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bulletThings to consider if you're planning to take dance lessons
bulletTips to make the most of your dance lesson dollars
bulletTips for social dancers
bullet"Levels" of dance in West Coast Swing
bulletYou know you're hooked on social dancing if...
bullet10 Commandments of Dance
 

Things to Consider If You're Planning to Take Dance Lessons

You can learn a lot about being a beginner dancer by watching children try new activities. Kids have no preconceived concerns about failing. When children learn to walk, they instinctively accept that falling doesn't mean they're uncoordinated or failures. It simply means they have to get up and try again.

Taking a reasonable risk, like walking through the doors of a dance studio for the first time to learn to dance, is about being willing to change. Change is positive, but it often causes anxiety. Unfortunately, most of us worry about failure and the way we might appear to others so we are fearful of attempting something new. Relax. It's perfectly acceptable to not do an activity "right" the first time. Of course you might feel uncomfortable your first time in a dance class, but most everyone does. Try not to pass judgment on your abilities. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. Give yourself enough time and practice to adapt.

Whether you learn slowly or quickly, you'll go through the following stages when starting a new dance:

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Learning: Your body will take note of the demands of the new activity, including energy expenditure, speed, timing and direction of movements. For example, when taking dance classes the first few times, your body will learn kinesthetically the size and placement of the steps and where to plant your foot without looking. For effective learning, a positive perception of your efforts is crucial. If you make mistakes or don't pick up movements as quickly as you'd like, it's important not to just say, "Forget it. I'm not good enough at this." Congratulate yourself on taking a risk to move past your comfort level!

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Practicing: If you spend a great deal of time in this stage, your focus will rapidly shift from learning dance patterns to refining and perfecting them, and you'll start to relax and become more confident in your movements. Lots of us dance in our kitchens for weeks before we ever attempt to be seen on a dance floor in public. That's ok, but keep in mind, most of the people who you feel are watching you on that public dance floor, can't do anything that you're doing, and they are probably marveling at your accomplishments and wishing they had the guts to do it!

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Achieving Proficiency: With proper instruction and lots of practice, you'll develop a mental and physical blueprint of skills that your body will eventually remember. Your technique will be efficient, reliable and consistent. You'll be able to stop thinking and let movements happen. You'll feel confident on a dance floor in class or in a nightclub. Although you might still make small mistakes, you'll accept them as part of the learning process.


Tips to Make the Most of Your Dance Lesson Dollars

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Be on time for class. It’s unfair to the other students if the instructor has to make them all wait to catch you up.
 
bullet Please be quiet while the Instructor is speaking. If you’re talking while the instructor is teaching, you not only miss a lot of important information, but you unfairly keep others around you from hearing it as well. It wastes everyone’s time when the teacher has to repeat herself, and/or raise her voice to be heard over you.
 
bullet Listen as well as watch. Learning to dance well requires much more than just watching and memorizing steps - it also involves learning techniques in balance, timing, spinning, frame, and leading & following. These techniques must be verbally explained, as well as demonstrated. Listening closely to all of these valuable verbal tips and pointers will make you a better dancer in a much shorter period of time.
 
bullet Reasons teachers rotate students:
bulletIf you only dance with one partner, you compensate for each other’s inadequacies and neither of you learns as quickly or as well.
bulletCouples often tend to criticize and/or blame each other, when they would never do that to a stranger, so it’s usually more FUN to rotate - both for you and for those around you who must witness the tension between you. <GRIN>
bullet As upper level dancers often take beginning level classes to refresh their basics, by rotating you get an opportunity to dance with these dancers (called dancing “up”), which makes you improve faster.
bulletSomeday YOU could be the one without a partner, and wouldn’t it be nice if others would rotate and share their partners so YOU could still learn to dance?
 
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Please change partners quickly when “rotate” is called. The faster you rotate, the more time you have to spend practicing and learning new moves or techniques. Socialize before or after class or during breaks. When it’s time to rotate, just smile and say “thank you” or some other short, complimentary remark (like “nice lead”) and move on to the next partner.
 
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Let the instructor be the only teacher. Don’t criticize your partners or try to teach each other. Offering unsolicited advice is insulting and often confusing. We should all be focused on our OWN problem areas, not each other’s. Remember, the only one you can “fix” is yourself.
 
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Be courteous. Watch out for other dancers near you, and apologize if you bump into them. Respect the imaginary lanes on the dance floor and the rules of dance floor etiquette. Be as pleasant and friendly to every partner as you would be to a beautiful partner who dances wonderfully.
 
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Don't be afraid to ask questions. The more often you put a movement into your muscle memory, the harder it is to “re-learn” over it. If you aren’t sure of how to do something, please ask the instructor for clarification. For every student who asks a question, there are 10 who’d like to know the answer but aren’t brave enough to speak up. Questions help everyone learn faster.
 
bullet Don’t compare yourself to other students. Everyone learns at a different pace, and in different ways. Some can only learn from watching; some need to hear the counts, some need to hear step descriptions. If it takes you a little longer to catch on, don’t be hard on yourself. Often the ones who learn the slowest, retain the information much better than those who learn very quickly.
 
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Dance to the Level of Your Partner: Upper Level Students - Do not whip an upper-level move on a beginner dancer, even if she is doing very well in the class. If you’re in a beginner class to refresh and review, please concentrate on your own basics and do not attempt to “teach” the beginners. It is not only disruptive, but is also a waste of your time and money if you’re visiting and/or teaching instead of concentrating on fixing your own problem areas.
 
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Practice, Practice, Practice! Do your “homework” and practice between lessons. If you come to class each week knowing solidly what was taught the last week, the teacher can spend every class teaching you something new instead of reviewing what has already been taught, and you’ll get more for your dance lesson money. What distinguishes the “good” dancer from the “great” dancer, is often just the amount of “floor time” spent practicing.


Tips for Social Dancers

Social Dance is a wonderful form of social interaction. It can make many friends, or it can isolate you from the very people you would like to know. Here are some important "tips" to help keep you on the right path...

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Remember that dancing is a close contact sport, so personal hygiene is very important. Shower or bathe before going dancing, and use deodorant and mouthwash. Keep breath mints in your pocket or purse. Don't eat onions or garlic before you go dancing. If you perspire a lot, bring a hand towel and maybe a change of shirts. Don't wear strong perfume or cologne. Ladies, don't wear jewelry that can cut or scratch your partner or get in the way of a lead (bangle bracelets, etc.) Following these simple, common-sense tips will go a long way toward making you a popular dance partner.

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To the best of your ability, dance ONLY to the level of your partner. Ladies, who would you rather dance with? Leader #1 - The man who takes you onto the dance floor and immediately proceeds to lead spin after spin and his flashiest advanced moves, and then when you stumble, gives you a look of disdain, or worse yet, tries to teach you the move right there on the dance floor. Or Leader #2 - The man who takes you out onto the floor and leads very basic moves to start with. When he sees you can follow those moves, he then tries a double turn or an intermediate combination, slightly increasing the level of difficulty with each successful attempt. Women stand in line to dance with leaders like #2, as they dance to the level of their partner and lead only patterns that we can follow, which ends up making us BOTH look good and BOTH have fun.

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Don't critique or "teach" someone on the dance floor unless they ASK you to do so (this includes "helping" in a class or workshop - unless you're being hurt, just be quiet and keep smiling). Unasked-for advice is considered totally UNACCEPTABLE behavior in the dance community. It is insulting to criticize or critique a partner, no matter how much you would like to. Your job is to make the dance feel and look as good as possible from your side of the partnership. Just like in life, the only person we can change is ourselves, and very little is so intolerable that we can't suffer in silence for the length of a 3 minute song.

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Leaders - if even ONE woman tells you you're lead is too strong, or that you've hurt her - please LISTEN. The most upsetting response a woman can hear when she's informed a man that he's hurt her, is "no one else ever complained." One of the reasons a lot of men remain rough leaders and continue to hurt us on the dance floor, is that most women don't tell them they've been hurt (although women DO complain about those men to every other woman who will listen and sympathize). The rule about not criticizing DOES NOT APPLY when pain is involved. If he hurts you, TELL HIM (of course it would be good to keep in mind that he most likely didn't do it "on purpose," so be diplomatic and kind when giving him this information.) And men - LISTEN, and ease up. If you initiate her natural momentum with a proper lead, and if she keeps her frame, she will normally follow through in the proper direction at the proper time, and you shouldn't need to "muscle" or "push" her through a move. If she can't follow the move without you pushing or shoving her, don't lead the move, or find another partner.

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Followers - the previous paragraph also applies to you. You have probably never even considered the thought that you could hurt a man on the dance floor. But I had the rotator cuff in my left shoulder torn by a woman when I was leading her, and was literally DISABLED for 2 months. One of my male partners once was hurt so badly by a woman during a dance that he couldn't move his head for three days because of the pain in his neck. Ladies, carry the weight of your own hand and arm and body. It's not his job to push or drag you through moves, or to hold up the weight of your arms. "Resistance" does not literally mean to "resist" being led. It means MATCHING his forward or away pressure with the SAME AMOUNT of forward or away pressure. Keep your hand connection, but do not PULL yourself in when you are led. Be there, keep your frame, give him reciprocal resistance ("noodle arms" are not acceptable, either) but lighten up!


"Levels" of Dance in West Coast Swing

Are you confused about what "level" of swing dancer you are? You know you aren't a "beginner"; you've been working hard at this dance for years, taking lots of classes and workshops, even private lessons now and then. You know a lot of moves, and can usually keep up with everyone else in a class labeled "advanced." And you can do syncopations, too, but still, you just don't "feel" like an advanced dancer. So when asked, you usually claim "intermediate" status, which doesn't really feel right, but it's the "catch-all" level. Does that come close to expressing your feelings on this subject?

I thought it might help to show you a different method of judging your "level" of dance - not using labels like "beginning, intermediate, and advanced", but using your actual "levels of awareness" or "levels of understanding" of the relationship of the music to the dance. Let's explore them...

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BASIC TIMING
Feeling the music at a basic level involves training yourself to listen to and count out the sets of 8 beats of music that exist in (most) swing music. You will first start by hearing 2 beat increments - one down-beat, followed by one up-beat. Being able to connect your "center" (Center Point of Balance, often referred to as "CPB") to the beat of the music will put you "on time".
 

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PULSING
Accenting each UP-BEAT as you dance, immediately makes you feel something different. This rhythmic recurring accent is called "pulsing" the up-beat. Pulsing the up-beat connects you to the music. Try counting like this: &a1&a2, &a3&a4, &a5&a6, &a7&a8. It not only will cause you to pulse the up-beat, but will also cause you to dance on the "back side" of the beat, which is more pleasing to the eye and the ear.
 

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PHRASING
Training yourself to listen to the "sets of 8", you are soon able to identify the END of the phrases, the same way you identify the end of a paragraph when you are reading. I like to explain phrasing using poetry, because there is a "rhythm" to the phrasing of a poem, somewhat as there is in a song. Try "Mary had a Little Lamb" for an easy example. You'll note that the last word in each line is "accented":
 

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Mary had a little lamb, (Count: &1 &2 &3 &4)
it's fleece was white as snow, (Count: &5 &6 &7 &8)
and everywhere that Mary went, (Count: &1 &2 &3 &4)
the lamb was sure to go. (Count: &5 &6 &7 &8)

The next step is actually being able to start a new pattern at the beginning of the next phrase. At this stage, you learn how to extend the anchor of a 6 beat pattern to an 8 when the need arises (or an 8 to a 10, etc.), to finish out a phrase, and you learn how to "syncopate" the anchor steps in a way that does not interfere with your partner. "Phrasing" is a stage of development, and is understood in its own time. You must "train" your ears to hear music in this way.

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BREAKS
Listening carefully to the music and counting out the 8's, you will begin to hear little "breaks" in the music that require a different accent - a "stop" or a "rhythm break" that makes you feel closer to the music. This is the point at which you begin to understand that syncopations are supposed to be used to "interpret" the music. Syncopations look and feel best when danced TO THE MUSIC, and not just because you know how. They should be placed carefully and skillfully to interpret the music; to add to your performance of the dance.

This is also the level where the follower begins to feel that she can "take liberties with the lead" and extend her syncopations, IF they fit the music. It is also a point when the man discovers that HE gets credit for the move, when SHE hears something in the music and is ALLOWED to interpret what she hears.

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YOU "ARE" THE MUSIC
This is the point where YOU become the VISUAL instrument of the music being played. The music may be accenting the down-beat, but you can accent the up-beat. The rhythm is very much & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4, but you add your own pulse with &a1 &a2 &a3 &a4. You not only LOOK better, but your dancing will actually FEEL more exciting. The music could even have a "silent" break, while YOU do a syncopation. The excitement in dance comes from having someone SEE something in the dancing at the same time that they HEAR something in the music.
 

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"CHALLENGE" OR "ECHO"
This level of "playing" to the music involves a higher level of understanding of BOTH partners. It usually takes place on a set of 8, where one of the partners dances a 4 beat rhythm break or syncopation, and the other partner counters with something that either matches (mirrors) or exceeds. It becomes a "game" of playing back and forth along with the music, and has been around since the old tap dance routines in vaudeville, and is seen today not only in swing, but in hip-hop challenges as well. In essence, it is a physical "conversation" that can go something like this: "Hey - look what I can do - can you do THIS?" The partner then responds with something like: "I sure can, just watch me! And I can do THIS, too - can you?", etc

This form of "play" is much the same as carrying on a conversation with someone you've just met. You wouldn't start a conversation about nuclear physics unless you knew that your conversation partner understands nuclear physics. If both partners stay aware of the level of understanding of the other partner, they can have a very exciting "three-minute conversation" with a perfect stranger. West Coast Swing is often referred to as a "playful" dance. In interpreting the music, you can express the humorous, frisky, or flirtatious sides of your personality, in a way you can do with few other types of dance. Make it your goal to MAKE SURE your partners have FUN. Put the JOY you feel in the dance, and share that JOY with every partner you dance with.

West Coast Swing is energized by an elasticity which is created at the end of the slot by an anchor step. Mastery of compression and leverage is crucial, and certainly mastery of the rhythm is important."

The objective of dance is to use our bodies (our instruments) to express the music while working with our partners.  We don't want to do syncopations until we've learned how to use our instruments properly. Like a musician, a beginner can't play a Mozart with mastery until he's learned how to use his instrument properly.

Much of the Information contained in this article is derived from the curriculum of the Golden State Dance Teacher's Association, and I wish to thank my teacher, Ms. Skippy Blair, both for teaching it to me, and for allowing me to share it with you.


You know you’re hooked on social dance if…

bulletThe furniture in your house is arranged to create the largest open space possible.
bulletYou pop out of your chair and start dancing to the theme songs of commercials.
bulletYou consider replacing your carpets with hardwood floors.
bulletYou dance down the halls at work, or standing at the copy machine.
bulletYou critique the technique of dancers you see on TV.
bulletEven if you are terrible at math, counting to eight is no problem for you.
bulletYou have stock in padded insoles.
bulletYou cannot listen to music without mentally dancing patterns in your head.
bulletYou start dancing the minute you turn on the radio.
bulletYou don’t go anywhere without a pair of dance shoes in the car
bullet Elevators are a place to practice footwork.
bullet People make fun of your naked feet (corns, bunions, tape).
bullet You own more dance shoes than you do regular shoes.
bullet You look at street clothes and think “can I dance in that?”
bullet You are disappointed when poster & t-shirts catalogues don't carry anything but ballet stuff.
bullet A broken toe or sprained ankle is WAY more than an inconvenience.
bullet Dance catalogues are captivating reading material.
bullet Seeing someone be-bopping in his or her car does not make you point and stare – you can relate.
bulletYou get excited when you meet other dancers.
bullet You have ever done an Internet search for "dance".
bullet You do not think Capezio is an Italian pasta dish.
bullet Some, if not all, of your friends are dancers, too.
bullet You have ever bought a CD specifically for it's "danceable" tunes.
bullet Dancing is the first item you write down when asked to list your hobbies.
bullet Your spouse/roommate/family members yell for you to "Come watch this!" when they see a dance show on TV.
bullet You own shirts with dance slogans.
bullet You know who Jack & Annie are.
bullet You are frustrated with the size of the dance floors in your local nightclubs.
bullet You walk, dance, and chew in time to the beat when there is music playing anywhere.
bullet You practice single-tracking as you walk the hallways at work.
bullet Your work schedule is arranged around dance lessons or dance conventions.
bullet An interest in dance becomes a top criteria for a soul mate
 


The 10 Commandments of Dance
  1. Thou shalt dance only to the level of thy partner.
  2. Thou shalt not help, critique or criticize on the dance floor, including in a class or workshop (unless thy partner inflicts pain upon thy person - then you may kindly inform them.)
  3. Thou shalt be gentle with thy followers, swiftly heeding any admonition or indication of a painful action, and correcting it posthaste, and with good grace.
  4. Thou shalt not expect proper following to result from verbal, poorly timed, or non-existent leads, or leading that attempts to compensate for a frameless follower.
  5. Thou shalt not dance in second foot position unless traveling sideways.
  6. Thy West Coast Swing anchors shall not travel, but shall remain steadfastly in place.
  7. Thou shalt not lead spins directly upward, but instead shall angle the lead and halo thy partner's head at forehead level on the “&” count just prior to the spin.
  8. Thou shalt not backlead, nor anticipate in any way thy partner's next movement, but follow responsively with sincere trust in his judgment.
  9. Thou shalt not have "Noodle Arms", nor shall thy arms be held tensely or rigidly, but firmly and toned, matching thy partner's resistance.
  10. Thou shalt not "Swoop" (a painful, balance-destroying act resulting from a lead arm plunging swiftly downward after passing over thy partner’s head).
     

Steppin' Stone for Athletes
Dance Class Improves Their Footwork, Agility

By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 28, 2006; E01

Other students who waited backstage bit their fingernails and chattered nervously, but Tim Dash looked just like he always did: confident and unbothered, almost apathetic.

The quarterback of the Glen Burnie High School football team, Dash had earned school-wide popularity for his unflappability. He reacted to jeers and cheers with similar indifference. During some Friday night football games, he suffered a half-dozen crushing hits from linebackers, only to walk through school halls Monday morning like he'd never been touched.

For almost four years, Dash had built his high school reputation on a simple philosophy: stay cool. He reminded himself of that mantra now, as he readied to dance to Aerosmith and Barry Manilow in a school production. Then the curtains slid open. The music started. A spotlight hit his face. The quarterback felt, he said later, like throwing up. "I've never been that nervous in my life," said Dash, who performed flawlessly nonetheless. "I couldn't help it. The crowd just got to me. Football never gave me anything like that."

It's a sensation that has practically become a rite of passage for athletes at Glen Burnie, a public high school in Anne Arundel County that has fused team sports and dance with unparalleled success. Each year, about 350 Glen Burnie students take "Dance for the Athlete," a class that teaches swing, Latin, hip-hop, ballroom and Broadway dancing before culminating each semester in a performance in front of 1,400 in the school auditorium. It is Glen Burnie's most popular class, but it's offered at only a few other schools -- and nowhere outside out of Anne Arundel.

Dance and boys' sports -- two activities once diametrically opposed in high schools -- are symbiotic at Glen Burnie. Athlete participation fuels the state's largest dance program; dance classes improve athletes' footwork, agility, balance and composure under pressure.

But Glen Burnie's program also is the latest manifestation of a shifting perception among male athletes at the school. Dancing, once taboo for macho sports stars, has become cool. "These big jocks are figuring out that dancing is no girly activity," said Dianne Rosso, dance director at Glen Burnie. "This class makes even our best players better athletes and more confident performers. They can't get enough of it."

It's a popularity Rosso hardly anticipated when she wrote the curriculum for the first Dance for the Athlete class about a decade ago. Back then, Rosso said, dancing was so stigmatized that no boy signed up for her first class. Girls in the class combed schools halls, desperate to recruit male dance partners. Even then, they only found four. "But those guys loved it," said Rosso, "and they spread the word to everyone."

What resulted at Glen Burnie became a demonstration in exponential mathematics. Eight boys signed up the next year. Then 20. Then almost 50. This year, Glen Burnie will offer 14 sections of Dance for the Athlete, each filled with about 25 students.

The class counts as an elective, and students are allowed to take it as often as they please, so long as they also fulfill their core requirements. Some students make the class a fixture of their schedules each semester, Rosso said. It's not uncommon, students said, to take multiple Dance for the Athlete classes during one term.

Grading revolves largely around attendance and improvement and, while students unanimously regard the class as fairly easy, everyone gets nervous for the final exam. The end-of-semester performance draws more people than the school's homecoming football game, at a cost of $7 per ticket.

Rosso hosted the last show on Jan. 12. The following day at school, administrators said, dozens of students went into the guidance office and begged counselors to change their schedules for the following semester. They all wanted into Dance for the Athlete.

Some students who don't get into the class decide to go anyway. Ricky Chilipko, the school's best soccer player, took the class this winter for no credit. Instead of going home at the end of his school day, Chilipko walked to the mirrored dance studio on the school's second floor and spent another 80 minutes in class.

"I've lost track of how many times I've taken it," Chilipko said. "It's definitely in the teens. You might think that sounds crazy, but all the big, popular guys at this school get in this class and love it. It's the coolest class here. It's not what you think of as dancing."

Chilipko usually shows up for class in sweat pants and a baggy Glen Burnie T-shirt. When he gets there, he dances to the type of music that he'd usually blast from his car speakers: Usher, Aerosmith and blink-182. For the most recent performance, Chilipko and four friends choreographed a dance to a song by boy-band *NSYNC.

Athletes who arrive suspicious at the beginning of the semester end up dancing without even knowing it. Rosso borrows moves from Glen Burnie sports practices -- side-to-side shuffles and cross-stepping agility drills -- and puts them to music. "Before you know it," senior basketball player Erika Jones said, "you're moving to the beat."

Progress happens like that, Rosso said -- in baby steps. The instructor turns good players into good dancers, she said, by forcing them to rely on the tenets of athletics: balance, coordination, agility, muscle memory and, yes, even endurance. In a typical Dance for the Athlete class, the group runs through a full song routine up to six times. By the time the bell rings, students said, half the class has collapsed on the floor.

"It gets you in amazing shape," said junior Kelly Leary, a pitcher on the softball team. "Out of all the sports I've played, this might be the best workout. After class, we can hardly move."

When they can move again, though, they do so more capably. Dash, the quarterback, said the class improved his balance, leaving him better able to recover from near tackles. Jones, the basketball player, improved her post-up moves, because a swing-step combination reminded her of a drop step.

TaRonce Stowes, a senior point guard, credits Dance for the Athlete with making him one of the best boys' basketball defenders in Anne Arundel. "I'm way better now at changing direction," Stowes said. "You know how people talk about breaking your ankles? Well, that doesn't happen to me anymore."

"That class really helped him," Glen Burnie basketball coach Mike Rudd said. "I tell all of my players, 'Get in that class.' It's something different than just regular [physical education]. The kids who do it come away with something pretty unique. Plus, they get a ton of confidence."

Since the show on Jan. 12, Stowes has heard about little other than swing dancing, he said. He walked into basketball practice a few days after the performance expecting some good-natured teasing from his teammates. Instead, they asked for an encore -- and group lessons.

Chilipko, the soccer player, has been overwhelmed with similar requests. He's repeated his *NSYNC routine "hundreds of times," he said. When people ask how he perfected it, he points them to Rosso's already overflowing class.

"I walk through the hall and people I don't even know are talking to me about that dance routine," Chilipko said. "I'm probably more known at this school for being a dancer than a soccer player. That's kind of scary to think about. But actually, I'm cool with it."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company