That seems a bit weird to me.
Unless he already knew your capabilities and was saying something like "you're technically able to do the class, but it's up to you if you feel confident enough"?
I think that's a bit too laid-back for me - I'd give more definite direction.
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
Is West Coast Swing made too hard?
From an earlier post on the 'How to get into WCS?' thread:
If what Andy says is really true, then:
The Botox will cost an absolute fortune, is painful, and will need to be redone at regular intervals to maintain the Advanced-WCS-Dancer image.
If you ever get to the point where you don't wear a look of extreme concentration, you'll be forced to go onto Smack, or some other constipation inducing drug to give you the requisite look-of-constipation while dancing WCS.
You'll need to spend hours in front of the mirror, smelling something absolutely vile, while practicing your 'smelt-something-horrible' face to make a grand entrance at all the MJ events.
Phew, that's definately enough to put me off WCS!!!!
Oh dear this thread (like most CF threads) seems to have lost its way a little
In answer to the above, the thread question - IMO as a veteran of the dance (10 years+)Is West Coast Swing Made Too Hard?
It depends who teaches it and what they are teaching
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
OK, if anyone was genuinely offended by a largely deleted swearword, then I apologise and my tone was indeed sarcastic, which I appreciate is not to everyone's taste.
However, it made me a little bit grumpy to see that Andy ignored the parts of Graham W's post that praised the teacher and the demos at a workshop and picked out only the part that said some of the followers were "mystifying" the dance.
He then presented Graham's opinion - which he is quite entitled to - as fact saying "it's so right". I'm not saying Graham's wrong but how do you know he's right Andy, were you there? There's a similar example on the first page of this thread of Andy seizing on a comment about West Coast and stating as a fact that it proves West Coast is "anti-social with beginners" adding "so there you have it". I'm sorry but I'm not going to trawl through nine pages of posts finding other examples. But thanks to Bubble I now don't really need to.
My general point is if you fancy trying West Coast go to a class or a workshop and see for yourself - don't be put off by other people's prejudices. You'll find lots of different kinds of people at lots of different levels of ability and if you keep going back the dancing will more than likely get easier and more fun and the people friendlier. Er ... that's it.
However, the question remains Andy, how many West Coast classes have you done and when was the last one?
What point is nomoves trying to make and an apology for swearing doesn't mean he/she hasn't sworn - just that they've realised they made a mistake that made them look bad. This would be a reasonable question if I was claiming to have attended many WCS classes. However, my only claim on this thead is that I've heard people say they are finding WCS too hard.
My observations about WCS being hijacked by dance snobs and serious/single-minded competitors are based on experiences I've had with WCS dancers attending MJ events.
I do not attend WCS classes any more and do not have the time to do so. I have attened WCS classes at weekenders and many years ago actually attended Paul Warden's classes in Bisley - on one occasion we chatted about shoes for ages and he seems a really nice person.
I thought I was being helpful in passing on what I'd heard dancers say about WCS classes. However, it seems that some WCS dancers have joined this MJ forum to have a go at me. Nomoves has done nothing but post to criticise me. Come on nomoves, how many MJ classes have you attended and why are you posting on a MJ dance forum? And, while we're at it, who are you?
Last edited by DavidY; 2nd-July-2010 at 11:14 PM. Reason: Deleted Andy vs Lee comments
Actually I'm curious too we don't even know if you are male or female (leading is much harder than follow in WCS) or which area you are from (which depends on who your WCS teachers are)
The Westie Hotshots (which I got slated for calling them that a couple of years ago on a previous thread) all came from the London area - have to say most of that lot are now well respected and great dancers (real hotshots )
Last edited by DavidY; 2nd-July-2010 at 11:14 PM. Reason: Removed deleted text from quote
--ooOoo--
Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)
Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
That date is recognized as her official birthday.
It's absolutely to my taste. In fact, that's my default mode. But sarcasm needs to be done well.
Possibly because Andy found that part the most interesting and worthy of comment / discussion?
I like the word "mystifying", at least as a concept, it's a nice description.
Andy's clearly got some issues with WCS. That doesn't make him totally wrong.
There's pretty much a consensus here, that there can be friction when WCS and MJ dancers mingle - more so than other dance forms. There've been dozens of threads about it. Pretending that there is no such friction, and pretending that any observations along those lines are simply due to one person's prejudices, is wrong.
For example, I've experienced snootiness from some WCS-ers. That doesn't make me anti-WCS dancers, my lovely Tango practice partner is a WCS teacher, but that doesn't mean there's no snootiness from some people.
Andy's simply looking at another angle of this wide topic.
And that applies to all dance forms, and in fact to all forms of social activity including going to your local pub. So that's not actually saying anything.
The question is, whether WCS is more "snooty" as a scene relative to MJ; and if so, why?
Or, "Is West Coast Swing Made Too Hard?"
Last edited by David Bailey; 30th-June-2010 at 09:56 AM.
(Sorry David, I was writing the following answer before you put your last post up, which I've just seen)
Ok Andy, I'm Bill Addison, dance in Twickenham mainly but lots of other places too and am certainly not a hotshot - as I always tell Paul Warden, I'm one of his remedial students.
How many jive classes have I done? Well, I took my first one in about 1992, so I'm not sure if it actually would be a thousand but it wouldn't be far short. But I don't really do jive any more and that wasn't what my posts were about. I still go to Ceroc weekenders though.
Do other people on the forum know me - plenty of them, I imagine. Do I know Lee Bartholomew (Woodface - nice one Andy, not offensive at all)? I'd recognise him, but we've never spoken.
I'm happy to admit that I've only posted to have a go at you Andy because you have seized repeatedly seized on negative comments that people writing on the forum have about West Coast and presented these opinions as fact while ignoring positive comments.
Do I have an agenda? I run an occasional freestyle in Tooting as a hobby but have personally never made a penny out of West Coast.
Do you have an agenda? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you run jive classes in an area which now has three or four outfits teaching West Coast. Hmm, I wonder.
Thanks Bill. You sound like a nice guy now we've been introduced.
I selected posts that support my premise. It's what everyone does. You are welcome to disagree with my posts and I might answer your posts. Hang on, that's what I am doing
I do not lose students to WCS classes. However, some of my students have tried WCS and some of them told me the story which started this thread. As I said, I've nothing against any dance. All dancing is good. We get people coming to our classes who've tried other dances, including WCS and we get people from our classes trying other dances. It's a free market economy and dancers are free to go where they like.
I do have a problem with people doing WCS at crowded MJ freestyles. I also have a problem with people doing Lindy, Foxtrot, cha cha cha, etc. I believe that a floor should have one dance at a time when it's busy.
It seems to me that some people do not like to read any feedback that's not luvvified. If all we did was say "lovely dahlink" there is a good chance that nothing would change. It's the negative feedback that is more likely to cause change and I simply passed on some negative feedback - but some people see an "agenda" in everything. Sometimes people just mean what they say or write.
And some people think that they can introduce themselves to a new forum start swearing and get away with it by saying "oops, sorry". We must always remember this equation;
rudeness + apology≠good manners
Last edited by DavidY; 2nd-July-2010 at 11:20 PM. Reason: Deleted Andy vs Lee comments
Was going to post but changed my mind.......
Last edited by Dottie; 30th-June-2010 at 11:01 AM. Reason: see above
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