Mr. Jonathan’s World

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West Coast Swing in January

Thank you to all my West Coast Swing friends who showed up to not only support me as the DJ but the country dance scene in general. We are running out of venues who play this style of music and it felt so good to get out there and party with all of you. I was also able to dust off some Musical gems that I have not played or heard in a long time as well as the new music I found in the last couple of weeks.

This week December 24th Class is West Coast Swing Musicality

We are going to do a quick recap of some of the musical patterns we just learned and start to play with HOW to use them in our dance. I plan to keep it light, playful, and of course musical!
Here are the details for our next Thursday class:

The Thursdays Class, December 21st
6:30 lesson (West Coast Swing)
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.
Cost $20
Its held at 304 S. Broadway in Salem, NH
Its Two Guys Smoke Shop across from T-Bones on Route 28 (Front Right hand Door)
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.

Up Coming Events:
January 7th
Sweeny Post
for our California Mix at
Sweeny Post #2
251 Maple St, Manchester, NH 03103
Lesson 6-7 Cha-Cha Patterns W/Ray Huard
Dancing 7-9 (Julie Lutter DJ)
Cost: $20

January 14th
Sweeny Post
for our California Mix at
Sweeny Post #2
251 Maple St, Manchester, NH 03103
Lesson 6-7 Foxtrot Patterns W/Ray Huard
Dancing 7-9 (Julie Lutter DJ)
Cost: $20

About Ray Huard
PaperMoon Ballroom Instructor & Choreographer
Raymond Huard began ballroom dancing in 1997. He has studied at studios throughout New England, most notably with coaches Ian Folker, Ed Simon, Michael Ulbrich, and Suzanne Hamby. He specializes in American Smooth, American Rhythm and International Standard and has won the trust and affection of many students, who regularly place at or near the top of their events at Pro/Am competitions. Ray began competing in the Professional Rising Star American Smooth category in September 2009 with his partner Maria Huard under the coaching of Larinda McRaven, and danced in the finals at competitions throughout the Northeast.

January 19th
Roma Restaurant
29 Middlesex St.,Haverhill, MA
(Some GPS units may have this listed as Bradford, Ma)
7:30pm Lesson West Coast Swing
8:30-10:30pm West Coast Swing Dancing
Cost is $20
This is a restaurant with a full menu downstairs. My Friend Brett just bought it and has been making some serious improvements on the menu. If you like Italian style food you can certainly go a little early and have a meal making for a great date night. This may be a beginner crowd and has potential to draw a younger audience so I am coming in with the plan being no plan. I will be ready to teach to what ever level of dancer shows up and if it goes well we may have a new new spot to dance. The dance floor is hardwood and is spectacular!

January 28th
Sweeny Post
for our California Mix at
Sweeny Post #2
251 Maple St, Manchester, NH 03103
Lesson 6-7 Night Club 2 W/Mr. Jonathan
Dancing 7-9 (Mr. Jonathan DJ)
Cost: $20

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Why Should I Care About Musicality?

Students often ask me, “Why should I bother with Musicality when I can hardly distinguish between 6 and 8 count patterns?” My response varies, ranging from “Maybe it’s not your priority right now” to “It’s the essence of why you should embrace this dance.” I’ve given every possible answer in between. I understand that not everyone is as immersed in dance as I am, but as someone with ADHD, let me tell you why this dance has held my fascination for the past 25 years!

To comprehend the significance, we need to grasp what it means to be musical. In our dance, we work with 6 and 8 count patterns, each having its own inherent pulse accentuated by direction changes, pauses, or accelerations. Similarly, music has its pulse with accents typically on counts 1 and/or 5. Musicality is the art of harmonizing the natural accents of each pattern with the song’s accents. The more you achieve this synchronization, the more fulfilling the dance experience becomes. I’m not suggesting you can’t have fun without being musical; it’s like enjoying cake without knowing how to bake one. However, like everything else, there are different levels to this dance, and I hope you’ll join me on this journey!

What I find most appealing about musicality is that you can improve with practice. Constant exposure to new music keeps things exciting. What’s great is that both you and your dance partner don’t have to engage in musicality simultaneously. Two dancers at different skill levels can have a blast—one embracing musicality while the other focuses on maintaining the tempo during their triples.

Here are some patterns that lend themselves really well to being musical:

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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