Hellooooo. Lindy Focus trip report coming soon, but in the mean time, I typed a lot of thoughts in response to a facebook post about a blog post, by my enchanting friend Aries, so I figured I'd go ahead and toss it up here.
I don't think I ever had the balls to actually publish the post I wrote about this on my own blog, Aries, but *one* of the reasons I have drifted more into the blues scene than the lindy scene in the past yearish is that I find that more is expected, tolerated, and accepted of me as a /dancer/, as a blues follow than a lindy follow.
I had a dance at Focus actually, that I remember in particular because I hadn't danced with that lead in a while, where I gave as much, creatively, as I've become accustomed to doing (in all the blues dancing I've been doing lately). [And I'm not talking hijaking. I'm not a perfect follow obviously, but I was not consciously disregarding or even redirecting any leads. I was following the the best of my ability.... and also improvising rhythms, accenting stuff, snapping, mimicking his flares, ect.] And the two of us were talking later and he was like "yeah that was a really fun dance, and I didn't even really have to do anything 'cause you were doing so much." But I got the impression it was like "whoah, nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there." That sat funny with me.
I think a non-negligible part of it has to do with how lindy and blues tend to teach dance from different directions, and while blues STARTS with music/connection/listen-to-your-follow, and only later moves to more intricate sequences, lindy tends to be taught the opposite way and leaders aren't enjoined to listen to their follows until waaaay later in their journey.
[Or maybe it's just that it's only lately in the lindy community it's become a more important value to have creative input from followers and it's later in MY journey as a lindy hopper than my journey as a blues dancer. But I don't think so. Even pretty new blues leads seem like they listen to me more than similarly newish lindy hoppers.]
Two other things that I think are relevant- how much did the western ballroom traditions influence lindy hop vs blues as a partner dance? There was some discussion in a lecture this year at BluesSHOUT about the African musical/spiritual tradition that had a female godhead (earth) and more respect for female power, generally, than western eurp. tradition.
The other thing I've wondered about is the mechanical symmetry of blues vs. lindy. I've found it a lot easier to pick up more blues leading than I have to pick up more lindy leading. And I don't think it's just me. I see a LOT more people who dance both roles at least some in the blues community and I see lots of casual, not-a-big-deal same gender dancing at blues events (more than at lindy events, I think.) And all the pros switch. All the pro male leads switch pretty visibly and often dance with each other. [Some of the lindy male pro leaders do, too, but I don't think as large a proportion or as commonly.] So with more people who do both roles, I think the leads have a greater idea of what it feels like to be receptive and also more respect for the other role? I know I got a lot more genuine empathy for leaders after I learned more leading.
Maybe I'll put this on my blog after all, 'cuz I've now typed lots.
"while blues STARTS with music/connection/listen-to-your-follow, and only later moves to more intricate sequences, lindy tends to be taught the opposite way and leaders aren't enjoined to listen to their follows until waaaay later in their journey."
ReplyDeleteI tend to have the same criticism with lindy hop. But the communication/creativity is what I LOVE about lindy hop. I suppose it's easier to start there in blues, since you can just shift weight back and forth and call it blues dancing. But you wouldn't call that lindy hop.
Anyhow, I think lindy hop teachers could do a whole lot more on communication and creativity. Maybe it's a little harder, but that's no excuse!
haha, I think you could have a really interesting philosophical discussion, actually, about whether or not that would be lindy hop, depending on how you're doing it. There are lots of ways to shift weight back and forth. :)
DeleteAnd lest there be any confusion, I love the communication and creativity of lindy hop also.
Since I overwhelmingly follow, socially, the following sentence is about leaders: I prefer to dance with leads who will pay attention to their partner AND the music at the same time, while having a relaxed connection that's comfy to dance with.
This statement is significantly less true now for me than it would have been a year or two years ago, but for a while I found that I got to have many more dances that hit "communication, creativity and respect for the follow" at blues events than lindy events.
I don't think that's as true for me now. But I don't know if that's because I've become a better dancer, so I'm more interesting to dance with, so more people are willing to pay attention to me, because the lindy culture is moving more towards those values (which I think it is.) Or both.
It's complicated?
(But if I went and found the confidence to be a more creative and interesting dancer.... I reckon I found it in blues. So there's that.)
DeleteThe amount of switching roles I see often times depends on the typical ratios of lead to follow in a swing scene. Many of the ladies I know who lead and follow learned to lead out of necessity.I think the typical roles remain true even at our local blues dances in DC, with some exceptions of course. That said I think there is a lower bar to entry into trying the other role in blues because most of the songs that are played are slower and typically the movements don't use alot of momentum. On a side note, I agree with you expression has been a primary aesthetic for the blues community and for me learning to do that slowly in blues helps me do it faster in the other dances.
ReplyDelete"And the two of us were talking later and he was like "yeah that was a really fun dance, and I didn't even really have to do anything 'cause you were doing so much." But I got the impression it was like "whoah, nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there." That sat funny with me."
ReplyDeleteOf course I can't really tell, but to my ears, what the guy said sounds more like a real compliment! I could say the same thing to certain follows. I think all of my best dances I had (in Lindy) where when the follows gave a lot of input, took their freedom, listened to the music and danced (also) for themselves. Follows (like you) can be a big inspiration for my dancing!
I think lindy hop is totally gender biased to the male/lead ALWAYS, and it bugs me so much that I've been withdrawing from the scene. Classes are taught with an emphasis on the lead/man, the teachers who speak the most tend to be the lead/men, the lead/men are often revered for being good dancers and the follows/women are revered for fucking swivels. I rarely/never hear anyone having any good conversations about women/follows in the dance and ALWAYS hear all sorts of nonsense about back-leading/hijacking, which I think is a total myth. I just wished we talked about this more and gave more voice to women, in general. And EVERY TIME there is a girl-focused/follow-focused event that isn't only about learning how to swivel, it seems to come along with a hefty dose of how to be a follow without taking over AND then is criticized by men/leads.
ReplyDeleteOne year ago, I watched Andy Reid follow for the first time EVER. He followed a dance with a fellow male instructor, looked elated, commented on how difficult it was and how much his heart was racing (I felt it, it was racing a LOT), and then said how he'd never followed before EVER. How does someone dance for so long without having to learn everything about the dance, including what the opposite person does? How does someone become such a superstar in the scene without having any experience knowing what the opposite person does on a practical level? I was genuinely shocked at his ignorance of following...and it's a problem I have with lindy.
I just think we always talk in circles around so many things and then we (the women) give up all of our power to "this is what we do because this is what we do". Can we stop talking about skirts and boob slips and start talking about gender neutrality and how we can have equal partnership within the dance?