An excellent response
An excellent response
"If you rebel against high heels, take care to do so in a very smart hat.'' George Bernard Shaw
Two great tips that have helped me no end.
- "Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent."
In other words - if you want perfection, practice the right things.- "Love. Every. Step."
In translation - don't do anything on auto-pilot, or take any part of your dancing for granted. Put your full intent into step you do, every movement you make.
Nice tips Stray especially the first one.
I have also found and noticed there are people who only dance with a certain type of dancer. The better dancer or the better looking dancer or just their friends and so on. Rather more so than actually dancing for the joy of it whoever they are dancing with.
A favourite Ceroc saying used to be that the better looking people improve faster but are never as good as they think they are.
Actually there is a lot of truth in the first part of that quote .........the better looking, slim young good looking dancer will not leave the floor for dance requests AND the more you dance the better you will get
AFA the second part of the quote, we ALL (whatever level) have room for improvement
--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.
That is also true Minnie we can all always improve. But it was often remarked at Hammersmith that if one was to ask one of the "Beautiful People," for a dance and they had not seen you dance (because you are not beautiful or dance at the back), they will probably refuse you.
Don't know if things have improved.
--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.
You could probably make an argument that no-one is. Is it really possible to judge your own dancing, given that you are the one who is... er, "doing" it?
It's like people who claim to be a good driver, but don't realise that they drive too fast round corners (as consciously, they know when they'll be turning, so their bodies are prepped for the action). It's only their passenger (who are gripping on for dear life) who would be able to "rate" them.
In a similar way, could you not argue that it's only the person you are dancing with, who could determine if you are any "good"? This rating would obviously change from partner to partner depending on how well you are able to connect with them - both from a lead/follow POV and a dance style perspective. (And if you are someone who is concerned about how your dance "looks" I suppose spectators would also be able to perform that "rating" service for you).
On the subject of better looking people improving faster, I'd agree to a certain extent. After all, the "better" that people you dnace with, the more quickly you'll learn. But you can also say the same for anyone coming into the dance circuit for the first time socially knowing one of that venue's "in crowd". They'll be introduced to the people who can dance well, who will ask them to dance as they are sitting with an existing friend of theirs. Kinda goes back to the old saying about it's not what you know, it's who you know.
Definitely - it goes back to why you would ask someone to dance (which I know there's a thread on somewhere). General reasons would be
- you see/think the individual is a good dancer
- you like the individual socially (be it a friend or someone you've only spoken to a few times)
- someone has asked you to (i.e. "it's my friend's first night, can you ask her/him to dance as their feeling too shy to ask anyone yet")
- or they "stand out" from a physical/aesthetic perspective
Last point may not be the most PC but I think it's natural. You go into a crowded venue where you don't know anyone, and scan the venue for someone to dance with, and your eye will naturally be drawn to either good dancers, or people you think are attractive. Isn't that why we spend so much time trying to make ourselves look good before attending a venue? Yes it may mean that those of us who aren't gods gift in the looks department () may have to try harder, but can't you also say the same thing about any part of society?
I took a mate for his first class some years ago. During the beginners freestyle a girl asked him for a dance. Halfway through the dance she actually told him that he wasn't good enough for for her and she walked off. Can you believe it!!!
Yeah, definitely not cool.
I like to think of dancing as a miniture version of society. Just in the same way as you get t****rs in the real world, you'll get t****rs in dance venues. It's best to chalk it up to experience and know not to dance with them in the future.
Hope it didn't put your pal off too much!
No he wasn't put off. He was there largely to pull and did and they married and still Ceroc in Canada.
I did also get the girl back. I asked her to dance (she was definitely in no position to be commenting on the standard of a beginner), after I asked her how long she had been dancing. she said 2 and a half months. I suggested she need some more beginners classes.
While the first one seems like the more 'solid' tip, the second ('Love every step') is the one I've found far and away the most helpful.
Another one that we use a fair bit is not to worry or stress about getting things wrong. It'll only put blocks in the way of one's learning. If you can have a laugh about your mistakes, you learn much faster, and probably discover some fun new things along the way.
For about the first 4/5 years I did Ceroc, all the teachers used to say "don't worry about getting a move wrong, you've probably invented a new one."
One of my favourite "errors" is missing hands on a spin. But, then turning it sort of comic ish. I like to spin too, So spin a yard or two away from my partner a make some gesture or stopping and wiggling or something.
There's two types of "getting it wrong" though, aren't there?
There's the "not following an exact sequence, but leading something different" wrong. That's not wrong, that's just different. If you lead a movement, and it's followed, that's never wrong.
Then there's the "messing it up by not leading / losing technique / falling over" wrong. That is wrong. Falling over is difficult to see as a success.
There's probably quite a few types of 'getting it wrong', if you look at it that way, but whichever one you're talking about, getting stressed about it won't help one to get it right. I'm not saying one shouldn't keep trying to get it right (quite the reverse, in fact) - just that the right mental attitude is an invaluable aid to doing so.
A while back, I found myself teaching a gentleman who found it quite hard to get the moves that we were teaching, but was quite happy to repeat things patiently over and over and over again like a machine until he did get them - and without the slightest trace of self-criticism or stress. I found his attitude to be admirable.
On the subject of falling over though - I did a slides taster class a while back, and the teachers stressed that to learn the more extreme slides, you needed to discover the limits of your balance, to do so one needed to push those limits, and to do that, you were probably going to fall over a lot. So anyone falling over in the class received nothing but praise. I was a wimp and played it safe - and I still can't do those slides properly. Go figure
Last edited by straycat; 21st-May-2010 at 03:48 PM.
One tip that Franck gave me in the first workshop I ever did: if something goes wrong, don't look at where it went wrong, look at what happened before it went wrong - the problem is probably there.
He also said that the trick was not to think on what you were doing just now, but what you wanted to do next... it took me years to actually get that one.
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