I've been away in Madrid while this thread has been developing - it snowed!
And now I'm back I see there's been a lot of navel gazing about something that's so simple. This probably comes from asking for advice from someone who has never taught MJ or even seen a MJ class.Although I don't teach in Australia or New Zealand it seems that teach in a completely different world from Alan - so here are my answers to his questions.
There is no "starter step" like there is in WCS. However, I always start the routines I teach by stepping the follower right in the one of the eight.
I teach a bit of both. For example, the Manhattans are completly body led, the Tumble Drier is a bit of both but mostly arm led. It simply depends on the move. However, I have noticed that many MJ classes teach a back-step with an arm lead when they should be teaching a step forward with a body lead: this seems to work for them but it does lead to partners being a long way apart, bad posture and many dance floor collisions - some people seem to like those events
I don't count at all when teaching MJ moves. I talk people though the moves with emphasis on the words that come on the counts. The only time I count is when I'm teaching musicality and when I do that I number the eight counts with their correct number in the phrase 12345678. Apart from when I'm talking about 8 bar phrasing which I count 12345678 22345678 32345677 (&) 42345678. In my opinion counting the beats in the bar isn't necessary for people to learn the moves. Knowing what to do is much more important so you should be telling them what to do - but you need to know what beat they're on and start them in the right place in the bar, usually on the one of the eight.
As I said above, in the lesson it's the one of the eight. In freestyle it doesn't matter so much so long as you step the lady right on the odd counts.
If pulsing means emphasising the beat I emphasise every beat as the basic of MJ is that you step on every beat. To do otherwise would mean that stepping right would have more emphasis that stepping left - it would be like asking marching soldiers to stamp harder with their left foot than their right, very tiring!
I think MJ is mainly slotted. There are rotational moves where partners walk around each other and there are travelling moves like the triple-step. But, in the main, the moves are slotted. However, the slot can be rotated in freestyle to use the space available.
There are many ways that the teaching of MJ differs within the UK. This is probably true in Australia and NZ as well.
As I said above, I do not believe that Skippy Blair should be telling MJ teachers how to dance MJ. I believe that we have a lot to learn about the teaching of dance from such a great teacher but we have nothing to learn about what makes great MJ or defines MJ. If Skippy Blair studied MJ and come up with a teaching method it would be fabulous - however, what it looks like is that Alan has had a chat with Skippy and decided that MJ should be taught differently based on that conversation.
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