Hyperreal

I spent the weekend in Pitlochry, at the “Dance Fever” weekender organised by BoogieNights.

This is the first of three posts about it, in this one I will talk about the workshops, and in the others I talk about the dances, and the weekend as a whole.

The format of the weekend was three workshops for everyone in the morning, and three sessions in the afternoon with a choice of two workshops during each session. On Sunday afternoon there was only one workshop session and for the rest of the afternoon had a tea dance.

Both mornings’ first session was Line Dancing with James (of SDF fame.) This wasn’t so much an attempt to teach us line dancing as it served as a warm-up session. We got taught some very simple line-dancing routines matched up to particular songs. On Sunday was also did this cool we walking thing in groups of four which was more fun than you’d figure if I tried to describe it. The moves we did were (no surprise here!) very reminiscent of Ceroc Essentials and Ceroc Plus stuff done in Rutherglen.

On Saturday we then did a Modern jive class with Lindsay and Brady. This was about the same level as a typical Ceroc intermediate class, maybe slightly more advanced. I forgot to take a note of the moves we did, and the weekend has sort-of blurred together a bit, so I’m not sure I can remember exactly what they were. The routine included a left-side catapult, switching hands behind your back and quarter turning to be side to side with the girl, then turning her back in front of you to go into a classic dip. Back up and spin out. Then I think it continued with a regular one-handed catapult, with a double spin at the end. If anyone can remember the rest, please leave a comment or email or PM me.

Next up was James’ style and technique class. I think he could have been a bit better prepared for this, but I think it was very good just to listen to what he had to say, both of subjects of his own choosing, and answering questions put to him. I learnt some interesting spinning techniques which I hope to master, and his discussion on poise, including points about shoulders, arms and feet was very valuable. The best thing about this class though is that James is simply an entertaining guy, and as he is so knowledgeable about so much in dancing, it was really great session.

That was Saturday morning. Had a break for lunch… After lunch we then had some choices…

First up was West Coast Swing or Ladies’ Style Class. Obviously I opted for the WCS. I have an irrational prejudice against WCS, as on the forum it comes across as a bit of a snob’s dance. Something to graduate onto after you’ve mastered the basic simplicity of Modern Jive. Thing is, when I watch WCS and MJ dancers, it’s the MJ dancers that seem to be enjoying themselves the most. All the things that are claimed for WCS are true though. It is smooth and sexy, it can be danced to slower music, and it is harder than MJ. But, I think that MJ can be as smooth and sexy as WCS, especially if you go down the “blues” route. Last week at the BFG I did a class in “Cuban Blues” and the small amount of WCS I did this weekend was so remarkably similar, that if you couldn’t see the dancer’s feet, you’d swear it was the same dance. So, why suffer the misery of learning the extra footwork if you don’t need it?

That said, I enjoyed this class, I enjoyed the challenge and I think it has changed my perception of WCS a bit. Who knows, maybe in a year’s time I’ll be learning it, but it wasn’t enough to covert me to a true believer.

I think the moves we did were a sugar push, a sugar spin, a simple cross-body turn, umm, and I can’t remember what else… Again, answer on a postcard… I think I did alright, but never really got the footwork sorted. Redundant triple-steps seem to me to be a bit, well, unnecessary, and so they generally came off the worst.

Next up was Salsa with James vs. Belly Dancing. Even though the Belly Dancing was open to guys, I chose to do the Salsa. I’m currently doing a “proper” Salsa course, and thought it would be good to see an alternative approach… Of course on a weekend like this, they’re not trying to teach you everything in just an hour, and so there’s only time to give a flavour of the dance. It was good though, and we did do a couple of moves I hadn’t done in my class… Pretty good, but nothing extra special.

Last class on Saturday was a choice between Flashy MJ Moves vs. Late Night Swing stroll. As I’m trying to be a flashy MJ dancer, and swing just ain’t my thing. This was another class with James, taking some of the dance moves he has from his other dance styles and converting them to work in MJ. As converting moves to MJ is usually fairly trivial (just drop the footwork ) the idea worked well. What didn’t work so well was James’ lack of familiarity with MJ terms and method. This caused a bit of a problem now and then, and the routine we did wasn’t quite as smooth as it could have been, but again, I thought it was a very good workshop, entertaining, valuable, and rewarding.

The moves taught included a very difficult “helicopters” move (I think that’s what he called it???) where both you are your partner are spinning round each other – I don’t think this moves is leadable without your partner knowing it. From that I think we went into a lasso walk around (James didn’t call it this, but that’s what Ceroc would call it). At the end of this you bring your right hand up to the girl’s shoulder and duck-turn her to face you. Your right hand is over the girl’s L shoulder, now put your left hand on her right shoulder and continue into a dip. The last move we worked on was a sort-of lean/drop-type thing. You lead the girl with both hands in a wee walk (you’re stepping backwards) then spin her ACW (she should double-spin, but it doesn’t matter greatly) and as she comes out you should position yourselves facing in the same direction, lady to your left. Take both her hands in a firm grip and lean/drop the girl to your side as you take a small lunge to the right. The girl is taking most of her weight on her left leg, with her right leg swept behind. Again, not a move that can be led on random women. There might have been a fourth move in there somewhere, but my memory has failed me. Please let me know if you can remember anything I’ve forgotten.

And that was Saturday, workshop-wise.

On Sunday, by some miracle, I was up in time for the second day of Line Dancing, but I’ve covered that already.

Next up was Cha-Cha, with James. This was fairly straightforward, lots of triple steps in various directions, but once you had that, nothing very challenging. We were triple-stepping back and forward, and side-to-side. We opened up “BBC”-style at the ends of out side-steps, we did some steps that the guys led the lady from the hip. We did turns, we did triple cha-chas. We had fun. I’m sure there’s more to the Cha-Cha than that – at least, I hope there is. OK, so I was no-where near perfect, and we were all put to shame by a 12-year old girl, but for 50 minute’s worth, I think we all did quite well. (I have to thank my wonderful partner for the Cha-Cha, who I think did better than me, but never complained once. I think most of the mistakes she made were the result of mistakes or poor leading by me. )

Then we had more MJ from Brady and Lindsay. Again, pretty much the same form as before, some fairly difficult, but challenging moves. Think I can remember them this time… (These are my names.)

• First move triple steps – two sets of triple steps on the way out of the first move, with no CW turn. More redundant triple steps for the guy – why bother? The whole move, without the normal turn-out felt weird, and I didn’t like it.
• Man-spin walk around duck under – like a man-spin, but catch girl’s hand on your waist with your RH so she comes to stop at your LH side. LH over her head to her shoulder and lead her round, pressing down a bit on her shoulder as you come to 180º (back where you started) so she ducks her head under your arm as she turns CW. Step back L-R.
• (In and out to get onto double hand-hold)
• Cross-body basket pull – starts with a mirror-image basket lead to bring the girl past your left side, leading mostly with R-L hand-hold, get out of the way so she can come through on her slot. As she passes you, you start circling her ACW, your LH takes over the lead to turn the girl 180º ACW and wrapping her into a conventional basket. Lead her straight forward, bounce/lean and lead her backward on her slot as you continue to scoot round her ACW to face, stepping back. Now on a R-L hand-hold, so pull her back through where you were (get out of the way!) and turn to face her taking hold R-R.
• Yo-yo Archie – Exactly what it says on the tin. Start of a yo-yo, but swoop your hand over your head to do an archie spin with the girl, as you turn to face her. Switch hand-hold to go to L-R handhold.

Some cool moves. I tried the Yo-yo Archie a few times in freestyle and it almost always worked. Maybe did the others except the triple-step one once or twice too, but I think I prefer simpler, shorter moves.

Then we had lunch. After lunch there was only one more session of workshops…

That was a choice between WCS and Mambo. I figured that as I already had a dose of WCS, and had never tried Mambo, I’d give it a go… I’m glad I did. We first of all did the basic footwork… Not really a big surprise that the mambo footwork bore only a passing resemblance to the “mambo steps” that we do in MJ, and in Salsa, for that matter. But then maybe it was the timing, or the particular style of mambo that made it fell different – could it be that Mambo is danced “on 2″???? (You know, I think I could be right there! )

Once we had the foot-work sorted, we formed a Rueda and started putting some moves together with the footwork. The moves we did were fairly basic – crash, crash turn, crash dame, triple turn, triple dame, a cross-body lead and the ocho!! These moves are almost identical to the ones I’ve been learning in my Salsa class! Mambo is slower, but there didn’t seem to be a great difference beyond that up to the stage of both dances that I have been taught. That was fun to do, and I think I’ve got some useful experience that will help in my Salsa lessons. For example, I’l bet money that the ocho we did in Mambo is very, very similar to the ocho we will do in Salsa. Our teacher was very good, very sympathetic to how the class was getting on, while at the same time knowing when to give us a bit of a challenge (“Dame dos!”)

And that was it!

10 workshops, two days. I was very tired, but really glad that I hadn’t missed anything. I wouldn’t do anything different given the chance. (Though I’d be tempted by the Belly Dancing after seeing some of them in action later, but more of that later.)

If I were to suggest improvements it would be to maybe switch around the location of some of the workshops to better suit the numbers – not many did the MJ flashy moves, and so I guess loads did the Late Night Swing. But then the other room would be impractical for the MJ workshop… So I don’t know what the answer to that is. A different venue with two good-sized rooms?

My favourite workshops were the ones taken by James. He has a great manner and builds such a great rapport with the class I’m sure he could get us doing anything.

Now go on and read my report of the dances….