Intellectual Dancer's Newsletter #20
Current State Of Mind
It’s been great to see the dance scene start to come back with lots and lots of dance events coming back, some would say almost too many.
It seems to be becoming more and more difficult to keep track of all the dance events, when & where they happening, the type of event (festival, weekender, retreat, social, etc.) along with who was hired and what dance genres are represented.
I’ve been noticing more local community organizers starting to create community calendars as a solution to their particular dance style and corner of the world as an agnostic solution (meaning events from multiple event organizers are included vs only one organizer's calendar of events).
I won’t continue to stand on my soapbox on observations and insights of dance events so this email doesn’t get too long, BUT I’m working on a solution at wheretodance.io.
The comeback of dance events (which is a reason to be so grateful for from a pandemic perspective) also means the comeback of some old opportunities for growth with social dancing dynamics.
I recently saw a post from a follower who was sharing her experience with impatient leads who are impatient and assume the follower is at fault all the time. I have a lot I can say on this subject which is going to tie into an upcoming video around talk time in dance classes. I commented the following on the post:
“I follow 10% of the time social and can still attest to this. With improvisation on the social dance floor, you need to always have space for adjustments for a variety of factors.
I'm not sure if you're original post was genre specific but I feel this type of "assuming something is always wrong with the follow" stems from two main issues:
- Too many pattern-based classes that give leads a false sense of actually leading when in actuality they are memorizing a choreo.
- Not enough follow instructor talk time in classes in general. Especially talk time for the follow instructor to speak to and rotate through the leaders and give detailed instruction on what's needed to actually lead a move well and on how their lead feels.
There's only so much that can be verified visually.”
I’m gathering more notes on experiences of class talk times, but I’ll leave this breakdown as a sneak peek for now:
The Different Possible Communication Channels
- Lead Instructor ➡️ Follower Instructor
- Lead Instructor ➡️ Lead Students
- Lead Instructor ➡️ Followers Students
- Follow Instructor ➡️ Lead Instructor
- Follow Instructor ➡️ Lead Students
- Follow Instructor ➡️ Follow Students
- Leader Students ➡️ Lead Instructor
- Leader Students ➡️ Follow Instructor
- Leader Students ➡️ Follower Students
- Follower Students ➡️ Lead Instructor
- Follower Students ➡️ Follow Instructor
- Follower Students ➡️ Lead Students
- Leader Students ➡️ Leader Students
- Follower Students ➡️ Follower Students
Song I'm Currently Jamming To
I recently DJed in San Antonio and as I was building my playlist this song by came up in a reel I stumbled upon which influenced the reggae portion of my set. Anyone recognize the song this song sampled?
Recent Content
- A lot of coding work has gone into where we are now live in beta and are starting to grow our list of events at Wheretofuckingdance.com!
- A post explaining a bit of urbankiz J&J terminology and the use of the word "champion".
- I created a page on my site that has the Urbankiz J&J results for the 3 J&Js that I've done so far!
- A video clip of an urbankizouk fusion practice session
- A recent clip of a private lesson video with Syrita
Cool Video I'm Watching
Apparently flying drone security cameras in your home are going to be a thing now?
Photo Of The Week
I now have a heat press and I will start to make dance t-shirts custom-ordered of different designs for dance events, dance teams, etc! This is a women's crop top with silver foil vinyl.
Upcoming Travel
2022
10/27-31: Teaching & DJing at Bailame Dance Festival - Minneapolis, MN
12/2-5: Attending Elevation Zouk Festval - Denver, CO
12/16-18: Neokiz Weekender in Denver, CO
2023
1/13-16: Teaching & DJing at the Interfusion Festival - Arlington, VA
2/3-6: Teaching & DJing for Kizouk Fusion Event - Denver, CO
2/23-27: Salsa In Hawaii Festival
Event details can be found here. Let me know if you'd like to set up a Neokiz Weekender in your city!
Question Of The Week
Are Jack & Jill competitions viable in the urbankiz dance scene? Why or why not?
Dope Dance Resources
- A cool project to create a global directory of dance events.
- Find out how your can thrive at your next dance event with the Ultimate Dance Event Survival Kit.
- Find out how you can organize your dance journey with the Dancer’s Training Journal.
Past Newsletters
You can view past newsletters here.
Thanks for reading!
Thoughts and feedback on the newsletter or on anything covered within are always welcome, just hit reply.
The thing I love most about writing this newsletter is follow-up interactions with readers.
