Oh my! What a weekend this was! I packed my
schedule with loads of dancing for the past two days. Workshops, dances,
and a crazy milonga night! I have a lot to rave about, so I've divided my
reviews into three parts, one for each event.
So, let’s start at the beginning for Part I. My weekend started with the First Friday
Swing Dance, one of my favorite dances in Connecticut.
HCD's First Friday Swing Dance
What Is It?
A monthly swing dance
Where Is It?
The West Hartford Town Hall
Why Is It Good?
It has a great live band every month and
the crowd is always large, friendly and very diverse. It’s a great dance for beginners too!
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| Eight To The Bar |
This month, the featured band was Eight To The Bar, one of
my all-time favorite swing bands, so of course I just had to go! I arrived early
so I could take the beginner class. Of
course, I’m not a beginner student, but I figured that if I want to review this
dance properly, I should try to attend all of it. I was also curious about the guest teacher,
Ari Levitt, and his teaching style, especially since I was going to take his
Waltz workshop the next morning (more on that later, check out Part II).
Ari Levitt did a great job with the beginner lesson; he
kept things simple and friendly. And the
crowd was getting pretty big and chaotic, too, so, considering that aspect, he
did a pretty good job with crowd control.
Of course, once the band started the event was in full
swing (pun intended!). The dance floor
is always crowded when the band plays, so while that may lead to the occasional
collision or toe-treading accident, the floor is lively and entertaining,
no matter who you’re dancing with. By
the way, when I say crowded, I mean the floor is full! And mind you, this is an enormous floor! I think one of the reasons I love this dance
so much is because of the number of people who attend. It’s always more than 90 people (90 people is
a bad day for this event). Some months back,
the room reached maximum capacity, and there were at least a dozen people
outside waiting for admittance! A good
large crowd like, along with some awesome live music, creates such a positively
charged atmosphere, that you can’t help but be in a bouncy mood yourself!
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| Huuuge floor! |
During the band’s first break, there’s always the usual
announcements, followed by the Shim Sham line dance, a long-standing event tradition
that has never been broken. We shim-shammers
are picky about the song they play, too.
Too slow or too fast and we will revolt!
This month they used one of the old stand-by versions of the Tuxedo
Junction song, so the line dance went along smoothly (if you’re curious about
learning the shim sham, check out the Swing Jam dance at the American Legion
Hall at the end of the month!) We also
got a little treat in addition to the Shim Sham. Ari Levitt led us in what’s called a Swing
Jam. Basically the crowd forms a circle
with space in the middle for Ari and his partner to do a little swing. Ari selects a dancer at random and dances
with her for a short period, then another follower volunteers to jump in and
take her place, without stopping the dance. Ari managed to dance
with several women within the one song, including yours truly! I must say, he is an excellent lead; he is
one of those guys who does his absolute best to show the follower off to her
fullest advantage, so even the most beginner of students can look and feel
amazing when dancing with him. I loved
the funky moves he put me through. He even
surprised me with a small aerial lift!
One second, my feet were swaying on the ground, the next second they
were flying up in the air! I have no clue how
he did it, although I suspect that a hip toss was involved somehow, and he made
it feel like the most natural thing to do.
He is truly an excellent dancer! No wonder he is requested to come back every year!
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| Ari Levitt |
I mentioned earlier that this is a beginner-friendly
dance. I stand by the statement
whole-heartedly. This dance is the
perfect mixture of beginner, intermediate, and advanced dancers, and the people
who come here are very friendly and welcoming.
The unspoken rule of this event is to dance with a whole bunch of
different people, so beginner students will often get a chance to dance on the dance
floor. This dance is also a good lesson
in practicing good floorcraft, since you must pay attention to your
surroundings as well as to your partner, and I’m saying this both as a leader
and as a follower. Overall, this swing
dance generally creates a very positive experience for beginner students, and we are constantly recommending it at Hartford Ballroom.
I have one word of warning about this dance. Well, two, actually. First, be prepared to get stepped on or
bumped into. No matter how careful you
are, it’s bound to happen on such a packed floor. The best thing to do is to smile and apologize,
even if it wasn’t your fault, and just keep dancing. That way your experience stays positive, and
no one gets offended and upset.
Secondly, while the people here are generally very nice,
there are a small few who think they know all and try to give you corrections
or advice. I call this unsolicited
teaching, and I’m very against it.
Unsolicited teaching can make the receiver feel inadequate and even humiliated,
and often times the advice is inaccurate or inappropriate for the situation at
hand. A couple of times, I have been a
victim of unsolicited teaching, and it’s not pleasant. So my advice is this: if someone tries to
correct you on your technique, just smile and nod, and end the conversation as
soon as possible. Don’t take the advice
to heart. If it bothers you, ask your
teacher about what the person said. And if you feel
inclined to correct someone on their technique, don’t do it! Trust me, you don’t fully understand that dancers’
abilities, and you could very easily ruin their night. If there was a more complex pattern that you
tried to do but it didn’t work, and you feel endeavored to explain what you
were trying to do, please do so quickly (30 seconds tops) and try
to explain it without blaming the partner.
With all that being said, this is such a fun dance to go
to! I went home with sore feet but still very
content. I highly recommend this event,
especially during the months when either Roger Ceresi or Eight To The Bar is playing
(they are both my favorites). This is
great for East and West Coast Swing, and the occasional Foxtrot, or other
social dance. It happens on the First
Friday of the month, and it’s provided by Hartford Community Dance.
For more event details, click here for HCD’s webpage.
For more on Ari Levitt, click here for his website.
For more on Eight To The Bar, click here for their website.
Yes, this is a good one , and I keep meaning to make another first Friday again. I want to echo your sentiments on the unsolicited correction and teaching. Although it's possible to do it gently, more often than not , it doesn't come out right. Don't take the risk of ruining someones' fun and self confidence. It's been done to me and it's really not fun. For one thing, it drains you of the shakey self confidence that you have as a beginner (or even an advanced beginner like me), and 2 it takes the pure enjoyment out of dancing. On a couple rare occasions I have appreciated a correction or two , but the social dance is really not the place for this . It almost always ruins someones' night. There are a few people that I actually avoid dancing with because of it. It's tense and not fun , and when I'm tense I make even more mistakes. There's no reason to do it. Everyone is at the level that they are at, at that particular time. Your task is to help the other person find maximum enjoyment with the abilities they now posess . Well that's just my opinion anyway.
ReplyDeleteWill R
Thanks for the opinion! That's exactly what I think too.
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