Asked on Bug’s Question of the Day on Facebook:
“Is there such a thing as working too much on the basics?”
The popular answer is no (see thread). The correct answer is yes.
In lindy hop, we’re taught to spend most of our time focusing on the basics, not to worry about the moves. In every private lesson I’ve ever taken, “the basics” are the main course. How many times have you heard that to be advanced means you’d think it’s fun to spend a week of dance classes just working on your swing out?
And how many times have you thought to yourself, “If I have to break a swing out down into infinitesimally smaller parts one more time, I am going to scream!”?
Nothing wrong with a little angst and suffering in your dance practice. Really. If it’s all fun and games, then you’re probably not pushing yourself.
And there’s safety in being a good dancer. It’s safe to work on your basics for years and years and say, “Look! I am finally good because I have a great swing out!” It’s the popular thing to do. It creates order from the chaos of learning to dance. It secures your spot as a top dancer in your scene.
But what if you’re working on basics to avoid working on things that are harder, bigger, scarier? The dance adds up to something much, much larger than all its building blocks (as fascinating and worthwhile as they are).
Don’t you want to know what that is?
Special thanks to BQOD & its fans for asking awesome questions.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the key word is one Greg Avakian: balance. And I think that’s virtually always the answer to ““Is there such a thing as working too much on the [insert anything here]?”
Working on the basic is great. It’s necessary. But it can kill your love of dancing if you do it too much (or mine, at the very least). And, as you mentioned, there’s the simple matter of budgeting your time.
I find that when I bounce around to various things I learn better anyway. I work on my swingouts for a while, and maybe get frustrated with one aspect. So I go and do something else and when I come back to it, I often find that what I was working on has vastly improved. Or maybe I’m working on some new fancy moves that aren’t quite working too well, so I go back to the basic for a bit, and return to find that my new fancy move is suddenly smoother.
I think it’s analogous (I can’t quite remember the term so I will instead use) lateral cognition. When you can’t remember something for the life of you, then you just go about your business and a few minutes (or hours or days) later it just COMES TO YOU. It works with dancing too, IMO.
Anyway, this is one newbie’s take on it. And for the record, I certainly get accused of being too moves focused. But I also haven’t stopped improving my swingout since I started dancing!
I can’t give this enough comment enough love. The brain totally needs time to NOT think in order to process. Thanks for sharing!
And remember, if no one’s accusing you of anything, your dancing is probably boring. :-)
Also, apparently I’ve been dancing long enough to develop strong opinions. When did that happen? :P
HELL YES!
All “HELL YES” replies will forever remind me of Derek Sivers (who is amazing) and this blog post/chapter in his book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ehWlVeMrqw
Wow, that was unexpectedly educational and inspiring.
Lately I have taken to telling my students that the basic is not in and of itself dancing, but that it is a tool for students to learn how to dance.
It seems to me that working on the basic is as important in Lindy Hop as perhaps breathing in Yoga. That said, it is absolutely possible to over-think each of those and to work oneself into any number of habits.
In response to this post specifically, I’d suggest that there is a kind of work that feels like play. More later.
Yes, over-thinking. People get in their heads too easily. It’s a safe place, after all.
Your first sentence is just beautiful: “Lately I have taken to telling my students that the basic is not in and of itself dancing, but that it is a tool for students to learn how to dance.”
Thanks! Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Thanks, I like that phrasing myself!
That safety thing is key. Obviously folks want to protect themselves from something much of the time. Protecting oneself from injury is vitally important. When it comes to expression what’s there to protect, really?
Perhaps there are different modes of work, both of which have their place. One mode of work for instance might bring a dancer back to their roots, keep them rooted to something true. A different mode of work can make the dancer explore and play, and find new avenues of beauty to transcend the old patterns. Working in either of these exclusively might lead to stagnation on the one hand or groundlessness on the other. That seems right to me.
Thanks for cool provocation!
I do agree, unfortunately, that there is such a thing as working too much on the basics. I know a couple of (anonymous) lindy hoppers that have been dancing for years — and while I will go to them for a quality no-thrills, easy-going, relaxed dance, I know that for myself and many other advanced swing dancers this is all they can provide. They are so concerned with knowing the basics, drilling the basics, relying on the basics, that their dancing is somewhat stale; in fact, their dancing seems to stagnate when in their minds, they think they are the better for it.
It’s unfortunate to me when dancers (leads especially) get to a comfortable level in their [social] dancing and don’t find the need/drive to improve themselves. They think they’re ‘good enough’, and often times won’t improve beyond a certain echelon — and in fact, this idea that they are ‘good enough,’ ultimately works to their disadvantage.
Don’t get me wrong — the basics are always something I feel we need to be reminded of. I remember taking a basics class after I had been dancing just over a year, and it was a huge reminder/eye-opener for me. Whoops, I was doing some really simplistic shit totally wrong. And once I was reminded that, um, yr doing it wrong, my crazy pyrotechnics that I’ve learned after a year and a half improved dramatically. I still enjoy basics classes — perhaps for a different reasons than a newbie, but it reminds me that no matter how inflated my dance ego gets, I still have a lot to keep in mind.
Love this comment. Thank you, Biz, for keeping it real. :-)
o.0 Steven Mitchell once advised a class I was in that if we simply paid attention to what he was teaching, there was no need for a private session. And really, in another of his instructor/performance level classes, follows told me that only a couple of us leads were actually doing what was being taught. That said, I only ever took 1 private, and that was to jumpstart into an intermediate class upon starting lindy, years back.
Paying for a private lesson, you have the right to request what you want to work on. Everyone has a slightly different style … not quite so different as what Frankie talked about having at the old Savoy, evidently, but still … we all move differently, and every teacher is going to teach their particular way of moving … so just ask for something different. It helps to be specific. At a certain point, you will have established you way of moving, and this will change depending on the music, follow/lead, etc. A basic is good to know well, and taking a fistful of group lessons from different people will expose you to at least a half-dozen ways of drumming out those 8 counts.
As was commented above, balance. A well-known female instructor (Hep Jen, shout out!) used to emphasize how nice it was to dance with a lead who would toss in liberal basics (tossing in the occasional three in a row, specifically), as opposed to an entire dance of crazy spins, etc. Dancing with some leads will be like taking a casual walk in the park, some will smoke your shoes, and others are like hopping into an aerobics class. This could be a plateau, or it could simply be an expression of who they are as a person, and where they want to be. We all have our things.
^_^ All said, there’s no “one” right way. I’d seen Frankie laugh at people who stated otherwise. Nicely, but still … it’s hard to take those kinds of statements seriously
I find that every time I dance or teach, I’m automatically ‘practising’ my basics. There’s not a move that exists that exists without the support of ‘the basics’, whether it be straight out 6 or 8 beat basics or variation. It’s like me talking english to a german who speaks only german [I speak only english] – we just DON’T understand each other! Try dancing swing with someone who only knows how to waltz! It just won’t work. We need the common language of our basic moves, how boring is it doing 30 minutes of ‘basics’? Even our brains switch off after a few repeats. How often have you been doing repeats of just one 6 or 8 beat move only and you get through about 6 repeats and the 7th fails? That’s your body saying “Nuff already!”
Certainly you cannot practise enough basics, BUT the secret is to practise them within the framework of a variety of moves or sequences and keep expanding thtat variety!
Private lessons? If you’re competing, definitely! If you want to revise, correct or remember moves you’ve forgotten or ones that don’t work comfortably, YES. Your teacher can sharpen you up or help you remember forgotten moves, but whatever your teacher does, it will always be put right within the framework of ‘the basics’
Unless you have a specific need or purpose, a private lesson is probably not necessary for most.
PS. If you have a partner with a fault that for some reason you are unable to communicate that problem to, it might be a good idea to talk to a teacher and discuss the problem and perhaps get that teacher to assist with diplomatically sorting it in the context [disguise] of a private lesson. Some of us are just not very accepting of suggestions for improving our dancing from our partners!
I think we’ve got a small communication error, and I’m not sure where it is. When I saw this questions on BQOD, I saw basics as fundamentals to dancing, not ‘the basic’, ie swingouts.
Hammering on swingouts forever and ever will drive you insane, and you’ll never get it ‘right’, because while we all know what makes it good, ask different teachers, and you’ll get different responses about what is ‘correct’. Yes you should practice your swingout, but there’s something more important, which you should be spending time on always: the basic fundamentals.
I’ve really become much more aware of this lately as I’ve broken out of a learning rut that I was in, and I’m not working on ‘the basic’, though I did have problems with it that needed help. I went to a friend of mine and asked for help, and we broke it down to effective communication, body position, and cause and effect of leads. Now when I dance, I think about those fundamentals (I should hold my body like ____ and lead like _____ to get her to do ____), and it’s so much more effective and successful.
Also, basic body movements are never too cool for school. I’m going to call Adam Speen out, because I see him do this more than anyone else. If you’re ever at an event with him, he never really stops practicing. I really noticed this with the Tranky Doo. Everyone lined up and was doing it, but Adam was doing it on his off side to build his movement vocabulary and skills. He doesn’t do it all the time, but he does it when he feels the need to work on basic body movements for the other side of his body. To me, you should never stop working on those basics, and you can never work them too much, as long as you use them to build to bigger things.
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