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Originally Posted by Andy McGregor Andy, you went to Hipsters once or twice a week for years. You've even been know to turn up in Bristol for a nights dancing. |
Talking to yourself again me old mucker? sign of madness innit
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Originally Posted by Andy McGregor There seems to be a school of thought amongst a minority of dancers that you can/should progress to WCS or Lindy Hop once you've proved you are a good MJer. There is an, unsaid, implication, that these dances are somehow senior or superior to MJ. This is rubbish. When you've got better at MJ you can continue to improve until you're really good. |
Staying off topic with Mr McG - my turn ...........
I'm learning Lindy, I'm not learning it because it's a "superior" dance form to MJ - it's just a different dance form, it happens to have a structure that allows us to dance to different music (you know that nasty fast swingy stuff that people insist on playing from time to time
).
Attending Lindy Classes in Bristol with Graeme & Ann is a positive thing for dancing MJ though - there's a lot of stuff "borrowed" from Lindy in MJ & seeing the original shapes can give insight into different ways of dancing. There's also a lot of emphasis on lead & follow, very useful. And then of course there's the whole fitting your dance to the music thing (something ChrisA mentioned in another thread) combining 6 & 8 count moves fits better with the structure of dance music. The negative thing it shows though is the compromise nature of many MJ moves - removing the footwork can make some moves more difficult (honest)
I have to say that I've reached the end of the road with regularly attending MJ classes - I don't want to learn another First Move Jump variant. The big unwieldy nature of the teaching model is not designed for getting really good. I don't blame teachers for this - after all, it's what most of their customers want & I can't see anyone around here having the staying power to do a regular class aimed at advance dance technique. MJ workshops are just about all there is and they're great, so I'll be seeking those out (Like G&A's MJ into swing workshop on Sunday).
So in summary I believe that dancers who try other things aren't saying that they're too good for MJ it's more that MJ as a collective doesn't have the ambition to satisfy them as individuals.