Taletha Jouzdani is a West Coast Swing (WCS) champion. Based in Austin, she is among the strongest female WCS competitors today. She is also a judge, event organizer and traveling instructor.
Link to her site: http://www.talethaj.com/
Our club invited her to give WCS workshops yesterday. The workshops are titled "Advanced Basics" and "Operation" (musical interpretation). I loved the workshops. I did not attend another workshop for Lady's styling, though.
In the advanced basic class, she mentioned "quality of motion" and the importance. And the "Advanced Basics" are to teach how to achieve the better body usage. Certainly, not only in WCS, the importance is true in all dances. Although I am not going to tell the content here (I suggest you take her class), I can tell you that the contents are very good and useful, "Teach'em how to fish" kind of class. I highly appreciate that kind of dance teaching.
[This following segment is my opinion. Not what she said, to avoid confusion]
Most learners want patterns. What they overlook is that, once you get good basics, you can pick up a bunch of patterns just by watching YouTube with relative ease. If your basics are shaky, no amount of patterns make your dance look and feel good. It's that simple.
After the workshops, we had a WCS party that we dance socially.
WCS and Argentine Tango, two dances I love in particular, are similar in many ways; both are not highly institutionalized like Ballet or competitive Ballroom dance, both have strong social (or even street) dance roots, and both are highly improvisational in social setting.
In an advanced level, social dancing for improvisational dances (i.e. WCS, Argentine Tango) is like a free-style jazz session. Both dancers know the dance's basics and patterns, execute the moves on lead-and-follow basis with ease, and add improvisational moves according to the music. Like jazz musicians, both dancers have something to bring to the dance, and enjoy creating a dance on the spot.
And importantly, such dance feels good to dance.
My first rule for social dancing is, "It should feel good. It should be comfortable and fun".
Everybody comes to a dance floor with different degrees of (i) fitness and athleticism, (ii) knowledge for the dance, (iii) smoothness and ease of execution, (iv) willingness to improvise, and (v) ability and willingness to achieve a comfortable and fun dance overall.
[For competition and for a show dance, (vi) consideration for the appearance, matters too]
You are a unique mix of these. Your dance (thus, you) can be felt with a unique signature feel.
I danced a dance with Taletha. The dance felt very good, was comfortable and fun. I was very happy about it.
Partner dancing has an aspect not unlike martial arts. You can tell how good your partner is through your skin. She was great. No wonder she is a champion.
