Swing, specifically six count Lindy Hop, isn't by any observation easy to learn. And for a club dancer like me (a notedly not-trained one, unless you count the martial arts that I've always included in my dance vocabulary), partner dancing is especially foreign; having to tell someone else what you're about to do... it's admittedly intimidating.
Counting six instead of 4-8-16-32 is very, very hard for me to do; it's entirely counter to dancing to electronica, which I understand very very well and used to be a well respected dancer in many clubs. Trying to sequence a break when counting in sixes is difficult for me, it does not come naturally at all to me. Trying to count this out in my head is one thing; having little room for error because of the poor girl on my arm who has to follow the insanity that is my brain processing music... is quite a taxing experience.
To date, I've taken nearly two months of formal lessons in lindy (both six and eight count), which has meant some weeks as many as three lessons a week, and a handful of lessons in blues. I've been mucking about with informally learning the Charleston steps, and lo and behold, the Waterfire in Providence (my home base for many years) on August 28th is having a Charleston lesson, which should be pretty great fun.
It's all starting to click, now, but in weird ways. More on that in later posts, as I isolate and eradicate my gaps in understanding.
In the meantime... choreograph a nasty, unconventional swing routine to this with me?
Pendulum - "Watercolour"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPB7uzKuh4&feature=channel
7 count Lindy, brought to you by 'The artist formerly knows as...'
ReplyDelete1 2, 3 and 4, 5 6, 7 F#ck!
Actually, the F#ck is on the seven. You've simply accented the eight count.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I'll be holding lessons soon on this mysterious and exclusive new style. Classes start at a mere $250/hr; private lessons *might* be closer to $1,500 per week - but I'll cut friends a pretty fair deal, say 4.25% off?