A place full of swingin' beats, vintage clothes, cool moves, smooth shoes, and wooden floors.
See I don’t think I have a favorite step. Each one works well with certain music. The most comfortable one is Charleston (both 20’s and 40’s) only because I can do that one in my sleep the other I have to think about since they are more recent additions to my repertoire.
I haven’t had the pleasure of dancing to too many live bands but so far I would have to say the Campus 5 are definitely the front runners.
Last night, our swing team- which has instructors come and teach more advanced, generally technique heavy lessons than the club- had a west coast instructor come. This westie instructor covered musicality and helped us incorporate it into our dancing. Now, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t able to directly apply anything he said during the trial and error period- it was a west coast only lesson and I’m not comfortable enough with west coast to really do anything more than attempt to follow it okay. However, many of the things he said were very helpful and I figured I could apply them to lindy hop.
Things he discussed”
-is the song smooth? is it bouncier? Adjust your movements to the feel of the music.
-don’t necessarily worry about adding something musical on everything. Go for adding something when something interesting happens in the music so it creates contrast.
-an exercise to help is listening to a song and then snapping whenever something interesting happens in the music- whether it be obvious or more subtle
-think about the hits or breaks in the music that stand out- are they drawn out? are they sharp? are they smooth?
-what kind of movement might you associate with these breaks in the music?
I have to say the pointers the instructor gave are really great- regardless of what kind of dancing you do- totally worth thinking about music in that manner when you dance.
I honestly don’t have a favorite partner- and there’s a reason. Every lead (or follow) can teach you something. And I truly believe in dancing with as many people as I can that way I can learn something new. Lately there have been a few leads I love to dance with because either they are very technical or very musical.
So far I’ve danced a lot of places in Southern California unfortunately my favorite no longer exists in its old form. I loved going to Stutters’ Ball when it was in downtown Orange CA. The music was always good. The dancers made your jaw drop and you always learned something (if not many things)
Honestly my friends! I had a few friends that were in a small dance troupe and they recruited myself and my best friend and for the last two years I’ve had a blast learning every swing dancing thing I could get my hands on from the Shim Sham to Balboa. And to think I actually didn’t want to go at first!!!
I just found this amazing lindy hop website, which lists moves by level, and have special sections for charleston, jazz routines, technique, etc. There is even a section for followers!!!
Looks promising so far.
just checked out this site and I have to say the resources are not only vast but really good. So totally check this out if you want helpful hints and tips!
For the leaders:
Look behind you on count 5. It helps to open up your shoulders making the follow know exactly where she is going to be sent for the rest of the counts. it also allows you too look behind you which is pretty handy on the social floor. This way you’re protecting your follow and allowing yourself to lead a clearer better swing out.
