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Swing Choreography and the Tibetan Sand Mandala

Posted by byron on 11.23.11 2:10PM under Getting Good at Swing Dancing, Teaching Dance

Some swing dancers love routines, some hate them. Since I started off in the “not a fan” dept. and moved on to choreograph more numbers, routines, sequences and so on than I can remember, let me explain the value of choreography for people whose only goal is pure social dancing.

Swing dancing is an improvised, social activity, a collaborative art form created in the moment. And when I first started taking swing lessons I couldn’t understand why teachers kept insisting on doing mini-routines. After all, my goal wasn’t to memorize a choreography, it was learning to lead the moves. Let’s face it, when classes use routines, there’s often as much back-leading as there is following. So why do it?

There are a few reasons:

Spotting errors. If everyone’s doing the same thing, teachers can spot obvious errors like major footwork problems or timing issues immediately, even in a very large class. Good teachers can also spot when dancers are backleading in order to make it work.
Transitions. If you’re just learning to dance, often the transitions between moves are the hardest to lead and to follow. By doing a sequence, we ensure that everyone knows how to go from move to move. This is important for the leaders, who sometimes freak out and need about 137 basics in a row before they’re willing to try the new move, because having a sequence gives them a chance to get quicker transitions into muscle memory. But it’s just as important for followers, who need to get their bodies ready after one challenging move to do the next.
Memory. When students leave the class, the mini-routine helps ensure they remember the moves when they try to practice them at home–or out dancing.
Repetition. By doing the same moves over and over again in a sequence, you engrave them into muscle memory, which means that instead of worrying about what’s next, you can relax and think about doing them better.

These points are true at every level of dance. But of course choreography alone won’t make you a great swing dancer.

I compare the use of the routines to a Tibetan sand mandala. The sand mandalas are painstakingly constructed into beautiful works of art… and then ritually destroyed.

Similarly, part of using choreography in a class is also destroying the choreography. Sometimes it’s as simple as just taking the same moves and doing them freestyle in any order. Other times it’s about breaking down individual moves and showing how a small change in the lead/follow can turn them into an entirely new move.

It’s a lot like how MMA fighters train. No two fights are identical, and you obviously can’t use a choreography in the ring. But on the other extreme, it’s not enough to just train individual moves: fighters need to train to execute and react to different combos. For offense (similar to leading) you need to practice setting up one move with another–such as a boxer’s punch combo, or a wrestler going for one takedown and then switching to another when the opponent reacts. And for defence (ie. following) you need to practice reacting to common combinations so that you don’t get too relaxed or badly positioned after you slip that first punch. So fighters also spend time working on sequences, then breaking them down and looking at other possible combinations.

Destroying the choreography is primarily a moment of creation: the creation of new options. And so the ultimate destruction of a swing choreography is when the ideas are transfered to the social dance floor.

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Posted by cizagui on 11.27.11 10:23 am

Excellent post on the role of choreography on learning dancing. Ahhhh!, muscle memory .. yes, sometimes it is hard to develop it. Did you know that there is a biological basis for muscle memory. Take a peak to this slide show: http://thetalentcode.com/myelin/ or better read the book: The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How, by Daniel Coyle.