dance faces

sometimes photos can be less than complimentary

We all have them, they can sometimes reveal what we're actually like to dance with, and as the photo above shows we can absolutely guarantee that our worst ones have been caught on camera.

It's very rare to find someone that holds exactly the same expression throughout a dance or, for that matter, throughout their dancing life, but generally there are a number of default dance faces that are most commonly seen on a dance floor. Males and females alike.

McDonald's Eyebrows - the beginner's giveaway, the look of fear may be obvious or only nuanced but it is almost always accompanied by a well arched 'brow. Commonly an indicator of a first social dance but generally just suggests a lack of confidence. The altitude of the eyebrows is directly correlated with experience and, much like the balls of a pubescent boy, they drop with time.

Shy Guy - it doesn't matter how incredible some dancers may be, they inconceivably still lack confidence. Their extravagant solo flourishes are as rare as their eye contact but that doesn't mean they aren't 100% focused on you or incapable of giving you the best dance of your night. Ephemeral glances and simpers are worth a fortune and they're always gracious. (geek points if the name reminded you of these chaps)

Sexyface - these folk crack me up. There's usually a subtle duck-face vibe with the lips slightly pouted, and eye contact is either sporadic or constant but always intense and invokes Lauren Bacall at her coyest. Sometimes this actually looks demure but more often than not they're trying so hard to smoulder it looks like they've just awoken from a stupor sucking lemon rind. Fairly uncommon in the Lindy hop community but slightly more prevalent in west coast swing and salsa/Latin circles.

Monolith - when I say their faces appear hewn from stone I'm not celebrating a flawless bone structure but instead suggesting that they resemble the expressionless Moai of Easter Island. It's not immediately clear why they dance as they don't appear to enjoy it or to be peacocking for a mate, but yet they still get up for as many dances as the next guy. Sometimes the default dance face of pros who are social dancing out of obligation or self-promotion rather than desire.

Smilers - completely self-explanatory, these folk just exude joy for their dancing, their partner, the music, life in general. Without question, smilers are the most fun to dance with because they offer the simplest and most satisfying form of feedback you can get during a dance. Even if they smile at everyone for the entirety of the night, and not just because you did something awesome, a smile across the face of a partner is a confidence builder that never fails to put a spring in my step. I love these guys and thankfully they are the most abundant!

Divas - immeasurably worse than sexy face and the pure embodiment of pretension. You're not good enough, not hot enough or simply not French enough (I once danced with a girl who infamously only 'turns it on' for the Gauls). Although the sexyface types may not always offer eye contact they at least focus on you, but the divas would rather look beyond and around for someone more befitting of their status to rescue them from boredom - despite the fact that divas are almost always only barely above average dancers. A rare species but sadly not yet extinct and demonstrating a frustrating penchant for survival in every dance habitat.

Eye Contact Max - sometimes this is just a cultural thing (I've found it to be especially common with Central and Eastern Europeans) and sometimes the face can be otherwise entirely neutral but holy good heck: these people!! As someone brought up in a culture where staring is discouraged, to find yourself the sole object of another's fixation for a few minutes can wreak all manner of mischief within. I appreciate that paying attention to your partner can improve the connection and therefore the dance, but to the inexperienced social dancer unaware of these cultural nuances, having someone stare at you for an entire song triggers intense inner monologue:

"Is there something on my chin?"
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"I think she likes me!"
"...no, no, I think she's angry!"
"Did... did I mess that up?"
"Has she fallen asleep on her feet? Hellooooooo?"
"She... she is staring... into my Soul!!"

Game Face - comparatively inexpressive from the eyes down but the eyes themselves are completely alive. Sometimes the tongue protrudes from between the lips or pokes against the inside of the cheek with the mouth slightly open; demonstrating supreme concentration. They are utterly focused on their partner, the floor, and the space around them. Also most likely to be accused of staring at their partner's décolletage but, chances are, they're just so focused upon the movement of their partner's core and so lost in the moment that they're entirely oblivious to how said core is furnished.

☺

And additional to the list above there are also a few 'occasional' faces that appear during those special moments where further expression is required:

Whoops! - it's like McDonald's Eyebrows but the whites of the eyes are more prominent and the chin is frantically attempting to recede into the neck. Most commonly occurs after an errant kick-step, flailing arm or accidental inappropriate hand placement. If they've also got flaming red hair then there is an obvious and unfortunate comparison.

'Daheckuat?! - this expression can flash across the face of even the calmest of dancers irrespective of ability or affability, but simply implies that they have no idea what their partner is attempting. There may be fear involved, it could be contempt, but if the eyebrows and the lips simultaneously make a lunge for the nose it's because they're asking the person opposite "what the heck are you at?!"

Nailed it - it doesn't have to be a super advanced move or pattern, just one that three minutes ago you thought was beyond you, but that don't matter: you just owned it. Maybe your entire dance was on point, but you're far too cool to smile: eyebrows high but eyelids low, rest of face impassive. If this was a movie, you'd be calmly swaggering towards the camera while stuff explodes in the background.

Derp - never actually apparent on the dancefloor but very obvious when the photos hit social media. Some people (myself included) are capable of some of the most ridiculous facial contortions: eyes focused on opposite walls, forehead and neck trying to out-crease each other, all framed between inverted jazz hands while trying to bite my own ear. So hawt.

And I'm willing to bet at least a couple of you attempted to recreate some of these descriptions while reading!

grab a newbie

new guy new fear

In the time I've been dancing, few things have yet to top the terror of my first few social events.

Classes can be intimidating for anyone starting out but at least you are surrounded by others at your level, all being told exactly what to do and with each move repeated until it starts to stick, but socials are a different beast entirely.

It would be great to be able to plug away at classes until you have everything completely nailed and then strut out onto your first dancefloor as a finished product, but as anyone with even just a few events under their belt will stress: it's social dancing where you really learn, especially if that's with someone who knows their swing onions.

That said, one of the subtler caveats of partner dancing is that it requires a partner and plucking up the courage to acquire one when you're the new guy/girl can be a tad scary; especially when you've probably done what most new dancers do at socials - sit and watch for the first while thinking you just want to take it all in before getting up but in fact all you're doing is building up a subconscious fear you're seriously out of your depth.

For those of great testicular fortitude maybe nothing phases you and you're quite content to bounce up to the local pros on your spacehopper-sized balls (or the equivalent female metaphor) and prepare to blow them away with the best basic steps ever performed. But, for everyone else, other than dancing with classmates you're probably not going to get an opportunity to partner up with some of the more experienced dancers unless you're asked.

It's easy to say that beginners should just step out of their comfort zone and ask but I think it is much more important for the more experienced dancers to remember that they were in the same position once and to make a point of getting the new guy or girl up for a swing.

I feel incredibly strongly about this and it's probably due in part to a bad experience I had had one night at a social early on in my (now defunct) salsa career when I approached a girl for a dance who, after taking a moment to look me up and down, gave me a flat "no". After a brief pause I went to the next girl who told me she was taking a break and wasn't dancing to this song... but as soon as I stepped away she was up with the next guy that asked her.

That wasn't the end of my night, I know I had a few more dances before I left and if you can believe me I genuinely don't keep it as a chip on my shoulder but two rejections in quick succession really burnt and, going beyond making sure I never refuse a dance, I make sure to ask the quiet ones in the corners or the person hovering with intent near the edge of the dancefloor who knows no one there and barely knows the steps but is already infected by the fun of swing and is raring to give it a rip.

I'm hardly alone on this as I know plenty of others do the same but it's still worth highlighting for the sake of the rest that don't and who risk looking like an elitist clique. I've said before, and I will never tire of repeating, just how wonderful the people in swing are and I guarantee that if any of these more experienced dancers are asked 99% will say yes, but I do think a greater onus should be on them to actually initiate the dance in the first place.

This also doesn't just apply to the swing bourgeoisie but to anyone who knows they've been dancing longer than the other person sat there tapping their foot in anticipation - even if you have only been learning for a few months and are far short of where you want to be, ask up the girl or guy that you know has probably only been to about three classes and just have fun. Not only will it help your own progress and confidence but it will make you feel like a rockstar and the positive effect you will have on that beginner is priceless.

We've all been that beginner so pay it forward and go grab a newbie.

the music, part I: east coast swing & lindy hop

Buddy Holly & the Crickets performing on the Ed Sullivan Show; 1st December, 1957

As I said before, it's one thing to just listen to the music but it's a whole other ball game when you can feel it and, for me, that's one of the biggest reasons I love swing dancing so much - lindy hop/east coast swing and west coast swing both. In fact, that's probably the main reason I got into swing dancing in the first place.

Like most people, my early music tastes were influenced by my parents and what they had playing in our house when I was growing up. This music ranged from Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Rod Stewart and ABBA to Kenny Rogers, Foster & Allen and Daniel O'Donnell depending on who held sway on the radio at that moment or the level of punishment to be meted out. I even had a few records of my own including the evergreen soundtracks to Postman Pat, Winnie the Pooh and the Jungle Book, but it was a cassette tape (link added for the benefit of some) with the greatest hits of Buddy Holly & the Crickets that really grabbed me.

The Buddy Holly Story the musical hit Belfast not long after and I think I went to see it at least four times as I just couldn't get enough of it, and so Buddy, along with the help of the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, introduced me to rock'n'roll. This was at a time when my mates were listening to Guns'n'Roses, Coolio and Ace of Base and though I also soon succumbed to the lure of New Kids on the Block (who, interestingly enough, were the reason I decided to try breakdancing) I've always had a thing for older up-tempo rhythms and a craving to dance to them.

Rock'n'Roll remains my favourite music to dance to, as the playlist attached to this blog may suggest, and if you can hack the pace then Little Richard, Elvis, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and company just can't be beaten for fun. In fact, east coast swing was a product of this era as it was developed to accommodate the faster rhythms and to make swing dancing more accessible to the masses as the trickier parts of lindy hop, most significantly the 8-beat swing-out, were dropped to leave the simpler moves which then became a dancing style in its own right.

East Coast Swing was particularly championed by the Arthur Murray Studios - a chain of dance schools across the USA that is responsible for the 'Big Apple' routine and others, and incidentally provided a venue for some of the only live footage that still exists of a performance by Buddy Holly & the Crickets - and as the music took off so did the new dancing style.

Lindy Hop, however, is most famously danced to tunes from the Swing Era of the 20s-30s when the Big Band jazz bands, led by the likes of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke Ellington, played an upbeat blend of percussion, brass and woodwind with vocals by Ella Fitzgeralds and Billie Holidays laced on top. But, as much as I adore rock'n'roll, there are few things that can top dancing to a great live band playing the best the Swing Era has to offer and I have to give a special mention to Dana Masters & the Linley Hamilton Quartet who, to date, played the best gig I've ever swung at!

I don't really need to point it out but long before rock'n'roll arrived on the scene the Swing Era music produced plenty of fast music that got lindy hoppers up and popping (and all power to you if you can manage to stay on the dance floor without a defibrillator for the entirety of Benny Goodman's full 12-minute Carnegie Hall version of Sing, Sing, Sing with Gene Krupa going buck daft on the drums) but it is the slower, pulsing rhythms of Big Band music that really lend themselves to amazing lindy hop dancing.

I also couldn't possibly finish this post without mentioning electroswing. Generally, it is not for the faint-hearted - Sing Sing Sing clocks in around 110bpm (beats per minute), Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire burns nearer to 160bpm, but my favourite electroswing offering, Puttin' on the Ritz by Club des Belugas, rockets along at around 200bpm and will blow your mind and/or joints. This stuff is incredible for the odd dance here and there (not for a whole night, that would kill people) but electroswing, as part of the nu-jazz revival that started in the 90s, must be given a lot of credit for the re-emergence of swing dancing and therefore the amazing scene that we have today.

Next up, music for west coast swing...

next up: what do I wear to class?

a bit of underground Charleston

One of the most fun things about swing dancing is getting to try out a completely different era of clothes and putting your own stamp on your look. I'll come to this in more detail in another post but for now I'll just mention the kind of thing people wear to classes.

This goes for lindy hop, east coast swing and west coast swing but the most important thing is to wear something comfortable! Some folk rock up straight after work and are more than happy to dance in a suit whilst others choose to channel their inner Olivia Newton-John and turn up ready to get physical. Either way, there is no strict code and if you are happy to swing and sweat in it then go for it!

The most important thing, though, is footwear. Again, these should be comfortable and should allow a full range of movement that is unlikely to endanger you or others, so girls (or guys), that means no high heels! Boots are also likely to be too heavy whilst new trainers can sometimes provide too much grip which can be dangerous for your knees and ankles.

The best things to plump for are old trainers with well-worn soles, brogues, flats, or if you want to be with the 'in' crowds: lindy aficionados often dance in (sole-worn) plimsolls or Keds whilst the west coast swing collective are big fans of Toms.

If you get really into it, there are a few brands, such as Aris Allen, that specifically make dance shoes, often with suede soles, which let you slide about a bit more but that is something best left until you have grasped the basics. Later on I might even explain how to turn a pair of trainers into dance shoes with some glue and a bit of suede or felt if you fancy a blast at DIY cobbling.

so... what are classes like?

lindy hop class at Swing Belfast

This post is obviously more for someone who has never been along to a swing class but in the hope that non-dancers are reading this then questions like this need to be answered!

The first class I went to at Swing Belfast was in 2014 and had about 16 people. The photo attached to this post is from their beginners' class in October 2015 when close to 80 people turned up. EIGHTY! And that was just the beginners/level 1 class without even considering the improvers/level 2 or intermediates/level 3 classes. I was blown away by the surge in interest that swing dancing has had in Belfast over the preceding year and long may it continue! So, to introduce any would-be newcomers, I'll explain what happens!

First of all, it is not imperative that you turn up with a partner, so that was a huge relief to me as I couldn't convince anyone to come with me to class never mind dance with me! It also turned out that I was not alone in this regard and there were a host of other folk arriving solo. So, when the first calls to 'pair up' were made everyone just grabbed the aspiring lead/follow nearest to them and we formed a big circle around the teachers (that's what's happened in the photo above) who explained what to do for each move which we then practised with our partners. Every minute or so we switched partners so that everyone danced with everyone else. I know not all swing groups rotate partners but I am more than glad that that's how I learnt for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this helps average out everyone's ability and increase it - some people are quicker to learn and so they can actually help their other classmates get up to speed.

Secondly, over-familiarity with the dancing style of only one other person may reinforce bad habits that impair your ability to social dance with others (which is really what swing dancing is all about!).

And thirdly, and most importantly, it's through classes and these rotating learning circles that we get to meet all the other awesome people in our scene! Because swing dancing, like most other styles of partner dancing, is generally less fun solo, and although there is a lot of fun to be had dancing with completely new people (in another post I've discussed the 'dance crush') the most fun comes from grabbing a familiar friend and swinging out to a familiar tune as this takes away the performance pressure and lets you just enjoy it!

Seriously, try it!

lindy hop, east coast swing, west coast swing: what's the difference?

USA: the ancestral home of lindy hop, east coast swing and west coast swing

As I've said, the main dance styles I love are lindy hop, east coast swing and west coast swing, but how do they compare to each other?

Of those three, lindy hop is the old grandfather from New York whilst east coast swing and west coast swing are the cousins from opposite sides of the USA that maybe get together at larger family gatherings but otherwise keep to themselves for the rest of the year. I will get into the swing family genealogy in more detail in a later post but for now I just want to explain what sets them apart in practice.

In an overly simplistic sense, the basic steps of east coast swing and west coast swing have a 6-beat count whilst lindy hop has an 8-beat count - although the more you get into it, those rules sort of fall apart but we shall proclaim them as gospel for now! Lindy hop is generally danced to big band jazz and music from the swing era, east coast swing emerged a bit later and so it is popularly danced to similar music to Lindy hop but with doo-wop and rock & roll added for good measure, whilst west coast swing is the incredibly versatile relative newcomer that can be danced to just about anything but mainly comes out to play to contemporary R&B, blues and pop music.

East coast swing is the simplest of the three and the best place to start for a complete beginner as the steps are a lot less complex and the dance is more flexible, in that it can be danced to a wider range of tempos without requiring a huge change in skill. As you can see in this video, east coast swing is primarily a ballroom dance.

Lindy hop is usually danced to the same style of music as east coast swing and the moves of these two styles are completely interchangeable (along with Charleston and others) but lindy hop is a definite step up in difficulty as the footwork is a tad more complex and involves the 'swing out' which is the fundamental 8-beat basic that the style is based on. It is a lot trickier to faster music and also incorporates the aerial moves or 'air steps' that have made it so iconic and here's a video of two of my favourite lindy hoppers: Skye Humphries & Frida Segerdahl.

Although west coast swing has its origins in lindy hop it is often categorised separately as it is the newest of the three and one of the more technical styles as many of the moves are led in a more subtle fashion. It is generally danced to music that favours slower, flowing movement and 'stretch' rather than the up-tempo bounce or 'pulse' that characterises lindy hop or east coast swing but west coast swing can be adapted to just about any music genre or tempo; as demonstrated here by one of my favourite west coast duos of Maxence Martin & Virginie Grondin.

In terms of asking me to pick a favourite it would be like asking someone to rank their favourite offspring - I could probably confess that there are certain favourable characteristics that one has that another doesn't - but I really do love them equally and would encourage people to try them all!