Category: West Coast Swing

A good coach in any sport will tailor their guidance to the student in question. The most extreme example of this happened to me while teaching a wedding couple. The groom kept switching his feet to the bride’s footwork. If I said right he stepped left…In order to get these two set up with a first dance in a timely manner I actually had to say the wrong foot to get him on the correct foot. How would my reputation fair if he started naming names? What if he started telling everyone that his teacher ALWAYS said left when he meant right and that is how every teacher does it?

Dancing is 50 Shades of Grey…There really are only a few rules that are hard and fast (moving from your center, moving from Point A to Point B…) and the rest becomes instructor preference (don’t tell anyone I said it like that either). Although the best way to learn is in a private one on one setting, because the instructor can tailor the instruction to your needs, but you must take what your coach says to YOU as instruction to YOU alone. You may be that guy or girl that needs the wrong thing said to you to get the right result. Also only hire a coach if you like their dancing and not because they are “supposed” to be the best. 

This Friday  (Pizza Party)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

 DNE Ballroom Dance

Saturday night 

$10 (no lesson just dancing)

Dance Starts at 8pm

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St

Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

As a new dancer I struggled with the pulse I heard in the music and getting the pulse to happen in my dancing. The difficulty for me was (as a hip-hop and break dancer) getting my partner to pulse with me. It took forever and a day to realize that the problem lied within me and not in my partner’s anything. 

When I started playing music and practicing “solo” I found that I was able to “pulse” along with the music. Why could I not make this happen with my partner? The answer I found in control. As a newbie leader, I thought that, it was my responsibility to control my partner. I surmised that if I could think it and make my body do it, that I could produce this result in my partner. No matter how hard I tried I could not get this living breathing person on the other end of my connection to read my mind or my body.

As I developed as a dancer I realized that the better I got at giving up “control” (not easy because I am a bit of a control freak…there I said it!) the better the result was. It turns out that followers (being mostly women) do not need leaders to “make” them do anything. In fact before we think it (as men) they could see the idea develop in our brain, decided that it is wrong (because it usually is), and devised a plan to “fix” us. Which (sorry girls) is not the right approach either.

The terms “lead and “follow” are very miss leading. The leader, in a partnership, should be approaching the pattern with the mind set of “Lead to Follow”. Simply stated he should be setting out to generate direction and then follow the outcome. The follower, in this same partnership, should be “Following to Lead”. She takes the direction the leader assigns and then takes over the timing and tempo of the pattern. Is your brain fried yet?Mine is!

The point is that there is a shared responsibility in a partner ship that gets ignored when we simply apply a dictionary definition to the dance terms “Lead and Follow”. The dictionary doesn’t account for the give and take that happens in a centrally connected dance conversation. 

As we move toward our next round of musicality we are going to explore the “Lead to Follow” and “Follow to Lead” dynamic this week. Without the give and take there is no hope of being able to be on the same page with your partner when it come to the music.

Also, don’t be scared by the topic if you are a  “Beginner Dancer”…You are welcome and will feel more than comfortable as we are not dancing anything more than the basics. This class will help you more than you realize

This Friday  (Pizza Party)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

Leadership is the manipulation of energy.

Following is the embodiment of energy.

Connection is the tie that binds the two together.

Mr. Jonathan

www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com

603 475 1391

 Dance on!

This weekend I had a conversation about movement with a student. He was confused by a delayed rhythm exercise we had done and wanted to know if I had it correct. Kudos to him for having the hutzpah to question his coach post lesson, and  I can see where he was coming from. Some coaches teach swing one way and some another. Some coaches are living their career on world titles in one form of swing while they teach another. Plus certain things are important to some coaches and not to others and so on and so on. But, I digress…my favorite part of our conversation was his insistence that I was teaching the “stretch” on the wrong side of the “one”. 

I was teaching a “delayed Rhythm” which is a step that happens after your hip hits the “one” in the music and then you step. He was referencing several lessons he had taken with 3 or 4 different coaches in which the “stretch” happened before the “one” with the hip and the step happening earlier in the music. Although I could not convince him that we where talking about two different moves and not debating the “right” and “wrong” way the one technique was being taught, it did occur to me that something must be getting through to my classes if I am intelligently debating the concept of “stretch” with a student. A concept which did not exist in this dude’s repertoire or swing concepts last year!

It doesn’t matter who you are taking lessons from as long as you are learning to move your center in and out of every pattern. Without moving from your center you are simply unable to lead or follow…in fact you are unable to walk, run, skip, or jump for that matter. Central movement must dictate your every step on your journey to be the best dancer you can be!

The saga continues…This week is a take off of last week’s basics class with some “stretch” drills thrown in for good measure plus if there is time I am going to teach my latest left side pass “cool guy” move!

This Friday  (Pizza Party and)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

Leadership is the manipulation of energy.

Following is the embodiment of energy.

Connection is the tie that binds the two together.

Mr. Jonathan

www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com

603 475 1391