Stringing moves together, help!

[NZ Monkey]

Originally Posted by CheesyRobMan

Blog? Blog?! Luxury! When I were a lad we had no such blogs. We had scraps o't'wood from t'fire, and we had to get them out with our bare hands. And then we had to write on them using fingernails. Spent many a dark evening picking splinters from under nail, we did.

Wood? Wood?! Luxury!

When I was a lad we had only smooth boulders from the beach. We had to move them to the top of the hill with nothing but our bare hands and feet on the frosty mornings so that we could cast them back down to shatter upon more rocks, and used the jagged edges to carve our notes onto other boulders.

I dreamed of nice, soft wood with which to write on….

OK – seriously now. I’d say the biggest thing (which has probably been made absolutely clear by now) is to realize that when you’re going blank after only a short time dancing, that you’re not alone. I went through the same thing as well and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully, the tunnel isn’t all that long in the grand scheme of things either although it can seem that way at the time.

[DundeeDancer]

Originally Posted by marko

Any advice on braking through this mind-blank?

It's been said above but having a default routine helped me greatly.

At about the 6 week mark I practiced this routine until I knew it by instinct: Arm Jive, Manspin, Cerocspin, First Move, In & Out, Octopus.

Once I got relaxed with that routine then I'd vary it slightly to stop myself from getting bored, maybe do a YoYo then Backpass instead of the Cerocspin.

If you learn a single routine like that and perform the moves smoothly then followers will never get bored of dancing with you.

Followers get bored not due to lack of moves but they get bored of constant mistakes and being yanked all over the place.

I tried following at about the 8 month mark and it made me realise that the moves happen that quickly that you don't even know half the time what the move is being lead on you, your too busy just following your hand and it's like a weird dream/trance.

As long as nothing breaks that trance then the follower is happy dancing away putting in there own styling here and there if they get the chance.

Even now coming up to the 1 year at ceroc I still stick to beginner moves and only add in an intermediate moves here and there for my sake and not for the follower benefit. More for my male ego, it's like am say I can do intermediate moves if I want to but I choose just to do these cool beginner moves instead. They are the best so learn them well and don't worry about learning any of the fancy stuff too soon.

Enjoy your dancing.

DD.

[Lory]

Originally Posted by Double Trouble

I'd rather a lead repeated 4 moves and did them well rather than try and fit 20 moved in to a 3 minute dance.

x 100!

My advice would be to think about adding just one move to your repertoire each week.

Just pick the one you like the most and make sure you concentrate on including it, in every dance that evening, at least three times per dance, until it becomes ingrained in your muscle memory

[Martin]

Originally Posted by Lory

x 100!

My advice would be to think about adding just one move to your repertoire each week.

Just pick the one you like the most and make sure you concentrate on including it, in every dance that evening, at least three times per dance, until it becomes ingrained in your muscle memory

Hey, I used to do that!

In fact, sometimes I still do, when I am getting bored with myself, I think of one move to include in each dance.

[dep]

Originally Posted by Martin

Hey, I used to do that!

In fact, sometimes I still do, when I am getting bored with myself, I think of one move to include in each dance.

I've not tried that yet.
One move to a dance, how long into the dance does the Follow say "isn't this a bit repetitive?"

[johnnyman]

'One move at a time' was the mandate of a taxi dancer in my early years.

Richard Oliver said in a style workshop 'Pick your best ten moves and style around them'

Stick at it and have fun in the process. The best is yet to come.

best
johnnyman

[bigdjiver]

Watch the good dancers. If you do it on video / youtube you do not lose any dancing time.

[geoff332]

Probably the most important point is to remember that moves are not dancing. By that I mean that doing a move is not sufficient for you to be dancing. Some would argue moves are barely necessary. The other things you need to throw in are, in my opinion, far more important. Some of these include:

• Fun.
• Timing (which becomes musicality).
• Leading/following.
• Technique (how you do each individual movement).
• Style (adding your own personal flourishes).

The good news is no-one expects you to master all of these things in eight weeks. In eight years, I've barely scratched the surface.

What I would recommend is to not worry so much about the number of moves you know and focus on improving your dancing. Again, after eight weeks, this shouldn't be a big thing: don't put much pressure on yourself. The main point should be to enjoy yourself.

One thing I've found really useful at various stages of my dancing life are doing things like small drills to improve technique (a spinning drill is really easy). Another is to concentrate on any piece of music I listen to and try and find its structure (start with finding the beat, then the bars, then the patterns). A third is to seek good dancers, dance with them, and ask them for feedback. Workshops can help: their nature makes workshops more focused than classes. But most of all, relax and enjoy yourself: my dancing has always improved the most when I'm enjoying it most.

[Gadget]

With your mind going blank, the one thing to avoid is stopping: the main difference between experienced dancers and fledgling dancers is the ability to make mistakes look planned.

Learn a couple of hand-swapping moves for when you think "Arrgh, not this hand again; I've used all the moves I know on this hand four times already!"

Don't be scared to let go: If you get into a tangle of limbs, let go of a hand. Sounds simple, but it took me years to learn that one.

If you want variation; think on one move, then try to find out how many different ways you can get into it. What moves feel nicer going into it? Can you drop the return before it? Can you do something in the middle of it? (pause, change hands, change moves...)

The main thing is the beginner moves: once you are confident and comfortable with them, you get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing what happens when something goes wrong. (It didn't go wrong: you just made up a new move! )

[Martin]

Originally Posted by dep

I've not tried that yet.
One move to a dance, how long into the dance does the Follow say "isn't this a bit repetitive?"

Yeah right, twist my words why don't ya!

I extra move


Anyway, looks like everyone is saying "you are not alone Mark"

On this forum you will find people from all over the place, where do you dance? Please do tell.

Wherever it is , there may well be someone who is from the forum who can help you - or there will be an insite to what is taught localy and how to take that and progress.


The bottom line is.... we have all been there and we all want you to do well.

[marko]

Hi all

Many thanks for the help and encouraging comments.

My 'home' dance venue is Buckingham but we visit other venues too (once a week just isnt enough ). We have been to Evesham, Bicester, Oxford.

It is good to hear that I am not alone with the 'mind blank' issue. Hopefully I will get onto the next phase of the learning curve soon. We are going to a Beginners Improvers workshop in the next couple of weeks. That should cement the beginners moves and help with hanging it all together.

BTW, we went to a Blues Freestyle last week, just to see. Was all a bit 'intense'. The blues dancers seem to be a bit precious... Anybody else found that?

Cheers
Mark

[whitetiger1518]

to all above - Particularly Double Trouble.

Only two things to add:

• Smile at your partner - Fun is the key - I learnt more, and more easily by messing up moves and having a laughing analysis of it than by worrying about it.
  
• Eye contact as much as possible with your partner - You will get more good dancers returning for dances by giving them eye contact than by using the fanciest of moves (particularly in the blues room )
  

Whitetiger

[dep]

Originally Posted by whitetiger1518

Eye contact as much as possible with your partner - You will get more good dancers returning for dances by giving them eye contact than by using the fanciest of moves (particularly in the blues room )

In my week of Blue moves I hardly get the chance to eye contact my partner.
She's either grinding into my buttocks or I'm doing something similar to my Follower.
When we are face to face, no I mean front to front, I can't see her eyes.

Franck, where are you?
I need more lessons/workshops

[Paul F]

This might help, or not, depending on how you learn and recall information but a useful bit of advice that i have used in the past, and also taught, is to make up what are known as 'trigger words'.

Its a real simple premise.

A trigger word is a word made up from the first letter of a set of moves. Fortunately MJ has names for moves rather than lengthy descriptions.

For example, in the past I have used the word CAFA (pronounced Cafe) for Catapult, Armjive, Firstmove and Armjive again.
Its a stupid, made up word but its a word you will remember for that reason which is the key.

It works by association. You remember a word that then triggers a further series of words, in this case the moves. When you get more accustomed to it you can just make up longer words.

It is used a lot when learning routines to help people remember the sequence. It takes some rote learning but it really really works. Eventually you will just know them and then dispense with them altogether and just wing it