Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollmann are West Coast Swing (WCS) champions; 11-time US Open classic division champions and celebrities in the WCS community.
You can see the reason by just watching their dance. Here I paste a link to one of their performances.
[2015 US Open. Their "routine retirement" piece ]
There are many WCS dancers out there, but few have their level of visible refinements in the movements that can be presented to lay people on Broadway-style shows.
Being celebrities in a dance community is one thing. Their dance having appeal to broader lay people, thus them being strong entertainers beyond their own community, is another.
They were visiting Dallas for Sat and Sun. The event was called "Westie Remix HD with Jordan & Tatiana".
There were 2-hour intensive and dance on Saturday (which I missed for Tango party. No regrets).
On Sunday, the event organizers at Studio 2155 scheduled brunch, 3-hour spotlight critiques and a 45 minutes guided practice. So I signed up.
In the Spotlight critiques, couples who signed up for the critiques dance in front of Jordan, Tatiana, and audience. After their dance, Jordan and Tatiana provide comments on each of the couple for improvements. The personalized feedback can be invaluable for contest-minded WCS dancers.
Each couple danced for about 2 minutes. They could choose blues or non-blues (most chose non-blues), then several minutes critiques followed.
The critique session was quite amusing.
The couples came with different levels of dance skills and appeals. Some are probably novice if not a beginner. A few looked like dancing at a higher level category.
Note: WCS contest is segmented to categories such as newcomer, novice, intermediate, advanced, all-stars, and champions, by dance points dancers have acquired through participation and winning in contests. The dance points are considered to reflect the dancer's dance level, although not necessarily so.
At first it was amusing because I thought it was like watching speed dating or something.
After a few couples dances and comments, I began to catch on the format and started thinking my own critiques, which may or may not align with Jordan and Tatiana's comments.
Besides, their way of commenting was quite entertaining by itself. Somewhat like watching good stand-up. Professional, sincere, sometimes funny, while imparting their expertise. Love it.
Probably people there took the event in their own ways. Dancers taking critiques were naturally focusing on their own dance and comments. For me, the critique session was helpful to transplant their eyes and install their thought processes while watching WCS, or at least an attempt toward it.
As you can see in the format, they did not have much time to make comments. They watch a couple dance. Then one of them started talking.
The format was not rigid, though. In a case, Jordan danced with a girl for 30 seconds, then commented on the connection being (too) steady, instead of "ebb and flow" or stretchy. It was an extended diagnostic time, and connection is not always visible, or can be diagnosed by just watching. They made personalized comments in such a manner.
How did they come up with comments so quickly?
I'd imagine they already had a matrixed system in their minds on the domain of WCS, and used it to get to a personalized advice.
From the dance visuals they determine;
lead or follow, dancer's level, style, noticeable character, a subject to be mentioned (like connection, timing, body usage, or anything that would be relevant to judging the individual's WCS dance).
As WCS contests are structured in a leveled manner, the way they address an issue to a novice differ from the way to, say, an all-star.
Dance teachers have to deal with all the different students, from elementary school kids to graduate school PhD candidates. Isn't it weird or what.
Long and rich experience should have served them to get there.
It was amazing to watch the top-ranked professionals work. I was quite entertained by that.
Of course, how their comments are going to be used is primarily up to the comments' recipients/ dancers. In addition, audience including me got to witness the advice, too, and learned how to see the dance from their viewpoint. Also learned how to diagnose a dance, and how to fix or change the dance for the better, when any of the issue occurs.
I am a dancer and also a dance geek. I found the whole thing amusing, entertaining, and useful.
Maybe not for everybody. But it was a good time. $35 was cheap for the fun time.
