Stuff I need to work on and what I intend to do about it

It's time for my confessional....

So I just got back from an amazing weekend of dancing at Melbourne Swing Festival, and like any time I throw myself into some hardcore workshops, I came away with a list of things I want to work on in my dancing. No matter what level your dancing is at, you always have something to learn...and boy do I have a lot!

So I thought I'd share with you guys two things I want to work on in my dancing and how I intend to do it!

1) Articulating my footwork

I tend to have a habit to have muffled footwork, especially at higher tempos. If you're body is a representation of the music, then I feel like sometimes my feet cause that annoying static you get on the radio! The one thing in common in all the top notch dancers that I love is that there footwork is super clear and not slippy or shuffly unless done out of necessity/styling. Sometimes my feet tend to slip around a bit, and when the music picks up, my footwork gets a little lazy, even though I don't cut out my steps.

In order to remedy this, I reckon I need to drill doing various footwork patterns around my place at different tempos, and playing around with the different levels of clarity you can get with your feet. I have also recently started taking tap classes, which I think might help, because you need clear footwork in tap to get the distinct sounds. This also ties in to the next thing I want to work on....

2) Rythym changes

We did an amazing workshop with Nina Gilkenson and Mike Faltesek that was all about different footwork rythyms, and playing around with rythym styles taken from the music and put into our feet. Man, I found this class HARD. I can change my footwork around, but usually my stylings will keep a swung rythym. We were working on stuff outside of that rythym, and although I got it in the end it made me realise I need to work on this stuff!

I think tap classes will help a WHOLE bunch with this. Even the basic steps in tap have lots of fun footwork rythyms that I think could work great in Lindy Hop. The sounds also help me feel like I'm a part of the band too, which is an awesome feeling. I also intend to play around with rythym concepts more in my practicing.

These are just the two new things I have recently added to my long list, which includes responding quicker to frame changes, allowing hips to create rotation instead of shoulders, swivelling as bad-ass as Nina Gilkenson, aerials, and so on....

Lindy Hop is a bottomless rabbit hole of awesome technique to work on. I love it!