I took notes in my classes this weekend and I wanted to summarize them here — so that I can find them again, and so that I don’t have to try to sort out my notes in the future…

Fast Blues

• STRETCH — into the floor but can still lengthening the body, dynamic. Hitting the ends
• RELAX — all parts
• FEELING THE FLOOR — down and into it. Picture a floor 2 inches below the actual floor
• MOVEMENTS: Shake and Bake, Slow Drag, ‘applejack style’

Delta Blues

• resisting/stretch
• movement with your centre but improvising with the feet (not necessarily on the ‘correct’ foot but still having your centre following the lead).
• A comment that I got when asked for feedback: More “In” connection through the chest rather than the ‘out connection’ that is my default. Worked on this a lot this weekend, and when I did, I realized that it’s so much nicer than the out. As long as the lead allows the connection through the chest and doesn’t keep it in ‘default lindy closed’
• Tempo and energy and mood ar different things and listening to each part could make you respond differently. LISTEN to the lyrics, the tempo and energy could be up but the lyrics/mood could be sad/grieving. It all plays a role in responding to the music

Spins And Turns

• Spin Techniques and practicing
• Down to stabilize
• Build momentum and compression
• Both sides
• Two handed ‘angled turn’

Movement

• Posture
• 1&a 2a
• Movement and weight transfers where does the momentum come from –> from the sending leg
• hip action up back to neutral and down in front
• Contra movement
• All dances have a base in african movement, with african hip motion and rhythm action
• No hop steps all action from the driving leg
• Body initiated, drive through sending leg and receive

Advanced Improvisation

By putting yourself in a “box” you can experience methods of improvisation and creativity to expand your dance. This was easily the class where I had the most fun:
The boxes we played with were:

1. Your normal is an 11, dance at a 2.
2. Dance at different levels
3. Rotation — all dancing is rotation
4. In open only
5. Front to back at all times, no face to face closed
6. Stretching and hitting the ends with different parts of your body
7. Dynamic Range — changing the range of the dance. Not always at 2 or 11 but varying it based on what the music said.

Steven and Virginie
These classes were taped for their DVD so I can buy the DVD to see the class again:

• Waltz steps in blues
• swaying in movement and flexibility
• more african movements
• turn with over rotation and routine

The short of it is I want to take some African dance classes…
These notes are brief, but the classes were fast and intense and pushed me to my limits. It was exactly what I needed. I literally used up every ounce of energy in those classes. They were fantastic.