The Workshop Weekend: Learning to be a New Dancer Again

I recently attended the DC Bachata Congress (DCBX), in Washington, DC. This is a link to their promo video. Although I am an experienced swing dancer, and a pretty comfortable Salsa dancer, I'm still really new to Bachata. It is difficult for me to take consistent lessons because I live about an hour away from all the places where that might happen, and as a dance and fitness teacher myself, I am usually teaching at the same time group lessons are happening.

When I heard about this Bachata Congress, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to take a whole lot of classes all at once, and to get some intensive exposure to the dance. I didn't seriously consider going until the last minute: I registered on Sunday, and the event started Thursday. As a result, I didn't have time to find subs to teach my classes, which meant I would be seriously burning the candle at both ends during the weekend (as in, go to bed at 2am, teach 8:15am Spin Class). But I knew that going in.

Alien Ramirez and Martin Gonzalez,
World Bachata Champions,
taught the two best classes (for me) at DCBX

Attending DCBX also meant not attending the International Lindy Hop Championships (ILHC), an event I have faithfully supported for several years, because they were both happening during the same weekend, just a few miles apart. And I just couldn't manage both. I know a lot of people at ILHC, the style of dance and the faces are very familiar. It is actually a lot like going to a big family reunion where everyone wears vintage clothes and has great hair.

DCBX offered many of the same things you expect from any dance workshop weekend. There were so many classes and so many amazing teachers. All the other dancers were friendly. The music was great. Performances were inspiring. I discovered new levels of foot soreness and muscle fatigue.

For me, there were many things about this event that were different and that helped me grow in ways I did not expect. For one, my family is of latin descent, but I grew up so far away from that influence that it's like a distant shadow of a memory. To be immersed in the music and culture, and hear people speaking Spanish around me all the time was like waking up some kind of dormant collective memory.

Aside from all the great dance information, tips, and advice I got from the instructors, and all the practice time, perhaps one of the most useful benefits of the workshop weekend was remembering what it's like to be a newer dancer. I am so comfortable with swing and Lindy Hop that I forget how overwhelming it is for new learners to try to work on feet, and arms, and rhythm, and body positioning, and posture, and following/leading, all at the same time.

Sunday mornings are typically the most sparsely attended of any workshop weekend, since Saturday is usually the big party night, and everyone wants to sleep in on Sunday. So I had a small class at 11am with a great teacher, who gave me continuous, rapid-fire feedback: Make your steps closer, lift from the chest, keep your chin parallel to the floor, keep your elbows more away from the ribs, soften the elbows, make the hip movement softer, move the foot through toe-ball-heel, keep your chest squared off to your partner at all times. All this advice came in about a one-minute rotation cycle. I'm not sure how much I can internalize, but I did remember it all well enough to write it down.

There were also the social dance parties. With swing and Lindy Hop, or even with Salsa, it has been a long time since someone tried to lead something that left me completely confused. Bachata left me puzzled often because the body movements are so different. The poor guys would try to lead a move, and I would drop the ball. They'd try again, and I'd drop it again. They would finally move on and do something else. They were all very nice about it, but I quickly came to a point where I found it easier just to tell people at the start of a dance that I was a new learner. It kept them from throwing their A-game at me, and sort of managed their expectations from the beginning. 

However, I did have one funny experience with that. I mentioned to one guy that I was new, and he said, "I know. I've been watching you." Thanks, dude. Didn't realize it was screamingly obvious. However, he did still ask me to dance, so hopefully it wasn't that horribly bad. 

My take-aways from the whole weekend were that it is always good to learn new things. It is always beneficial to build new neural pathways. Expanding your dance horizons can only help you grow as a dancer. And also, as a person. I have reconnected with my empathy for people who are learning new dance concepts for the first time. So, if you've ever thought about taking a dance class, but are worried that you'll be the one slow person in class, or that you just won't get it, you should definitely take a class with me. Because I have been that person very recently and I know exactly how it feels. And I've got you! 

To sign up for swing dance lessons (and we are also teaching beginner Salsa) in Fredericksburg, go to http://gottaswing.com/fredericksburg-va/. For more general information about what's going on at our dance studio, check out our FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/LindyintheBurg/. You can also take a look at our studio website, https://www.dancefxbg.com.

Top Five Reasons Why People Don't Take Dance Lessons. And Why You Should

It's almost time for our dance lessons to start again, which means I have been trying to convince people to sign up for them. Which, in turn, means that I have been hearing all the top reasons why people turn me down. No judgement, now. Maybe dancing just isn't your thing, and that's totally fine. But if dancing is your thing, but you think there's a roadblock, I want to remove that block for you.

So here are some of the most common reasons people tell me they can't dance, followed by my responses to them. If any of these are your reasons, I hope my responses convince you that you should be dancing!

If you really have two left feet,
you have more serious problems
than lack of dancing skills

1. I have two left feet. Really? Where do you buy your shoes? I think you actually have a right and a left. You just don't actually know which one is which yet. And that's ok, because as I know from teaching exercise classes, I frequently do not know which is my left or right, either. So I often say, use the foot on the water-fountain side of the room. Muscle memory is a huge part of the process. It's just like tying your shoes. The first time you do it, you have to think about the little rabbit going over the log and into the hole, but after you do it 35 times, you never have to think about it again. 
2. I have no rhythm. Rhythm is a learned skill. It certainly comes easier for some people than others. Those that played an instrument have an advantage. But even if you can't find a beat with both hands, we have drills to help with that. Another strategy that helps anyone is just listening to music and trying isolate the sound of the drum within the song. Even if you aren't 100% successful at the beginning, your ears are learning.

   

   Musicians on a beach in Havana

3. I don't have a partner. Don't tell the married people I said this, but you are almost better off NOT having a partner when you start dancing. You will meet a lot of new friends. You will have no guilt about dancing with everyone. No one will be jealous if you start chatting with your new friends after class. You will be able to rotate freely among the other dancers and ask as many questions of them as you want. We change partners often in class for many reasons. It helps everyone learn, and it also helps defuse tension when maybe married couples aren't entirely agreeing on how a move should be done. So don't worry about showing up solo. You'll fit right in. (That is how I started, too).
• The corollary of this issue is 3A: I do have a partner, and I love him/her so much, I don't want to share/rotate. That's OK too. You can come to a Saturday dance and take a beginner lesson. We'll let you step out of the rotation. However, we have found through our extensive experience that our ongoing weekly lessons work best when all the couples rotate. SO, if you can't bear to be away from your sweetie, we offer two options. Option 1) Arrange a private lesson for just the two of you. I charge $60/hour, and I pro-rate for any segment of the hour. Option 2) You can put together a whole group of your attached friends, and we'll set up a special, non-rotating, semi-private lesson at your location or ours. Oooh, l'amour 💕💕
4. I am too old. No one is ever too old to dance. Check out our heartthrob, the lovely Jean Veloz, at 93. Sure, learning a new skill at an older age may take you a little longer than it did in your youth, but it also helps protect your brain's health.
5. I have no coordination. Um, No coordination? Really? Can you walk? Run? Bike? Swim? All these things require a lot of coordinated movement. It's just that you mastered those skills long ago. The only thing that stands between you and dancing is learning to dance is time and repetition, so I hope to see you out there soon on the dance floor and in our classes!

To register for our dance classes, you can sign up online at http://www.gottaswing.com/fredericksburg-va/. If you have any questions or if you'd .like to set up a private or personal group lesson, please email me at valerie.cox.webber@gmail.com.