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Thread: Freezing on Breaks

  1. #21
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    Standing still is something most people mastered at a young age
    Can someone teach my kids then?

    Quote Originally Posted by TA Guy View Post
    Personally, mistakes aside, I only dance when the music is playing. If the music (really) stops, I stop dancing.
    .. sometimes ... but to all that post.

    I rarely stop in a break, but I always try to emphisise it- the music normally builds up to a contrast in a break, so I try to build up my dancing and contrast it in a break.

    What I now tend to notice in dancers is not so much the musical statues going into a break, but how poorly people come out of a break: it's like an on-off switch rather than having any 'texture' to the dance.

  2. #22
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by CheesyRobMan View Post
    This might be slightly OT but how do you spot breaks? Sometimes the music signposts them very clearly but sometimes they just seem to happen by themselves, and I've danced with a couple of people now who've told me I should be able just to spot them coming and respond - so how do you spot them?
    Jerry Lee - the ultimate in signposting
    - breaks tend to come at familiar spots - 8 bars 12 bars 16 bars but are also usually given a heads up in the music - there could be a vocal clue or an obvious drum motet etc etc

    for the original question though - depends on the break is the obvious answer, for tracks like Stood Up by Ricky Nelson, you would be foolish to mark all of the breaks with a freeze - they come along sooooooooo often that it's a real challenge to think of something new to do each time.

    My preference is to acknowledge that the break is there but to keep the pulse going somewhere - hips, feet, shoulders it really doesn't matter (also helps with Gadgets point about restarting)

  3. #23
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    I can't remember the names off the top of my head, but there are songs that have extended breaks (10 seconds or more - doesn't sound long? try it, it feels like forever when you're waiting for the tune to start up again ).

    I've watched the "usual" mix in a class night of those who didn't even notice it and those who froze for 2 or 3 seconds, got bored then carried on as if nothing had happened. Very rarely, you get those couples that do extended, slow, stylish walkarounds or playing until the tune starts up again. You can guess which ones look and probably feel the best.

  4. #24
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    You can guess which ones look and probably feel the best.
    The young attractive ones?

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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by straycat264 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Gav View Post
    You can guess which ones look and probably feel the best.
    The young attractive ones?
    Well thanks, but I was thinking about other than DT and I.

  6. #26
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    So it seems that the general consensus is that freezing on a break is a good place to start when learning to interpret the music, but then people tend to get more imaginative. I wonder if that applies to leaders and followers equally? Perhaps the lady I was dancing with was trying to help me spot them by stopping dead still despite my intentions otherwise.

    I don't know if I'll try defend my strange interpretation of a musical phrase here, it doesn't really matter how you think about it if it works for you. But one piece of advice if there's anyone out there wanting to learn how to spot breaks - don't try. Instead, I'd try to play around with all of your moves, extending them, holding positions, mucking about with the timing. If you do this often enough, while listening to the music, you'll automatically start 'hitting the breaks' as it were.

    Dan

  7. #27
    Registered User Daisy Chain's Avatar
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by gebandemuishond View Post
    Perhaps the lady I was dancing with was trying to help me spot them by stopping dead still despite my intentions otherwise.

    OMG, Sometimes I get so desperate for some musical interpretation, that I'm guilty of this.

    Daisy

    (A Frustrated Little Flower)

  8. #28
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    I remember doing a basic musicality class at a Cardiff Dance Club weekender last year. At the end of the class, Mark Wilson announced that they'd be playing such-and-such a song (that had an extended break in it) in freestyle later, and there would be a prize for the couple who managed to hit the break on time and re-start at the end of the break with the best timing. Well, the song came on and at the required break nearly every couple froze like statues - only to realise quite quickly that Mark had hit the pause button at that point and he and the other teachers were laughing!

    The funniest thing was that the couple dancing next to me didn't realise what he'd done, and I heard the man say, "This really is a long break!"

  9. #29
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Well, it happened for me last night.
    Just as I froze, I realised a break was about to arrive. I was two beats ahead. Shame the moment was mistimed, but at least I was aware of the advance warning of the break. There is hope for me yet.

  10. #30
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by Baruch View Post
    ... Mark had hit the pause button at that point and he and the other teachers were laughing!
    I don't know much about teaching, but I'm pretty sure that laughing at your students isn't recommended.

  11. #31
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    Re: Freezing on Breaks

    Quote Originally Posted by MartinHarper View Post
    I don't know much about teaching, but I'm pretty sure that laughing at your students isn't recommended.
    He wasn't laughing at his students as such - just laughing because he'd caught us all out, and we all laughed as well.

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