Saturday, January 28, 2012

Searching for the Stretch

The instructor at Wednesday's lesson said that when he dances Lindy Hop he is always looking for the stretch, or it is all about the stretch, or something to that effect. I really liked that statement, because it works on multiple levels. Purely pragmatically, I want to get better at Lindy Hop so I should be paying attention to getting good stretch where it ought to be. More metaphorically, the stretch is how dancers communicate, so this might be interpreted as looking for communication. I think this interpretation is quite interesting, as well as heartwarming, because stretching is achieved by both parties settling away from one another; so communication  is mutual and is obtained by a slight withdrawal.

Anyway, I thought that phrase was awesome, so I made a post with that as the title. I kind of wanted to make a blog about dancing and entitle it that, but I have enough trouble keeping up with this blog, and I'm not sure that I have enough to say about dancing... we'll see. Without further ado, what your dance style says about your personality:

East Coast: Fun loving and silly. Like, really really silly. So silly that it becomes problematic if people take you entirely seriously. I probably belong to this category, so keep that in mind when deciding how seriously to take this list.

Lindy Hop: Fun loving and silly... but a bit of an elitist.

West Coast: Thinks being serious and somber is sexy. Probably watched too many vampire movies as a child.

Charleston: Just wants to groove with it, it's no big thing. Happy to dance with someone or alone, because dancing is awesome. Every day I'm just shufflin'. (Note: link is not to Party Rock Anthem, I like to think that I am classier than that, even though there is Charlestoning in the music video.)

Collegiate Shag: Probably has some sort of drug issue, no one has that kind of energy naturally.

Balboa: Wants to grope their partner.

Blues: Wants to grope their partner whilst also grinding on them.

Salsa: Flashy and smooth. This is the dance of trumpet players.

Bachata: Wants to grope their partner whilst also shaking their hips like mad.

Meringue: Just wants to shake their hips like mad, preferably while doing something incredibly silly and grinning like its no big thing.

Tango: Thinks being serious and angry is sexy. Probably a closet emo.

Foxtrot: Likes big band music, but is too serious to deign to Lindy Hop. Alternatively they are on their second set of knees after wearing the first out bouncing.

Waltz: Likes music in 3/4, and this is the only thing they can dance to that.

Dances too much to feel affiliation with one specific genre: Probably is awesome!

I know there are other forms of dancing, a lot of other forms of dancing, but I am restricting myself to social dances. Even so, I missed a lot of styles, but I just don't know anyone I would consider a Rumba-er, or a Samba-er, etc. If you are offended, I am sorry, I tried to keep it positive (nothing inherently wrong with wanting to grope your partner... I guess) and silly. Except Tango-ers, I am not sorry if I offended you one bit, you know you like it you angsty blighters.

1 comment:

Angel said...

Hehehe. This made me grin and giggle.