Looking forward to seeing some folks tonight who are serious about learning west coast swing and doing it well! Weve had a lot of people come to the class since it started and we are proud of those of you who have stuck with it. We have also had some people come and go. We have even had some people say they really want to be good, but then stop showing up and stop working on their dancing. My question to you is, how do you plan on improving without taking lessons, practicing, and being an active social dancer? Yes, yes, I know... you go to social dances... ... but are you improving? Are you REALLY improving? Do you have the technique that makes you a true pleasure to dance with? Are you on time? Do you have a clear lead? Do you know how to connect as a follower? But most importantly, do you have the attitude required to actually LEARN? Unfortunately, we see a lot of people who have a very inflated sense of their ability to dance... and its not their fault. I believe this comes from dancing in a small community. People in larger communities are exposed to higher levels of talent and therefore have a more realistic perception of their ability. Smaller communities sometimes seem like a bubble. There may be a few great dancers, but most of the good dancers are good relative to the average level of dancer in the area. And this is fine if you only aspire to meet the status quo, but if you are looking to truly improve your dancing and become the dancer EVERYBODY wants to dance with, then you should always be looking to learn more and apply what you learn through actively practicing at classes and social dancing. If you come to class and think you are too good to work on basic technique, you are wrong. I have seriously had some people act like they are too good to participate in classes with other beginners when they cant even stay on time or always start on the up beat! REALLY!!! I have also had very strong dancers attend classes that focus on basics and come to us afterwards saying, Wow! That information really helped me out! We have a fantastic group of people who are focused on learning proper technique. They have accepted the fact that they have a lot to learn regardless of their current skill level. They understand that it takes months and years to become truly great at dancing. And they are willing to put in the time and work. We also have a lot of great people who dont want to work too hard and prefer to use dance as a fantastic social experience. They are equally valuable to the dance community. Why? Because these particular people dont act like they are better then they are. They have a great quality called HUMILITY, and that quality makes them a pleasure to dance with regardless of their skill level and their goals. The moral of my story is this: Regardless of your goals, be humble and recognize that there is always more to learn and more to improve upon. You WILL NOT learn west coast swing in a couple months. But if you attend classes and social dances and actually APPLY what we teach you (or what other great coaches teach you), you will quickly become a dancer that everybody wants to dance with. If you come to class, come to learn. Be open to feedback (seriously folks... be open to feedback from your instructors... otherwise, why come to class). We donate our time and facility every Tuesday to help many of you learn for free. We expect you to repay us by having a great attitude and actually participating in social dances. We are donating our efforts to you with the hopes that you donate your efforts to our dance community by actively participating in social dances. To date, we have had a lot of people come to the class, but I have to say, Im a little disappointed in the lack of participation of gang members at the social dances. With the exception of a few people, the only Gang Members participating in social dances are the folks who were already participating. We are very very proud of the few who have decided to come to our dances and participate... keep it up! So, very soon we have to decide whether to continue the Gang Night, and if so, how often. Its really up to all of you dancers to decide. How do we decide? Well, if more of you start coming to the social dances, we will certainly continue with free Gang classes. So if you want them to continue, I highly recommend you encourage your friends to participate. We look forward to seeing you all tonight, as always. Think about what you want out of dance and whether you would like to be a part of the growth of this dance community.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:35:02 +0000
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