Category: Featured

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Good Leaders Do This, Great Leaders Do it More!

Last week I wrote about the ways that followers can really be there for their leaders. This week its the leader’s turn. There is something that good leaders do, that Great leaders do more.

During our Two Step class last Sunday part of our time was spent on things leaders can do to eliminate options for the follower. So often, for leaders, being in the correct position not only makes the physical act of leading easier but by great position (out ahead on the end of the weave for example) narrows the options down for your follower. Imagine if you could make it so that there was only one place for the follower to go and that happened to be what you were about to lead?

As hard as it is for followers to follow they do have it a little easier at the beginning. The real struggle is in staying in the pocket and following their wrist. I am not saying it’s easier as an activity I am saying it takes up less RAM in the brain. Leaders MUST start and end each pattern on time, have an idea for the next pattern, and then on top of it all execute the lead in a clear way. There is a lot more to think about at the beginning for leaders. There is a way to speed the process up.

The answer is footwork. The leaders that drill their footwork, in a solo setting, find it MUCH easier to be in position than the leaders who get their practice in only during lessons and socials. You can improve by 33% in one week with less than 5 minutes of practice per day (10 if you dance both rolls)…I still do this every day for both rolls and like learning a foreign language I am able to think as a leader, follower, or switch mid step in real time.

See you:
December 10th for our California Mix at
Sweeny Post #2
251 Maple St, Manchester, NH 03103
Lesson 6-7 WCS W/Mr. J
Dancing 7-9 (Mr. Jonathan DJ)
Cost: $20

This week December 14th’s Class is Canceled as the room has been rented…See you next week!
Here are the details for our next Thursday class:

The Next Thursdays Class, December 21st
6:30 lesson (WCS)
7:30ish There will be a guided dance practice time that follows and I am available for dances and questions with plans to wrap the night up by 8:30.

The cost of the night is $20
Its held at 304 S. Broadway in Salem, NH
Its Two Guys Smoke Shop across from T-Bones on Route 28
You are welcome to park anywhere in the lot including the spots out front labeled for 20 minutes. We are using the door closest to the giant sign which will be marked with a sign.

Sunday
December 10th for our California Mix at
Sweeny Post #2
251 Maple St, Manchester, NH 03103
Lesson 6-7 WCS W/Mr. J
Dancing 7-9 (Mr. Jonathan DJ)
Cost: $20

Sunday
December 17th
Kadance
368 W. Cummings Park
Woburn, Ma 01801
6-6:30 Beginner 2-Step w/Anne Flemming
6:30-7pm Beyond Beginner 2-Step w/Anne Flemming
7-9:30 pm California Mixer w/DJ Mr. Jonathan
$20 for the whole night $15 dance only

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Followers are the Great Facilitators

When we first set forth on this dance journey we hear terms like “Leaders or Followers” and the roles get over simplified which give people the wrong idea. After this week’s Night Club class I had a great talk with a leader that took the class. The main question was “How do I connect with my partner when their arms are so loose they won’t even hold a frame?”

My answer was simple…”You can’t and you won’t!” Some people will never get it…some (like myself) its takes a lot longer to get it…Still others understand connection 100% in their brains, but can’t stop their feet from dancing ahead of the leader. All of this is out of the leader’s control so my advice is to smile your way through that dance or class and find a partner that has the connection you want.

Followers have so little to do with following that I honestly can’t believe we settled on it as an accepted term at all. Metronome, Time keeper, frame filler, or connection facilitator may be too wordy but they are far better descriptors of what the follower actually does. If the leader is an exercise ball the follower is the air that fills his frame.

Last weekend I danced 3 nights in a row and had the greatest level of diversity of follower that I can remember having in a long time. Beginner dancers not withstanding, my dances with intermediate level and above all included some very magical musical moments that were facilitated by the follower more than 50% of the time. I was speed up, slowed down, and had my patterns extended so that I could “shine” as the leader. Listen, I am good at music theory and getting my patterns to match up to the songs but when I let my followers fill my frame we took turns leading and following and I wouldn’t have it another way!

Great Example of a follower Facilitating a great dance!

 

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Better West Coast Swing Dancers Dance More

 

Why do Better West Coast Swing Dancers Dance More? I was exchanging emails with a swing friend and at the same time responding to one of the Swing discussion chat pages on facebook and the same topic came up in both “Better dancers don’t dance with us beginner dancers.” This is one of those age old arguments that gets stirred up with each batch of newer dancers.

Who is to blame?

If you are sitting out dance after dance the blame falls solely on your own shoulders. If you finish one dance and make it off the floor without asking someone else to dance perhaps you have the wrong expectations. Humans live their lives on a risk/reward system that works a lot like the songs I play when I DJ. No matter how good a song performed one time, it can’t replace the song that works for me every time. There are just a handful of tunes that I will play every time I see them on a list. Every dancer has 3-5 partners that they have shared enough dances with to not let them walk off the floor if they are in close enough proximity.

What to do

As a newer dancer (and I mean rank beginner wishing to be as good as the leaders with two left feet) I almost never left the floor. When I asked someone to dance I explained that I was a beginner and let them know that they could leave the dance floor half way through if I was being a burden. My focus was on developing my basics into second nature by dancing with dancers that were better than I was because they had so much to offer me.

At the time I had very little to offer those more advanced dancers or so I thought. It turns out that once I had my basics down cold I was able to add a value to my partners dancing that most of the leaders above my level (not counting the pros) could not…The added value was play time! Good solid basics have lots of room for playing with the music. Leaders and followers, it turns out, do not mind “dancing down” a level or two especially when it means they have the opportunity to embellish their dancing with a little play time.

The morals of this article are:

If you want to dance more, dance more

Your job is to value your dancing enough to want to dance up a level or two

Give your partner a good dance by knowing your basics

Try not to leave the floor without asking someone else to dance right away

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Getting Better Dancers To Dance With Me

The Problem

I saw this question on a West Coast Swing Discussion Page and thought my answer may help others struggling with the same thing. “Is there a trick to getting better dances to dance with me?”

“I’ve been dancing WCS for a long time, and just about every leader in my local scene knows me and has danced with me at least once. My path to improvement has been very slow, and there are a lot of people who danced with me a few years ago who didn’t enjoy the experience and aren’t anxious to repeat it. Add in the fact that I’m one of the small army of overweight middle-aged women, and I get apprehensive looks even from people who’ve never seen me before. I generally dance with a group of leads who are at my level or below; we know and are comfortable with each other, and dancing with them is fun. However, they are no longer challenging me in the ways I need to be challenged. I take regular privates and my coach and I are now working on things which very few of the people I dance with can do.

So what is the best way to overcome this? I have a really hard time asking people to dance who clearly don’t want to, and if I tell them “hey, I’ve improved” and something still goes wrong I’m going to feel like a total idiot. My confidence around dancing isn’t great to begin with so I want to set myself up for success. The few times I have ended up dancing with a higher level lead they have dumbed down what they lead to the point where it still isn’t very challenging. There must be something I can do that would be easier than entering the witness protection program, getting a new identity, and moving somewhere else where no-one knows me. 🙂
I know this is not just my problem; whenever I get together with other “older” (ie, over 40) follow[er]s, most of us have some kind of problem getting some group of leaders to dance with us. So how do we break through this? It’s not that I want to force anyone to dance with me, but I would like to somehow encourage them to give me a/another chance without having to beg them to do it.”

The Solution: Getting better Dancers to Dance With Me

I had a student ask me a similar question once and she was surprised to hear that I lived through the same thing as a leader and struggle, even now, as a follower.  Dancing outside of someone’s level group may trigger  a subconscious fear of missing out on a dance with one of their friends but often there is little incentive  for the better dancer to stop their own goal of dancing up to find beginners to dance with. What ever the reason is, its a problem that is not going away. Getting the highly sought after “better dancers” to dance below their level is  not easy but I found a way.

My go to move was to ask for help. “Hey there, I am practicing leading whips with a strong 5. Would you mind letting me practice with you for this song?”  Because its not a “regular dance” where someone might dance as if they where in a spotlight jack and jill. They can let their guard down when they are thinking in terms of “practice” and their lead and follow technique tends to be more on point. You may be tempted to ask for feed back but be careful you do not want to over stay your welcome. Especially if they are a teacher you could sour the relationship without realizing it.

If you have success with the same person a couple of times, be sure to bring them a small thank you gift, a card, or some homemade cookies, nothing elaborate or expensive but you want to show some reciprocity. This will separate you from all the other people trying to get a dance with them. Giving back is so very important to building any relationship. Better dancers have people taking and taking from them at every dance. A little social grace will go a long way in a short amount of time. I hope this helps!

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Learning How to WCS: He Scrolls, She Styles

This sequence features a standard basket whip, a fake basket whip that has the leader scrolling his position down the slot, a free spin for the follower (she can single, double, or reverse her spin), Right sing pass to 2 hand hold, and finally an inside roll to basket he hooks his footwork 5&6 as she styles the anchor 5,6,&1…

Mr. Jonathan has been teaching WCS and Country Two-Step for over a decade. His unique approach to teaching makes him a sought after dance coach. You can catch his 2-Step Class every 2nd Sunday from 6:30 –7:00 pm WCS class 7-7:30pm at the Longfellow Club JoEllen in Wayland, Ma (524 Boston Post Rd) Each Class is $15 and includes practice time/Dancing afterward.