| This was something I heard at the weekend. They were showing some ballroom dancing on TV. It was a Latin competition, and the comentator was saying that each dance should have a distinct style. Unfortunately it looked like each couple was actually dancing the same style, just at different speeds. If you turned the sound off, you couldn't guess what sort of music was playing unless you knew the steps.
I think this is very much the same in Jive. If you played a 'club' track, then a latin track, then a swing track, you would be pushed to tell any difference in the way people dance. It might feel different if you are actually dancing with them, but it doesn't look different.
The best way I can describe it is interpretation of the type of music, but not the individual song. There are people who have very distinctive styles that really suit particular types of music. So there is obviously room in Jive for this sort of interpretation. But no-one seems to have fundamentally different styles depending on the music. We all seem to have our one personal style, and can only make slight changes to it.
Do people try to develop separate styles? Or is it more useful to incorporate elements of other styles into your own single personal one.
David |