05 Jan 2009
Came up in the minivan with the girls... ended up singing "I'm a barbie girl".
Did some dancing that night and checked out Andrew Thigpen's solo microphone dance.
Placement sessions:
We did drills with Evita Arce and Nathan Bugh.. basically weeding out the people who they didn't think should have been in level 2. It was some pretty basic stuff like swingout to lindy-circle, swingout with outside turn, swingout with inside turn... then they got creative and made us do jumps and stuff that clearly none of us were capable of doing. We then attempted to do some stuff that the level 3's were doing, but quickly realized that we were still in level 2.
A couple people moved up and down but they were few in between.
Class: Nathan Bugh & Evita Arce
So apparently a pre-requisite of being a good dance instructor is to be hilarious. I often wondered if Lindy Focus was an improv comedy show with dancing as the theme, with some dance instruction as a side bonus.
Nathan Bugh and Evita Arce started off the show with stuff I can't remember, except that it was funny. As for dancing, they explained that you can do stuff that goes out of tempo and out of sync with the music, and showed us one sequence which went:
Tuck turn
Tuck turn, hold both hands and then let go of left hand so you end up with lead's right holding follow's left, in a very open stance
Rock step follow, then gently pull and get out of the way as follow turns and rolls neatly into your right arm
Follow walks forward and lead rotates in place
Find some space and stop so the follow turns out into open position
Finish with a darkside swingout/kick hold swingout
At least try to do the last parts in tempo with the music.
Blues Elective: Bill Borgida & Mike (the girl whose parents were clearly confused) Legett
We did some travelling across the room in bluesy fashion (slow, sad, with melanchony). Keep knees bent and lead with body so the follow can feel it. Leave room in between for baby Jesus. I don't think I'm old enough for these jokes.
Dance: Boilermaker Jazz Band (not Boilermakers)
The Boilermakers had an awesome bass player who would do his own thing in between songs and even jammed on a Fender electric bass when his double bass broke. You could tell he was having fun because he looked high half the time.
Class: Dave Madison & Ursula Ledergerber
Dave Madison made fun of Ursula Ledergerber for being Swiss, and managed to squeeze in a lesson on sugar pushes in the process. They emphasized the usage of the whole body to do the pushing instead of the arms. When the follow comes in, absorb her momentum with equal distribution in both hands. We did drills with sugar pushes ending with a cross-hand tuck turn. T-Rex was king of the jungle and a crappy dancer. Swinkle-Sweinkle (something hilariously Swiss-German)
Class: Andrew Sutton
Musicality class where he played samples of different music and we solo danced to them, adjusting to the mood. Feeling/looking like an idiot was part of the process. He showed us that you can pretty much dance any style to any music with adjustments: case in point was him dancing Charleston to St. James Infirmary by taking slow steps instead of the usual high-energy kick steps.
Emphasized dancing to the music instead of dancing to the moves. Looks better and you don't have to think as hard if you let the music move you.
We also went over the concept of the X, which is the amount of force in the connection so that nothing happens. Since all dancers seem to have scientific backgrounds, he could've just called it the "force necessarily to maintain dynamic equilibrium" instead of a mysterious letter. You can do your own solo thing as long as you keep the X constant so your follow doesn't think you're trying to go somewhere.
Also talked about follows being able to lead parts of the dance, especially for stylistic stuff.
Blues Elective: Dave Madison & Ursula Ledergerber
We did some pulsing and learned a basic Blues step, which consists of shifting weight between left and right feet moving your core in a diagonal line, pulsing the entire time.
Dance: Boilermakers again
Feet start to hurt after 2am
Class: Bobby White & Kate Hedin
Tandem Charleston class. To get into tandem from closed:
Tuck turn (kick instead of triple step). Big arm motion on the turn is an important signal
Kick and move to the right, using your momentum to pull follow into tandem position. Switch hands so that your right hand catches follow's right hand (don't grab forearms), and then get follow's left hand and rock step, followed by the usual Charleston.
One move you can do is to let go of left hand and push follow away around 3 so that follow ends up facing you on 4, then bring follow back into tandem by simply holding on, since you're going backwards to finish the Charleston.
Another move is to do push away on 3 again but kicking to the right so that you end up in the cross handed Charleston mode. I tried it with Bobby and he commented that you can really let the tension build in the hands by twisting into the kicks. Also, kick down into the ground instead of out.
Class: Marty Klempner & Kelly Arsenault
Learned a new move to do between swingouts: basically sliding your feet to the right, then to the left, ending with a "and two" step, followed by a swingout. Keep leading it if your follow doesn't catch on the first time because she will get it the second time unless she's asleep or out to get you. Can try tricking follow but this was not recommended for personal safety.
Pure Balboa Elective: Marty Klempner & Kelly Arsenault
Learned the basic hold-step and step-hold. In the former, you do 1-2-hold-4 5-6-hold-8 and in the latter, you do 1-2- step - hold (pulse in the ground) 5-6-step-hold
Blues Elective: Dave Madison & Ursula Ledergerber
Practiced moving around the room by taking bigger steps. Pre-empt said steps by shifting body weight a little lower as a prompt.
Went over the different kinds of connection you can have: Sleepy kitten (pretty much nothing), regular, and ninja (a lot of connection, useful for moving around a lot). Connection should come from the body and not the shoulders, nor by sticking out your bottom. I'm pretty sure Dave Madison is still laughing at how he managed to turn "sleepy kitten" into dancing vocab now stuck in people's heads.
Dance: Christabel and the Jons
Great band from Tennessee. Bought their CD. Slower country feel was a welcome break from the faster stuff by the Boilermakers. Danced to songs about food, especially mashed potatoes. Like dancing, you can sing about anything if you're convicted enough.
Class: Emily Hoffberg & Juan Villafaņe
Learned sailor walk/kicks:
Start in open, two hand connection: rock step and bring follow in with straight left arm and loose right arm so that you're looking past follow's right shoulder, now rotate follow in place so that you're back to back and use your left hand to keep the connection. Now use kick steps to walk in a circle until you get bored, in which case you can go back to open by extending your left arm.
Learned points with finger pointing:
A personality move where after a swingout (or whatever really), you point your left foot up, and then wag your finger at your partner as if they killed a kitten. Can also drop the hand while looking backward, then wagging again. Finish with "and step".
Spent the next class working on basics, such as rock stepping properly by gently pressing into the palm of follow's palm. Emily emphasized that everything a follow does should be led and not telegraphed or guessed.
Worked on triple steps, which should be very clear (lead from core instead of from shoulders). Also, the triple steps should be uneven, with "one, and two" instead of an even "one two three".
They also emphasized not calling the follow in until beat 2 on swingouts, since you can build up more tension and make it more springy. Can even rock step the follow, wait until 3, and still swingout (practice required)
Did some swingouts with Emily after class. She feels light and responsive.
Bal-Swing Class: Bobby White and Kate Hedin
Worked with the step-hold basic to add new moves. One of them was the turnaround, where you turned in place by swiveling clockwise on the step hold, going as far as you want, then finishing with regular footwork.
Also did lolly kicks where the lead rotates around the follow, twisting hips and alternatively kicking outward and inward.
Blues Elective: Bill Borgida & Mike Legett
More work on the basic step, this time leading steps by squishing a bug in the direction you want to go, then actually stepping there.
Dance: Russ Wilson Swingtet
Don't remember anything except Andrew Thigpen dancing Charleston with someone's baby
Class: Todd Yannacone & Kelly Arsenault
Learned the Texas Tommy where you switch hands behind follow's back from lead's left hand to right hand, trying not to break follow in the process. Can finish the move by staying with the cross-hand hold, or switching back to the left hand again (a lot of work just to go back to the starting position!)
This move can be used from closed (via tuck turn) or open (through swingout).
Also went into a Charleston position by doing a tuck turn Texas Tommy so that follow ends up behind and to the left of the lead. Can then do regular Charleston, in a staggered formation.
Dinner: Went to Hibachi grill, ate stuff made by non-Japanese chefs, still delicious
Dance: Firecracker Jazz Band
Toasted champagne to ring in the New Year
You can dance with instructors!
You can win velociraptor competitions by pretending to be a chicken
Foot pain from dancing follows a bell curve
Andrew Thigpen loves microphones, and microphones love Andrew Thigpen
UCF mass produces dancers