Personal Tips for Partner Dancing

Last night in class I gave what has become my standard speech in every beginner swing dance class about the importance of bringing extra shirts to change into during social dances. Swing dance is a highly engaging activity and the music is addictive. You go to a dance and dance, dance, dance. But after awhile, you might sweat, sweat, sweat.

This is healthy for you. But not the best thing to enhance your partner connection. Here's a typical scene from when I first started dancing:

Guy: (shirt so drenched it's sticking to him, sweat pouring off forehead dripping down onto follower's skirt) Would you like to dance?

Me: Um, ok.

Not to be stereotypical, but guys can get drenched and dripping after just a few dances. But new dancers simply don't realize how wet they might get, so when I started teaching I decided to incorporate social dance awareness into my class instruction. It's made a world of difference.

Here are some tips to make your dancing experience a pleasure for you and your partners:


1. Bring extra shirts and use them. (See above).
2. Bring a small towel or handkerchief to wipe your brow if needed.
3. Use deodorant (this is not always as obvious as it seems. We've had to have "the talk" more than once with students).
4. Have breath fresheners or gum available if needed.
5. Do not douse yourself with perfume. Less or none is better.
6. If you have long hair and wear it in a high ponytail, be aware if you are whipping your leader in the face with every spin (this has happened to Chester) and make adjustments.
7. Avoid spike heels that could injure those around you. (This has happened to me. Her heel sliced my ankle! Those rock steps can be dangerous!)
8. If you have a skirt that twirls up make sure you are wearing shorts underneath.
9. Avoid wearing bangles, big rings, long necklaces and heavy jewelery/earrings. (I was asked to do an unexpected demo and was wearing a long necklace that whipped around my neck like a lasso. Quite distracting!)
10. Drink plenty of water. Water is available at most dances, but a water bottle is a good thing to have at all times. Bring water to class.
11. Dress appropriately. Swing dance classes are always casual as are most of the dances. Cute dresses and skirts are always appropriate. Unless noted for special events, there is no need for a shirt and tie or "formal" attire. Our 2nd Friday Swing Salon is dressier than our 1st Saturday dances. Look at the photos of people who attend. Comfort is always key.
12. Dress to dance. Beware of flying scarves, shawls and clothing that gets in the way of dancing.
13. Wear layers. You may get warmer while dancing and cooler when sitting in air conditioning.
14. Have fun and keep dancing!

Anything you'd like to add??
In my next post, I'll talk about the Swing Dance Culture and Etiquette.

Join me at next social dances, classes and workshops:

SOCIAL DANCES
Aug 2. 1st Saturday Swing Dance at Mac Fitness in Kingston with Speigeltent Performance Sneak Peek!
Aug 7. 1st Thursday Swing Dance at the Newburgh Brewery with lesson & live music.
Aug 8. 2nd Friday Swing Salon at Uptown Gallery in Kingston with lesson. BYOB & snacks!
Aug 14. LIVE AT THE SPIEGELTENT! 
Aug 21. 3rd Thursday Hep Cat Lindy Hop Practice in Red Hook

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
July 26 Saturday Beginner Swing Dance Workshop on Liberty Street in Newburgh 6-7:30pm
July 30. New Blues class series in Highland
Aug 2. Technique Clinic Stops & Drops before our 1st Saturday dance 
Aug 4. Monday night classes begin in Kingston
Aug 5. Tuesday night classes begin in Wallkill

HAPPY DANCING!
Linda

Why I write this blog.

When I first began learning to dance I found the most difficult thing was not learning the steps. The most difficult thing was getting past my own belief that I was never going to be a good dancer.  After all, I was already an adult (Belief #1: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks") and had never had a dance lesson in my life. On top of that, I had never played a musical instrument and couldn't even carry a tune. I was one of those people who only pretended to sing in chorus. And forget about clapping to the beat. I would wait till everyone else was clapping and then simply join in. (Belief #2: "You gotta have rhythm and I don't.")

Meanwhile my husband, Chester, had been a drum major in marching band in High School and had gone on to a music program in college. He had what I envied as natural rhythm.

So there I was in 1999, an adult with no rhythm and two left feet. Who else is out there with those same issues?

For some reason I thought dance lessons would be fun. So I signed us up. It was totally my idea. Something to do besides watch TV.

Turned out Chester's natural rhythm came in handy, but so did his innate sense of style and his ability to learn moves with lightning fast accuracy. He loved it. Soon he was the leader all the followers wanted to dance with. The trouble was that none of the leaders wanted to dance with me. Enter Belief #3 "I'm not good enough."

Then we went away to dance camp and Chester was put in a level above me (actually we were supposed to both be in that level but I had never actually been taught to follow, didn't know what any of the leaders were doing, couldn't grasp the new moves fast enough and got demoted...awwww.) Talk about an inferiority complex! (Belief #4: "I totally suck.")

So Chester kept getting better and I kept feeling worse. But he loved it. He excelled at it. So I was determined to become a better dancer. I made goals, I practiced, I went to class. Trouble was everywhere I went I carried around with me the belief that I would never really get any better. So even though I progressed, I was still convinced deep down that no one wanted to dance with me and that I totally sucked as a follower. In fact, when anyone tried to teach me anything, say in a private lesson, my mind was so busy telling me I couldn't get it that I couldn't even take in what the teacher was saying. I had no room in my clogged mind and made everything way more complicated than it really was.

Anyone out there have those issues?

It was only after a while that I realized that the biggest challenge I had in learning to dance was NOT my dance ability, or my learning ability, but getting past my belief that I would never be a good dancer. Since I'd already decided that subconsciously, I could never relax, never just enjoy myself. (Belief #5: "Dancing is hard and complicated.")

It was only after I realized that I was my own greatest critic that I began to realize I wasn't always the only one in class who was struggling. Sure, there were those who got things as quickly as Chester, but there were also those who got things even slower than me!

Then some guy told me he was afraid to dance with me because he was intimidated by the fact that Chester was my regular partner. So it turned out I wasn't getting asked to dance because the leaders felt inferior, not because they thought I was inferior! (Holy cow.)

I began to realize that my frame of mind was as important as my dance frame.

As a dance teacher, I see hundreds of students go through the same internal struggle that I did.  I see how it paralyzes them. So I created this blog to let them --and everyone--know that I know how it is. I've been there myself. It's not something to hide. It's something to uncover. So we can dance.

This past month, Chester and I had the privilege of teaching a Zen of Swing Dance workshop at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY. We spent the whole weekend working with students not only on dance moves, but on issues like these that get in the way of our ability to take in new information. It was an incredible weekend. And we got to see a group transform from people who believed they couldn't dance to people who believed they could. And were having a ball doing it.

I ran into two of them at Lincoln Center last week where Chester was performing with the Big Apple Lindy Hoppers for opening night of Midsummer Night Swing. These two people hadn't known each other before our weekend, and the woman said she'd wanted to go to Midsummer Night Swing for years but had always felt too intimidated. "Your workshop gave me the courage to come tonight," she said. "And it also gave me someone to come with. I am loving it!"

That is my goal for everyone and why I am so passionate about the Zen of Dance blog. Be in the moment, not mired in the mind. Follow this blog. And get into the Zen of Dance!

LEARN TO DANCE WITH US THIS JULY!
Four-week blues series in Highland on Wednesday nights starts July 2 
Four-week swing series in Kingston Monday nights starts July 7 (three levels available)
Four-week beginner swing in Wallkill Tuesday Nights starts July 8
Four-week blues series in Highland on Wednesday nights starts July 2
Summer class info: http://got2lindy.com/classes.html

Saturday workshop Nimble Feet in Kingston July 5 before our dance at Mac Fitness
Saturday workshop Beginner Swing in Newburgh 6-7:30pm July 26

DON'T MISS THESE JULY DANCE PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES!

Thursday, July 3, Swingin' Newburgh at the Brewery

Saturday, July 5, 1st Saturday Swing Infusion at the Mac in Kingston

Friday, July 11, 2nd Friday Swing Salon at Uptown Gallery in Kingston

SEE YOU DANCING!
Linda

Remembering Frankie 1914-2009

Linda & Frankie, 2006

As thousands of swing dancers around the world get ready to commemorate the legendary swing dancer Frankie Manning in this the month that marks his centennial year celebration, I turn inward to my personal reflections on the man and what he brought to me and to so many people.

We were lucky. Frankie was here to hold our hands and count us in when we were learning how to swing dance. It is his voice I hear in my head when I dance, like so many of our students say they hear Chester's.

I feel it is part of our job as dance teachers to not only teach the dance, but the legacy behind it. Frankie Manning is that legacy.

For those of you who have not read his book, the Ambassador of Lindy Hop, which I had the great fortune of editing in manuscript form, or who have not seen the documentary, Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging (airing on PBS on May 16 at 10:30pm), or were not swing dancing yet when he was still teaching up until almost his 95th birthday, here is a synopsis of Frankie:

Frankie was eight years old in 1922, the heart of the jazz age. His mother loved to dance but she couldn't afford a baby sitter so she took her young son around to her "social events", which mostly included rent parties (dance parties held in someone's apartment in which a 25cent admission would be charged and bathtub gin was 10cents a mug to help pay the rent) and dance halls. Soon Frankie had one aspiration: to be a dancer. But the first time he tried to show off to his mother, she admonished, "You'll never be a dancer, you're too stiff."

Boy, did he prove her wrong. He became one of the leading dancers of Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, selected by the ballroom's bouncer-turned-businessman Herbert "Whitey" White to be a part of the cats corner (an invitation-only area of the ballroom) and eventually to be part of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, the award-winning performance troupe. Segments of the troupe performed at various venues around the world, including the Cotton Club and in films, including famous dance sequences in the movies Hellzapoppin and in the Marx Brothers' Day at the Races (join us for a special screening of  Day at the Races on May 11 at 2pm at the Rosendale Theatre).

He created the first air step, tossing his partner in the air and landing in time with the music. He won awards. He choreographed. He toured. He performed professionally into the 1950s, when with a family to support he retired from professional dancing and got a job at the post office, where he worked for the next 30 years.

We should all have multiple chapters to our lives. The 1980's brought Frankie's.

A strange thing started occurring all over the world. After decades of independent body flailing that people called dancing, late night movies started sparking an interest in what looked like a really cool way to dance with a partner. People began rediscovering this old dance called Lindy Hop. And they wanted to know how to do it. So they reached out and found some of those dancers and brought them back to the dance floor.

When dancer Erin Stevens found Frankie's name in the phone book and called him, the famous phone call went like this:

Erin: Is this Frankie Manning the dancer?
Frankie: No, this is Frankie Manning the postal worker.

It took a lot of convincing to get him to teach her and her then-partner Stephen Mitchell. Some of you may know the sweatshirt our student Chris Cullen had specially made for me that says. "The Only Count I Know is Count Basie." That was is a famous quote of Frankie's when he was asked to teach. He was a performer, not a teacher. And he hadn't done that in thirty years.

But ultimately he did teach and in doing so, he changed our history, leading a tidal wave of dance enthusiasm around the globe. So huge that no matter where you go in the world, you can find swing dancers.

He changed our lives and the lives of so many people as more and more became swing dancers and some of those he taught became teachers. Global change. One man. Not bad. How did he do it? With wisdom and grace.

He was a performer with a personality that lit up a room. He had astounding energy. He was 92 when we brought him to teach and share stories in the Hudson Valley, but you would never have guessed his age.

He was also modest. It was never about him. It was about the dance. He did what he loved and he loved what he did, and everyone loved him, and he loved everyone and it showed.

Here's one of the best film compilations I've seen about Frankie made for his 95th birthday celebration in NYC, which was held shortly after his passing.

Working on his manuscript was a terrific honor for me, and I am forever grateful for the privilege to play a small part in bringing Frankie's book to light. Cynthia Millman, his co-author, had been working diligently on the book for years. I was eager to read it, eager to find out how such a famous man could have gone underground for thirty years, how people all over the world suddenly wanted to know how to swing dance, how it all happened. By lending my editorial skills, I was able to read it all in manuscript and help shape Frankie's huge number of terrific stories and Cynthia's incredible research.

Frankie's voice lives on in the pages of his book, in the many films (like the one I've included here), documentaries and video clips that people shot of Frankie both personally and professionally over the years. Frankie lives on in every dance move we do, and every dance move we teach. And most of all, Frankie lives on as a voice in our heads, a picture in our minds, with love in our hearts, and as we spread our passion for lindy hop every time we hit the dance floor.

And he lives on in you and in each and every one of the students we teach to swing dance.


FRANKIE EVENTS IN MAY IN THE HUDSON VALLEY
1. May 2. Frankie Tribute Dance in Albany by Chester's Cool Cats & Kittens
2. May 3. All About Frankie Workshop in Kingston, NY 6-7:30pm
3. May 3. Frankie Tribute Dance at 2nd Saturday Swing Dance Infusion 7:30-10:30 performance at 9pm
4. May 5-June 2. Frankie-inspired swing outs in Lindy Hop class series Monday nights 8-9pm in Kingston
5. May 11. Frankie Tribute Day. Screening of Marx Brothers A Day at the Races, Video Tribute & Q&A with Judy Pritchett at the Rosendale Theatre, followed by a Swing Dance Party at the Belltower.

FRANKIE EVENTS IN NYC

Weekend of May 22-26. Frankie 100 Centennial Bash in NYC.
May 23-25. Frankietrifecta in NYC.

BUY THE BOOK! The Ambassador of Lindy Hop. 
SEE THE DOCUMENTARY! May 16, 10:30pm: Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging channel 13, PBS. 

Chester Freeman, Cynthia Millman, Linda Freeman, Frankie Manning

SEE YOU ALL DANCING!
Linda