Big Band Friday Nights
I am relatively new to swing dancing, having started with ATOMIC’s Sunday Series classes only 2 years ago. Over the past 2 years, I have made many friends in the swing community and learned an amazing amount from them. I have one friend in particular who I admire very much as a dancer and who has taught me an incredible amount over the past year. His critiques are incredibly discerning and precise (as well as being well-spaced so as not to make me feel like the worst dancer in the world!). Past pearls of wisdom have included: put more pulse into your Lindy Hop; stop back-leading and make your lead actually learn to lead; relax your forearm; don’t anticipate (this is an ongoing problem of mine!). Incorporating his observations into my dancing has been incredibly helpful, and I have grown so much as a dancer thanks to his well-timed advice.
A few days ago, we were chatting over IM on Facebook, and the conversation soon turned towards dancing, as it is wont to do. As we chatted about technique, he wrote, “You know what your main problem is now?” I was very excited to read this; I haven’t gotten an overall dancing critique from him in awhile, and my excitement trumped all nervousness. “You ready?” he asked. “Sure!” I replied. His gem of advice: “You don’t go social dancing enough.” As usual, he’s right. I haven’t been social dancing regularly for months. As a member of the ATOMIC swing team (newly renamed the ATOMIC Lindy Hop Colliders), I have been dancing regularly, dedicating 3 hours every Saturday morning for the past year, but throughout the rest of the week, I have allowed life to get in the way of my social dancing. This is a shame.
On one hand it’s a shame because I have learned so much technique by being on the team, and this technique needs to be practiced more than once a week! But more importantly, I need to go social dancing more because it’s important to make time for the things we love. Yes, life happens. Yes, life gets in the way of what we would rather be doing. But it’s important to be able to distinguish when life is truly important and when it’s just stress that could be mediated by doing something we love. My current mission: stop letting life get in the way of my dancing! I’ve actually been mulling this over in my brain for a month or two but haven’t come up with a plan to make it happen; I just keep allowing life to get in the way of doing something I love. Thanks to my friend’s advice, I want to push myself to find new ways to get myself back on the social dance floor on a regular basis. Here’s hoping I see you all there!
