[Callers] Buzz Step Swing

Tue Jun 23 02:13:00 PDT 2015

Thanks for all the great ideas/

Yes, I should say gallop instead of skate-board - I start with "Now walk
fast on the spot" before I tell them to turn, so I assume they are going to
keep alternating their feet, but some don't!  Maybe "gallop" will help.  I
did get one guy at a workshop tell me that he had been taught to keep one
foot fixed on the floor on a single spot.  I showed him what would happen if
we both did that - in slow motion, otherwise it could have been quite
painful :)

Ron asked, "Okay, so what about my first comment: Not everyone is physically
able to do the buzzstep swing?"

Well, my first statement was "Yes, of course I always tell dancers that they
can walk instead of buzz" and the last line of my sample teach was, "If you
are having trouble with the buzz-step then you can always just walk."

So I thought I had covered that. Sorry if I have misunderstood.

At one of the weekly sessions I run we get around 25 to 30 people each week;
most of them are ladies, and the ages range mainly from 50s to mid-80s.  We
provide badges saying, "Please swing gently" and we tell them they can walk.
I always teach the buzz-step and they all try it.  Most of them carry on
doing a buzz-step and very few wear the badges after the first few weeks
once they have got used to swinging.

They also love my no-swing contras - they don't need swings to have fun!

Ron also said, "The single most important thing to teach a dancer is "it's
okay to make mistakes".".  I agree that that is important and we joke about
the mistakes a lot. Sometimes they have the most fun when they fail
completely!

But my Rule #1 is:

"Every dancer has the right to get on the dance-floor and have fun without
getting hurt."

I have been hurt a lot on the dance-floor.  I used to dance Ceroc/Modern
Jive three or four nights a week. You know the way that some people yank on
you when they step back in the Balance before a swing?  Well in Modern Jive
you step apart about once every eight steps, and the general level of
technique teaching at Modern Jive classes is very low, so most of the
dancers have never been told that they shouldn't pull when they step back.
In fact some of the <expletive deleted> teachers actually tell them to pull
to generate tension, without mentioning that the level of tension required
is around the one ounce level, not the one ton level!  So I ended up with
repetitive stress injuries which weakened my muscular infrastructure and
when an aerial move went wrong in a practice session I ended up tearing one
of my rotator cuff (shoulder) muscles badly.

Aerials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnL_Y63AnY - that's me in black.

So, having had two shoulder operations, and not wanting any more, if my
partner appears to be about to throw their whole weight at me when they step
back in a Balance & Swing then I step forward to prevent it.  (Once having
asked a lady to stop pulling on the step-back as she was hurting me, and
failing to get through to her, next time we stepped back I pulled on her.
She immediately got cross and said I had hurt her. The irony appeared to be
completely lost on her!).  And if a lady leans back in a swing then I move
my hand from her shoulder blade to her waist so she has to stand up or fall
over!  I have learnt a lot of self-defence skills over the years!

I recently ran a "Contra Skillz - Style and Technique" workshop at a UK
festival and the experienced dancers loved it - most of them do want to
improve and do want the caller to do some teaching.  (Of course, they
self-selected by attending the workshop in the first place!)

One of the guys is a very good dancer, but my wife, Karen, complained that
his swinging was far too forceful; he was rigid and using too much power.
The first thing I taught in the workshop was that most people will swing
better if they relax.  Next time she swung with him, he was, as usual,
rigid, but, because I had empowered her by teaching relaxation, she felt
able to say, with a big smile, "And relax <she breathed out>" - he did the
same and suddenly turned into a wonderful swing partner.  She heaped on the
praise and he felt good that he was giving Karen a better swing.

I agree with Tom that we all have different perspectives and so we approach
things differently.  That is a good thing as far as I am concerned.  If all
callers ran their evening the same way then the dancers would get bored.
Different approaches help different people, and give the variety needed to
keep the dance alive.

My perspective is based on learning the Galway Swing from my Irish mother
when I was a teenager (take an Allemande Right hold, each of you cup your
left fingertips around your partner's right elbow, buzz - great fun!), so I
have been buzzing for fifty years and would always choose it.  But of course
I walk if I or my partner is tired, or if my partner can't cope with a fast
swing, or if they are such a bad swinger that I need to slow the swing down
to avoid damage.  Though actually you can do a slow, controlled buzz-step
swing and that can feel great too.

I also agree that programming is crucial to a successful evening.  Apart
from avoiding overuse of particular moves or sequences, providing variety,
and trying to include something a bit different, I am also building the move
set slowly so that newcomers get to a point where they can do great dances
later in the evening because they have seen all the bits already.

The Right & Left Through is such a counter-intuitive move that I often leave
it out completely.  If I need it for a particular dance then I can change it
to a Half Promenade.  I certainly never spend time teaching it in a
beginner's workshop unless I am planning to use it multiple times in the
evening.

Thanks again for all the great ideas in this thread.

Maybe I should stop rambling now.  :)

            Happy dancing,

                   John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England    <mailto:john at modernjive.com>
john at modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

 <http://www.modernjive.com> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive
Events & DVDs

 <http://www.contrafusion.co.uk> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing
in Kent

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