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The Process: Original Goals

4/8/2009

9 Comments

 

I was filling out an online survey recently (no, I didn't win the $10 gift certificate), which asked me if I intended to pursue a higher degree of education, and why.  That's such an awkward question for someone in this line of work.  Dance education is constant.  Every class I teach, every workshop I take, every video I watch, and every choreography I learn furthers my dance education.  None of them, of course, lead to a suffix.  All of this, put in the same five minutes of thought as "what on earth do I blog about next?" convinced me to bare my soul a little, and write about my process so far.

I've come to believe that once follows get past the initial introduction to dancing, they very quickly fall into one of two categories: the dancers and the follows.  Obviously, every follow is both, to some degree.  However, since we tend to have an inclination one way or the other, an intermediate follow is likely to hear, over and over, one of two comments:

1. The follows: "You're doing fine on connection, you follow everything I lead, but I want to see more of YOU in your dancing.  You can start experimenting with styling, start adding to the dance.  Be more spunky, less mousy."  These are the follows who live for connection, and try to be "the perfect follow".  Everything that's led gets followed, but the idea of "just do what you feel" simply doesn't apply to musicality.

2. The dancers: "You really know how to move your body, and your stylings/solo movement/movement-quality are great, but you need to tune into your leader more.  You've got a lot of spunk, but you're limiting your what your partner can lead you through."  These are the follows who rock the daylights out of solo jazz comps, and who have the coolest embellishments, but musicality sometimes comes first, at the expense of the partnership.

Every follower has some aspects of each, and the idea is to pursue balance between them- a well-rounded follow, while still inclined to be one or the other, should be able to tap into both skill sets (an introvert needs to be able to communicate verbally, and an extrovert needs to be able to listen). 

For the first several years of my dancing, I was in hot pursuit of technique perfection, at the expense of everything else but rhythm.  Around 2005, though, I started to change my ideas about following a bit.  For starters, I got told by a lead I admired very much that I was boring.  Ouch.  For another thing, you can only hear the advice above so many times before you decide that while it's not your top priority, or your  strong suit, maybe it's still worth looking into. 

Of course, I'm still pursuing that status of "perfect follow", in a way, but my understanding has changed. For one thing, in order to be able to follow everything that's led on me, I have to know how to move my body in a lot of ways; solo jazz isn't an intuitive movement style to follow if you've only done swingouts.  Additionally, I once believed that at the right "heaviness" and the right ratio of savoy/hollywood, I'd hit the jackpot, and be perfect.  Turns out, the key to being a better follow is not finding the right answer, but recognizing that there is no right answer.  The perfect follow has to embrace the zen ideal of knowing nothing.  The right answer is not a way of dancing; it's versatility (that blew my mind in the summer of 2005). 

As if it wasn't enough that I had to know all forms of movement and attain zen enlightenment, during my first time at Herrang, I watched the difference between the AdvancedI follows and the AdvancedII follows, and noticed that both groups could follow everything, but the AdvancedI follows made it look good.  I realized that the well-rounded follow has to also be a dancer.  In the words of the wise Amy B, immerepher.  So now, I have to have musicality, good movement quality, awesome embellishments, know all forms of movement, and attain zen enlightenment...

Would you like fries with that?

And an answer to world hunger, for that matter?

------------------------
That's going to be all for this installment- you've read a lot for one day.  Go check out a webcomic, relax your brain, and come back tomorrow.  I recommend XKCD.com.

Peace, love, swingouts, and zen,
-m.

9 Comments
John Davies
4/8/2009 12:21:46 pm

After the Steel City Blues Festival, I've been wrestling with this from the lead's perspective. During the Musicality class, Stryder and Abby played a Saffire song that has a strong female perspective. As I remember it, but not exactly what they said, the leads were supposed to control less and let the follower express herself.

I really enjoyed the dance we created together.

But I'm a little afraid to try it on the social dance floor. Will freedom come across as a weak, indecisive lead?

And, can I do it to something other than Saffire and without knowing ahead of time what the song is about?

And one more for good measure, how do I know if this particular follow is waiting to be given some freedom?

Reply
David Madison link
4/8/2009 05:35:21 pm


You are both, goofball. No balancing act required.

Reply
Keith Moore
4/8/2009 09:19:03 pm

What suffix would you like after your name? Some abbreviation for a phrase including the words "dance" and "awesome", maybe?

maybe M.A.D. for Master of Awesome Dancing?

Reply
Cid link
4/9/2009 01:41:12 am

this:

The perfect follow has to embrace the zen ideal of knowing nothing. The right answer is not a way of dancing; it's versatility (that blew my mind in the summer of 2005).

might make an interesting blog...
--------------------------------------
I would pretty much agree with your two categories of follows. I feel like i have placed most follows in one of those two categories as well. I was running through a mental list of my favorite follows and filtering them.

Reply
John Brooks
4/9/2009 02:28:11 am

I think that the conversation metaphor for dancing will best illustrate what I want to say here. My favorite follows are the ones who engage me in that conversation. She doesn't just agree with me and go along with the conversation- though having her reinforce something I'm saying or rephrasing it in a more eloquent way is awesome.

She challenges it, she makes a momentary tangents; she's holding her own and making that conversation something that we both create. But it's the same conversation, not two people talking at cross purposes.

Does that make sense?

Reply
kait
4/9/2009 03:57:16 am

dammit! no magic ratio?!?

but more seriously, very cool. i'd heard you use your dancer/follower designations before, so it was cool to see a more extended explanation. and it makes total sense.

Reply
Bryn
4/9/2009 06:55:55 am

I look at it a little differently...

I didn't begin to look at myself as a dancer until a year or two ago. I considered myself to be a follow. That being said, I've never been boring. I've always been creative and musical. It's just that I didn't place much emphasis on what I was doing with my body to represent my creativity and musicality. All my energy went toward my partnership (musical conversation included).

It wasn't until someone told me a couple of years ago that my dancing was sloppy that I began to focus on the quality and control of my movement.

I've noticed that follows (and leads!) tend to be more naturally inclined either toward movement or toward connection. Some dancers look good right away, even though they don't follow (or lead) very well. Some dancers pick up the lead/follow thing pretty quickly but look like crap.

The most important lesson I've learned in dancing is that these two skill sets reinforce each other. You can't have truly awesome connection until you move your body well, and moving well means little if you can't put it in the context of a partnership.

I too have been striving to attain that perfect balance.

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Bubba
4/9/2009 07:48:32 am

Maybe a third category is "The partners (or . . . the yummy partners)."

They do not complete sentences based on their own independent relationship with the music, and thus create discord (dancers).

They do not suppress or deny their own power to take the conversation of the dance into surprising and delightful places (follows).

They engage with a combination of power and sensitivity. They listen, and speak in dialogue. They embellish in a way that is grounded both in the music and in the invitation of the lead. And they take the lead into surprising places, not by doing their own independent thing but by doing their own complementary thing.

Reply
Kevin
4/9/2009 10:10:06 am

Damn, now you have me reading your blog... so here's my thought.

There are some people who I dance with incredibly well. It rarely has to do with how good of a follow she is, but rather how well our dance styles mesh. Our interpretation of the music, our dance vocabulary, our understanding of the lead-follow dynamic. When I can really sync with someone, amazing things happen. Likewise, I've had dances with famous, highly trained follows that fell completely flat.

So, first thing to learn from this is to understand my own style & dance experience. I know that my ballroom training has a strong influence on my dance style, and I have a tendency towards silliness and exaggerated drama (thank my musical theater friends for that).

Second step is to see who I "sync" well with, and why. It turns out that, regardless of the style, I dance very well with followers who have a background in ballroom. I also do well with follows who like to abandon the dance's structure & just let things flow.

Third step requires some flexibility. You need to step outside your comfort zone and learn to "sync" (I really need a better word for that) with people you typically have trouble with. This may require taking lessons in a new style (e.g. collegiate shag) or attending events like All Bal Weekend. It's like learning to speak a new language.

Hopefully you can learn to reach that zen state with more and more people. That's sort of been my approach, anyway.

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