[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Wendy

Thanks for your thoughts.. always very welcome !!!!

Thanks for listening!

I don't think it matters that a whole move takes 8/16 beats (it might later when you want to end a song in a particular postion or something .. dunno,... I'm not that good at leading to know )..

I never noticed this ceroc beats vs. real beats thing. There's a difference? And here I thought I had a fairly good sense of rhythm.

but it DOES matter if your partner is expecting you to turn out on 3 and and you do it on 2 or on a half beat - even worse !!!!!...

I don't think I'm getting it wrong, but I don't know - I'm aware of our teacher and the taxis telling us not to rush through moves but to follow the beat. I'd like more time dancing with someone who can tell me if I'm getting things like this wrong.

A beginner is learning the moves/beats as you are (even although she is meant to be following).. if you don't want women to back-lead then you might as well learn it to the "correct" counts etc at first.. and then when you know the basics you can add pauses and variations that will make beginner women either squeal with delight or think are getting it WRONG and be terrifed !!! Beginner women can't follow yet - they are learning moves too and want to get it "right"...

My experience is that even non-beginners will freak out a bit if I add the slightest variation to a move. I guess they are maybe going a bit into "auto-pilot" as they're dancing with a beginner after all!

If a lady took 2.5 beats to do a turn/return you'd know how awful it can feel when it's "wrong" (and I'm talking timing-wise not movement-wise.... (jeez some guys come out in a rash when I take longer than I "should" even although I'm keeping to the beat !!!!!)

Dancing with anyone who is not in time with you (no matter who is at fault) feels pretty awful.

Is something like marching not taught to numbers ??? I am just thinking of Clive Dunn in Dad's Army... and imagining someone singing in a choir at the wrong time.....

Counting in marches never goes above 4, and there really are only 2 basic moves (left and right!) I suppose there are things like turns... Anyway, that must make it a bit easier to get right.

What I'm saying is that once you get into higher numbers it doesn't help because you can't remember which number is which move. (Or is it just me?) And isn't there a reason why they use marching songs rather than just calling out numbers?

Each part is SUPPOSED to be lead... however, beginner men don't know how to lead and beginner women don't know how to follow.... so that ain't going to work.... well not right away...

I feel you're being a little unkind to beginners here. We might not be fantastic at it, but both are natural skills. Have you ever owned a dog? You lead, it follows. If it's big enough, occasionally it leads, you follow.

I'm just trying to work out why so many men don't get the yoyo

I think I've got it. There has to be a clear separation between the sweep out and the turn back in.

Glasgow men do some fantastic combs !!!!!

This is a move I was taught at the Edinburgh workshop but have yet to properly master. Maybe I'm just waiting for the right woman to try it on...


A brief aside...

Originally Posted by tsh

but it's not that hard to repeat a move which doesn't involve changing hands.

Is changing hands meant to be hard?


Back to the main thread...

Originally Posted by Wendy

a really complicated track like "all that jazz" or that Meatloaf marathon one before 9.45 would be nightmare if you were dancing with a beginner as a taxi...

I totally agree with you here. first, I really hate "all that jazz", (and it's got lots of breaks which would freak me out, and now it's stuck in my head! ), and although I love Meatloaf, "paradise..." is just tooooo long to expect me to make it all the way though it alive. I'd be praying for the end of time.

I assume when you say "9.45" you mean half an hour after the intermediate class finishes. Round my way that'd be 10 pm. And, yep Tsh, I do go home once the music gets too complicated!

Originally Posted by Gadget

{Or play "call on me" on repeat }

That'd be cool with me! Love that track!

Originally Posted by spindr

Just a thought -- but do the beginners get taught what the beat/MJ count is, or how to find it (maybe even to clap along)?

I thought I understood what was going on until I read this thread. I haven't been taught what the "MJ count" is, or how it relates to the beat. That said, I usually don't seem to have a big problem finding it, so I must be doing something right?

Originally Posted by Wendy

(have you been listening to Ducasi and hearing how scared some people are to get dancing ???????????)

Yeah, but I'm just a big woose! (and how do you spell "woose" anyway???)

It's funny, but I have almost zero recollection of any of the music our resident (fabby ) DJ plays. I do know I've usually been able to dance to it. I do recall feeling annoyed as I miss simple breaks as I'm in the middle of something else. (I just love it when the music breaks - watch me dancing at a club and I'm the one trying to anticipate the breaks coming in, feeling the tension, and then the release as music kicks back in. It's almost a reason for living.)

Either way, it's not been the music on a class night that has put me off dancing, though it was a factor at the Edinburgh party. But I don't think Wendy's going to start saying only easy music should be played there for the likes of me, is she?