Keeping it interesting for regular partners

[Damien]

For those that have a regular dance partner how do you keep it interesting? I've been dancing six months and have a reasonable repertoire of moves. However, I think I'm becoming a bit predictable. I realise theorectically that even with a small number of moves the number of ways in which they can be combined is considerable. In reality, I find that certain moves seem to link/flow well together with the result that I tend to dance predictable sequences. Most of us have favourite moves and combinations, at least to certain types and speeds of music, and I think this reinforces the predictability. If dancing only once or twice with someone during an evening it is easy for them to be surprised or dare I say half impressed with what you have to offer. However, for a regular partner how do you keep it interesting? What can you do to take the edge off the predicability and offer the odd surprise? I suppose one anser is not to have a regular partner but this isn't an option lol.

[El Salsero Gringo]

You have to start to dance "to the music" rather than just to the beat. Hit the breaks, big up the moves for the crescendi - then hold a pose for a bar and start small again. Take the girl close for the smoochy bits but spin her away when things get going again. Play with your eye contact - look away, then together - then away again. Flirt like crazy. Stare deep into her eyes one minute - then be bashful and shy the next. Use some shoulder rolls, or finger clicks, or hip-bumps, or flick your head (small, but sharply) from side to side to accentuate accents in the song. Whatever you can to make it not just a sequence of moves. That way each dance is different because you're using different music.

(How am I doing, Mary?)

[Damien]

Sounds like great advice! Yep I agree it is so much more than just a set of combinations and sequences but I'm still learning and getting to grips with musical interpretation etc. But I'll try and give it a go. Finger clicking, tango head movement, eye contact, posing and vogueing all sounds like fun to me. I suppose getting the breaks is an experience thing.

[Gojive]

I know how you feel Damien, and I've been dancing over six years! :eek:

ESG's advice is good, and well worth taking on board bit by bit. Alongside that though, to give you more moves to try, get yourself any decent MJ DVD/Video (such as the Camber Sands weekender) and look through some of the lessons on there. Then just pick out a move that you like the look of, and that you think you can lead, and promise yourself to slip that move in every dance that you have during your next evening out. Change the move each time, and over time you'll find some moves just comfortably slip into your repertoire.

On the subject of hitting the breaks, if you ever get the chance to attend Nigel & Nina's "Hitting the Breaks" or "Musicality" classes, or indeed Amir's, then sieze the opportunity with both hands! in fact thorw women and children out of the way to get there if you have to :wink: . The stuff you will learn from these great teachers, will repay themselves a thousand fold on the dance floor, for both you and your partner :)

HTH

[Lory]

I'm so tempted to equate this question to another subject.. but I wont! :innocent:

[Damien]

hmmm see where your coming from with that one but my need for help is strictly in the dance arena. Having read the subject again I'm really surprised there haven't been more views.

[David Bailey]

You have to start to dance "to the music" rather than just to the beat. Hit the breaks, big up the moves for the crescendi - then hold a pose for a bar and start small again. Take the girl close for the smoochy bits but spin her away when things get going again. Play with your eye contact - look away, then together - then away again. Flirt like crazy. Stare deep into her eyes one minute - then be bashful and shy the next. Use some shoulder rolls, or finger clicks, or hip-bumps, or flick your head (small, but sharply) from side to side to accentuate accents in the song. Whatever you can to make it not just a sequence of moves. That way each dance is different because you're using different music.
Hell, I wish someone had told me that 10 years ago :tears:

Excellent advice, I believe - I can only add the standard advice of go to private lessons / workshops on style and musicality.

[Chef]

Having read the subject again I'm really surprised there haven't been more views.

I think the reason that you haven't had more views expressed is that the views expressed here so far have been perfectly on target and there isn't a great deal to add.

I have this worry of keeping things interesting for partner all the time. She can at least go and dance with other people to get something different. I, on the other hand, always end up dancing with me - and I am sick to death of it.

When you have a regular partner then at least she can start to make the dance more interesting for you as well. The lead can stop leading and allow time for the woman to express her own musical interpretation or even take over the lead and lead you into spins..

Having a regular partner also allows you to agree before hand that if you hit a break in a certain way then both of you will adopt complimentary leg or arm lines (I find a video camera great for this). Having a regular partner means you can start working on how the dance looks (assuming you can already make the dance feel nice). This can stave off the feeling of staleness because you can both extend your dancing in a way that is just not possible with someone that isn't inside your dancing head and has an intimate feel of how each of you will probably react to a certain peice of music.

My worst time is when I come across women that dance regularly with some really good male partners. I am then put off asking them to dance because I have the feeling of "what on earth could I do that be intersting to them". It is not always a great feeling when you have a tough act to follow. A very lovely dancer (and one of these aforesaid women) put the view from the other side to me of "Yes, but I dance with him all the time and it is so nice to have a change as long as I don't get my arms torn off".

So to sum up. Work on the breaks, musical interpretation, your appearance when you dance together, give the woman time to play, work out how to play yourself while the woman is doing her thing, act the dance (they usually tell as story and your dance can reflect that). Accept that these things you are trying will be expereiments and will mostly be pooh, but some of them will turn out to be gems.

[Daisy Chain]

I'm so tempted to equate this question to another subject.. but I wont! :innocent:


Which is????

Daisy

(An Innocent Little Flower)

[Yogi_Bear]

Well, look at it this way - each dance is a unique experience. You won't be using the same moves in the same sequence every time. If you can introduce just one or two new ones now and again - or variations on existing ones in shape, direction or timing - it will almost certainly be enough. Don't forget, your partner will be looking for ways to make the dance interesting for you by how she varies her steps, posture, gestures and so on. Above all. listen to the music and do what it's telling you to do. Don't worry too much about individual steps - the music is always king.
Ian

[JoC]

You have to start to dance "to the music" rather than just to the beat. Hit the breaks, big up the moves for the crescendi - then hold a pose for a bar and start small again. Take the girl close for the smoochy bits but spin her away when things get going again. Play with your eye contact - look away, then together - then away again. Flirt like crazy. Stare deep into her eyes one minute - then be bashful and shy the next. Use some shoulder rolls, or finger clicks, or hip-bumps, or flick your head (small, but sharply) from side to side to accentuate accents in the song. Whatever you can to make it not just a sequence of moves. That way each dance is different because you're using different music.

(How am I doing, Mary?)

May I reserve a dance sometime? :D

That's great advice, just thought I'd add a couple of lines from a followers perspective (not a very experienced one at that).

Get the caveat in first, I'm not thinking about hugely experienced regular dance partners here.

On adding new moves...
I really notice, and most of the time appreciate and enjoy, when my 'regular' dance partners throw in a new move (unless it hurts). I appreciate the effort they've made (that's not meant to sound patronising) to remember and work the new move in when it's so much easier to keep to the old faithful moves. That often gets a 'nice move!' from me.

On musical interpretation...
That's my thing of the moment, I'm trying to 'dance to the music' more as so eloquently put above, and I'm finding it great fun, especially if my partner does the same. In theory I think a similar set of moves performed well to 2 different tracks but incorporating musical interpretation (all ESG's points above) would be 2 totally different, and 'interesting' dances.

There endeth my contribution! :)

[bigdjiver]

I dance at the same venues twice a week, and do not travel far for a third night. I try to add at least one new move, gimmick or joke to my repetoire each week. Last night it was a whirl-around from SDF and a new (to me) Ceroc move that I did not manage to fit in. I was reminded of that by SDF as well, and got the vital clue on the lead-in from there. Last Friday I added a couple of mock Tango leg flicks during "Last Tango". It is yet another reason I love MJ, there is always the opportunity to try, test and invent.

[Sheepman]

I would agree with pretty much all that has been said already, but there is one additional thing.

Enjoy it!

If you're enjoying the dance, hopefully that smile comes through, you may be doing the most predictable things ever, but it won't matter.

OK, I know that's easier said that done...

Greg

[Gadget]

What can you do to take the edge off the predicability and offer the odd surprise?
Experiment and play with moves, movements and styling.

Everything above is cool, (but be carefull of inserting too much "styling" - take your cue from your partner and ask her opinion: it's very easy to go OTT :blush: )

For an experiment in "musical interpritation", try whistling a tune - then listen to that whistle. Long slides of notes and punctuation. Move your hand/fingers to the whistle - now actually look/feel what you are doing. This movement, this timeing is what you want to put into your dancing. Rather than just dancing to the beat, dance to this whistle.

Personally I get bored with my own repertoir and change stuff in it all the time. If there was a nice bit in any of the classes, I try and steal it to put into my dance. Not any moves in particular, but (eg) if there was a slide or lunge or walk-round or duck under... I try and put that into every dance at least once. I find this really fun because I will try and insert it into a break in the music - and I can be in the middle of any move at that time :D
There are people that I dance with every week. I have had a fair number of comments allong the lines of "you suprise me every time we dance", "I never know what you're going to do next", "I need to keep alert while dancing with you", "where do you learn all these moves", "I've never done that move before"... * In truth, it's because I play arround with moves and am really good at making mistakes look intended :wink:. If the music changes direction before the move finishes, then stuff the move and go into something else.

{*I take these as compliments.. even when they were said with a look of terror and trepidation :innocent:}

[JoC]

it's very easy to go OTT :blush:


But that can be fun in itself (when the mood takes) as long as it doesn't seriously interfere with the lead/follow/flow, yes-no? :D

[Gadget]

But that can be fun in itself (when the mood takes) as long as it doesn't seriously interfere with the lead/follow/flow, yes-no? :D
Hell yea :D great fun! Just a pity it looks more like a fish trying to get back to water when I take it too far :blush:

[JoC]

Hell yea :D great fun! Just a pity it looks more like a fish trying to get back to water when I take it too far :blush:

Well for future reference don't hold back on my account :grin:

(I reserve the right to change my mind at any point in the future :devil: Don't think I've seen this suffocating fish routine so I may be commenting without the full facts...)