One reason we learn to lindy hop is for the sex. Cough, I mean to find romantic partners of a higher caliber, thereby increasing the likelihood that you will have stronger offspring.
Attractive people: the non-hidden reason we enjoy lindy hop. Of course, you clicked this post because you subconsciously thought there would be more attractive people. Ah, the old bait and switch! Read on to learn the hidden reason we become lindy hoppers.
Meeting people is a very obvious reason to join the lindy hop social circle. The other obvious reason is “to have fun.” Do you know anyone who doesn’t like to have fun? You know, like that dancer in the corner saying, “If I have any fun tonight, I’m quitting!”?
Everyone likes to be entertained. And there’s so much to feel good about in lindy hop: spinning, jumping, kick-ball-changing; the music, the self-expression, the look of delight on your partner’s face! The list is endless.
But “fun” is not the whole story. There’s something else that makes learning to dance incredibly satisfying. Today I’m going to reveal the hidden reason we become lindy hoppers.
First, Some Good News
The more I’ve come to understand and accept this hidden reason, the more I enjoy dancing. I’m more confident and fearless. I understand my motivation better, and I stop fighting reality.
I have more fun, and I want YOU to have more fun, too.
And Now, the Big Reveal
Have you ever wondered why you don’t do east coast swing much anymore? (Or why you never learned, if you began with lindy hop.) The short answer is that it’s not as fun as lindy hop! But why?
When I was a child, I loved to play Tic-Tac-Toe. The more I played, the better I got at beating my little sister. Eventually I discovered a method of play where I always won (ask me and I’ll show you some time, wink). Then my sister figured it out, and from there on the game always ended in stalemate.
Naturally, we stopped playing, as did every other child who figured out the game. It wasn’t fun anymore; it was missing something.
The missing ingredient is challenge.
Challenge is missing in east coast swing. It’s missing in contra dancing, which I loved until I realized it’s all about memorization. Challenge was missing at my old job at the used book store, which I quit after massage school so I could start my own business.
Humans need challenge. We need puzzles, we need stress, we need difficult problems to solve. Above all, we need to use our brains for the purpose they evolved.
Beating a challenge uncovers greater levels of fun and excitement. Overcoming a challenge validates you as a human being worthy of more respect. Whomping a challenge into the ground creates a sense of life satisfaction unmatched by anything else.
Lucky for us, lindy hop provides exactly this challenge.
Hard Truth?
Some people think challenge equals hardship, that it’s better to avoid things that are difficult or painful, that the easiest solution or path is usually the best.
None of the above is especially true, but they are very normal thoughts, and you’re not stupid for having them. More likely, you’ve bought into the cultural myth that coddling is good and stress is always bad.
Coddling doesn’t work; manageable stress makes us stronger; focused hard work is good for you.
And no, beginners don’t need to be shielded from the fact that lindy hop is hard. People aren’t that delicate. Plus they feel like idiots when they can’t immediately perform supposedly “easy” steps. Conversely, they feel proud of themselves when they accomplish something they knew was difficult to begin with (which they are perfectly capable of doing, with a little tenacity).
If you don’t accept the difficult nature of lindy hop, you’ll waste a lot of time thinking things like:
- “Do I really need to spend time practicing to be as good as I want to be?” (Yes.)
- “Is it supposed to be this hard?” (Yes, until it becomes easy.)
- “Maybe I just don’t have natural talent.” (Talent’s not as important as you think.)
Heads Up
You might disagree with me. You may feel inclined to write a lengthy comment about how lindy hop is only about feeling good, and how all the articles I’m referencing are wrong or not applicable.
The truth is, I’m writing this post to draw a line in the sand.
Accepting and navigating challenge is one of the recurring themes on Dance World Takeover. I don’t sugarcoat things. I write this dance blog honestly and passionately from my personal experience, education, and observations.
If this post made a lightbulb go off in your head, if it made you say “Yes, THIS!” then you’ll like a lot of what I write on Dance World Takeover. You’ll also appreciate getting a weekly dose of juicy tips in your inbox.
If you don’t like what you’ve read here, read no further. This is not the blog for you. There are lots of other great lindy hop blogs. Better yet, you can write your own.
Of course, not everyone needs the challenge of lindy hop. Some people will learn a few steps and never progress beyond that.
But for those of us who want NEED more than that to be happy, we must understand that challenge is not only inherent in lindy hop, it’s a huge part of the fun.
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I tell everyone that I meet that is starting in Lindy that I took Lindy 1 three times before I took Lindy 2. Then I took Lindy 1 again.
It is hard. Especially for older dancers. But so much worth the effort.
Yeah! That’s how I approached ballet, which I learned as an adult. Glad you find it worth the effort!
I’ve told my students that I’m taking Lindy 1 for the 78th time now. I think I’m getting it enough to teach it to them on weekly basis.
David Trinh
Waterloo, Ontario
Completely agree. The fact that Lindy Hop is so broad and that there is space for style and improvisation also adds to the challenge as well as the interest. Great post, Rebecca!
Thanks! Agreed, the improvisation adds SO many levels of challenge. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So people who like east cost swing, and/or contra dancing… They don’t like challenges? Compared to ballet or something that is really, really hard, lindy is pretty much down there with the unchallenging stuff too – just in a more pretentious version for those who like to show off.
I dunno… for me, lindy, contra and many other dances… they’re about expressing myself to music with other people. They’re pretty easy.
When I’m dissatisfied with an evening’s dancing it’s typically that I haven’t found many people to have a fun dance conversation with – maybe because they’re wasting time being challenged by swingouts? or arrythmically adding “flourishes” to their ladies’ chains?
Dancing is really really really easy. The best thing you can do as a beginner is not accept that it’s hard and that’s why you’re challenged with it, but believe that you don’t know how easy it is yet.
People who like east coast swing may well enjoy being challenged by other things. I mean, I like to sew, but I only do pillows, curtains, and hems. One can only spend so much time developing a skill. I chose lindy hop, massage, and blogging over sewing.
Have you ever taught adult beginners and told them how easy dancing is? I haven’t seen that approach succeed long term; lots of people drop out or never get past beginner level. In fact, I was an adult beginner who nearly failed that way. I’d rather teachers say, “Yeah, lindy hop is hard. But it’s SO worth it! And I’ll be here to guide you along the way!”
Being positive about how a skill takes time and effort to learn is more inspiring than saying it’s easy.
I just have to publicly provide an “amen” to your statement: “I’d rather teachers say, “Yeah, lindy hop is hard. But it’s SO worth it! And I’ll be here to guide you along the way!” After teaching true beginners for 3 years, I can say that a small minority of dancers may be motivated by the notion that “dance is easy,” but in my experience, the vast majority will stick with it if they understand that (like walking, or reading, etc) it is a difficult skill to obtain that is super fun and seems easy/natural once you’ve obtained it.
I wouldn’t classify Lindy as easy. Maybe dancing lindy while having fun is easy, but dancing lindy well is not. To me, if lindy was easy, then 7 days of lessons would have you winning competitions. If not 7 days, then many 2 months.
There’s so much in lindy hop that we can add. Tap, for instance, is something that can be added anywhere into our dance and it’s an entire realm that has barely been touched in my dancing.
You’re absolutely right. Challenge is an extremely important part of life. It helps us achieve what positive psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow. If you haven’t read about it, he has a great book by the same title, “Flow”.
Thanks for the reading suggestion. Boy, that name is a mouthful.
You are so right about the book and his follow-up “Finding Flow”, both a mind altering and explain exactly the phenomena that you are describing. My wife and I started from scratch just last October. We ventured out to a local Saturday night dance in January and were blown away by all the good dancers…I found myself saying “Man, wonder if that will be me one day?” Well, that day occurred this past Saturday when I was able to go a full dance with one of the best and she added a compliment at the end! Happy, happy, happy…All the next day I kept telling my wife, “Man, can you believe I danced with Erica?”…Now that’s good stuff and well worth all the time and effort, as is every week of classes and workshops!
Great post Rebecca, as ever! And you’re already getting such fascinating responses!
My two cents: I agree completely about the endless challenge of Lindy Hop. I’m a person who moves along and/or abandons something, once I feel I’ve figured it out *to my own satisfaction*. But with Lindy Hop, there’s always something I can do better…or differently…or the SAME but with someone else who will respond differently, which will produce a different result! Endlessly recombinant!! To anyone who finds Lindy Hop “easy”, I say: you have probably only mastered it *to your own satisfaction*. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Like many things (ballet, chess, using a computer…) swing dancing can be fairly easy to learn, but difficult to truly master, and that definition really depends on what level of mastery you want based on what you want from dancing.
I’ve never found dancing “really really really” easy. (Maybe I’m just not a “natural” or something, but I’ve found the number of GENUINELY natural dancers in the world to be a vanishingly small amount.) I *think* Mr. Dyke is trying to be encouraging by wanting to tell beginners that they, “don’t know how easy it is yet.”, implying that we tend to make things more difficult than we need to (which I do all the TIME). But for me, I was more than happy to embrace my lack of skill, and the fact that I *did* find it hard to learn, because the scene was full of nice, happy, encouraging people who sympathized and aided me.
Again, nicely done, Rebecca!
Fair enough. I *find* lindy pretty hard. I definitely haven’t mastered it to my satisfaction. But the more I learn, the more I’m convinced that it’s about letting go how hard it is and realising it’s actually quite easy. Effortless. The difficulty is in concentrating so much to do something that you mustn’t concentrate about doing because it stops you from doing it (I mean this both figuratively and literally – literally because if you tense up your whole body to make your feet and arms go exactly where you think they ought to go to make a move work, you’re blocking the exact body mechanics that make partnered dancing work).
But maybe the effort I’m putting into making Lindy easy is exactly the same as others are putting into overcoming the challenges – a rose by any other name.
I probably also overreacted to reading that “contra” is missing something. I really can’t get behind any philosophy of dancing in which contra is missing something :)
And to answer your question above, Rebecca, I’ve not taught any swing dancing yet (fortunately for everyone, I’m sure ;) ). I did dance with someone last saturday who was terrified (shaking, “I can’t do this” terrified). I certainly had a lot of success telling her that dancing was easy – and proving it to her – we did swingouts without the footwork, we walked about, changed directions on rock steps, doing some silly stuff, moving to the music. I hope that very same success won’t prove to be her undoing if she continues dancing!!
More generally, beginners tend to be “told” a lot about how to accomplish dancing (even with the best teachers who are good at “talk less, dance more”) – maybe if we’re going to spend so much time “telling”, we could spend more on what dancing *is*, then how to accomplish it will speak for itself. I like the idea that dance being easy and dance being hard are two sides of the same coin.
All of that, very well said. Cheers.
Peter. Did you know I thought of you when I posted this? It’s true. Thanks for your insightful comments.
Tying together Gregory and Peter’s comments – I started in a scene where East Coast was taught as the starter dance. And Lindy Hop was the advanced dance. Then an instructor (not that good of an instructor), taught Lindy Hop as the beginner dance. He just did it.
I realized that a beginner dancer doesn’t know what hard is, or what easy is, just that they are going to program their body to do new things, and have fun. And they don’t have to unlearn all their terrible east coast habits to get into Lindy.
Of course, the fact that they have a lifetime to refine and relearn their Lindy is a good thing. I think the take away is more you that you can teach Lindy as a beginning dance, more than you can master Lindy in a single lesson. But I do like the idea of spending some time figuring out how easy Lindy is – as a teaching riff.
Yes, lindy hop IS hard, but I had a light bulb moment when I realised that half the time it was hard because I was making it hard for myself- many of the obstacles to making dancing look effortless and easy are as much about your state of mind, which transfers to your body in posture, muscle tone, and pre-empting (my worst fault as a follower!). I’m not saying that things like engaging your core and keeping your arms relaxed are not physical skills that you have to learn (because they are), but I find that things like being tense in the arms is a physical manifestation of nervousness, stopping my own momentum is a manifestation of fear, and so is guessing what my leader is doing rather than being responsive. If you learn Lindy Hop, you will be challenged by yourself as much as you will be challenged by the steps.
When you go running, don’t you engage your core and keep your arms relaxed? (or some approximation thereof). Again, it’s perhaps more a question of state of mind than objective “Truth”, but so many people fight against being tense, I feel it positive to focus on the fact that dance taps both into skills that we naturally have and simultaneously into our fear of being rubbish dancers (I wonder how we acquire that?!).
Before I was a dancer, I would go running, and I’d end up with sore arms and a sore jaw (from clenching my teeth.)
So I, for one, had to be taught how to “engage my core and relax my arms,” and I had to be taught it by rote, by naming (and touching) muscles and having someone stand there with me, hold my hand and provide real-time feedback.
It’s nice that “natural” movement comes “naturally” to some people, but for a lot of people it doesn’t. Grace can be learned.
You would be surprised at the amount of tension carried by even high level runners. If you care to see relaxation in motion go watch Bolt run. Then watch how others struggle against themselves.
Fabulous insight. I’ve had so many experiences like this.
True!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rebecca — I’m not sure why you think ECS is not a challenge. Perhaps you should explain that. Ballroom competitions with the highest level of dancers in the world do ECS and they look challenged to me. If you don’t think so just spend some time on youtube.
As for Contra, the advanced levels of dance are much more than just memory, so I tend to disagree with your contention that it’s nothing but rote memory. Contra is a far superior dance to learn for beginners because it is easy to pick up the basics and the lead/follow is not nearly as important.
I’m not a Lindy dancer so excuse me for my opinion (which will no doubt be unpopular here) — but from what I have seen Lindy is very limited in terms of music to dance to. It’s OK if you are into big band swing but most other styles of music don’t work for it. Lindy is nice to watch but it’s not a very practical dance unless you are young, athletic, and you happen to be into the swing music craze. Sure, big band is trendy but it’s very narrow in it’s popular appeal.
West Coast Swing is a far better option than Lindy, and if you look at the history of the two dances they come from the same roots. WCS is just as challenging as Lindy and leaves just as much room for improvisation. The advantage of knowing WCS is that it is far more versatile when it comes to music and venues.
So people, if you want to dance anywhere choose ECS and WCS. If you know both of those you won’t be a one-trick-pony like the Lindy dancers.
Lindy is a great specialty dance for those that have done it all and want more, but it’s never going to be a mainstream dance — and it’s a lousy choice for beginner dancers.
“Lindy is very limited in terms of music to dance to.” Ah yes, the old “limit-yourself-for-a-greater-challenge” challenge. One of my favorites! Anyhow, most people will say the music really grows on them. The music, the history, and the culture unite us.
Ballroom dancing is another beast entirely. For lindy hoppers, the lack of challenge in our version of east coast swing does not need to be explained. Also, I think all of our older and/or less-than-athletic dancers would disagree about lindy hop being impractical for them. Just because lindy hop gets us in better shape doesn’t mean we started there. :-)
[Sorry for not being a force for good on your blog today, Rebecca]
Bahahahahaha :) It’s funny how I don’t live in a world where this can be anything but hilarious. I really need to get out more.
I suppose it’s because the dances I like are about a perfect match between the dance and the music. It’s the point that you dance them to a limited (but at the same time infinitely varied) range of music. Give me music that isn’t designed for a special kind of dance and I mostly feel lost. Lindy is really nice for anything with a nice swung rhythm to it. Today I found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFaXow1zTwQ Deffo not big band.
I think few people would/could disagree that the east coast Rebecca is referring to is a subset of Lindy specifically chosen because it’s “easier” to teach to beginners. Where people will start to disagree is my interpretation that it’s for teaching people to dance without teaching them to Dance.
I do agree that lindy is a pretty tough choice for someone who doesn’t dance anything. And if you don’t love swing music – yeah definitely, find something you love to dance to!
FWIW, Lindy Hop is one of the many dances I’ve tried/learned and whilst being a little challenging, it’s also the most fun.
Only big band swing? Lol. I enjoy Lindy-hopping to soul music too, in fact some of my best dances have been to soul music.
Young & athletic? Lol again. Funny how people who don’t do it think its all done like in Hellzapoppin? I’ve just turned 40, not old you say? No, but I’ve also just been diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis too so I walk like I’m about 150. However, I still Lindy-hop. How? I just do it more relaxed and smooth. Young and athletic! Pah!
Once I had my grandmother watch a video of me competing in lindy. She is 86 and danced since she was a child until she couldn’t walk. After watching the video she said, in her nicest tone, “Wow. You and your friends are so much better than any of us ever were… But we had more fun!” I can’t think of a more trenchant critique of my dancing. Challenge is only a means to an end. Go have fun!
Yup, it’s hard! And you are completely right – if it wasn’t hard, I wouldn’t still be doing it, because I’m astounded every day about the things I’ve yet to master.
Also important for adults (versus children) is a feeling of success, which you have alluded to. About 1/2 of the people I instruct are critical thinkers and have to deal with much discouragement because Jazz dancing is hard. The other 1/2 are optimists and simply believe that they ‘get it’ (or at least have most of it) and are kinda ignorant to the many nuances that they aren’t getting.
I think a critical role for experienced dancers is to encourage the many people who think Lindy is hard – especially those that seem to feel more failures that successes and fun times. Telling them that they’re doing alright, or saying that what they just did was pretty cool. When people feel successful – and often times it needs to be pointed out by others – then they will stick with it.
The presentation of the message “Lindy is challenging” can be done in a number of ways yet still… such as, “hey, check out Hellzapoppin! Maybe one day you can do some of those moves too!”, when obviously a beginner is many years from doing anything like Hellzapoppin :)
Hi, Rebecca! I always love your articles and yes, I think you make a good point about the challenge of Lindy keeping it interesting over a long period of time. However, I’d like to disagree about contra dancing in that it’s about memorization. I think it’s about having a group high and for that to happen, it’s got to be something a diverse group can achieve together in a few minutes. (Average time for instruction is about 5-7 minutes and dances typically last 7-10 minutes.) I was an avid contra dancer for over 10 years. While it’s much easier than Lindy, there is something one can get from contra that is absent in other dance forms: dance trance. When there is a good group of dancers, good music, and a dance that flows nicely from one step to another, with lots of turning – either twirls and/or swings – the effect is hypnotic and transcendental. It is not just an individual experience but one shared with a group of people. I can think of no other dance form that produces this effect. So, while it may not be a challenging dance form to learn, the payoff can be big and one does not have to have a high skill level to to achieve that.
What I love about Lindy is the momentum. The challenge has been frustrating at times but once I started gaining some competency, it was a lot of fun! I’m a pretty casual dancer but I still enjoy refining my skills. The feeling one gets when things are going well is amazing!
Thanks for your thoughtful and thought-provoking articles.
Rebecca,
Another article where you “get it” so right. I have thought many times for myself that in order to keep loving this dance, I have to keep challenging myself. One of the nice things about Lindy is that there are endless ways to challenge yourself. By the way, thanks for the fun links on learning and the brain. I forwarded some to my non-dancing husband who will enjoy them.
It is good that swing dances gives you simple levels of entrance, such as ECS, so you can show up at a social dance and have fun your very first time. I found Lindy really hard at first. It took me three weeks to understand how to get the spring action in a swing out.
I’m an “older dancer,” in my mid 40s–I didn’t learn to do Lindy until I was almost 40. Not everyone likes to challenge themselves, but for those who do–this is a great dance. It can grow with you, or not–your choice for how much time and energy you give it.
I find myself curious, because I do have some friends who come out dancing regularly and never seem to put any energy into improving their dance. They can do the same moves and never take a class or experiment. They got to a certain level they are comfortable with and there they stay. I can’t relate. The thrill would be lost to me unless I can still find ways to make it new and different.
In reply to AnonAgain–lindy can be done to other music besides Big Band swing for sure! I’ve enjoyed doing lindy to many other genres–soul music, pop music, country music. Our scene has been known to Lindybomb the local and famous Billy Bob’s here in Fort Worth. And I absolutely adore dancing to Dixieland jazz–I don’t think that is big band music.
Nice to see a contra dancing clip. That looks like a blast. I can understand how that could be a neat together group experience, sort of like singing in a choir or playing in an orchestra–a sense of one-ness and community in a joyful setting.
Again, thanks for the thoughtful post and I’ve enjoyed reading the great comments as well.
Hey Shirley. That’s really interesting how you feel a slight divide between you and your friends who don’t continue learning. It seems like there are different things that people find addicting about lindy hop. I bore myself when I do too many repetitive movements. Boring Rebecca is not happy Rebecca. Gotta keep working.
Hi, Rebecca:
I think the bulk of this article is spot on; in any endeavor,to become better, one has to push oneself beyond what they may think they can do, especially when it comers to dancing. I do, however, disagree with your characterization of ECS being limited. I saw a great video tribute to Frankie Manning today and I think that he would agree with me. When those cats invented these dances back in the 1930′s, they weren’t putting labels on it, they were just doing what felt right, responding to the music. When I watch films of them, sometimes they are doing 8 count (lindy) and sometimes they are doing 6 count (ECS), but they always look like they are having fun. I’ve been playing swing on a professional level for almost 30 years and in my experience the best dancers have always been those who aren’t concerned with labels, but instead listen to the music and let it tell them how to move. Still, I love your blog. Keep up the good work!
Hey Geno. We call it “6 count lindy”, and truthfully it doesn’t matter how many counts there are (unless you’re a beginner and you’re counting to keep your place in the music). Lindy hop is about the feel of the dance, not the precise moves or number of counts. So you’re generally quite right about labels. Cheers!
Hi Rebecca,
There’s a very spot-on comment about contra, the one about dance trance. (That’s the name of a June contra dance weekend in Lexington, KY, by the way. :-)) I have often felt that my head and heart was going to explode from pure joy in a contra dance; I have never had that experience doing Lindy. Contra is completely different from Lindy. There are aspects of both that I love, but one of the biggest draws to contra is the group love: it’s not just the dancers; it’s the whole room including the musicians and the caller. It really is a group high that no other kind of dance can replicate, especially for beginners. I really like that beginners can have so much fun in contra.
A year or so ago, before I had a bunch of injuries that set me back, I was taking lindy lessons on a fairly regular basis, both group and private. One time I was dancing with a really fun lead, only I guess it wasn’t fun all the way around, because while I was trying so hard to make my feet, arms, and core do what they were supposed to do, I was straining so hard that my partner (bless his heart) looked at me and said, “You know this is supposed to be fun, right?” Since then, I’ve just tried to have fun. I’m not one of those that feel I need to be constantly challenged in the dance in order to have fun.
It was fun reading what you and others have to say, even if I don’t always agree. Thank you.
This sounds like a good addition to the list of “31 Signs You’re not an Advanced Dancer Yet – #32: “One reason I like Lindy Hop is so that I can tell people it’s challenging, hard to learn, I’m good at it, and other ‘simple’ dances such as EC swing are beneath me.” To see how simple and unchallenging EC is, take a look at any of the World Boogie Woogie Championship videos. (To me, boogie woogie is close enough to EC to be worthy of consideration in this discussion. After all, there’s not much difference between a rock step and a kick ball change.)
“Like”
Again, the ballroom version of east coast swing is taught to ballroom dancers. And boogie woogie is rarely taught in the US. The east coast swing I’m referring to is the “side, side, rock step” version almost all lindy hoppers started with.
For lindy hoppers that version is too easy to satisfy our needs. Whether it’s “beneath” someone depends on who you ask.
Replace the side, side with triple step triple step and you’re in 6-count Lindy.
Most of the older dancers (60s-70s) in Pittsburgh dance triple step to slower music. They’re very confused when they first see single step ECS.
Follow up on the other thread — I find the first sentence of this article to be a little creepy, and more than a little bit inaccurate, at least in my case. I became a lindy hopper when I was 15 years old, having been turned on to swing music by my grandmother, and dancing in the Long Island scene which then as now was dominated by people aged 40 and up.
How good do you have to be to have fun dancing lindy hop?
It strikes me that you can have fun at any level that you attain and its really about having the confidence and the gumption to get out there and enjoy the social dance scene.
I
So much to say.
I’m tempted to say I disagree. I’m tempted to say that the dance is easy.
At the same time, there are all sorts of different kinds of challenges, so it really depends on where the individual is comming from and what their goals are.
I do feel that there there is always a new challenge for those who seek true mastery. On that point, I agree with you 100%.
However easy or hard the dance may be, I think how you approach it and how you are taught often make the dance WAY harder than it needs to be.
I propose that the students who advance quickly are able to do so because of their approach and their mentality. Not because they are a “natural”. I’d go so far as to define a “natural” not as someone who learns difficult things easily, but as someone who isn’t putting up unnecessary barriers and obsticals.
Then there’s the teachers. In my opinion, there are a VERY small number of teachers who are able to present this dance accurately,yet simply, in a way that makes it easy for the student to learn the dance well, and maybe even perceive it as easy. Less than ten that I’ve seen, and I’ve been at this a long time.
All of this has less to do with the actual difficulty of the dance, and more to do with how we approach it and how it’s taught. THAT is what makes the dance hard(er) or easy(er).
I often find myself having the best dances with some of the absolute beginners. They have more fun, and they learn easily. Then they take a class, and it’s gone. Like clockwork.
When I go out to “the club”, I see a quality in the average person on the dance floor that is VERY hard to find in “dancers”. They have little or no concern with “doing it right” and are having tons of fun! I look out at the average floor filled with “dancers”, and I often feel that I’m not seeing very much dancing at all. When I hear stories of “back in the day”, it sounds to me like lindy hop had more of a “club” feel then, as opposed to an…. accidemic(?) feel today. I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but hopefully you see what I’m getting at.
So the biggest challenge I see is learning to really DANCE, rather than execute moves to the timing of the music. Hitting a break doesn’t mean you’re dancing. This is a skill that isn’t difficult in itself, as proven by the “club” dancers who “know nothing” about dancing.
But once those walls are put up. it can be very difficult to get past them for a wide variety of reasons. In that sense, the dance is VERY difficult. But again, it’s not the dance itself. It’s us.
I think one of the most helpfull things we could do is strive to understand the difference between dancing and practicing. Obviously very closely related, but fundamentally different. I think most people are trying to do both at the same time, and it’s the dancing side that suffers. At least once in a while, try to clearly separate the two and I think we’ll get more out of both sides. Our dancing will improve, and our academic understanding will improve. Once you understand the difference and can separate the two, it’s fine to sometimes blend as well, and you’ll have more fun and get more out of it.
Most of what I’ve said up to now has had to do with our mentality. As for the actual physical movement, a lot of the same stuff applies.
I remember an observation made by Steven Mitchell about a class he was teaching. He commented that everybody in the class was comfortable walking, running, jumping, but as soon as you say the word “dance”, they seem to forget all those skills. Not an exact quote, but a very accurate observation. Most of the physical movements aren’t that hard until we make them hard. Which we do. A lot.
My $0.02
Jason: All you have to do is watch Lucy to get what you are saying. I wish I could dance like her.
Lucy’s dancing has been a huge inspiration for me since before she could walk. I don’t want it to sound like I’m exploiting her or pushing anything on her when I say this, but watching her dancing develop has confirmed many of my unconventional ideas, including the idea that the dance is easy. If we let it be. She was following weight changes and rock steps since before she could walk, and really dancing since before she could talk. I remember swinging out with her in a jam when she was 3 to a pretty fast song. Fast enough that it was “hard” for some of the “intermediate” and even “advanced” dancers. She was just having fun. Nobody had told her that it was supposed to be hard, so it wasn’t.
She practices sometimes. Usually just a couple min or so. Sometimes you can see her really thinking while she dances. The rest of the time, she’s just listening and rocking out! Every once in a while, I’ll specifically show her something new. Just a couple times, then drop it. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes not. Most of what I’ve “taught” her is just stuff I try while we’re social dancing.
It’s gotten to a point for both of us that we can just social dance like we would with anybody else. (not that she really dances much with anybody other than her mom and I.) That’s where most of her learning happens. Another big piece is watching. She’ll watch YouTube clips sometimes, but mostly old musicals. (mom’s got a pretty good collection). That stuff shows up in her dancing ALL THE TIME. Then she’ll occasionally practice something for a couple min, or mom or me will show her something once or twice, but that’s it.
Anybody who’s seen her dancing will tell you that her progression has been amazing. As long as it’s something she enjoys, I have no doubt that we can all look forward to continued inspiration. Anybody who went to savoy swing jam got a chance to see HER choreography debut.
Like I said before, she proves my theory’s better than any words I can give. As adults, I believe we are all still capable of this natural learning, but are held back by barriers we’ve put up or had thrust on us by or society and culture. (men dancing?). Further evidence is obvious in the “naturals” we see from time to time. As I said before, a defining quality in a “natural” is not getting in thier own way. I believe we are all “naturals” underneath the barriers we’ve developed.
I should add one more thing. Even though I believe the dance itself is “easy”, I do agree with Rebecca 100% that it will always present us with new challenges. To use her analogy, Lucy still enjoys tick-tac-to. Eventually, she’ll figure out the secret and lose interest. Lindy Hop (or dancing in general) will always hold a new challenge, so I expect she’ll keep at it for as long as she enjoys it.
*shameless parental gushing*
If you like her dancing, you should hear her sing.
I just heard about Lucy in this thread and looked her up on YouTube.
I had absolutely nothing to do with her dancing and I’m planning on gushing all day. So I think you’re quite restrained. Does she sing standards?
This is some great perspective! Well done.
I’d take it a step further than tic-tac-toe and draw the relationship between why checkers is a dead game (all games end in draws) while chess is alive and well.
We simply have not figured out all the permutations of chess while we have for checkers. (another awesome radiolab reference: The Rules Can Set You Free; link: http://www.radiolab.org/2011/aug/23/rules-set-you-free; [20 minutes])
Lindyhop has unlimited permutations. If you run out of moves, it is because you’ve run out of creativity.
Rebecca. I also used to love Contra Dancing. We should go again someday for old times.
I agree that challenge can be a driving force in keeping people with the dance, but I don’t think it’s why people “become” Lindy Hoppers. People become Lindy Hoppers because they want to meet people, or they like the music, or they want to learn some sort of dance and a friend does Lindy so they go for that. I feel this should be titled, “Why people *stay* Lindy Hoppers.”
I also think this could just be called “Why people become/stay dancers,” because ultimately most dances become challenging as you delve into them (including, I suspect, ECS). In fact, I would argue that if you want to talk about people who initially turn to a dance specifically because of the challenge you should be discussing Argentine Tango, since the challenge becomes much more apparent much quicker.
Definitely the challenge and the sense of progress are motivators, but the reason I want to get better is because the better I am, the more fun I have, so challenge is a means to an end. The end is fun, and that’s why I dance. Fun.
Challenge is what drives the growth process. Without challenge, we don’t evolve. I watch movies for fun. I dance so I can grow as a human, which is fulfilling and in the moment often quite fun. But they are two fundamentally different kinds of fun.
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