Dancing: Breaking out of Beginner Mode

[Paisley]

Let’s say you’ve mastered the basic step and a few moves. (If you haven’t, click here.) You can get from A to B, your partners usually know what you’re doing and you don’t feel the need to look at your feet (much). But you know you don’t have that pep in your step, soul in your stroll or glide in your stride that would make your dancing a whole lot better. Here are a few tips to help you get there.

Leads: you need to lead with your whole body, not just your arms. Don’t lead move after move, but give your partner some room to style. Watch your frame—don’t be spaghetti arms, but don’t jerk your partner around, either. Ask your partners if you have a good frame. Keep your hands still unless you’re leading a move.

Follows: you need to have a good frame to let your partner lead you—ask them if your frame is good. Move yourself, don’t make your partner move you around like a big lead weight (that’s what guys call it). Think of a horse and rider: the rider doesn’t move the horse, he just directs it. At the same time, don’t anticipate what he’s going to lead, but always wait.

Everybody: keep your basic step smooth, with a gentle bounce (for swing) and your feet close to the floor unless your teachers tell you otherwise. Remember that great dancing is not getting from Point A to Point B, but how you get there. Muscles should have tone (which is between flexed and relaxed). Lindy and some other dances are done on bent legs. The lindy stance is similar to those in various sports from tennis to rodeo. If you’re completely upright in lindy, you’ll just be walking.

Practice with Good Partners. It’s tough to learn when you don’t have a good partner. If you dance socially with people you take classes with, you know who the better partners are. (If you’ve just been dancing with your sweetie in class, you should start rotating and dancing with your classmates.) Another way to tell who the good dancers are is to see who dances smoothly. The herky-jerky dancers may have some flashy moves, but they are poor partners. I’ve danced with national champs, and they’re smooth as whipped cream.

How do you get a dance with someone fabulous? Wait until the middle of a slower song, muster your confidence, walk up to him or her, make eye contact and say, “Would you like to dance?” You’ll probably get a “yes.” If not, try someone else. If someone is rude to you remember that even some of those champs I talked about have been rudely turned down (while they were champs).

Dance Frequently. It’s astonishing how quickly we forget things when we don’t practice. I recommend dancing at least once a week. If you cannot dance for some reason, imagine that you are dancing. It really does help.

Capture the mood of the dance. Swing dancers, don‚Äôt be too serious when you dance. You have to find the right balance between effort and enjoyment, and that balance can vary. I find that my partners seem to enjoy it more when I make my movements kind of goofy. Swing is dance of joy, created long before our blas?© popular culture came about.

Keep Taking Classes. Taking intermediate classes, of course, and if you’ve been doing East Coast, step up to lindy. (East Coast vs. lindy is like checkers vs. chess: the first is limited, while the second is harder but you can take it much, much further.) It might even be worthwhile to take some of your beginner classes over. You’ll tune into some of the finer points that you missed while you were a total newbie, trying to get the footwork, count your steps and get used to holding strangers. You’ll also be helping total newbies by being one of the better partners in the class. (Ladies, make your partners lead in class. Don’t just go through the motions.)

Dance in front of a mirror, or tape yourself. You’ll get a no-baloney assessment of how you really dance—and it’s a big motivator to improve. Taping yourself can save you months of lessons.

Taking other forms of solo dance can help, too. (I consider this optional.) For example, ballet can help you develop balance, poise and grace, and belly dancing can bring out your girly-girl.

Include some weight-bearing exercise in your workouts. I consider this optional, too, but the better shape you’re in, the better you can dance. When I started lifting weights, my dancing got remarkably easier and better. Ladies, you’re not going to bulk up if you lift weights or do calisthenics. Rather, you’ll get a better waistline, less hail damage on the rear and thighs (not that you have any—I’m just talking about myself) and stronger bones. Two workouts I like are Body for Life and the Navy Seal Elite Fitness System, Total Body Workout. Again, this is optional.

I welcome any comments, especially from great leads, but please stay on topic. The topic is Breaking out of Beginner Mode. If you want to discuss dance styles and history, please post your comments here.

 

[Paisley]

How to put this into practice

There's a lot to learn and remember in dancing. But you don't have to keep everything in your thoughts while you dance. A few suggestions:

Work on just one thing when you go out dancing or you have a practice session. It could be your frame, or thinking half a step ahead (if you're a guy) or waiting to be led instead of anticipating your partner's moves (if you're a girl).

Have a goal. For example, you can mark a date on the calendar when you're going to tape yourself dancing. (That was a huge motivator for me to improve my game.) Some people join a performance troupe, and that motivates them to improve. I've heard of people scheduling (amateur) performances to be held at nursing homes, to the delight of all parties involved.

Balance effort and enjoyment. You can focus on effort with some partners or tempos, and enjoyment with others. You can also ask some of your partners if they'll help you and give you feedback.

I didn't know any of this when I first started dancing, and I turned out fine. But I'd love to see people accomplish in months what took me years. And yes, I've seen it happen.

 

[dnjan]

Have a goal. For example, you can mark a date on the calendar when you're going to tape yourself dancing. (That was a huge motivator for me to improve my game.) Some people join a performance troupe, and that motivates them to improve. I've heard of people scheduling (amateur) performances to be held at nursing homes, to the delight of all parties involved.

I think that the goal is especially important. Have a specific future event that you are planning to get dressed up for that will focus around dancing (getting dressed up is part of the psyching process).

When I was in college (Illinois), ballroom dance classes were especially popular. There were multiple sections of ballroom I, and the sequence went up to ballroom III. In addition to weekly classes, there were Friday practice sessions in one of the gyms (with records!) But everybody looked forward to the Spring Formal in the ballroom of the Union building. Live band, many of the guys in ballroom II and ballroom III rented tuxes, etc. Amazing how much more you get into the classes and practices when you know the Spring Formal is only a month away!

Now (many, many years later) we still look forward to dancing at the big band jazz fundraiser/auction put on every Spring by one of the local high schools. In fact, I'm almost ready to take a class again just to bring back some of what I have forgotten.

 

[reetpleat]

Firstly, I recommend ballroom dancing, both to be able to do it and for what it will add to any dance style. But avoid theat stick up the butt modern style which is death to any good swing style.

Best advice I ever got. Form my ballroom dance instructor. Go out and have a few drinks some time before coming to the friday dance.

If you don't drink, no propblem. the point is stop being nervous, relax and have fun, and especially for swing, don't give a frick and fool around a little. YOu will have fun and your dancing will move to a whole new llevel.

 

[Paisley]

Yes, nobody is going to say, "Jake is such a great dancer--he seems so tense." Keep in mind that you'll look better in swing dance if you're a little goofy (but not flailing around, of course). For a long time, I was very careful and controlled, but when I let myself start having more fun, my partners seemed to enjoy dancing with me more.

A few things you can do to help with this:

Tell yourself that you're hot.
Imagine a big golden light above your head.
Have a good laugh about something.
Dance for the people in the cheap seats.

If you're a girl and nobody has asked you to dance in a while, it can be discouraging and affect your mood. Just ask someone who looks friendly to dance, or do some solo dancing. You might feel conspicuous solo dancing (I know I do), but I've gotten nothing but good reactions from it.

Of course, letting yourself go somewhat isn't a substitute for good mechanics. Hence, the need to balance effort and enjoyment.

 

[Dagwood]

Of course you're correct that the more you dance the better you will get. I am far (very, very far) from being good. However, as bad as I am, I go out and do it. I find that woman often want to dance with me because I have so much fun. They may laugh at my body movements, poor footwork and waiving arms, but I discovered that they are laughing because they are having so much fun. It is rare that they don't want to dance with me again.

 

[Paisley]

I think that the goal is especially important. Have a specific future event that you are planning to get dressed up for that will focus around dancing (getting dressed up is part of the psyching process).

Welcome to the FL, dnjan.

I've found that I cannot practice dancing in bland workout clothes. I have to put on something attractive, or I just don't move well. [huh]

 

[dnjan]

Thanks!

I've never tried dancing in sweats. Don't think I could. Not conductive to sucking in my gut and standing straight.

 

[dnjan]

back to Breaking Out

Dancing is a level above walking. More show. More flair. More foot lift.
No matter what amount of "strut" you put into your normal walk, dancing is the next level.
And for many people, "breaking out", when it comes to dancing, means (for the appropriate dances) not just having your hands away from your sides, but actually as high as hour shoulders. For other dances it may mean not just having knee-bend, but having knee bend of 90-degrees. Or having your pointed toe (straight-leg) two feet above the floor. Going beyond what you think is just the difference between dancing and "normal". That's breaking out!

 

[Paisley]

That reminds me of ballet. Even beginner mode ballet is hard for me (but I'm kind of an old ballerina. )

 

[Miss Lucy June]

Practice with Good Partners. It’s tough to learn when you don’t have a good partner. If you dance socially with people you take classes with, you know who the better partners are. (If you’ve just been dancing with your sweetie in class, you should start rotating and dancing with your classmates.) Another way to tell who the good dancers are is to see who dances smoothly. The herky-jerky dancers may have some flashy moves, but they are poor partners. I’ve danced with national champs, and they’re smooth as whipped cream.

How do you get a dance with someone fabulous? Wait until the middle of a slower song, muster your confidence, walk up to him or her, make eye contact and say, “Would you like to dance?” You’ll probably get a “yes.” If not, try someone else. If someone is rude to you remember that even some of those champs I talked about have been rudely turned down (while they were champs).

You couldn't be more right. It's a little selfish, but as I try and improve, I always try and dance with good dancers. I almost always learn something new. And, on top of that, I learn to be a better follower when I dance with several different people. I find that if I dance with the same beau too much, I sort of predict his moves and we lose the art of lead and follow.