Lindy Blog

I was scrolling thru Google plus this afternoon and linked onto Jo Hoffberg’s blog. Today’s entry was about what to wear for Herräng tonight, but I clicked back thru a couple of posts and came across this one http://johoffberg.com/2011/07/tiger-of-sweden/ which made me smile a lot. Because there's lindy with jeans, but also because I no these guys. Or rather I see these guys. They dance at the place I dance on a Wednesday. This is the girl that I always end up watching when she’s there and I’m not dancing. Partially because of the way she moves – she has such an old-school technique that's just great, but also because she’s always smiling. You can just tell she’s having fun. And its great to watch cos she plays with the music and with her partner and sometimes it doesn’t turn out as good as others but at the very least its fun. I’ve been reading a couple of lindy blogs this week which are talking about creativity, and the thing that stood out from it was a quote from someone saying you have to dare to dance ugly. Cos if you don’t, you’ll never push the boundaries of what you can do – you’ll never try anything that you cant already do. And more importantly, just cos it doesn’t look beautiful yet doesn’t mean it isn’t fun! The thing I have paid most attention to since going to Highland Swing in June, is Hasse and Marie saying “Love every step”!! because if dancing isn’t fun then why are you doing it?? Yes sometimes its really hard work, and can be massively frustrating, but at the end of the day if its not fun then why would you want to work hard. When I first started dancing in Sweden I spent so much time analysing what I was doing and critiquing myself, getting annoyed at my continued bad habits that crop up when I think they’re gone (obv not all but you think one is fixed and then it appears again) that I forgot to have fun. I would literally dance for 3 hours and spend the whole time just concentrating on what I wasn’t and should be doing. I think sometimes we need to be told to remember to have fun, so what if its not perfect, its only dancing, the world wont end if you take 1 step instead of 2 or end on the ‘wrong’ foot! And then coming back from Highland Swing I found that just that attitude of enjoying it, of relaxing more, that in itself made things feel easier, and I found myself doing all sorts of styling with my left arm and my feet without a conscious thought of next swing out I’ll put in this variation or that styling. And I think that what comes out of that is a much more natural, music defined finish.

I had a debate last night with a non-dancer which started as a comment on how its impossible to dance with someone who isn’t dancing to the rhythm of the music when you let go (which is an aside for another time) but which got heated about the time the non dancer introduced the phrase ‘a dumb follow’. Now this was a conversation which mostly wrapped up in the apparent revelation that moves are not set. But his definition of a dumb follow was one who just followed, who didn’t go off and do her own stuff and then come back to it. I pointed out several times that Lindy is a lead-follow dance and the idea is to follow, not ignore the lead and do whatever you want instead. But his idea of a good follow was one who added in different steps and jumps. The conversation felt like he thought the opposite of what I think to be true. That a good follow should follow exactly. Including following the beat of the guy if he isn’t following the music – otherwise you end up fighting against each other for the entire song, in my experience. (I’m not saying don’t add anything – I think styling, decorations and variations are brilliant, but they shouldn’t stop the lead.) But it did make me think about how much of each dance is actually followed. At GNSH this year we were told in one class not to step unless led, not to triple step unless that was led. Which was fun, but seems like the kind of thing that doesn’t regularly get applied outside of class. When dancing with regular dance partners it is easy to know of their level and to dance to their level (ie you would never wait for a beginner to lead each triple step) but in the world of Stockholm Swing Dancing, I am still finding new people to dance with every week who I haven’t necessarily met before let alone see dance, so its interesting to work out what level of following to apply. Its like how Sarah Breck uses the magic 8 ball analogy (I think its an 8 ball) – in class you should follow exactly but on the social dance floor you should make allowances. The question I’ve been pondering is how far does that go? And how then can you be sure that you’re following exactly what's being led and not just anticipating, or using visual leads to overrule your moves.