Southern UK Jive

[Happy Camper]

I have been doing Modern Jive for about 3 years now and have been having a wonderful time, meeting lots of great people and my dancing has improved although I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a good dancer. Recently i have met some people who do West Coast Swing and they have insisted that if I want to improve my dancing I should learn WCS. I have watched a bit of WCS on YouTube and seen people doing it at some freestyles but, quite honestly, it looks pretty boring to me as it seems to consist mostly of the man passing the woman backwards and forwards past him while she gets to do fancy little poses, postures, little steps and hip wiggling. The people seem to be dancing to show off to anyone watching rather than enjoying dancing with each other. Add to this the apparent attitude of some of the WCS people I have met who seem to look down their noses at people who do modern jive, and I don't really have any inclination to give it a try. Am I alone in feeling this?

[Andy McGregor]

[Happy Camper]

[Andy McGregor]

[Nicky]

Happy Camper wrote:

[Southern Jiver]

What Andy and Nicky said. Whatever dancing you do should be "fun". There's nothing wrong with sticking to Jiving if that's what you enjoy. WCS isn't for everyone whereas anyone can enjoy Jiving. There will always be some people who do other styles who will maintain that what they do is in some way better, more "evolved" or superior to Jiving but don't take any notice. Just stick with what you enjoy.
_________________
"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb

[Bungle]

The simple answer is, no; you don't have to learn WCS to improve your MJ dancing.

That said, I don't think it's a coincidence that many of the most competent MJ dancers have a background of other dance styles before they tried MJ. Of course, that doesn't mean that by learning dance X,Y, or Z your MJ will automatically improve.

I don't do WCS, I can't really be bothered to invest the time, money, or effort unless, or until the scene grows a lot more. However, I do dance Salsa (cross-body style) and Lindyhop. This benefits my MJ in various ways:

1. I am much more aware of the music, swing is 8 beat, so you need to start and finish on beats one and eight respectively. Same for salsa, it is 8 beat, and there is a beat one and a beat five (although some salsa dancers never learn to differentiate between beat one and beat five!). The effect on my MJ is that I listen to the bars in the music and try to fit the moves, this looks much better than just doing it any-old-how. A surprisingly large fraction of modern pop music is still 8 beat.

2. My footwork is much neater and tidier; and I have better balance. Watch a lot of MJ dancers during freestyle and you'll see that their footwork is just a 'mush of movements' that enables them to get the move done. In short it doesn't look good. Other dance styles can help with this.

3. It can give you more confidence to dance on your own, add styling, and explore body movement. For example Lindyhop often incorporates jazz moves and Salsa includes shines.

4. It will slow down the music at MJ. The increased complexity of most other partner dances when compared to MJ will make everything at MJ feel easier.

Of course, there are other ways to improve your MJ in all four of the areas I've described that don't involve learning another dance:

1. Find a truly inspirational teacher and listen carefully to what they tell you.
2. Practice, practice, and practice.
3. Find a dancer you admire, and deconstruct what they do, and why it looks good.

[Andy McGregor]

[Bungle]

[Andy McGregor]

[Southern Jiver]

I have split off the discussion about what makes a good male Jive dancer to a new thread here because I think it is an interesting thread in it's own right - SJ
_________________
"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."
~Japanese Proverb

[Bungle]

[Andy McGregor]