Riot and Frolic

It's come to my attention recently that many people consider the ballroom dance repertoire limiting in its ability to "freestyle" a dance.  As in, there are patterns and amalgamations and figures that need to be completed from A to Z before a dancer can move onto the next one.  Waltz was being compared to West Coast Swing and much was said about West Coast's easy improvisation and interpretation with different songs.  

Well.

First of all, there are several ballroom dances that have worlds and moons of their own: West Coast Swing, Salsa, Argentine Tango, and Lindy are the big ones.  Dancers who enjoy these styles are often specialists and don't do (or aren't actively learning) many other dances.  Becoming well-versed in ONE DANCE'S vocabulary is very different than learning 10 or more dances and the basic accompanying movements.  

Those of us who do many dances have the same learning curve, but it is often much MUCH longer since there are so many dances involved.  Don't feel bad if someone is really good at Salsa after a few months when you still can't get through a mediocre Foxtrot, Rumba, or Cha-Cha without panicking at some point.  

Instead of being sad about the overwhelming amount of patterns and levels and dances, I'll make it really really simple:

Elements of Dance

• At its most basic, dancing is walking and turning.  Period.  I know you're testing this and thinking about all your fancy patterns, but that's all it is: walking and turning.
• You must know the basic timing of each dance.  The first thing that makes the walking and the turning look like the dancing is the timing.  Like, in time with music.  If you are not dancing in time with music, you are not dancing.  You are doing dance steps while music is playing.  TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.  

– If you cannot hear the beat in the music, you must learn how.  (We'll talk about how to do that another day.)

– You must make this timing clear through your steps (slows are 2 beats, quicks are 1, etc.). 

– You WILL continue to LISTEN to the music throughout each dance to make sure you are still Dancing.

How To Be Creative

I hope you see the irony in my telling you how to be creative, but here it goes:

• experiment.  With or without a partner, but always with music playing, you can…

– see how many steps you can dance forward before you feel stupid.  Likewise with side steps or back steps.  Rotate them, travel them, march them, make a circle, make a straight line, make a bee line for the bar, whatever.

– try a Rumba pattern in Waltz (using Waltz timing, but Rumba foot patterns).

– try a Waltz pattern in Salsa.

• be confident.  Just because you haven't done something before doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If it works, it's a step.
• ask questions.  

– Did you try something and it failed?

– WHY did it fail?

– Did it almost  work?

– Could you hold a beat, or syncopate a step, or go outside partner to make it work?

• do it again.  No one gets really good at something by thinking about it.  It takes a bajillion times of f-ing it up before you consistently get a high-fiveable moment.  
• brush it off.  Made a mistake?  It's dancing, not brain surgery.  Fun, not life or death.  

Go forth and dance.  

Two years ago: Not Seven, in which I omit the nuts.