BlueMoonSwing

I’ve often notice some beginner dancers are feeling antsy about joining in on the free group lesson. It’s tough when you’re a beginner because you too often end up dancing only with other beginners — so how would you know which of you is doing it right and which is not? A much faster way to progress is for you to have solid dance time with experienced dancers so you can work on what you learned in your class at your local studio or with your dance teacher.

The best thing you can do is to get up the gumption and ask someone who clearly is better than you to dance. You have to “dance up” to get any better. So you use post-lesson time to sneak in a song or two with someone who’s been there before.

The “Taxi Dancing” part

The taxi dancing comes from experienced dancers who have volunteered to help out. They are coming to the dance early especially to dance with you! Beginners may want simply to dance, in which case the taxi dancer’s job is to zone out and give the basics only. Or, beginners should feel free to ask  to work on one or two particular things, for example “I’m trying to work on my left side pass” or “I need to practice my anchor and being a little late on 1”, etc.

The “Duct Tape” part

Now, you may ask, where does the “duct tape” come in? That’s the part for the taxi dancer’s mouth.  Taxi dancers are there to lend connection, frame, and experience…and that’s it! Encouraging phrases like “that felt great!” or “maybe try that again” are perfect; anything much more than that and maybe some duct tape ought to be handy. Ok, so I’m sorta kidding about duct tape — but only in a literal sense.

The pros — particularly the high level ones — often joke “what’s the new definition of a swing dance teacher?” with the punchline: “A dancer with 15 Novice points”. Blue Moon will focus on providing a place where to grow our  community by social dancing with each other. Let’s leave the lessons for the studios and the pros.

Beginner Dancers: feel free to show up with or without a partner. We will find a way to help you. Just remember the taxi dancer intentionally volunteered to show up to help you, so take advantage! And don’t hog the taxi dancer; let ’em move on to someone else after a song.

Experienced Dancers: Thanks in advance. You have no idea how much you will actually help the beginners by what seems to you such a trivial thing.You can help transform beginners with whom you currently just “get through” a song into dancers who you will readily ask for more. We can grow swing in this community; but we must choose to be the agents of the change we want.