are elitist, or a combination of both.
Organizer Struggle
As an organizer though, when you put on your organizer hat it changes. It is expected (if it is a smaller weekly venue dance and not a huge event) you to make an effort to be welcoming to newer people and to be present socially. The amusing thing is even though I attempt to make myself appear as friendly & welcoming as possible for my college club, according to a friend of mine many newbies see me as intimidating regardless of my efforts . Rachel writes about the frustration of dealing with this situation in her blog,
“We tried dancing with more people. We tried offering more beginning classes that would be accessible to those dancing at Heights. We even tried to not dance in front of the stage, but nothing seemed to completely clear the air.” –Rachel Green
So as a non-newbie dancer, if you are seen dancing with or in the areas of a venue the experienced dancers hang out, you already have to fight a predisposition that you are intentionally distant and have this negative disposition toward newer dancers.
Reality Sets In..
The main issue that exists is many newbies establish this false premise that, “Because I am new to this, people should have to go out of their way to make me feel comfortable and accepted.” Rebecca in her blog post has a very good quote that addresses this issue,
“Because of that attitude, I stopped myself from taking advantage of countless opportunities.” –Rebecca Brightly
In her post she also goes over four reasons why these people have not initiated conversation or social contact with a newbie.
They don’t have anything to say.
They were awkward/shy/unsociable before they became dancers, and they are STILL awkward/shy/unsociable.
You don’t have anything in common.
You haven’t been around long enough.
I’d like to throw out a few as well,
They have a previous injury that makes them have to be careful who they dance with: I have a friend back home in California who has back problems, in result she only dances with leads she knows and trusts.
They stay in the area around other “cool people” or advanced dancers, because it is where their friends are: In your every day life how often have you thought, “Hey all my friends are here, I am going to go over and talk to these complete stranglers.” Now I am a crazy extrovert, so that is entirely in the realm of possibility for me. However not everyone falls in that category.
They are an instructor who has just taught 1-3 classes and is taking it easy: If you haven’t taught a class before while fun, it can be tiring. Especially if it was a big class that you were having to project your voice. Often after this one just wants to relax, converse with friends, and possibly grab a dance.
However what it comes down to it. Something I have heard others say and that I say myself these days I think sums up the situation.
“When you pay your cover charge into a venue, all you are doing is paying to get into a room and for nothing else. “
This post is mainly geared toward newer or socially shy/awkward dancers and organizers of college scenes or small venues.
Often after dance venues across the United States I found for the most part wherever I go they have one thing in common. After the end of the dance, there is usually at least one group of people who go out for food to just talk about drama in the local scene chat and hang out. Shoot at Lindygroove in Los Angeles this past Thursday, I knew of groups that went to at least three different restaurants.
Waffle House: One of the greatest establishments for the after dance meal.
If you are a newer dancer or perhaps someone who has been around for a bit, but doesn’t feel like they have a close knit group in the scene find out if people are going out to eat after and join in. Usually most dancers are more then happy to have more people.
If you are an organizer of a college or smaller venue, a great way to let newbies feel like they belong more to your dance community is starting up one of these events. Often people start dancing to get a sense of belonging to a community, this is a great way of providing an outlet for that.
Side Note: I know due to jobs or other responsibilities, being able to get food after is not always a possibility. The way around this is to have a meal beforehand. Be careful of the choice of food though, I have learned the hard way that some foods do not go well with dancing.
This is a repost of a note that I originally read on facebook written by Bill Speidel, a well known and respected Lindy and Blues DJ out here on the East Coast. To rephrase what I originally sent to Bill when asking for permission to repost this, I believe this note expresses a sentiment that many of us who consistently visit smaller scenes and smaller events have, but often do not publicly voice due to not wanting to be seen as “elitist”.
Who is running this event and what is supposed to be about?
Are lindy and blues exchanges losing their way?
(or “I smell what you’re offering to exchange and I don’t want to step in it”)
For about the last year I’ve been making the argument that the poor economy has led to an influx of novice or bargain basement organizers throwing a growing number of sketchy events that leave me wondering where is the value for the price they’re charging and what they are hyping?
Words have specific meanings and create certain expectations – “nationally known DJ’s”, “live swing bands”, “hosting available”, “free”… even the terms “lindy” or “blues exchange” themselves. Truthfully, I believe, if your home lindy or blues “scene” can fit in one or two vehicles, you can’t throw an exchange, you can merely throw a party. Also, a list of recommended hotel accommodations is not “offering housing”. Lindy bombing a street festival where the local municipality has hired an Elvis impersonator is not “4 hours of continuous lindy dancing”, neglecting to point out someone has to pay a $7 parking or entrance fee to some third party doesn’t constitute “Free” just because the organizer didn’t get the money. Lastly, a local laptop owner who has also played his usual setlist somewhere else while visiting his parents out of state does not make a DJ headliner.
In the last month I’ve been invited to a couple “exchanges” that have me particularly shaking my head and wondering where things are headed.
The first incident was a trio of new organizers who were completely forthright (although misinformed) in their advertising of their new blues event, which, they said, would bring blues to the southeast, where there has never been any blues scenes or events before. They explained blues has gotten too prissy with its ballrooms and instruction & their event was a dirty, raw, blues bomb to bar bands w/ plenty of drunken grinding & beer. They mentioned the local swing club had told them they weren’t cool enough to hang out with since they didn’t care about the techniques of partnered dancing, just blues and enough beer to enjoy the dirty thrill of it. To drive their point home, they’ve added a soul, modern tango, and fusion pajama party late night and a “blues ball” that pokes fun at the blues elite by “deconstructing traditional black-tie attire and replace it with an attitude that says “Hey, I’m awesome, and I know you’re jealous” man-smile.”
The other was a lindy exchange tacked onto an annual Winter Festival at a national historic site by an instructor whose scene is mostly 14-16 year old children. She contacted me to say although she had no budget to hire me to DJ she wondered if I’d burn a CD full of my best mp3’s to play for dancers? She’s since gotten a fife and drum processional, a bluegrass/hot trio, and put out a call landing DJ’s willing to work for free. “Hosting” is any available hotel space not booked by visiting holiday tourists.
Honestly, I love fun as much as the next person, but seriously, this recent explosion of every single collection of 2 or more blues or lindy dancers feeling they need “to throw their own exchange to be taken seriously and make a name for themselves” is a load of crap. When I first started DJ’ing, one of the top DJ’s on the east coast approached me after a set to say, “I owe you an apology. I’ve heard your name for a while but never took you seriously because I heard you were from Virginia Beach and automatically assumed you sucked.” Trust me, sometimes there are worse things in life than not having made a name for yourself.
Before deciding you need to have your name on the marquis, consider helping established organizers run respected events and find out why they don’t embellish their marketing or short change their musicians, teachers or DJ’s; also, why they confirm their logistical arrangements and are aware of what others are doing in scenes around them.
I’m sorry to wrap myself in my “blanket of elitism” but we’re fast approaching the point where we don’t need any more half-baked, poorly planned events that underwhelm but overcharge. They do everyone a disservice and just provide unnecessary noise and distraction that cloud the water. If you don’t have a burning passion for this that goes beyond your own ego, please leave it to those who do.
As someone who organizes smaller events, please just be honest in your advertising. I’ve danced to bands like Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five and the Boilermakers in multiple states, please don’t bill the local band who is playing borderline concert jazz as ‘one of the best swing bands you ever heard’. Don’t bill your event as a Lindy Hop event then have half the DJ set be Blues or West Coast Swing music. As a customer I take it as an insult when you attempt to mislead me and I will not attend your events or recommend them to other dancers in the future.
If you have any comments regarding this note, I encourage you to post below.
For my college club out in Pennsylvania, I have written a rough-draft for a set of guidelines for being an instructor. This is mainly for new instructors to teaching, but it also functions as a personal checklist for experienced instructors. My goal when writing this was to only take up a page, yet still cover the key points for a good swing dance lesson. If you like it feel free to use/edit it for your club/organization. In addition please post any feedback you may have!
Expectations for a Swing Dance Instructor:
Show Up On Time: It looks unprofessional to show up late to your own lesson. If you are going to be or are running late please inform an officer, preferably one in charge of setup.
Bring Your Own Music & Have Students Dance to It: Each person has different expectations of what is a ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ song is and most likely has a different repertoire of music then you do. Ensure you have the right tunes for the class you designed, by having them on you. In addition having students dance to music in class prepares them for the realistic situation of dancing socially, instead of with you counting/scatting.
Prepare For Your Lessons Beforehand: Unless if this is material you have taught before with this same person, meet up beforehand to coordinate a lesson plan. This especially is true for teaching a series. Doing this prevents possible miscommunication between teaching partners in the middle of a lesson.
Don’t Argue With Your Teaching Partner: Sometimes during a lesson you find out that you teaching partner and you learned something differently. Compromise and sort it afterwards or work it out calmly in front of the class, but maintain a positive learning environment.
Introduce Yourself at the Beginning of the Lesson: Beginning of the class is a good time to introduce yourself, set ground rules (especially if it’s a large class) and state your expectations for what the class will cover.
When Talking Project Your Voice Clearly and Don’t Look Down: Students tend to learn better when they can hear what their instructor is saying. Mumbling, looking down or talking too fast makes it it difficult for students to hear. In addition students may interpret it as you are nervous and are unconfident in what you are doing.
Balance Out Time For Explanations, Demonstrations, and Practice: A good lesson has a balance of all of these elements. Ever have a lesson that the teacher seemed to just talk the entire time? Don’t be that instructor.
Rotate Often: We are teaching a social dance so we should have students dance socially. Whether if you are in a circle or lines have students rotate. For a circle it helps people try things with different partners. For lines it helps students in the back have a better view of the instructor. This rule goes double for classes with lead/follow imbalance.
Encourage Students to Ask Questions: Often students have questions that will help others in the class if answered. Fostering a positive environment where they are not shy about asking questions makes the class feel like a place that one can get involved in the learning process.
At End of Lesson Review Material, Motivate Students and Thank the Class: Review material so students can remember things from the beginning of your lesson. Since the whole point of lessons is preparation to dance encourage or even have a call to action for your students to put what you taught them to use. Lastly thank your class because they took time out of their daily schedules to attend your class.
One of the things I have seen teachers I admire do, is when teaching a class and they see someone doing something well, to acknowledge it in front of the class and in some cases have that person demonstrate it for the class.
What I have noticed when observing students who have this happen to them (and what I experienced the one time it happened to me):
They get ecstatic. Lets face it, who doesn’t like positive attention.
They usually become even more confident in the move or technique you were teaching to the class.
You usually have a better chance of retaining them as a student.
In the case of point three, the few times I have done this when teaching at my college scene, I have usually seen the student I complimented stay the rest of the series and/or stay longer for the social dance in comparison to other students in the class.
Now I am not saying insincerely shower your students with compliments on a consistent basis.
I swear this wasn't hastily altered in paint....
Besides being facetious , students will eventually pick up your compliments hold no value. But if you see a student doing something well in your class, acknowledge it. It will make them a happy camper and more confident in their dancing abilities.
Advertisement is one of the biggest factors in running a successful event, whether it is a one time workshop or a weekly venue. One event that has caught my eye is the event Hot Mess, for creatively utilizing youtube in an advertisement campaign.
Hot Mess commercials are below:
For contrast other events such as do make promo reels, as shown below.
How Hot Mess differs though is by creating commercials which entertain people and make them think about the event. Or even ideally talk about it when they are out for the night dancing. This is in contrast to the Camp Hollywood reel which tries to market it based on the impressive flash, fun/high energy atmosphere, and competitive environment.
Just like with any type of promotion the number one thing you want people do is to talk about your event. The folks running Hot Mess out in Philly have figured out a creative way through youtube to do that. Another event in the past that has done this effectively was the College of Swingology that was held in Charlottesville, Virginia. A sample of one of their assortment of videos is shown below:
The College of Swinology which had a college related theme used their videos to besides advertise for the event, reinforce the idea of their theme.
So if you are having an event youtube is a way to creatively appeal to your potential attendees. If you know any great commercials for swing dance events or youtube advertisment ideas, please feel free to comment below.
It's The Way That You Do It 