Monday, January 4, 2010

This one time? At dance camp?

Think of dance camp as a convention for dancers. Sometimes they're called "Congresses", as in the "LA Salsa Congress", but the idea is the same. A bunch of dancers getting together from all over the world to learn to become better dancers and more importantly, to dance their asses off. Usually each type of dance will have their own convention circuit. The one I went to in Palm Springs CA over New Years was for West Coast Swing.

These camps usually offer multiple days of classes and seminars taught by many of the top pros. (That is, if you can manage to wake up in time to attend them after all the late night social dancing. This past weekend for example, some folks danced until 5 or 6 am every night.) I took as many classes as I could, but as anyone who has taken a bunch of these in a short period of time will tell you, retention becomes a big problem. While I did manage to remember maybe 3 or 4 new patterns, I think the most important thing I got out of the whole weekend was a renewed sense of focus on musicality.

There was one class in particular, taught by Myles and Tessa, shown here in some of their improv dances...

[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3ZxiPKmacg ]
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0p7g26AJYs ]

They didn't teach a single pattern. What they did do was to spend an hour talking about, demoing, and having us practice dancing WCS to "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas vs. Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" -- very different songs that call for different interpretations on how WCS should be danced. We practiced shaping WCS basic patterns to fit the driving One Two THREEE beat of Boom Boom Pow, even when the WCS basic is Walk Walk Tri.ple.Step.Tri.ple.Step. We also practiced hitting the "WhoWillDance. OnTheFloor. InTheRound." part of Billy Jean. One of the main themes of the class is that it's not only okay, but encouraged, to abandon the basic WCS beat in order to hit certain defining highlights of a song.

I'm not going to say that any of this was earth shattering stuff, but it really did me good to be reminded that dancing should be about the music. Somebody once said that dance is essentially using the human body as a physical amplifier for music. I like that. It implies that all dancers are also music lovers, which I believe we are. As such, it should be our goal to strive to be that perfect amplifier.... to dance in such a way that anybody would be able to tell the difference between "Boom Boom Pow" and "Billy Jean" even with the sound turned off.

As far as how the theme of the class applied to me personally... Tessa talked a little bit about dancing with leaders who are "in the zone", just leading one pattern after another with little or no regard to the music. (different from "off beat". it's entirely possible to dance perfectly on beat, but not to the music.) I totally recognized that in myself. Especially when I dance salsa. I've always kinda known that this was something I needed to work on, but for whatever reason, I've ignored it. Maybe it's because I feel like it's easier to "get away" with not dancing to the music in salsa? Compared to the enormous variety of blues, soul, r&b, contemporary, hip hop, and rock songs to which you can dance WCS, differences in salsa music and rhythms are much more subtle, so I feel less compelled to lead them differently. Sure, I could hit the breaks if I know the song well enough, but I do it as an afterthought rather than as my MO.

After starting WCS though, I quickly realized that musicality is one of, if not the most important aspect of this dance. Looking back, it's what drew me to WCS in the first place. With this lesson fresh on my mind, I tried applying it to my social dancing that night. What a difference! Even with my limited WCS repetoire, it's pretty amazing how much fun you and your dance partner can have just by leading the four basic WCS patterns (sugar push, left side pass, underarm turn, whip). To the music. As my toolbox of WCS patterns grows, it will only become more interesting.

[on a side note, i also honestly think that dancing wcs keeps you young and current. the slower nature of wcs tends to attract an older crowd than some other dances, but you wouldn't know it by watching 60+ year olds dance to and hitting all the breaks in a silly song like Boom Boom Pow. they're sooo not "2000 and late".]