Development in West Coast Swing (imho)

I suppose that a significant portion of this article can be related to dance in general, but it primarily concerns partner dancing, especially West Coast Swing.

The main audience for this article is our West Coast Swing community – first and foremost in Krakow, and then in Poland. However, I believe that the following reflections may be helpful regardless of where you live 🙂

Where did the idea for this article come from?

Lately, we’ve been hearing from many of you that:

• Someone would like to be in a higher-level dance class (whether regular classes or events).
• Someone is feeling down because they believe they haven’t been making progress for some time.
• Someone is convinced that they already know certain things because they practice a lot and put a great deal of effort into their West Coast Swing (but they haven’t necessarily verified their level with a teacher in a direct conversation).

However, it often turns out that these individuals who are feeling down don’t have a reason to feel that way, usually… It’s just challenging to gauge certain things on your own, especially to feel whether you are doing something better than, for example, six months ago. On the other hand, practicing a lot doesn’t automatically guarantee progress. Quantity doesn’t equal quality. Usually (though not always), we can’t tell on our own whether we’re doing something well enough or whether what we’re doing is suitable for us at this particular moment.

If we have the opportunity to talk to someone individually, we try to explain to you how it works. But certainly, not everyone who needs this has thought of coming to us and telling us how they currently feel about their dancing. Sometimes, we may notice some inner struggles of others, but in many cases, we need to talk with you to find out that someone is dealing with a particular problem. Hence the idea for this article – to share some of our thoughts on subjects that prove challenging for some and to let you know that you can always come and talk to us 🙂

So, remember that if you need to talk about your dancing, you can write to us and arrange to meet for a coffee 🙂

My note: 😉 I’ve never been good at writing, but this article has been on our minds for a long time, so I wanted to release it without spending time on extensive corrections. Please approach it with understanding for all the stylistic monsters 😉

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I’ll try to present the entire text in a way that is reasonably clear, but the topic is broad, and with each paragraph, more elements come to my mind that I’d like to include here. That’s why at the end, you’ll find a few additional topics that I wanted to address but decided they might introduce too much chaos into the main text.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Why Everyone Needs Something Different
   a) Body Awareness
   b) Fitness
3. Summary

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PS: Several Additional Topics
a) Individual Lessons
b) What to Practice the Most (in my humble opinion)
c) Regular Classes vs. “Eureka” Moments at Events
d) Competition and Dance Development/Level
e) Individual Skills vs. Partner Dancing
f) Our Preferences and Adaptation to Partners
g) Natural Movement
h) “I’ve Heard It Already, So Why Should I Take the Same Classes Again?”
i) “Am I Really Improving?”
j) Why We Sometimes Hear Contradictory (or so it seems) Things in Classes/Lessons

1. Introduction: Components of Our Dance Life

(It may seem obvious, but I’ll write it anyway)

• Regular Classes
• Workshops
• Events
• Parties
• Practice Sessions
• Individual Lessons

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Which elements do most people utilize?

Usually, it’s regular classes, workshops, and parties. Then, eventually, events come into play. Even fewer people practice regularly (either in pairs or solo), and even fewer take individual lessons, not to mention regular individual lessons.

However, some individuals are truly dedicated: an increasing number of people practice and devote a considerable amount of time to their West Coast Swing, attending classes several times a week, traveling to events, workshops, and parties, and arranging practice sessions (sometimes this dedication goes too far – I’ll explain that later). Nevertheless, it sometimes happens that your dance isn’t progressing in the right direction or doesn’t align with the level of commitment you put into it.

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A crucial off-topic note:

We frequently observe that a higher level of dedication to training/practicing our skills becomes the primary goal for many individuals, slowly overshadowing the original purpose – having a good time dancing with another person. Don’t forget about that!

2. Why Does Everyone Need Something Different?

Why is it that some individuals are content with occasionally attending events and still manage to progress (from my experiences, this is a small portion of the community), while others require regular classes, parties, practice sessions, workshops, and some won’t make any progress without individual lessons?

How does it work, and why?

This topic has many components, but simplifying it to the aspects of movement, let’s discuss two topics:

a) Body Awareness

b) Our Fitness

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(In this article, I won’t address psychological factors,
but it’s essential to keep in mind that they also influence our development.
Perhaps we’ll explore those in a separate text someday.)

A) Body Awareness

Firstly, we need to be able to manage our bodies, meaning we must be able to execute specific movements. This involves our nervous system/brain:

• It must have a good sense of our body.
• It must be able to gather informations from the world around us.
• It must integrate this informations effectively and choose the appropriate movement patterns for a given task.

For example, when we want to lift something, we use our body in a way that suits the weight of the object – lifting a suitcase vs. a coffee cup. Taking it further, when we want to drink from the mentioned coffee cup, we don’t move it towards our mouth using sharp angles, as it wouldn’t be the most efficient way to accomplish the task. 😉

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What determines whether we can efficiently manage our bodies?

Mostly, it depends on our life experiences because our body moves based on “engraved” movement patterns (engrams).

When we practice slowly, we can consciously execute a specific movement, provided we have good body awareness and a sense of space around us. However, when dancing to the rhythm, we don’t have time to analyze each movement – most of the things happen automatically, outside our awareness, based on these movement engrams, which rely on our experiences. Our body (nervous system) operates by predicting what might happen and what movement it should execute based on that prediction (think of how you automatically drive a car after getting your driver’s license 😉). Then, it only corrects the movement if it senses an “error” (if it has time to correct it).

So, much depends on what we did in our youth (or at least in the last few years of our lives), whether we engaged in any physical activity, and if so, what kind. Did it provide us with coordination, agility, strength, endurance, reflexes?
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What if our coordination is weak? If we have a poor sense of our body, can we change that, or are we destined to reach a dead-end in our dance progress?
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Of course, we can change that at any age!

Our brain is continually neuroplastic, and we can “install” new patterns, regardless of age.
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It’s probably evident that we can train strength, endurance, dynamics, and even reflexes. However, we can also train how we feel our bodies, how we gather information from the space we occupy – in other words, how we use all our senses – which might be less obvious. Going further, the better informations our body gathers, the easier it is to integrate and decide what to do with that information (which movement to execute and how).

However:

Everyone is different!

Each person will need something slightly different. Often, we aren’t capable of self-diagnosis. Just as it is challenging for a physiotherapist, despite having knowledge, to diagnose themselves – similarly, in dance, it’s challenging to figure out what we need at a given moment, especially since, relatively speaking, we often don’t have the knowledge that a physiotherapist has to determine what we should practice.

It’s not about knowing what doesn’t work in our dance – that’s usually evident. It’s more about knowing what we should do to make a particular element achievable for us in the future – and that is usually a more challenging issue.
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Returning to the elements mentioned at the beginning of the article, one person may be content with attending an event, while another may require regular individual lessons. Nevertheless, regardless of what each person needs, everyone can genuinely change their movement habits, their coordination, body awareness, and even musicality.
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Usually, to dance well with you, group classes are sufficient (at least that’s always how we try to teach you). However, each of us reaches a point where our progress significantly slows down or comes to a temporary halt if no one directs us individually back onto the right track.

B) The second aspect: fitness.

In other words, whether our nervous system has something to manage.

In essence, whether our body is healthy enough to execute the movement tasks we set before it:

• Do we have sufficient range of motion?
• Do we have enough strength within those ranges?
• Do we have enough endurance?
• In general, are we healthy?
• Is there something bothering us that interferes with movement?

On one hand, West Coast Swing doesn’t demand super fitness from us. On the other hand, if we want to have the utmost freedom in our dance, we must be aware that today’s sedentary lifestyle is gradually degenerating our bodies. In fact, we are moving now into the topic of “HEALTH,” not just dance.

It’s worth being active, training, and subjecting our bodies to appropriate loads to which they will adapt. If we spend most of our time sitting, we’ll quickly become masters of that activity…

However, it’s essential to remember that training should be done intelligently, far from injuries, and for that, knowledge is required – usually someone who can guide us or someone who can teach us how to take care of ourselves (which, in my opinion, is the most valuable).

You can find a bit more about movement and health here.

3. Summary

The amount of training each person needs for their development is a combination of various factors, and most of us require individualized approaches from time to time. How often? I think you can already see that it’s a highly individual matter.

Another individual matter is that everyone will need a different amount of training. We often believe that more is better, but that’s not entirely true because it also depends on how quickly our body and nervous system can recover. One person may need, for example, one or two days of rest between classes/training sessions, while another may be able to train every day despite working the entire week.
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It’s also important to mention, even in just two sentences, the psychological aspect.

Dance is our escape, enjoyment, and a way to relax, so it’s easy to unconsciously cross the line between the amount of dancing that is best for us and the amount that overwhelms us. Perhaps I shouldn’t write this as a dance school owner, but if we see someone attending classes every day for seven days a week, plus parties, practice sessions, and individual lessons, for most, it’s a straight path to burnout, not development. We must allow ourselves time for recovery!

However, how much time we need for that is again an individual matter – we must learn to listen to our bodies.
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From our experience, statistically, an average of 2 to 3 classes per week, practice sessions, and a party, occasional workshops or events, and once per month an individual lesson will probably be a reasonable maximum for most people. However, there will always be someone who needs less or more. And still, we must remember that each training should be conducted intelligently and primarily focused (in my humble opinion) on addressing what each individual struggles with.

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Dance, practice, but do it wisely, taking care of rest and getting occasional individual analysis on what and how you should work on particular elements.

Marcin Skalski

PS Additional Topics:

Each of the following points could be the subject of a separate article. However, I would like to present my perspective on as many topics as possible, even in a very brief manner. However, you can expect that in the future, I will want to delve a bit deeper into each of these points.

a) Individual Lessons

b) What to Practice Best (IMHO)

c) Regular Classes vs. “Eureka” Moments at Events

d) Competition and Dance Development/Level

e) Individual Skills and Partner Dancing

f) Our Preferences and Adaptation to Partners

g) Natural Movement

h) “I’ve Heard It Before, So Why Take the Same Class Again?”

i) “Am I Improving?”

j) Contradictory Advice in Classes/Lessons

a) Individual Lessons

It may seem that everything is clear, and everyone knows how individual lessons work, but there is one catch here.

If we have individual lessons with someone else all the time, it will hardly be different from group classes, especially for those who have a weaker “feel” for the body and less control over it (which is currently the majority…).

While the instructor may point out what is not working at the moment, whether they choose the best path for us at that moment becomes somewhat of a gamble if there is no possibility to see if we managed to improve a particular element based on previous feedback. Continuation of the work is crucial here.

Just like with a physiotherapist, it is often necessary to explore what will work best for each individual. Lessons with different instructors are good for expanding our knowledge, discovering new things, and getting inspiration. However, in my opinion, up to a certain level, the most important thing is to continue working with one person, with the caveat that it should be someone who can build your dance from the ground up and figure out how to help when a certain element becomes challenging for you.

b) Should We Train What We’re Best At or What We’re Weakest At?

Working on our strengths is certainly important because what we are already good at can become even better. It’s also enjoyable and relaxing for many people to practice something they are already proficient in.

However, in my opinion, long-term development in dance is much more dependent on working on our weakest links, as they are the brakes on our progress and can cause longer or shorter setbacks on our path to improvement. Identifying what our weakest link is can be one of the most challenging things, as it often involves not just how we look in dance or what we are not doing, but rather what we need to do to make our bodies execute a particular movement—i.e., the “why” it’s not working, not just the “what” is not working.

Let me provide a small analogy (it will be architectural, as some may know that I completed such studies).

If we need to design something like a piece of small architecture—let’s say a bench — at the begining we can design its external appearance, but then it may turn out that the bench may not necessarily look exactly as we wanted because, in order to stand, it needs something to stabilize it. It needs screws, connectors—elements we don’t pay attention to when simply using or initially designing the object. Without addressing this issue, it won’t stand, so if we only focus on how it looks, as soon as someone tries it, everything might collapse. The same goes for our dancing.

If we only focus on how it looks—the cool stuff—that just immediately brings joy and seems impressive, but we neglect the more technical and sometimes challenging aspects, like understanding the underlying principles of a particular movement, the “why” behind it, then at some point, we will hit a wall, and our progress will come to a halt or significantly slow down.

That’s why we often stress the importance of technique 😉 That’s also why sometimes an individual approach is needed because group classes always involve some level of generalization of information that is most relevant to the group at that particular moment, but they may not be perfectly tailored to you if you have specific issues with movement and body awareness in a particular aspect.

c) Regular Classes vs. EUREKA Moments at Events 😉

I think every teacher who conducts regular classes has encountered this issue. Personally, despite teaching for almost 20 years, I still can’t get used to it, even though it happens regularly that someone experiences such a “EUREKA” moment during an event 😉

What’s it all about? Very often, we don’t take into account that the breakthroughs we experience at events or sudden improvements are not just a result of those particular event classes. It’s about how all the previous classes, months, and sometimes years have prepared us to receive that specific piece of information at that particular moment.

It’s not just about that specific teacher and those particular event classes being super amazing—though, objectively, they often are—but for us, they become super amazing in that specific moment because our body and dance have been primed by all the previous classes we attended to be receptive to that information at that precise moment.

It’s common for someone to come and say, “Why didn’t we hear about this before?”, and it’s just a matter of those particular classes being highly beneficial for that specific individual at that specific time. Sometimes, it’s merely the same information presented in different words, but without the foundation built before, it still wouldn’t have worked.

Another aspect is that we often need to hear the same thing multiple times because, in reality, we only retain a small percentage of the information from any given class, and we can never remember everything. Some things need to be reinforced, and it’s only after hearing and practicing them several times that they start to show results.

d) Competition, and Dance Development/Level – here I will simply provide you with the link to my article on this topic, as some of you have probably already read it on FB – LINK

e) Individual Skills and Partner Dancing.

In other words, is it worth working on individual skills, training our own movement and body control?

Absolutely, yes!

How we feel and move in our own body, what movements we can execute, and how well we can control them strongly influences our ability to control our partner dancing, adapt to our dance partner, react when something isn’t working in the partnership, interpret the music as we desire, and achieve dance freedom. A lot depends on the level of our individual movement skills.

BUT individual movement skills are not synonymous with being a great dance partner! Dancing well with someone largely depends on whether we are focused on that person. Are we responsive to what our partner gives us? Are we prioritizing a good connection with them? Does the connection feel comfortable and natural for them? Is our connection truly communicating our movement? Individual skills can certainly help in partner dancing, but I’ll repeat once more – having individual skills does not automatically mean we will dance well with a partner.

It happens that a very skilled dancer may focus too much on themselves in the dance instead of their partner, and as a result, we may have a better dance experience with someone who may be at a lower skill level but prioritizes paying attention to their partner, ensuring good connection, and lead/follow even if they have room for improvement.

However, it cannot be denied that the better our body awareness and control, and the more our body can react to the dance situation, the better we can adapt to our partner. So, in this context, individual skills are certainly crucial for further development and for making our dance experience even more enjoyable.

f) Our Preferences and Adaptation to a Dance Partner (Why We Dance Well with Some People).

Whether we dance well with someone is not necessarily tied to their high dance level (this was touched upon in a few sentences above). Most often, it’s related to the fact that the other person reacts similarly to the music, leads their movement in a similar way, and feels a similar connection. The most important aspect is that they are accepting and positive (smiles!!). They think and feel similarly to us in the dance. When these aspects align, we naturally sync with each other. Emotional compatibility is also essential. Are we on the same wavelength, does the music move us similarly? Do certain things just happen in the dance with this person “naturally” because we both feel, think, and react to the music and situations in a similar way?

Another crucial aspect is that we will also have a good dance experience with someone who is willing and able to adapt to us, and is willing and able to cover up any “mistakes” or miscommunications in the dance that may arise in the moment, so that the whole partnership can flow smoothly and both partners can enjoy the dance without getting hung up on minor stumbling blocks.

However, when it comes to dance classes, this aspect can be a bit tricky. Often, someone may say that they had a great time dancing with certain people in a higher-level group and wonder why they can’t attend that higher-level group. The “issue” here is that they had a great experience because the dancers in the higher-level group were able to adapt to them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are already at the same dance level as those dancers.

g) Naturalness of Movement, Body Tension, and Face Expression 😉

In general, the most common problem in dancing is that we tend to tense up too much. Of course, not everyone – some may have too little tension. I often tell some people to simply start smiling while dancing (as it helps our body relax). But it doesn’t work… It doesn’t work because you don’t try 😛 You think it’s only about being positive for the other person, and it may feel artificial if you don’t genuinely feel like smiling.

However, today we all know very well that our body’s behavior affects our psyche, and our psyche affects our body – it’s interconnected. Going further, we can “trick” our body a bit by giving it a signal that “everything is fine, no need to tense up” 😉 Our nervous system sends a completely different signal to the body when we smile, and it uses the body differently compared to when we have a facial expression as if we want to “kill” someone 😛 (of course also dancing with a smiling partner also enhances the dance experience).

We can easily tell from our facial expression (and hand positions) how much a certain movement costs us. If we see someone’s lips tensing up very unnaturally or their hand gripping in a very unnatural way (two common compensations – especially men often have their fingers of the hand they don’t hold their partner with bent unnaturally), we can immediately tell that the movement costs their body quite a bit, that it’s not yet natural for their body, and that they need to compensate for tension in some way, which doesn’t make the movement most efficient for that task. We can see that they are struggling a bit with that movement.

Of course, facial expression may be related to the feeling/interpretation of a particular song – but it’s quite obvious whether what we’re doing is diving deep into the emotions of the music or if it’s a compensation 😉

Trying to delve into this topic: try to feel where you have the most tension in your body while dancing, try not to tense up more than necessary in a given moment, and first and foremost, try to have a positive facial expression because it can really help with being relaxed. The same goes for the “free” hand: try to keep it naturally relaxed (with some light control). There are many nerve endings (sensory and motor) in our hand and face, and these two elements can significantly impact the functioning of the entire body.

It’s not like we have one body parts completely separated from the others. However, it’s all quite well interconnected – let’s make it work to our advantage 🙂

PS: One more important aspect of facial expression… Sometimes, you might think that a certain person doesn’t enjoy dancing with you, and you base this impression on their face expression during the dance. BUT if you exude positive energy and a willingness to create something enjoyable together, it’s much more likely that the other person is simply having an “off” day, dealing with compensations as mentioned above, or not satisfied with music or with what they are currently creating in the dance. These scenarios are much more probable than the assumption that they don’t enjoy dancing with you 😉

h) The ubiquitous problem titled: “I’ve heard it already, so these workshops were pointless.”

It would be great to realize that the further you go in your dance journey, the fewer new things you’ll hear. The key is to understand that every piece of information can be discovered on a new level. Just because you’ve heard something before doesn’t mean you can’t do it better or that you have mastered it completely. Often, certain information needs to be heard multiple times, tried “x” number of times in classes, and only then will your body start to grasp it. Each element we learn goes through several phases:

1. Understanding the movement.
2. Learning the movement correctly and slowly – establishing a proper pattern.
3. Achieving proficiency to execute the movement at a faster pace.
4. Establishing a habit – making it work without conscious reminders.
5. Full understanding and flow – mastering the movement to the extent that you can do whatever you want with it and use it as you please. This also means feeling how the movement fits into your entire body – how the rest of your body responds and how it can support the movement in the best possible way.

We can elevate each movement to a higher level when our entire dance reaches a higher level. Thus, we can go through the entire process mentioned above multiple times and discover smaller, new and exciting details in the movement over time.

Additionally, hearing something once will not make us remember all the nuances. Therefore, it’s crucial not to assume that attending a workshop once or twice means we no longer need it. Maybe the fifth or even the tenth time will bring a crucial breakthrough, or something that wasn’t accessible to us at an earlier stage will start working on the eleventh time.