This weekend is a very exciting weekend in Swing. Still a little high from the excitement of the WCS Boat party, Larry and I are going for a Round 2 later in this article! 

Friday night will be our Advanced Intensive #3!

This is what I plan to cover

Roll reversal – Followers Leading and Leaders Following allows you a very brief window into what is going on on the other side. There is no better way to see dramatic improvements than by switching sides.  This will last only a few minutes so please don’t panic!

Distancing – Being able to gauge your distance and adjust accordingly is often the missing piece of the puzzle. Knowing how close or how far to be from your partner is a must.

Connection – The Unspoken conversation that is happening between Leaders and Followers thru pressure. Learn when to push or pull, what it means when you do, and how to get more out of your partner by plugging into the partnership instead of guessing. 

Musicality – The music that we are dancing to is telling a story. It is made up of counts of 8, 32, and 48. It has highs and lows hits and accents and is often ignored completely in favor of whipping out the newest “Cool Guy” move or “Hot Chick” head flip. Learning how to listen to the music is a lot easier when you know what to listen for.

Pattern Selection – As leaders learn more patterns they find themselves doing the same old ones over and over because they forget to try the new ones. Most leaders forget because they have not learned how to think 2 and 3 patterns ahead. I will be sharing my secret formula for working patterns deeper into the dance while maintaining your sanity. I will also show followers how to read the leader’s mind so they can be even more attentive in their slot.

Timing – More than just staying on beat, timing is the art of knowing what to put where and why. New dancers will often throw new move after new move in regardless of how well they fit together. TIming is often confused with musicality but it is really when Musicality meets Pattern Selection.

Training the Eye – I still have a couple tricks up my sleeve for new patterns that look cool but do not fry your brain. A big fan of the acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) I will not only teach you a couple patterns but I will also teach you how to decode what you see so that you can use Youtube the same way that I do when I am looking for something new and exciting.

As long as you know the names of and are somewhat proficient in the 6 basics Left/Right Pass, Sugar Push, Whip, Basket Whip, and Tuck Turn you will have a great time at the intensive. If you struggle with knowing the difference you may want to hold off until our next Beginner Intensive.

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St

N. Chelmsford, Ma

7-10:30 $20 Class will begin promptly at 7 so please make every effort to be on time.

  

Saturday Night Brings us to Larry’s SeaSide Swing Dance. I will be whipping up a Night Club 2-Step Lesson and them plugging in and mixing some swing in with Larry. Its a great venue with a huge floor so drink plenty of fluids and carb up for a fun filled night of dancing!

Knights of Columbus

570 North Avenue  

Wakefield, MA

Sunday Night I am Teaching the 2-Step Lesson at LongFellows and hear is the lesson plan:

Longfellow Club

524 Boston Post Road 

Wayland, MA

  

I am still decompressing from Friday Nights Dance Cruise. Larry and I had more fun, more friends, and the best music was played on this one. We want to thank everyone for coming out and enjoying the perfect weather conditions as well as Eric Cudmore for playing such a swingable opening set. His music set the tone and the bar for the night. On top of playing some old faithfuls he also surprised us with some new swing jams and for that we could not be more thankful!

  

This weekend brings us to DNE on Friday for an Intermediate Pattern Intensive. I will show you how I come up with patterns for classes and intensives and teach you how to do it for your self. then you can put that into practice during our Swinging Social Dance afterward. 

Friday Night:

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St

N. Chelmsford, Ma

7-10:30 $20

  

Saturday Night is Beginner night and Midnight Rodeo Bar time. We will go through the top 7 patterns in West Coast Swing, Practice for half an hour, and then take the drive on over to the Midnight rodeo bar to dance the night away to some live music! Some of my most advanced students came to the last beginner intensive and told me that they learned some key points that brought their dancing to the next level.

Saturday Night:

 Queen City Ballroom

21 Dow St.

Manchester, NH

7-9:30 and 9:45-Midnight

$25

Dancing has taught me so many things that cross over into real life…Poise, Posture, Confidence, Self Awareness, and much more. I love sharing my stories via email and my website with you, my students. This weeks story has connections from dance to real life and back to dance.

On his 99th birthday George Burns was invited onto Oprah. During the interview Oprah got a little racy with George. “George Burns today is your 99th birthday! I understand that you not only smoke 6 cigars, have 2 shots of Jack Daniels, but you also have sex with a young swing dancer, every single day…Is this all true?

“Its all true accept for one thing…I have sex with my swing dancing and much younger girlfriend THREE times every single day” George Replied as he put his Cigar in his mouth.

Oprah and her audience gasped and begged for an explanation “How is that even Possible?

“Oprah, I will be happy to tell you my secret, The key is…”

The Punch line of this story will be told at this Friday’s Advanced Intensive at DNE. I am hosting the intensive upstairs this week because their is a private function in the Cafe.

I have a new Advanced Footwork class that will help you take the patterns that you already know and make them look that must cooler through some awesome new movements. Plus we will go through some exercises to help you to match up to and hear the music better. This is a great opportunity to “Get It” like you never have before.

This Friday at DNE:

Advanced Intensive

Pizza, Water, and Dancing 7-10:30pm

$20

78 Princton St. 

N. Chelmsford, Ma

UPSTAIRS THIS WEEK!

Patterns from Friday, Saturday and Sunday:

Intermediate/Advanced Intensive Pizza, Water, and Dancing 7-10:30pm $20 78 Princton St.  N. Chelmsford, Ma In High School I aced my typing class by training my peripheral vision, shmoosing the teacher, and often straight up staring at the key board. I learned how to “fake” that I was a great typist while never actually learning how to move my fingers across the key board with out looking. Now even as I sit here and type this note to you I am watching my fingers strike the keys with perfect form but I am watching. Had I taken the time to train my fingers 20 years ago I would be done by now! How often as dancers do we watch John Festa, Robert Cordoba, and Tatiana Mollman and try to “fake” our swing. We try to feel our way along with out knowing the “why” behind the “what”. This Friday we are going to go step by through the “Whys” so that our “Whats” look, feel, and become what they should. This lesson will be centered around some of the more advanced concepts of WCS and the patterns have been chosen as great examples of the concepts put in action. Our Monday night class will then pick up where the intensive leaves off and will push us through to the next level. The patterns are ones that I have never put on line and will be available only to those attending via private viewing on Youtube and Direct Email. Two Step Pattern from This Week’s Class at Long Fellows: Class is $10 and is taught every Saturday at 6:30 at Club JoEllen in Wayland, Ma (524 Boston Post Road)

This Wednesday May 30th at The Royal Palace in Manchester, NH

657 Elm Street  Manchester, NH 03101 

When I started lead and follow dancing just over 15 years ago I was hooked for life. Thinking that I may compete some day I sought out the pros that, at the time, were at the top of their game. After just over $10,000 invested in my dancing I was finally ready to do the first step of this dance correctly. Granted I am a slow learner but $10,000?and it only bought me the first step in a dance with millions of patterns and variations? How long does it take to get good? When do I move one to step 2…I am speaking literally about steps here people. I was learning how to walk when I wanted to dance. I took lessons from everyone Sam and Denise Miller, Bill Cameron, Anne Fleming, Larry Mongeau, Cathy Pothier, John Festa, Ramiro Gonzalez Robert Cordoba, and Deborah Szekely and the lesson started of exactly the same every time.

I was living the Dancers version of “The Karate Kid” Paint the fence, wax the car, sand the floor. Everything but dancing. When I hit my breaking point I stopped my teacher mid lesson (Cathy Pothier) and asked her when I would progress beyond the boring first step and actually learn how to dance? I was sick of hearing the word “Wrong” after every single “one”. Every time I took a step in her lessons for a solid year it was “wrong”. As her customer I demanded an answer and I was about to here the words that would change my dancing life forever!

She stopped the music, walked up to me, put her hands on my face, and proceeded to put the wonder full world of West Coast Swing in perspective. “You already know how to dance. In fact you are such a good dancer that there is very little I can teach you about dancing… you have “IT”…Oh you can dance my friend…you can’t lead for shit…but you can dance!”

We all can dance when no one is watching and our favorite song comes on. Suddenly the chores stop, the taxes get pushed aside, or lunch gets a few degrees colder while we bust a move on the carpet for 3 and a half minutes. All the while pretending that a crowd of 50,000 screaming fans are watching…Ok maybe that last part was what I imagine when I am dancing in my living room. The point is that you are your own “dance” teacher. You know what you like and you do it when you are flying solo. 

I am teaching you how to lead and follow…How to take that first step and do it correctly…How to communicate with your partner so that you can each bring your own dance to the partnership. This is why I taught the Advanced intensive the way that I did and its exactly why everyone should be in attendance at this Friday’s “Back to Basics” workshop at DNE and the repeat of the lesson plan in Manchester, NH at Queen City Ballroom.

If you can’t lead or follow that first step you will never see the day that your living room dance (in front of 50, 000 of your closest imaginary friends) makes it into your West Coast Swing.