MartinHarper
25th-April-2007, 12:11 AM
Someone was asking me for an update on how I've been. So I'm still alive and such.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of a Jordan+Tatiana WCS workshop weekender. They taught us better basics, rolling count, musicOLOGY, and a few moves. We also had one of those Q&A sessions that I heard about on the forum. There were excess leaders, so I got to follow. :)
The musicality class was very good, though largely WCS-specific. It got me thinking about phrasing the music in MJ (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/lets-talk-about-dance/12215-phrasing-music.html). A lot of forum folks will know how good J+T are, so I won't elaborate much more. It was a smaller workshop than I've encountered them in before, taught "in the round", and I felt that helped some. I also loved the opportunity to practice social WCS with lots of folks who didn't know MJ and didn't know Lindy. Three nights in a row of WCS freestyle, and I feel I have a better appreciation of the dance. Certainly it offers more possibilities than I've seen before now.
This weekend was the Atlanta Lindy Exchange, featuring dancing on Wednesday evening, Thursday evening (till 5am), Friday evening (till 5am), Saturday all day (till 5am), Sunday all day (till 5am), and Monday evening. No workshops, no competitions, just a huge amount of social dancing, some food, some sleep. Three live bands, of which the Friday band "Kingsized" appealed the most to me. The Sunday band was good, but a teensy bit too fond of long songs and tempo changes for my taste. I also got to "host" - an important part of the exchange scene - and had a number of out-of-town folks crashing in various parts of my apartment. I was worried a bit about this, but it was a very positive experience. I even got a free meal and a bottle of wine out of it.
I've mentioned elsewhere that the Lindy scene here is younger than the MJ or Lindy dance scenes in the UK, with a heavy college influence in both teachers and dancers. I'm also noticing more variety here, with dancers/DJs mixing in some Hustle, Texas Two-Step, Salsa, Cha-Cha, and Waltz, over the course of an evening. Another difference is that the Lindy dancers are fonder of dance jams (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/lets-talk-about-dance/6091-dance-jams.html). Certainly they're very good at encouraging each other and playing off each other, and you get a decent variety of folks taking turns to enter the scary circle. Plus they happen at the small weekly dances as well as the huge weekend freestyles. Possibly uniquely suited to the USA psyche.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of a Jordan+Tatiana WCS workshop weekender. They taught us better basics, rolling count, musicOLOGY, and a few moves. We also had one of those Q&A sessions that I heard about on the forum. There were excess leaders, so I got to follow. :)
The musicality class was very good, though largely WCS-specific. It got me thinking about phrasing the music in MJ (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/lets-talk-about-dance/12215-phrasing-music.html). A lot of forum folks will know how good J+T are, so I won't elaborate much more. It was a smaller workshop than I've encountered them in before, taught "in the round", and I felt that helped some. I also loved the opportunity to practice social WCS with lots of folks who didn't know MJ and didn't know Lindy. Three nights in a row of WCS freestyle, and I feel I have a better appreciation of the dance. Certainly it offers more possibilities than I've seen before now.
This weekend was the Atlanta Lindy Exchange, featuring dancing on Wednesday evening, Thursday evening (till 5am), Friday evening (till 5am), Saturday all day (till 5am), Sunday all day (till 5am), and Monday evening. No workshops, no competitions, just a huge amount of social dancing, some food, some sleep. Three live bands, of which the Friday band "Kingsized" appealed the most to me. The Sunday band was good, but a teensy bit too fond of long songs and tempo changes for my taste. I also got to "host" - an important part of the exchange scene - and had a number of out-of-town folks crashing in various parts of my apartment. I was worried a bit about this, but it was a very positive experience. I even got a free meal and a bottle of wine out of it.
I've mentioned elsewhere that the Lindy scene here is younger than the MJ or Lindy dance scenes in the UK, with a heavy college influence in both teachers and dancers. I'm also noticing more variety here, with dancers/DJs mixing in some Hustle, Texas Two-Step, Salsa, Cha-Cha, and Waltz, over the course of an evening. Another difference is that the Lindy dancers are fonder of dance jams (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/lets-talk-about-dance/6091-dance-jams.html). Certainly they're very good at encouraging each other and playing off each other, and you get a decent variety of folks taking turns to enter the scary circle. Plus they happen at the small weekly dances as well as the huge weekend freestyles. Possibly uniquely suited to the USA psyche.