Dance style progression

[Gus]

As per Bill

The question of what style is is very interesting - and I can't answer it - but I know it when I see it ie V & L or N & N.

Theres been an ongoing discussion about dance style hidden within the 'Viktor and Lydia' thread for some time. some excellent points have been made and I thought maybe its a thread in its own right.

What really caused the topic to gell in my mind was chatting about a dancer called Donna Van Roose. To go back slightly, the dicussion had been about how do you pick up style and whether you could LEARN style from workshops. I'm still not convinced either way but the following is more of an observation.

I first saw Donna a few years back in London .. I noticed her because she's got a build some guys would be envious of, but shes slightly diminutive, hence her nickname of the Pocket Rocket .... ANYWAY .. though I noticed her physique, her dancing was just OK ... so never thought much about it. Saw her about 18 months ago at the Blackpool champs coming second in the intermediate to a pair from my Nantwich club (sorry, had to get that in) .. and again, she looked competent but nothing much else.

Move forward to Junes JiveSPree and WOW! She taught and awesome hip hop class .. but in the evening saw her dancing with Nigel (as in ' ... & Nina). I have to say I've always regarded Nigel as one of the leading lights of the dance world but I think Donna outshone him. It wasn't just the moves or the patterns she was doing, it was HOW she was doing them. I've seen so many good dancers at JiveSpree that you can become blase about it .. not this time. A truly awesome display of dance style ... not better than V&L, just different.

The point is, if there is a point to my inane ramblings, that people can improve and modify their dance styles radically over a relatively short period. I don't know exactly how Donna did it but I gather it was from a combination of learning from other teachaers, dancing with good dancers and WANTING to improve.

Not everyone does Ceroc to be a good dancer. Many just want to enjoy themselves and thats great. However, if you want to improve, and its improtant to you, try to find the good teachers who's style points suit you and search out those good dancers, Scott, Frank, Bill etc and learn from them.

Here endeth the sermon.

[Franck]

Originally posted by Gus

The point is, if there is a point to my inane ramblings, that people can improve and modify their dance styles radically over a relatively short period. I don't know exactly how Donna did it but I gather it was from a combination of learning from other teachaers, dancing with good dancers and WANTING to improve.

You hit the nail on the head, anyone who is prepared to put the effort in can and will improve. What it takes is hard work practising every day (or every couple of days) small style points learnt in workshops, dancing with many different people and letting their style inspire you, trying out different dances to get a different perspective and new footwork / moves and spending some time un-learning bad habits (possibly using a video camera to watch yourself.

Most of the above is very time consuming and can be quite depressing (especially the video bit ), but as you say, the results can be very dramatic in a relatively short amount of time...
Very few people however will want to or need to go to such lengths, dancing is mostly about having a good time.

Franck.