March 15, 2006, 6:16 p.m. (Message 44725)
Campbell's approach has more to commend it. In social dancing, poor steps hardly disturb the set, but it spoils the joy for all when positioning and phrasing are wrong. Dancers who are late (think of Grand Chain, Allemande, the turns of "turn corners and partner"), or early or far out of place can turn a lovely dance into a contest to get through and avoid collapse. I too often see the attitude "if the set did not collapse, the dance went well". Why do we not give good timing and positioning, and dancing with the music, the top priority in our teaching? We would all have fewer frustrations at our dance events. I know a new dancer who says "I need to think so much of my feet and the formations that I am leaving it to later to also listen to the music". It shows that some newcomers pick up a wrong order of priorities. Of course, in dems we DO need good footwork, but that is not the issue under discussion.
March 15, 2006, 6:52 p.m. (Message 44726, in reply to message 44725)
Eric Ferguson wrote: > Why do we not give good timing and positioning, and dancing with the music, > the top priority in our teaching? We would all have fewer frustrations at > our dance events. I've found that generally people *try* to be in the right place at the right time, if they can remember where that place is. They don't mind getting there two bars in advance because they will more often be late, usually due to the fact that being expected to join in a formation at some particular point in the dance takes them completely by surprise. I try to teach my dancers to think 1-2 bars ahead of the music so as not to be surprised. I also try to get them to phrase correctly by stressing the side lines etc. as points of reference, such as in figures of eight. However, phrasing correctly in many cases means covering large distances, which in turn means proper footwork. (Eric cites turn-corners-and-partner; this is a figure which without good footwork becomes very difficult indeed, as people try to make up what their feet won't do for them by using their arms in some sort of weird Bavarian-style arm-wrestling match.) I agree with Eric that footwork should not be the first priority of a new dancer. However neither should it be the last. It turns out that, given time, most people do manage to figure out timing and positioning from the example of other dancers, but this does not apply to footwork to the same extent. The focus on footwork in many classes is probably not because teachers are footwork-crazy, but because footwork is really much more difficult than most other aspects of learning SCD. This is also supported by the observation that, in a dance situation, many people manage to dance formations but their footwork goes haywire rather than vice-versa. Besides, footwork, being a micro-motor skill, offers far less immediate feedback to the individual dancer than phrasing or timing do -- one can usually tell that something is not quite as it should be if one bumps into other dancers or finds oneself off in never-land, but to straighten out one's footwork in most cases requires a teacher. Anselm -- Anselm Lingnau, Frankfurt, Germany ..................... xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers. -- Kahlil Gibran
March 17, 2006, 12:16 a.m. (Message 44735, in reply to message 44725)
As the "good" dancers will obviously be maintaining eye contact hew can they tell if the footwork doesn't meet their high standard? In message <xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx>, Eric Ferguson <x.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xx> writes >Campbell's approach has more to commend it. > >In social dancing, poor steps hardly disturb the set, but it spoils the joy >for all when positioning and phrasing are wrong. Dancers who are late >(think of Grand Chain, Allemande, the turns of "turn corners and partner"), >or early or far out of place can turn a lovely dance into a contest to get >through and avoid collapse. I too often see the attitude "if the set did >not collapse, the dance went well". > >Why do we not give good timing and positioning, and dancing with the music, >the top priority in our teaching? We would all have fewer frustrations at >our dance events. I know a new dancer who says "I need to think so much >of my feet and the formations that I am leaving it to later to also listen >to the music". It shows that some newcomers pick up a wrong order of >priorities. > >Of course, in dems we DO need good footwork, but that is not the issue >under discussion. > >On 13 Mar 2006 at 9:39, xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx wrote: > >> At the risk of making myself hugely unpopular, may I venture to suggest that >> the lesson to be learned here is that footwork needs to be downgraded to an >> optional extra in SCD, rather than a qualifying skill. I shall use my own >> experience to illustrate the point. > -- Bryan McAlister