OKC swing dance club is mostly social dance club. But there are a few dancers who actively go to West Coast Swing (WCS) events for competition.
Glenda is one of such active competitors in the club in the Masters category. When I saw her dance at the last year's Wild Wild Westie event, I thought she was working on precise foot placement, which was visible from a distance. I guessed someone taught her that for competitive edge (I may be wrong).
What dancers work on is going to show.
Glenda invited Keerigan Rudd and Felicia Hoeppner from Texas for WCS workshops and dance. They are up-and-coming competitors.
WCS styling has changed a lot in 2010's, from more upright slotted dance to the "modern WCS" with influences from freestyle/zouk/fusion/blues, using active frame and more contact/leading points.
Regardless of styles, there are good dances as well as poorly done dances.
Social dances evolve and styles change. But good dance/poorly done dance are a matter of execution, which is heavily dependent on each of the dance couple.
That said, Keerigan and Felicia are users of the "modern WCS" style. As not many people around here are using the style, I was curious.
And the dance night was fun. There demo was good with clean lines, and they both had good feel/energy flow in social dancing ( I happened to dance with both). No wonder they are "up-and-coming" in the WCS competition ladders.
Actually, a part of my ways of having fun in social dance is to appreciate the dancer's feel and their ways of "care" for the dance. Even better if the partner knows how to make the dance look good.
They had good "care" and energy flow in their dances. I liked it.
And the WCS dance night was 11 days ago already.
Starting this week (6/10-), we are working with a volunteer medical student for summer research activities.
Students in early career come in different degrees of preparedness. But he is pretty good (or so far so good).
When we take students, we assign a (part of a bigger) project that can get possibly published in the future. We use a "buddy system", so that he is not going to be left alone. I've even given the student an authorship when his/her results make it in the manuscript as a figure. That way, summer volunteer research may become something tangible that can help their career move.
He'll be around for the next 8 weeks. We'll find out how it would go this year.
