Hyperreal

My first “real” West Coast Swing class…

How’d that go?

After reading all the stuff on the forum, hearing folks rave about it, and trying our a few “taster” classes, I decided to give Graham Fox’s WCS classes a go. I’ve watched him dance a fair bit at various events, and he certainly makes WCS look good. In fact there’s quite a few really good dancers who do WCS, and they all make it look good. But is that because they are good dancers, or is it because there’s something in the dance?

I don’t know, but part of my motivation in learning WCS is to find out whether it’s hype, or as magical as folks say…

So I’m starting at the beginning again…

Actually, let’s start at the very beginning. I’d only decided to do these classes when I found out there were a few trains that would get me straight from home to Uddingston where the classes are. Looking again today, the options seemed much more limited that I remember, and it order to get there for 7, when the beginner’s class starts, I don’t have time to go home first, and I’m even rushed a bit going from work… Plus the information I got from the the web site about train times don’t seem to match reality – I turned up for a non-exisitant train…

Anyway, once I got there – fairly early despite my rush – I was pleased to see some familiar faces also starting the beginner’s journey – a little ahead of me, but my previous experience must count…

So… the beginner’s class… This was tough. When I think back to what I was like when I started Ceroc, I guess I’d have been more than struggling with this class. I can’t say for sure though, but I wonder how many totally new-to-dance folks start these classes, and how they get on. Though I’m sure the pace would be adjusted if there were folks really struggling.

That said, I was mostly within my comfort zone during this class – pretty much everything we did I’ve done before – or something very like it – in one of my previous encounters with WCS. I also know some of these moves, having been taught them in a Modern Jive context, though not necessarily during a standard Ceroc class. (E.g. whips aren’t new, as I’ve done them as part of the feeling good routine.)

I’m also getting OK at the footwork without having to think about it too much, though I did find myself on the wrong foot often enough during the run-throughs of the routines/moves we were learning… My biggest problem though is when I forget what move comes next, but, hey, I do that all the time in Ceroc classes – even in the beginner’s class… The difference is I don’t have to think as much in a Ceroc class, and so don’t mess up as often, and can recover quicker…

The class was arranged in two rows of couples… maybe a total of about 30 folks? Only a couple of spare women… Although there was lots of moving round as we practiced each new bit, there was a concept of “your partner” so once or twice we went back to our original partners to learn the next part…

What moves did we learn? So many for a beginner’s class!!!

We did sugar pushes, under-arm turns, passes, sugar push holds, tuck turns, tuck spins, two style of baskets, and two style of whips. That’s ten moves! Compare that to 4 moves, as taught by Ceroc.

And WCS is harder, because as well as leading the moves, you have this continuous “one, two, triple step, triple step” thing going on in your head…

Sometimes I decided to stop counting, smile, focus on my partner, and see how things went… Answer: surprisingly well…

My partners all seemed to be doing well… A few that lacked a bit of tension, and maybe one that didn’t ever offer her left hand for a sugar push, but no major disasters… A few were surprised at how well I was doing, considering this was my first class (first-timers were asked to identify themselves at the start…) My partners didn’t all know about my previous experience though, so I am not surprised by their reactions.

After about an hour of all that, we got a wee bit of “practice time”. Were we meant to continue just going over the routine as taught, or was a more-freestyle dance expected? I did a bit of both… I get bored of repeating the same thing over and over, and if your partner knows what’s coming next, you can never be sure whether you’re actually leading or not…

I stuck with a few girls who were also fairly new to WCS and who didn’t seem to have come with a partner, but I seemed to wear them out fairly quickly. Maybe actually being asked to follow my dodgy leading was a bit much for them… But I got one or two full dances. (Well, I say “full”, what I really mean was sessions with a partner where we stayed on the dance floor for a full song, but not necessarily dancing continuously…)

I found this a most frustrating experience. As neither my partners nor I were experienced enough at WCS, the concept of musicality had to suffer. Dancing to “Roadrunner”, it has so many great breaks and stuff to play with, but I can’t time my choice of move to the music yet, I don’t have a rich enough selection of moves, and I wasn’t able to lead breaks mid-move without confusing my partner – and me. Perhaps with a more experienced WCS partner, she would be able to do some of the musicality stuff while I bluff my way through yet another sugar push…

Next up was the Improvers’ class… Beginners were invited to try this, but many had left, and I decided on my first week to figure out walking before trying running and just watch…

That said, there wasn’t anything in the inprovers’ class I couldn’t have done… It was mostly extra variations on stuff that had gone before… There was a variation on the right-hand pass which was very, very similar to a move we learnt in the Feeling Good routine (no surprise, as we had been told it had been stolen from WCS.)

I think though that I made the right decision to sit out… My head was already frazzled from the first class, and I was happy enough just watching…

After there was another wee practice session, when I had another full dance – I think continuous – which was enough to be going on with… My concentration was beginning to ooze away…

So, time to leave… I was grateful to get a lift from a friend who was going partly my way (via parts of Scotland neither of us had expected to visit that night ) to a train station whether the trains ran more frequently than in Uddingston – in fact a train turned up moments after I arrived.

Sorry that I missed Graham on the way out to thank him… (See below…)

So that was that…

I enjoyed my night, but I’m not going to draw any conclusions yet – still early days…

Big thanks to my partners for putting up with me, and “hi!” to the folks I knew from the MJ world…

Thanks especially to Graham for his encouragement and help. He’s a good teacher, and a pretty cool guy…

Won’t be able to make next week… And the week after I think is the Southport weekend, so might miss that one too… Maybe make the week after that one…

Off to bed to dream… “one, two, triple-step, triple-step; …”

Cheers!