Good West Coast Swing Dancing
Dec. 23rd, 2009 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebThe Saturday before last, we accidentally showed up at the place we go dancing a bit early. The dance is held at a dance studio, and we got to see a couple practicing west coast swing, probably our best dance.
Here's some dancing that looks sort of like ours. These guys are a little better than us and they know some moves we don't, but you can get the general idea of how we dance.
Isn't that nice?
I told Robin, "See those guys? That's what I'm talking about when I said some people are so good that they make our dancing look formulaic."
It took only a few more seconds of watching the practicing couple before I realized that the guy must be the person everyone was talking about who had come in fourth place in some recent world championship. They were incredibly smooth and did some unbelievable moves. I remember one where he turned the gal away from him, lead her to lean back on his shoulder and then moved away so that her head slipped down his back and down his leg. When her head got down to the back of his knee, he straightened it, thus popping her back into in upright position. By the end we were basically speechless and slobbering.
I found some videos of him, none with that particular move, but you can see something similar to what we were watching here:
That performance was a Jack and Jill Improvisation. I don't know if that means they never did this dance before but surely it means it's not a routine. It might be just regular leading and following by people who are amazing.
Here's what he looks like with his regular partner in a planned and practiced dance:
Here's another one I quite like, though the picture quality is quite bad:
Here's some dancing that looks sort of like ours. These guys are a little better than us and they know some moves we don't, but you can get the general idea of how we dance.
Isn't that nice?
I told Robin, "See those guys? That's what I'm talking about when I said some people are so good that they make our dancing look formulaic."
It took only a few more seconds of watching the practicing couple before I realized that the guy must be the person everyone was talking about who had come in fourth place in some recent world championship. They were incredibly smooth and did some unbelievable moves. I remember one where he turned the gal away from him, lead her to lean back on his shoulder and then moved away so that her head slipped down his back and down his leg. When her head got down to the back of his knee, he straightened it, thus popping her back into in upright position. By the end we were basically speechless and slobbering.
I found some videos of him, none with that particular move, but you can see something similar to what we were watching here:
That performance was a Jack and Jill Improvisation. I don't know if that means they never did this dance before but surely it means it's not a routine. It might be just regular leading and following by people who are amazing.
Here's what he looks like with his regular partner in a planned and practiced dance:
Here's another one I quite like, though the picture quality is quite bad: