LATE NIGHT ADVICE FOR WCS DANCERS

It's late. I'm drunk. I'm tired. I'm pleasantly salty from a day of work, training and more work. And best of all, I'm stoked to give advice to those who probably don't want it. Also, please note that this is totally directed at West Coast Swing dancers. Specifically those of you who are obsessed with competition (#errrbody), and even more so those who pride yourselves and pride your...pride? Really? Guh... On coming in first. Not doing well or feeling good or having a dope ass time, but coming first and basing your value on how skilled you twirl. There's more to life than trying to beat the other guy!

Okay. OH! And this should seriously be taken with a grain of salt, though it does contain actual advice. Seriously. I wrote this at 2:25 AM on a Thursday after three glasses of wine (a normal persons six shots) and not much time away from the computer all day. In summary: contains advice and a potentially toxic amount of sodium if you take it too seriously. Seriously. Take this post as a letter written to a younger, much more dickish ME. Not you. Me. Okay. Ass mostly covered.


Want to win stuff and be a pro AND have a great dance life as a west coast swing practitioner? I'll break it down to the most basic stuff using the three T's: Timing, Technique and Teamwork, and a few hidden letters as they occur to me.

TIMING (it should also be noted that when I fully capitalize something in this post that it should be read full on screaming like 50% of Eddie Redmain (spelling?) in Jupiter Ascending. One more time: TIMING!! (Also, exclamation points denote volume)

- Stay on time. Like...like on beat. No, for real, I can't believe this is even a thing, even an issue in this art form. It's dance! Dancing to the music is kind of important! Okay, modern dance gets a pass because due to the existential nature of the form and the reliance on expression vs rhythm and its inherent use of physical spectacle...It gets a pass! But not this! No way! At the very least stay on beat! That's like...the bare minimum!

- REAL ADVICE: Relax and grab a metronome and count it out. Learn the simple cadence without a song and the pomp of pop music or the lyrics that we feel the need to interpret. Just work the beat. Seriously, this helps so much to just get used to a beat, especially if you're not a natural with musicality. I have plenty of friends who are more thinkers than they are feelers. This is for ya'll and it will help you. It'll help if you're a feeler too! Break it down to the basics, which don't get more basic than a single even tick like the Telltale Heart. Also listen to shit tons of music! Get familiar! Especially whatever is being shoved into conventions, venues and competitions. How did Kyle hit that? He knew the damned song!

TECHNIQUE

- Practice like a motherfucker. When your teacher tells you (if you've been learning from another human in some fashion) to clean up your basics...do it. It's super boring to run a triple step over and over and over for a while, but there is actually this sweet spot after it gets so boring you think you might shave your eyelids off with an old flip flop you've let sit in the sun and harden before forming it into a razor sharp shiv. Do that. The practice thing, not the...shiv...thing.

- REAL ADVICE!: Treat learning dance like learning a language. You start off stuttering but eventually your steps become fluent Japanese. This should and SHOULD be applied to damn near everything you do! Take your time and enjoy the journey and don't expect to be a master in twenty minutes. It takes time and patience to be good, never mind world class. WORLD CLASS! To be among the best in the world takes time! You want to be the next Jordan? Practice! He's got like...five moves and knows exactly where to put them because he's so comfortable with them that he can shove em anywhere in a song and make them look like a slice of fried gold! No one thinks about breathing or rarely thinks about conventions used in a casual conversation. Treat dance like learning a language and you'll be mostly fine. Also: learn a solo dance! Learn how to actually move your body! Sweet lord on a biscuit learn a solo dance! If you're wondering: THEY'RE ALL GOOD!!! Pick one! Refine your personal movement and your leading/following techs to their most simple and clean self.

TEAMWORK

- Fuck. I mean...fuck. This drives me crazy. Pay. The fuck. Attention. Seriously, if you take the advice from the tech section and add a few more drops of patience with the ability to engorge (yup...engorge) your partners moves/movement/swag, then you'll at least get into a final. I have, on a good day, five to ten things I do in a dance. I just take a page from the Bruce Lee Guide to Not Sucking and make sure I'm really good at those five to ten things. After that I just pay attention to what my partner is doing and augment what they do to make it even cooler!

REAL ADVICE!!: Relax. It's the best thing for teamwork. Chill out and have fun and wait for your partner, leaders and followers. Don't jump the gun. Wait until the last possible second and then react if you can't come up with a flashy new something. WAIT! Don't just gurk out something because you felt you had to and Mom wasn't home so now was the time! I highly recommend practicing with them peepers you've got. Get really good at recognizing rando stuff that your partners may do visually and then do your best to embellish what they do, copy what they do or just do jack shit. Seriously. Just setting the framework or going with the flow has won me plenty o comps and, more MUCH MORE importantly, it helps me have a better time. Your ideas are probably great, but you AND your partners ideas are fucking awesome! Treat it like a spirited conversation about something you two are super passionate about. No one likes the dick bag who dominates the conversation with only obscure Watchman references. Ugh. Neat. You're both named Bernard. Totally worth the near 3 hour adaptation.

ALSO EYE CONTACT. It's scary, yeah, or at least it can be, but it's truly intimate to look into another persons eyes and seek that kind of nonverbal communication and agreement. It's also the most respectful and one of the most powerful techniques for teamwork (BOOM, threw both in there) that you can implement right off the bat. Eye contact: act like you're in it together!

CREATIVITY

- Some people are thinkers and some are feelers. If you can come up with a move-set that blows minds or sets up victory in some fashion or another, sweet. I can't. I'm the other guy. I'm the guy who feels and reacts and goes with the flow. Embrace who you are! I'm not too good planning out my next forty moves and I don't really want to, even in songs I'm biblically intimate with. But I can come up with rando shit with my partners I'd never be able to do otherwise just by looking them in the eye and taking my sweet as time and keeping my basics basic. After that the magic happens. Also I know how to dance three styles professionally solo, and a few others WITH a partner. Which leads me to my next piece of advice...

REAL ADVICE: Learn and never stop learning, especially from douche-bags who beat you in comps because they had a dope set of moves you'd never thought of. Everyone is valuable and everyone has great ideas and you should totally learn from them and get over 9000 yourself! Don't stop learning because you're frustrated that so and so whipped your ass last month at Boogie. Learn from them!

COMMUNITY

Okay...I need to slow it down for this one. Take a second and open up your favorite spotify playlist (I suggest mine). I want you calm for this one. Okay. You good, Fam? Great.

REAL ADVICEHOLYSHITLISTEN!!! Dont. Be. A. Selfish. DICK!!!
- On the real though, there's no sense in being in it for yourself, especially in the arts and especially in dance and especially in partner dance. We are literally in this together! For this advice I'm using the immortal words of the late and brilliant Michelle E. McNamara: It's all random. Be nice.

BE NICE. You will go through life and meet people who positively or negatively embed themselves in your existence. You will deal with things both great and terrible, as well as profound and positive. Meet them all with the positive attitude (as best as you fucking can) that, at the very least, you can be a nice person. It has served no one ever in the long run to be a shit head. If you are out for yours and yours alone, you'll eventually piss someone off and create rifts and bad times where you could have either been a positive force and potential benefactor or beneficiary. It takes no effort, no energy to be nice. None. It can only serve you to be a decent human being. The world is filled with chaos. Be nice. Even avoiding that one dick who chose to be mean is being nice! There's no need to talk shit and bring people down or take your sweet time to ream that inconsequential asshole a new consequential asshole! Be nice! Being nice includes peaceful communication. Have a problem with someone? Peacefully explain yourself. I highly recommend this vs the alternative of just leaving it be, especially in communities as small as WCS ones. Yes! I just said you can avoid people, but if its an issue that's easy and more importantly WORTH talking about, do it. Most problems are solved in a matter of minutes if you explain yourself (#alsonice). It's all random. Be nice. The world is so fucking random. Be nice!

And now I sleep! For the wine has become heavy, as have my eyelids. Again, take this shit with a grain of salt if you're sensitive and don't know my personality. There's good stuff here too. Be nice. Learn. Care about each other. Be nice. Be nice.

Sweet dreams.

Have the best day you've ever had.

Andrew