A Weekend Of Dancing Part II: Just Waltzing Along

Time for Part II of my weekend of dancing!  The second event I attended on this busy weekend was Ari Levitt’s Waltz Workshop, hosted by Hartford Community Dance/Mostly Waltz

Waltz Workshop With Ari Levitt

What Was It?

A one-time morning workshop with Ari Levitt, consisting of two 75-minute lessons, where the focus was cross-step waltz.

Where Was It?

At the Temple Beth Torah Synagogue in Wethersfield

Why Was It Good?

Fun, yet simple moves that were taught in a friendly, easygoing, and comprehensive manner.

So, Saturday morning I woke up feeling sleep-deprived and a little sore from last night’s escapade (have you read about that yet? Click here if you didn’t).  But I was stoked for this morning’s workshop.  I hadn’t done a workshop in years, and I was really looking forward to this one.  I love learning from my mother, but it is sometimes refreshing to learn from someone else every once in a while.  From a teacher’s perspective, it keeps you open-minded about how a person should dance, and it can give you some new ideas to teach to your students, be it new steps or a new way of explaining things.  The night before, Ari Levitt gave me the impression that he was a good teacher, and I am always looking for new patterns to experiment with.

Ari Levitt (ad for another workshop)

The first lesson was called “FUN New Waltz Variations With A FUNky Twist”.  Essentially, it was a beginner/intermediate class on what Ari called Cross-step waltz.  This was a new term for me.  My mom always called it “fast waltz”, but apparently it’s commonly known as cross-step.  He also mentioned that there are four types of waltzes: slow, Viennese, cross-step, and rotary (see? I already learned something new!). 

Ari had a nice style of teaching.  It was very easygoing; he focused more on an active practice than on detailed explanations, and he was very kind in his corrections.  The moves themselves were familiar, but different, and I wouldn’t have considered them particularly easy for beginners, yet somehow Ari was able to explain the footwork and movements accurately, while at the same time making it feel easy and effortless.  Sure, not everyone could do it perfectly, but all the followers I danced with were able to manage the patterns with little trouble.  As a leader, I didn’t feel like I frequently had to “drive a truck,” as Ari put it.

The second class was just as good.  It was a little harder, but not by much, and Ari worked off of the steps he had used earlier, so that by the end of the workshop we had this nice long routine with numerous variations. 

I really liked the steps he taught: like I said, they were familiar but the style was different.  Ari had some leading techniques that I normally would never encourage, such as breaking your frame to lead the twinkle, or having the leaders’ hand on top when doing a step in an open position.  Most of my private students can tell you that I actually discourage these techniques because they can be easily abused.  But when Levitt demonstrated them in relation to the steps, I admit that the leading did make sense, and when I applied them to my dancing, they worked really well.  It didn’t matter who was my partner, I was able to lead them anyway, and lead them well.  I guess for cross-step/fast waltz, a change in technique is okay, so long as you don’t apply it to slow or Viennese waltz, and so long as you aren’t rough about it.  I should mention that Ari reinforced the idea that you shouldn’t be rough or extreme in your leading, in order to ensure that the leaders wouldn’t be excessive.  To the leaders he said, “Sometimes you need to ‘drive a truck’, but a lot of the time you only need to drive ‘a little sports car’.  For a truck, you need a bigger movement, but for a little sports car you only need a little movement”.  And to the followers: “Follows, your goal is to be a little sports car!”  Cute.

Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop.  It was loads of fun, and for me, extremely interesting and educational.  I’m looking forward to applying some of these steps to my classes, and I wish I could have taken his Swing workshop that happened later that day.  Unfortunately, there was too much going on Saturday and I had to choose my husband’s graduation party over the workshop.  Ah well, I’ll do it next year, when Ari comes back to Connecticut!  Or maybe I’ll look for his workshops in other states!

By the way, I had a great time at Dave’s graduation party as well.  His mom will go all out for a party!  I left at 7pm with my brother to go on a little milonga adventure (more on that in Part III!)

For more details on Ari Levitt, click here for his webpage.

For more details on Hartford Community Dance, click here for their website.