Comments on: Chapter 12 – Slow Dancing http://ihatetodance.com The guerrilla manual for survival on the dance floor - "Every Man's Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing: Ace Your Wedding Dance and Keep Cool on a Cruise, at a Formal, and in Dance Classes." Learn ballroom dance, formal dance, slow dance, survival dance, how to hear the beat in music, ballroom music phrasing like 32-beat music. Prepare for dance lessons. Intro to foxtrot, swing, salsa, rumba, tango, waltz. Free dance instruction video clips. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:24:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: James Joseph http://ihatetodance.com/slow-dancing/comment-page-1/#comment-285 James Joseph Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:54:44 +0000 http://ihatetodance.com.dh-temp.com/?page_id=151#comment-285 I can’t speak to the grind and the slow drag as those are historical dances and I don’t know if anyone still dances them or if they are taught. But blues dancing would be the best contemporary manifestation of those dances, which you should pursue. I understand that you want specific instruction, which I’ll give you, but blues dancing is highly improvisational and you could turn either clockwise or counterclockwise depending upon the move you’re doing. Experiment, first shadow dancing at home alone and then with a partner, and you will discover a movement and direction that works for you. I suggest that you make the side step your basic pattern (discussed in Chapter 11, page 103, of my book) as it’s easy and versatile. It’s eight beats of music and it’s just a shuffle to the left and then a shuffle to the right. You do the rotation to the left (counterclockwise) just before you start the next side step. I demonstrate this step pattern with a rotation in a free, two-minute video clip. <a href="http://ihatetodance.com/freebie-video/" rel="nofollow">Click here</a> or on the "Freebie Video" tab at the top of this page and scroll down to “The Side Step.“ Note that the rotation occurs on the “<strong>& count</strong>” before the <strong>count 1</strong> of the next side step. Here’s a suggestion for a good place to start experimenting. Do a basic sway, which would be STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH. That’s eight beats of music with no weight change on <strong>counts 2, 4, 6 and 8</strong>, which are the TOUCHs. (I haven’t gotten the “The Sway” instructional video up yet but check out the short video clip “Marking Single Rhythm” on the <a href="http://ihatetodance.com/freebie-video/" rel="nofollow">Freebie Video page</a>, which discusses the footwork for the sway.) Experiment turning left or right at any point. If you want to turn left (counterclockwise), your weight needs to be on your right foot, i.e., you’re turning into your unweighted foot. If you want to turn right (clockwise), your weight needs to be on your left foot so you can turn into the unweighted foot. Do the rotation first before you make the next weight change, i.e., rotate on the <strong>& count</strong> before the beat, then step on the beat. Make the turn and the weight change two separate motions; if you try to do them together it’ll get sloppy. Also, you don’t have to rotate a lot; if you rotate too much as a beginner, I’m guessing it’ll get sloppy. Play around with this on your own—shadow dance—and you’ll figure it out. If you work it out by yourself first it’ll be much easier to do with a partner. As far as blues dancing in New York City, I would google that phrase (i.e., blues dancing New York City). I did a quick search and this link looked interesting: <a href="http://www.jookjointshimmyblues.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.jookjointshimmyblues.com/</a>. I would also do a general search for “blues dancing” as there is lots of stuff. There are YouTube videos and you can study those and pull moves. I’ll eventually do some blog posts on blues dancing. I can’t speak to the grind and the slow drag as those are historical dances and I don’t know if anyone still dances them or if they are taught. But blues dancing would be the best contemporary manifestation of those dances, which you should pursue. I understand that you want specific instruction, which I’ll give you, but blues dancing is highly improvisational and you could turn either clockwise or counterclockwise depending upon the move you’re doing. Experiment, first shadow dancing at home alone and then with a partner, and you will discover a movement and direction that works for you.

I suggest that you make the side step your basic pattern (discussed in Chapter 11, page 103, of my book) as it’s easy and versatile. It’s eight beats of music and it’s just a shuffle to the left and then a shuffle to the right. You do the rotation to the left (counterclockwise) just before you start the next side step. I demonstrate this step pattern with a rotation in a free, two-minute video clip. Click here or on the “Freebie Video” tab at the top of this page and scroll down to “The Side Step.“ Note that the rotation occurs on the “& count” before the count 1 of the next side step.

Here’s a suggestion for a good place to start experimenting. Do a basic sway, which would be STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH. That’s eight beats of music with no weight change on counts 2, 4, 6 and 8, which are the TOUCHs. (I haven’t gotten the “The Sway” instructional video up yet but check out the short video clip “Marking Single Rhythm” on the Freebie Video page, which discusses the footwork for the sway.) Experiment turning left or right at any point. If you want to turn left (counterclockwise), your weight needs to be on your right foot, i.e., you’re turning into your unweighted foot. If you want to turn right (clockwise), your weight needs to be on your left foot so you can turn into the unweighted foot. Do the rotation first before you make the next weight change, i.e., rotate on the & count before the beat, then step on the beat. Make the turn and the weight change two separate motions; if you try to do them together it’ll get sloppy. Also, you don’t have to rotate a lot; if you rotate too much as a beginner, I’m guessing it’ll get sloppy. Play around with this on your own—shadow dance—and you’ll figure it out. If you work it out by yourself first it’ll be much easier to do with a partner.

As far as blues dancing in New York City, I would google that phrase (i.e., blues dancing New York City). I did a quick search and this link looked interesting: http://www.jookjointshimmyblues.com/. I would also do a general search for “blues dancing” as there is lots of stuff. There are YouTube videos and you can study those and pull moves. I’ll eventually do some blog posts on blues dancing.

]]> By: raimundo torrence http://ihatetodance.com/slow-dancing/comment-page-1/#comment-282 raimundo torrence Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:24:11 +0000 http://ihatetodance.com.dh-temp.com/?page_id=151#comment-282 I enjoyed read your comments about the slow drag, slow grind and slow blues dance, but is the movement to the left or right of the floor? i. e. clock wise or counter clock wise? Where are the aforementioned styles taught in NYC? Thanks! I enjoyed read your comments about the slow drag, slow grind and slow blues dance, but is the movement to the left or right of the floor? i. e. clock wise or counter clock wise? Where are the aforementioned styles taught in NYC? Thanks!

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