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I know that I promised to deliver the dirt on the events leading up to my retirement. Since I am not retiring and after a heartfelt conversation with someone that I consider to be a wise friend I feel that I should focus on the Love side of swing rather than the “War” that rages behind the scenes. In the end I will be judged on how I lead my life, how I inspired people to follow the road less traveled, and how I turned the other cheek not how I spilled the beans and blew the whistle on swing music haters. In the end love will prevail so I feel that I must focus on fostering the love that I have for this unique and universally appealing dance. You have a choice this Friday: 1…Do something other than have the lesson of your life. 2…Have the lesson of your life! More people went out of their way to tell me how their eyes had been opened this past Friday than not. Approaching dance from both sides of the brain is how I have always learned. Not until recently had I thought to teach it the same way. Ask around to the folks that you know who went…Everyone was smiling and enjoying the whole night! For this Friday I am continuing in the same vein that we discovered last week…a teaching technique from my aunt who is an art teacher. She believes that both sides of the brain require attention in order for someone to truly become an artist. The two sides typically work like confronting personas in a multiple personality situation. There are certain techniques one can employ to let both side work as one. It is my believe that dancing is an art form therefore if you dance you are an artist and should be taught as one! The technical half of your brain evaluates what you are doing and extrapolates the data. Right and wrong, black and white, good and bad all happen on this side of your brain. The artistic side of your brain sees everything’s value in the form of energy. Life is captured as a series of very vivid 3 diminutional pictures. This side knows where to go and how to get there entirely by feel. There is no timeline, no right, and no wrong just energy coming and going. Since you can’t teach the technical side of an art form to the artistic side of the brain nor can you force the number crunching side to be creative how do we get the information into our bodies using both sides? Both sides of our brains make up who we are and so both sides must be feed in order to process information optimally. We crunch numbers all day every day making the analytical side of our brain comfortable being dominant. While we are learning an art form this becomes a problem because that is the side of the brain where right and wrong live. How can we step outside the box if we have a little voice in our head yelling “WRONG!!!!” at every missed step? Our first mission is to strengthen the artistic side so that we can traverse from interpretation to evaluation safely and have enough strength to get back to interpretation. This lesson Plan is very similar to how we approached the dance last week with a tad bit more music/musicality thrown in for good measure…See you: Friday, January 11, 2013 $10 DNE School of Dance 7:30-8:30 lesson 8:30-? Dancing 78 Princeton St. Chelmsford, Ma This Saturday:
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! |
Confrontation
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Confrontation As several of you have noticed I took December off from teaching and running any Swing Dances. Truth be told I was planning on packing the whole thing up and “retiring” from the swing scene for a bit, but something happened to me that renewed my spirit and recharged my energy when it comes to swing in general…details to follow in my next few emails. For this Friday I stole a teaching technique from my aunt who is an art teacher. She believes that both sides of the brain require attention in order for someone to truly become an artist. The two sides typically work like confronting personas in a multiple personality situation. There are certain techniques one can employ to let both side work as one. It is my believe that dancing is an art form therefore if you dance you are an artist and should be taught as one! The technical half of your brain evaluates what you are doing and extrapolates the data. Right and wrong, black and white, good and bad all happen on this side of your brain. The artistic side of your brain sees everything’s value in the form of energy. Life is captured as a series of very vivid 3 diminutional pictures. This side knows where to go and how to get there entirely by feel. There is no timeline, no right, and no wrong just energy coming and going. Since you can’t teach the technical side of an art form to the artistic side of the brain nor can you force the number crunching side to be creative how do we get the information into our bodies using both sides? Both sides of our brains make up who we are and so both sides must be feed in order to process information optimally. We crunch numbers all day every day making the analytical side of our brain comfortable being dominant. While we are learning an art form this becomes a problem because that is the side of the brain where right and wrong live. How can we step outside the box if we have a little voice in our head yelling “WRONG!!!!” at every missed step? Our first mission is to strengthen the artistic side so that we can traverse from interpretation to evaluation safely and have enough strength to get back to interpretation. This lesson Plan is very unique and even more fun…See you: Friday, January 4, 2012 $10 Lesson 7:30-8:30 Dance 8:30-? DNE School of Dance 78 Princeton St. Chelmsford, Ma Leadership is the manipulation of energy. Following is the embodiment of energy. Connection is the tie that binds the two together. |
Iceberg…
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The “look out” on the Titanic thought he saw a iceberg far enough away to sound the alarm and keep everyone safe. Unfortunately there was so much bonus material below the surface that there was no way to avoid a collision…and the ship sank. Before I get in to my weekly rant I first want to send a big heart felt thank you to John Festa for teaching at our last get together at DNE and more than that I own a huge thank you to the full house we had for the event. You all demonstrated the same passion for learning as John had for teaching and sharing his wealth of knowledge with our wonderful world of swing…This made for a very dynamic 2 hours that gave me a dancers high for 2 solid weeks! As I watched and participated in the Festa workshop a new realization washed over me. Swing dancing is like an Iceberg, all the real action is below the surface…Without tapping into the power that lies beneath the surface we are doomed to sink into the depths of the abyss. The key here is that we all have “it”…We can ALL tap into the hidden power if we learn where it is and how it is used. Leadership is the manipulation of energy. Following is the embodiment of energy. Connection is the tie that binds the two together. Bad A$$ 2-Step Lesson Sundays 6:30-7:30 Longfellow Club 524 Boston Post Rd Wayland, Ma
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John Festa…Where Is The Beef?
Where is the beef?
Lets take a mental field trip out side of dancing and think about thrill rides for a moment. Why do more people ride roller coasters than ferris wheels? Both rides go up and down but only one takes the rider right to the edge of out of control without going over. Except for high school kids heavy petting at the apex of the ride, the ferris wheel does not pack much of a punch for the thrill seeker. Roller coasters are the big draw, at the amusement park, because the are fast, intense, an
d no two parts of the ride are ever the same. This is what makes them so much fun!
When John Festa learned how to swing, the music was the draw. Dancing faster, holding your slot, and discovering new footwork variations drove dancers right to the edge without going over. They danced with speed, power, and needed tremendous control in their connection to keep the dancers on their feet and in time with the music. Pushing the envelope meant faster and more intense music. It meant giving more of your self to the partnership. It meant you could no longer do it alone. You needed your partner as much as they needed you and the only communication was good connection. Even if the song was the same, with the same partner, no two dances where ever the same and the scene exploded with dance junky thrill seekers.
Five swing dance generations later (the turn over rate is about 5 years per generation) the music has gone the way of the ferris wheel and dancers have taken to high schooler heavy petting over speed, power, and control. As the song slows down your reliance on connection dissipates. You can begin using visual clues and body language to lead and follow. There is less risk, more time to fix mistakes, and in my opinion way less skill involved. You see, when you learn how to dance fast and choose to dance slow, you bring your connection skills with you. When your skill set is based in slow and you try to ramp it up you find your self behind and frustrated.
If you are tired of feeling like you just don’t “get it”or that you have been riding the wrong kind of ride, its time to experience the real thrill that is West Coast Swing.
This is how I have asked John Festa to approach to this Friday’s workshop. You will leave having felt what “On the Edge” feels like. He opened my eyes almost a decade ago and he will open yours this Friday. If you signed up for the Ramiro Workshop you are already signed up for this one unless you tell me otherwise. If you have put off signing up their are five spots left for our intimate class this Friday.
Leadership is the manipulation of energy.
Following is the embodiment of energy.
Connection is the tie that binds the two together.
This Friday Night
$30 pp (max of 30 leaders and followers)
7-9pm Workshops
Pizza, water, and the dance
The dance afterward is $10 if you want to dance but not take the lesson
78 Princeton St., N. Chelmsford, MA
This Sunday I am teaching West Coast Swing at Longfellows instead of Two-Step
Lesson 6:30-7:30pm
Sunday nights
$10
Longfellow Club
524 Boston Post Rd
Wayland, Ma
November 16th, 2012
$30 pp
Workshop is 7-9pm
Dancing is 9-10:30pm
John Festa will be bringing some of his music as well so we are in for a double treat!
The dance afterward is $10 if you want to dance but not take the lesson
John Festa Teaching this Friday
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I hate when someone makes me choose between good and bad news. The sentence, “I have good news and I have bad news, which would you like to hear first?” is the conundrum of conundrums! If both are going to be delivered to me in the same 5 minute period and the bad news is held for last I feel that I never fully get to enjoy the good news, knowing full well that the other shoe is about to drop. Inversely when the bad news is delivered first the good news often carries with it the expectation of being great news there by bringing with it even more disappointment when it is delivered. If at the onset of news, good and bad, the messenger simply said the news I feel like I could evaluate it for what is is and deal with it in real time.
In the swing world I have only 2 heros… Ramiro Gonzalez and John Festa. They are both known in the swing world for their love of swing music, dancing, and performing. They are both known for footwork, musicality, and music as well as being leading authorities in the swing world for all things swing. I owe who I am as a swing dancer to both of these men.
Ramiro was scheduled to teach a workshop and to DJ this Friday night (November 16) and has informed me that he can not make it because of an emergency of a personal nature. When John Festa heard that Ramiro was unable to be here he offered to rearrange his weekend and fill the void. How lucky am I? One world class swing dancer replaced by another!
The deal is the same: $30 pp (max of 30 leaders and followers) 7-9pm Workshops Pizza, water, and the dance The dance afterward is $10 if you want to dance but not take the lesson
Privates are available before hand at a rate of $85 per 45minute lesson and must be booked in advance. |
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Two Step Lesson Sunday nights $10 Longfellow Club 524 Boston Post Rd Wayland, Ma
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