Swing Dynamite Blog
Thoughts and news about swing dancing in Ottawa
Great Technique Allows You to Improvise
[ No Comments ] Posted by byron on Mar 18, 2010 in Swing Dancing
From the very beginning when I took my first dance classes, improvisation was always the thing that interested me the most. It probably began years ago when I saw a Salsa demo that blew my mind. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a choreography–how could they be so in sync? How could she follow such complex moves without rehearsing the order beforehand? And how could he react so well to her, in the moment?
As it turns out, what’s most important is making the fundamental technique as solid and instinctive as possible. Years ago after doing a performance with the Swinging Air Force at la Place des Arts (Montreal’s largest music theatre), our client said to us, “it’s amazing how you look like you’re having so much fun!” I replied that in order to actually have fun on stage, you had to first put in enough hours of dance training and rehearsal that you no longer had to think about the movements or the routine. The bottom line: for it to be truly fun, there had to be a lot of work first.
Adrian Cho has a great post on his site, the Jazz Process, about this: how great innovation comes from great execution, in both jazz and business.
This is a principle that we use a lot in our swing classes at Swing Dynamite. A huge part of the strategy behind our course design, in particular for beginner swing classes, is keeping the order right for those steps. Learning technique first helps the execution. But we also have to keep it fun!
Improv isn’t just a central part of swing dancing–it’s also what makes the dance so exciting! And as it happens, any classically trained musician will tend to agree that if you spend too long working on technique without improvisation, it’s very hard to improvise. So how do we teach enough fundamental technique yet also introduce improvisation?
The key is in using a cyclical rather than linear approach. We start off in our first beginner swing classes (eg. Swing I) by introducing very simple rhythms and patterns. The simplicity means that we can drill the rhythms and basic lead/follow principles until they become instinctive, and the basic patterns fade into the background. That’s when the improvisation can occur. The idea is that if the basic pattern is simple enough for a dancer at that level to master, then we can start introducing variations on the pattern.
This cyclical approach repeats throughout the classes. You start with a basic pattern, you learn how to mix it up, and then you revisit how you can improve your technique so that improvising around the pattern is easier. And then you’re on to learning a new pattern.
Of course, part of this learning process is that in order to learn a social dance like Lindy Hop or other swing styles, you need to social dance–to simply get out there and dance with random people. The secret is that after doing enough social dancing, the basic patterns you’ve learned become imprinted in your brain and it feels like your body can do them on its own. That’s when you’re ready for more.
Swinging to Change the World
[ No Comments ] Posted by byron on Mar 10, 2010 in General, Ottawa, Ottawa Dance Events, Swing Dancing
Swing dancing doesn’t have to be all about the dancing. It’s about the people, the music, the connections we make. And I’ve always hoped it could be about even more.
Running a dance school is enough of a challenge, but running a dance school dedicated to the little-known dances of Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Balboa, Blues, Shag and so on, is the kind motivation for entrepreneurship that they warn you about in business school. You’re supposed to start businesses that will make money, not just make people happy.
But for us at Swing Dynamite, it’s always been about spreading the happiness and excitement that we find in Swing dancing. Natalia, our artistic director, was speaking not long ago with her father, who said he was proud of her because her work makes people happy. It’s exactly right: we all began swing dancing because it was fun, because going out dancing and interacting with people made us happier. And we started teaching and performing in order to spread that joy of swing dancing to more people.
What’s really amazing, though, is when we can go beyond just spreading happiness through the dance, to changing people’s lives in other important ways. Since not long after we founded Swing Dynamite, we’ve been involved in doing charity work, organizing benefits, teaching classes at reduced rates for underprivileged children, and doing performances for fundraisers. Recently we managed to raise money for Haiti and medical aid to Cuba, as well as performed and offered services for a few different charity organizations such as the Canadian Paraplegic Association. For all of us, this is an important contribution.
There’s a hidden benefit to companies working with charities to offer services: recent research shows that non-profits are often seen as less competent, offering less valuable or professional services than businesses. Think of it this way: you might want to support a charity, but would you rather buy a TV set made by Sony, or by the Cancer society? It’s an extreme example, but when businesses get behind charities they can increase the perceived value and professionalism of the organization. If you can buy a Sony TV and have some proceeds go to the Cancer society, it’s a win-win, right? Similarly, we hope that as one of Canada’s top swing dance groups, our participation makes people even more excited about attending charity events, helping to increase the attendance and funds raised. It’s one thing to attend a 40′s themed charity ball, but (we think) something much more exciting to attend when Swing Dynamite is teaching dance lessons and doing performances to set the mood and create excitement.
It’s great when swing dancing can be about something greater than the dancing, or even our little dance community–when swing can help to change the world just a little bit.