punkassjim

Crooked Lust: Analysis of the Swivel

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:16:49 -0700

From what I remember, a post was going around our little community about swivels and the vast majority answered that the key to improving them was to “get low.”

I’ve heard a lot of back and forth about that little piece of advice and I suppose it could merely be a difference in styles (The Dean Collins/Hollywood styling vs. Savoy). From what Rob has told me, the difference lies really in the angle. One style is a bit lower and back whereas the other is a bit more forward but upright. (From what I’ve been taught, the Hollywood style takes after the Dean Collins’ teachings and is a bit lower and back whereas the Savoy style is a bit more forward and better mirrors typical Charleston posture… am I off?)

Rob and Diane tend to lean (ha!) towards teaching the Savoy style. When we were practicing our swing-outs in class last night, Rob gave me a few more pointers on my swivels. I tend to lean back and get low and he encouraged me to stand up a bit taller, but also “sit” and lean a bit forward so that my shoulders are over the balls of my feet.

(Then again, I was also told to make sure my shoulders were squared off with my partner; so if any lead tended to get a bit lower, I would usually follow suit. But there’s the issue of shifting heights on that second lead that may seem awkward—if you “get low” should you remain at that height all the way through? If your partner shifts his/her height, should you follow suit?)

He also asked if I ever had back pain after dancing, which I said no to and he seemed a bit shocked by that. It made me wonder if my everyday posture (which is something I’ve been striving to make better) affects my swivels/swing-outs, or maybe the natural way I stand is with a slight tendency to lean back.

I think I might lean back more in a swing-out so that I don’t escape the leads hand when he catches me. I like feeling a strong second lead and I feel like if I lean forward a bit, I might run out of his hand. At the same time, when I go through a swing-out, I’m always thinking that my feet need to be catching up with me and not the other way around (as told to the class). Maybe I start out a bit back when I do my swivels but continue through okay? My connections with the leads have been amazing lately and I know I’ve improved those significantly in the last couple months. It might merely be my swivels and my posture at the beginning of the move as opposed to the follow through. I don’t know.

I guess it’s all a balancing act. And there are so many little intricacies to this move that it blows my mind.

Any further tips on posture or swivels? Thoughts on styling? General feedback?.

It’s hard to know what to teach, in terms of swivel styling, because the details can sound conflicting, depending on whether you’re talking to advanced dancers (5-10 years experience), vs. beginner/intermediate (1-2 years or less). The “get low and lean back” of hollywood style (which I like the looks of) is definitely true of the style, and it is distinct from the Savoy style. But if you tell beginners to “get low and lean back”, it’s likely to cement bad habits in their dancing, because they haven’t yet mastered connection techniques enough to avoid messing with the connection.

So, think of everything as stemming from the connection, first and foremost. Swingouts themselves can be really light-touch and airy, not much stretch or compression. Or they can be heavy, angry, super stretchy to the point of being afraid you’re gonna slip out of each other’s hands. Most of that stretch comes from how much the leader sits back into his hips (at the 4 and the 8), which in turn makes the follower sit back into her hips, for good counterbalance. With those kinds of changes, height-changes will be inevitable, but definitely be mindful of how they happen. If you’re tall on 3-7 and short on 8-2, then there needs to be some adjustment for continuity and flow.

Anyway, all of this to say, “get low” should spring from that connection and amount of stretch. Sure, you can sit back into your hips without him initiating it, but some people would call that backleading (I wouldn’t, but I get it). Basically, it’s important to know how to do swivels both in an athletic/low/leaning-away posture, and in a more-upright/less-stretch position. It’s especially important to practice both because…well, it’s all about the music, innit? Depending on the energy of the song, you might want to throw in sweet-and-tidy swivels during the chorus, and down-and-dirty swivels for the bridge.

One other thing to say about the “leaning away” thing. There are only a handful of followers around here who I’d say they “lean away” at the end of a swingout (whether or not they’re swiveling), and it almost always feels wrong to me. Like, if I were to draw a straight line through their body and it looked like the axis of the earth…yeah, it makes the connection feel wrong, because their hips aren’t what’s driving it all. To lean away without using your hips, is to not be in control of your own balance. And that’s key. Maybe I’m just too sensitive to the language used, but to “sit back” is better technique. Even in hollywood-style swivels, it seems to me like they usually sit back with their hips, but they also straighten their legs…so it looks like they’re leaning, but their upper body remains pretty upright.

fuckyeahchristinahendricks: from “Mad Men Inside the Actors...

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:01:20 -0700

fuckyeahchristinahendricks:

from “Mad Men Inside the Actors Studio”

For a second there, I thought this was Pump-Up-the-Volume-era Samantha Mathis. And then I started daydreaming. Then I realized it was Christina Hendricks. And then I started daydreaming again.

syntheticpubes: Data visualization, conservative politics, 3d...

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:48:23 -0700

syntheticpubes:

Data visualization, conservative politics, 3d printing, butt plugs. This is the greatest fucking thing ever.

Sometimes the world makes me laugh and laugh.

merci pour le venin: Teaching on the Social Dance Floor.

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:22:09 -0700

merci pour le venin: Teaching on the Social Dance Floor.:

lotusmika:

This irritates me. Regardless of whether either party is a “good” dancer or not, this goes back to something that I firmly believe every dancer to should be familiar with and that is proper dance etiquette.

~

Lessons and Social dancing are two entirely different areas, and they should be remain separate.

While I agree with just about everything in your post (and the posts of folks who responded), I have one minor nit to pick with folks who take this rule of etiquette a bit too seriously:

I frequent a few venues around here where there are intermediate/advanced classes before the social dance. Often, but by no means every week, I’ll end up on the sidelines of the social dance, with someone who was in the class with me, and we’ll work on the stuff we did in class. Or, if they were late to class, I’ll catch them up on what they missed. And on more than one occasion, I’ve had a finger waggled at me and been told “now now, no teaching on the social floor.” Same deal if I’m playing with some call-and-response jazz steps or a charleston circle on the sidelines. If I’m showing someone a new jazz step to play with, I don’t want to be leered at by the etiquette police.

Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t think this is at all what this particular rule of etiquette is about. People should feel free to play with new concepts together, as long as they’re both comfortable with each other in that setting. And it does take a certain amount of awareness to know that everyone involved is totally into it.

I recognize the dudes in our scene who clearly want to be “the teacher” on the social floor, and I watch my friends struggle with those dances, and I always wonder why they don’t just turn those guys down and tell them why (and really, they need to be told). But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about friends swapping fun dancing ideas like trading cards, either on the sidelines or on the social floor. I think that kind of stuff should always be encouraged, because that’s where this dance comes from.

I love those spots in a televised concert where they cut to the...

Fri, 11 May 2012 20:06:01 -0700

I love those spots in a televised concert where they cut to the adoring fans. I’m watching Queen: Rock Montreal and Live Aid on Netflix, and this girl actually put her hand on her heart after Freddie finished “Love of my Life”. (Taken with Instagram at Hampyhouse)

I can't believe you did that, and to that sweet old lady. In my whole life I have never seen such wanton displays of disrespect and immaturity in a public space. You must think you're pretty "cool." And the cougar! Where did you even FIND a cougar?

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:30:36 -0700

A guy’s gotta have a hobby, okay? DON’T YOU JUDGE ME.

(also, the cougar was a rescue)

Wow, you really are a punkass, Actually, I would go with "asshole", but since you seem to think you get to tell everyone what to do or not do with their own lives, I guess I better let you choose which epithet I hurl at you. Because I can think of about ten off the top of my head at the moment, most of them including the phrase "pompous" and/or "arrogant".

Fri, 11 May 2012 16:08:00 -0700

I’ve never been so sure in my life that someone had the wrong guy.

EDIT: actually, now I know who posted it, and why. I’ve apologized for what I said that angered them, and tried to clarify that my intentions were good.

Even when Maddie’s not “on something”, I make...

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:47:45 -0700

Even when Maddie’s not “on something”, I make up other captions in my head. This one: Maddie’s on a snacking binge.

When Obama endorsed same-sex marriage...

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:21:23 -0700

whenobamaendorsed:

… I was like:

vernacular jazz dance: pervyanon: bristolswing: dustandrain: I only realised that I had...

Mon, 07 May 2012 16:17:22 -0700

vernacular jazz dance: pervyanon: bristolswing: dustandrain: I only realised that I had...:

dustandrain:

It’s not only the male=lead, female=follow dichotomy that still prevails. You may say that that’s untrue because there’s an exception: The loophole that women may lead. But on the other hand men who follow are immediately suspected of lack of masculinity, so this argument has to be taken with a grain of salt. I’ll always remember Jo telling us girls that learning to lead would improve our dancing, but noone ever told the men that learning to follow might just expand their horizon as well.

I have no problem with the gripes you’ve got, nor the troubles you’ve seen, but this anecdote doesn’t feel (to me) like it supports your thesis. First of all, Jo is only speaking from her own experience. She can’t tell you first-hand about learning to be a male follower, so she doesn’t offer it. To take offense to Kevin (or whomever) for not stepping in and making sure it’s spelled-out, well, that’s silly. Not every good point needs to be made at every available opportunity. And really, one doesn’t need to look very far to see that Kevin follows (and quite well, AND he’s one of the only dudes I know who really pulls off the following without really screwing it up with backleading).

We follow a very specific pattern while dancing, in which the lead has to be masculine, and the follow feminine.

The “love me or leave me” routine by Thomas and Max (that went kind of viral on youtube a couple of years ago?) was so lovely because it broke with that pattern, the revival I witnessed at SSS last winter was so horrible to me because Thomas visibly and over the top ”gayed it up”, played a character that was effeminate and ridiculously so.

No offense, but that’s just your interpretation. Sure, it’s hard to see a man portray the feminine and not immediately think “gay”. But what if he was just trying to emulate Alice Mei, or Frida Segerdahl? The way I see it, he not only stepped into the traditionally-female follow role (and I’m not saying that tradition should be perpetuated), but he also demonstrated his immense skill by dancing the same tune as incredibly masculine (the video), and incredibly feminine (the rendition you saw). That’s super impressive.

It’s the same with women couples where the lead is trying super hard to appear masculine, it’s unnecessary and sometimes looks awkward… (by which I don’t mean to say that being masculine as a female lead, and being effeminate as a male follow is not okay: If that is who you are, do it. Just don’t let yourself be pressured into something that you’re not, in either case…)

I’m glad you ended that part with a healthy slice of “to each their own”, because that’s a sentiment that’s been sorely lacking in this whole topic (at least in the circles in which I’ve seen it come up). If you’d like to see more of people dancing switch, then that’s great. But that’s yours. It’s important not to attribute to narrow thinking, that which can be explained by preference.

Redhead. (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:52:56 -0700

Redhead. (Taken with instagram)

Screw your modern Fiat, I’ll take one of these, please and...

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:13:28 -0700

Screw your modern Fiat, I’ll take one of these, please and thank you. (Taken with instagram)

crooked-lust: This is what we learned in the performance class...

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:45:57 -0700

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

crooked-lust:

This is what we learned in the performance class tonight. omg. I got nearly everything down except the transition between the crossovers and the fishtails.

[…]

I’m a little freaked out about this performance class given we only have three more weeks left and we only have this little bit down. They’re only hour long classes! I hope we can fit it all in and it goes smoothly. We’re already having trouble with the intro and how we’ll transition from entering the “stage” in a line (all followers in one, all leads in another) and then manage to do an Around the World Charleston and end up next to our partners. Oy vey.

Do any tumblr hoppers have any advice? This is my first performance class ever, so any sort of tips or tricks would be really appreciated.

I’d say, if you’re mostly keeping up, you’re ahead of the curve. A few practice sessions with Peter outside of the class would be a good idea, at least once a week.

But, for a 2:30 song, are they really teaching a routine in only 4 weeks?! Because, damn. I don’t know if you saw our Viper Mad routine from the end of March, but we put 8 weeks into that, and even still it was a tight fit. Granted, Kevin & Jo tend to really do blow-your-mind choreo, so those 8 weeks were necessary. But yeah, doing a whole song in 4 weeks is ambitious, so if you feel crunched, it’s definitely not your fault.

New colors! (Taken with Instagram at Hampyhouse)

Tue, 01 May 2012 18:50:40 -0700

New colors! (Taken with Instagram at Hampyhouse)

Shorty George Awesomeness

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:51:18 -0700

fuckyeahswingdance:

So here’s something I’m discovered about Shorty Georges.

I always thought mine looked kind of “flat”, even if I did the pulling-up-of-shoulders and arms. What I’ve discovered now is that I like them much better if I pull up the entire side of my upper body instead of just the shoulder, so I feel a stretch diagonally through my core. It looks much more dynamic and interesting, I think.

Find a mirror, give it a go (if you don’t already do them that way) and see if it works for you!

Depending on how it fits with the music you’re dancing to, it also adds a lot of juice to use the kick on 8 to jump into your Shorty George. Or throw some stalls in there, a la the Big Apple. One…three…five, six, seven…one…three…five, six, seven.

merlin: The Fuck? Google, man. You need to get your mind...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:36:43 -0700

merlin:

The Fuck?

Google, man. You need to get your mind right.

Shame on you.

Go ahead and include the “e” on the end, and I’m fairly sure it’ll suggest what you wanted.

fuckyeahswingdance: Wow! Breathless after watching...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:01:00 -0700

fuckyeahswingdance:

Wow! Breathless after watching this!

There’s so much going on at the end, I can’t even deal. But there are few things as monumentally badass as Brittany and Dargoff doing that pancake-into-a-solo-landing at 1:45.

deantrippe: calamityjon: The Avengers opens in theaters in the...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:03:07 -0700

deantrippe:

calamityjon:

The Avengers opens in theaters in the US on May 4th, and it’s going to do blockbuster business. The individual films featuring these characters have already grossed more than $2.2 billion dollars - that’s greater than the Gross National Product of almost half the countries on Earth - and it’s not unlikely that The Avengers will earn a hundred million dollars on its opening day alone.

This represents a pretty big payday to a lot of people - the actors, obviously, will take home pretty big paychecks. The director and the writers are well-compensated, and certainly the executives who greenlighted this project get to sit back and rake in large bonuses and healthy salaries.

Well, you know where this is going; shamefully, the people who aren’t making a big profit from these movies are the people (and the families of the people) who did the essential work of creating them in the first place. It’s not just Jack Kirby, either, or (Black Widow and Hawkeye co-creator) Don Heck, but also Steve Engelhart, Peter David, Herb Trimpe, Jim Steranko, Roy Thomas and dozens more - the artists and writers who refined and defined the characters appearing in this movie, who fleshed out the original creations and molded them into the figures we cheer for when we see them on the screen.

Some very sensible people are calling for a boycott of this film on those grounds, but I think it’s fairly obvious that a boycott of idealistic comic fans isn’t going to accomplish much - it’s not only comic book fans who’ll be dropping a collective billion dollars over the next eight weeks to see this movie, it’s going to be a lot of movie-goers who haven’t read a comic since they were kids, much less know anything of the controversy.

Plus, of course, you - the collective “you”, representing comic book fans all over the world - want to see this movie. And you’re going to, most likely, right? Even though you know of the morally shady practices of Marvel towards its creators, they’ve got you hooked. Don’t be ashamed, they’ve had you hooked for years. It’s what they do.

So how about this: You’re probably going to go see The Avengers and, judging by the early reviews, you’ll probably enjoy it. How about - as a thank you to the creators who brought you these characters in the first place, who gave you something to enjoy so much - you match your ticket price as a donation to The Hero Initiative?

THI is a charity which provides essential financial assistance to comic book professionals who have fallen on hard times; for decades, the comic industry provided no financial safety net to its employees, most of whom it regarded only as freelancers and journeymen, meaning they were offered no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no retirement plans - none of the financial support most of us enjoy from our jobs and careers. A small donation will help this agency provide a valuable safety net in times of need to these beloved entertainers.

I don’t plan on seeing The Avengers, but I’ve donated $15 - the price of a 3-D ticket - to Hero. If every concerned comic fan - every superhero aficionado who learned to live by the lessons of altruism and sacrifice taught by these comics - donated the price of their ticket, well, it may not hit a billion dollars but it’ll bring in a lot of money for a good and relevant cause.

One last note: Remember what Spider-Man always says? “With great power comes great responsibility”. The lesson in that is that everyone has great power. Spider-Man’s great power is being able to lift a bus. Your great power is the ability to help good causes do good work for good reasons - so why not go be a superhero instead of just watching them on the screen…

(PS: “Liking” this post is nice, thank you, but reblogging/retweeting it helps get the message out and would be even more appreciated)

GOOD IDEA. If you care at all about the artists and writers who’ve been building these imaginary worlds for you over the last half-century, kick the cost of a ticket over to The Hero Initiative. I’m definitely not missing out on a Joss Whedon Avengers movie, dudes, but for crying out loud, the creators who MADE THIS STUFF UP often die in poverty, because the system is set up to exploit creativity for corporate profit rather than live up to the ideals espoused by the two dimensional heroes the Big Two think they “own.” Seriously, do this. Good idea.

I know I can't be the only swing dancer on tumblr....

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:55:00 -0700

astudyinmovement:

katie-emily:

tangledletters:

bristolswing:

w3hav3had3nough:

c’mon guys, represent!

Found us another one!

Hi there! Welcome to the Tumblr Hopper community :D
Track-tag #lindy hop and #tumblr hoppers, all of the swing dancing stuff is on there.

another one :)

Added another.

Best believe.

lonelysandwich: Aeropress “Ritual” (spec) This is a short...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:12:32 -0700

lonelysandwich:

Aeropress “Ritual” (spec)

This is a short tribute to my Aeropress. Two years ago, one was given to me, and it changed everything.

For a little more than $20, this marvel of science will produce arguably the best cup of coffee you’ve ever made in your home. It makes no sense.

Here’s where to buy it: amzn.to/IiqlhO

God, I love everything Adam does.