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Jive Brummie
29th-May-2006, 03:58 PM
Right groovers,

I have a question. Is it a good thing or a bad thing to learn different dance forms?

Now I know it appears to be a pretty obvious answer but let me explain....

Personally I think it's a good thing as each form seems to assist with another one, however, having recently begun a new dance form and looking into expanding on a third (training to start in July:sick: ), I feel that from my point of view I can only do the 'other' styles once I'm competant at the current one...

Does that make sense.

In other words, if you're not brilliant at modern jive for example...is there much point trying your hand at Tango or WCS or anything else?

The reason I ask is from a teaching perspective, quite often I've danced with people of varying standards who claim to have danced or who are dancing X-number of styles and I have felt that it's actually been detrimental to them rather than a positive thing as they were unable to distinguish between one and the other(s)...

Clear as mud I know, but hopefully you get my drift...

Answers on a postcard to .....this thread:flower:

Ta.

JB x x

jacksondonut
29th-May-2006, 05:10 PM
Hi JB,

Having stuck with MJ for at least 9/10 years I have had such a wonderful time..:yeah: but I did start to feel there was more out there, so I had a go at Lindy Hop, which I found quite hard and challenging, but so much fun and involving a totally different crowd of people.. it was nice to meet some other dancers..:rofl: they are quite nutty crowd... luv em to bits..

Having discovered that Lindy was making my knee problems worse.. I decided to have a go at WCS, which I have totally fallen in love with...:awe: its easier on the knees.. is beautiful to watch (if you know what you are doing) and is very challenging too, which has kept me keen to learn more. (once the knee thing has got better of course).. I had stopped thinking about what i was doing as far as jiving was concerned.... just dancing without a care in the world.....

I will continue trying very hard to get the hang of WCS, maybe Lindy will be possible if my problems improve after the operation, and will continue to enjoy MJ aswell.. dancing in whatever form will always be part of my life... she says with fingers crossed....:wink:

Jan
:cheers:

philsmove
29th-May-2006, 05:15 PM
I am slowly leaning tango, which seems to be improving my MJ

But I would not attempt another dance style until I have mastered Tango

And as I gather it is likely to take me at least 10 years to master Tango

You should watch this space in about 10 years time :cheers:

Frankie_4711
29th-May-2006, 05:46 PM
Personally I don't think I could cope with more than one at a time - I would have to be really confident in one before moving on, or I would be afraid of confusing myself (even more than usual!!). Plus there's the time factor - I don't have time to do Ceroc as often as I'd like let alone trying to fit anything else in! But hey, that's just me. May be beneficial to others.

firefly
30th-May-2006, 11:48 AM
I can only speak from my own experience. But I started dancing a year ago, doing a latin american class. In each class we're taught two or three different dances, but I think it's only relatively recently that I've actually started to get a "handle" on the different character of each dance, and dance in the style of that dance rather than just doing the moves/steps; as well as being able to switch styles when switching to a different dance with not too much difficulty.

I actually found it easier getting into the style and mindset when I was doing belly dancing. It's so different from a partner dance, that I found there was less potential to get confused with any of the other dances I was doing.

I would agree that learning different dance forms has probably helped my dancing in general, because I find that aspects of one dance can help and inform aspects of another in sometimes quite unexpected ways. But I think the main thing is that starting to learn a new dance form, and finding new challenges, fires up my enthusiasm again for dancing as a whole. When I started ceroc it rekindled my enthusiasm for latin (not that I ever lost it, but you know what I mean!)

I don't know if any of that makes sense - hope it does! :flower:

Freya
30th-May-2006, 04:19 PM
~Snip~I don't know if any of that makes sense - hope it does! :flower:
:yeah: That does make sense! I'm just starting up Tango again after trying it last year. It got really frustrating and I thought that I'll never be able to do this. Due to circumstances I gave it up, or rather didn't go back. Then I took up ceroc. I found it alot easier to pick up and it's fired up a sense of belief in me that I can do these things. So even though I've not mastered Ceroc!!! That'll take many years if the people I love to watch dancing are anything to go by! I do feel a certain sense of compatency! I have bad habits that I'm working on, and My following requires a bit of work! However Tango is all about lead and follow so it can only help! Can't it? I have found that having done Ceroc Tango is slightly easier this time round.

I could understand how doing more similar dance styles could get confusing. One friend did Salsa for years and really struggles with Ceroc! Can't get out of doing salsa to music!!!!!! But at present I'm not having too much difficulty with Tango and Ceroc. After all Tango's just Walking.

I'm Gonna Stick at the Tango and Keep going to Ceroc! And try not to get tooo confused!!! :confused:

pmjd
30th-May-2006, 05:54 PM
Clear as mud I know, but hopefully you get my drift...



Having started tango weekly and started giving WCS a go each month, in addition to ceroc I was slightly worried about ending up with a "jack of all trades but master of none" feeling. However, I think in the long term it will help improve my dancing in general as I'll learn useful things from each that will benefit the other.

I originally started tango so I was at least half prepared for the jango workshops in June but already feel it's improving my sense of frame (if that's the right term) and leading from the body, as opposed to just by hand gestures in ceroc.

Out of curiousity JB, what other types of dance are you taking up?

Jive Brummie
30th-May-2006, 11:34 PM
Out of curiousity JB, what other types of dance are you taking up?

aaaaahhhhh, that'd be telling. Just think of the usual's and then the unusuals...and I guess I'm somewhere in between.:whistle: :wink:

JB x x

pmjd
30th-May-2006, 11:43 PM
So somewhere between Tango and New Zealand Haka.........................

Got it.............Morris dancing!:wink:

Has Melanie got the bells sown in to your clothes already then:D

Jive Brummie
30th-May-2006, 11:44 PM
So somewhere between Tango and New Zealand Haka.........................

Got it.............Morris dancing!:wink:

Has Melanie got the bells sown in to your clothes already then:D

Jingle jangle old bean...jingle jangle:wink:

ducasi
31st-May-2006, 12:48 AM
I have a question. Is it a good thing or a bad thing to learn different dance forms? Good question. I don't think I was ready to try WCS until very recently, but I'm not sure if it could have affected the quality of my MJ – I did a bit of Salsa a while back and I don't think it made a blind bit of difference to my MJ dancing.

I think it depends how much you let learning the new style take over. I don't expect I'll ever be doing more WCS on a weekly basis than MJ, and so just so long as I keep up my regular dancing, I don't think it'll be detrimental.

I'd like to have a go at Tango, but I don't see myself being able to cope with learning two new dances at the same time (time and energy-wise, if nothing else!) So I've decided I'm going to do WCS over the summer, and if the bug bites I'll stick with it, otherwise I'll do the beginners' Tango class up the road from me that starts in the Autumn.

I wonder... does it take longer to learn three different dance styles if you're learning them all at the same time, or one after the other? How about folks who start with ballroom and are learning maybe 5 or more dances all at the same time...

TA Guy
31st-May-2006, 11:13 AM
It's obviously a 'good thing' to learn other dance forms in so many ways.

But my experience is slightly different to many on here who say that learning a new dance helps improve your Modern Jive. My experience from dancing with partners who have gone off and learn't another dance style is that the results as far as Modern Jive are concerned are very mixed, and on balance, I'd say detrimental.
I don't know whether that something to do simply with less time being spent on Modern Jive, or the introduction of techniques that are not intuitive to Modern Jive or what.
An exception, is of course, Blues, about which I am one of those who think it's just a slower version of Ceroc anyway, so I'd expect that.

TheTramp
31st-May-2006, 11:16 AM
An exception, is of course, Blues, about which I am one of those who think it's just a slower version of Ceroc anyway, so I'd expect that.

It sort of is. But there's a lot more attitude and musicality in Blues than in 'normal' MJ dancing. Which is bound to be of benefit...

robd
31st-May-2006, 03:49 PM
there's a lot more attitude and musicality in Blues than in 'normal' MJ dancing.

Depends on the participants, surely?