| Good questions. An 'advanced' dancer is someone who is both good to look at, and good to watch, whoever they are dancing with. This is not easy, and takes the ability to:
- know exactly what he/she is doing
- know what his/her partner is doing
- understand how his/her dancing affects the partner
- understand and anticipate the music
- interpret the music individually
- interpret the music as a couple
- be aware of what everyone around is doing
- be a capable individual dancer
- be able to lead/follow (preferably both?) well
- know what looks good
- know and avoid what looks bad
- be flexible in case things go wrong
- and do all this naturally, without thinking, and smiling all the time!
This is by no means exclusive, and there are certainly other things that people can think of. But one that I wouldn't put on the list is 'knowing a lot of complicated moves'. An advanced dancer is capable of doing complicated moves, but it doesn't work the other way around.
I don't think there are any truly advanced Jive dancers yet. There are obviously people who are better than everyone else, and could be considered advanced compared to other Jive dancers. But I haven't seen anyone who can compare to the top dancers in other types of dancing.
You can adapt, improve or even completely change your style, but it is not easy.
The quickest way to make a big improvement is to watch a video of yourself. See what you really dislike about your dancing, and then change it. (Alternatively get someone to watch you, and see what they think. Don't pick a close friend!)
I would imagine that teaching style is very difficult - far harder than just teaching moves, and probably harder than teaching technique. And like any other form of teaching, what works for one student doesn't work for another. I find it difficult to copy other dancers - I can see what they are doing, but my body loses something in the translation!
Some of the things that helped me improve my style were:
- not letting style get in the way of basic dancing (by understanding what you can and cannot change)
- working on a style for one type of music at a time
- don't worry about being stylish in complicated moves.
Good luck in your workshop.
David |