Practice, Practice, Practice

I wish that dancing wasn’t about practice. In the vision I had of myself dancing it was an easy thing – a natural thing that didn’t require practice. In that vision I’d get out there on the floor and the steps would just come like mana from heaven. It was all natural, just get out there and do it. Unfortunately, reality is a little different.

This Saturday is a practice day – in fact a special day where we set up a double lesson as a sort of Lindy Hop intensive. We’re beginners with the hop and it’s been slow (mainly because I’m slow). I’ll be honest – it took a long time for me to get the basic step for the Lindy Hop. It’s a great dance, all about energy and exuberance and forgetting all the things that bum you out about life.

To quote from The Lindy Circle:

“Looking back on where the Lindy Hop came from is an amazing study of American history and of the global cultural shift facilitated by the American GI's that traveled in World War II.

The influences of the Charleston and Tap dance are evident still in the Lindy we do today and the dance is also sited to have come from an early version of the Foxtrot. Remnants of older dancers such as the Cakewalk, Texas Tommy, Black bottom and popular "animal" dances such as the Turkey Trot and the Buzzard Lope are also expressed. What is interesting is that these came from African social dance culture, and some, like the Cakewalk was created when blacks imitated and mocked the formal dance structure of the whites, which they would then use in their entertainment routines. Ironically, the white spectators would then copy the entertainers, and a social dance that bridged the divide emerged.

Luckily, the two cultures found a common ground, called the Savoy Ballroom in New York. It was here that Lindy was fine tuned and grounded, and where the "Savoy style" that was to influence the world grew up.”

I’m not ready to influence the world with my Lindy – maybe I’m ready to influence a few dancers to leave the floor just for their own safety, but that’s about it. Still the history of the dance and what it means in American history impresses me and I’ve got a ‘thing’ for the 20’s and 30’s so I’m taking a wild swing at learning the steps.

Today we added a few steps to our repertoire (forgive me Melissa; I’m going to butcher the names):

• Side Steps – Finally we’re not going around and around and around and around! This step extends the basic Lindy step to the left or right with a cross-over step and it actually (for a change) seemed to come pretty easy.
• Transitions from Triple Swing to the Lindy – We’ve got the EC Triple Swing down pretty well (it’s the dance we do most often) and now we can transition from a closed EC Triple position to a Lindy Hop basic. Nice to throw in here and there on off-tempo EC Swings.
• Transitions from Lindy to EC Triple Swing – Going the other direction we can change from the Lindy to the EC Triple. Nice since all we can do is a few steps in the Lindy!

I don’t think we’re ready to take the Lindy out on the road yet – but soon, very soon!