Hello and Gainesville Ocala Social Dancers,

UF Tango Club is meeting this Friday. Not sure about the UF Swing Club.

Saturday evening Dubravko comes to the rescue organizing an informal Tango get together at the Unified Training Center, from 5 to 7 in the small room. Only $5. If you are learning, this is a great chance to get some personal attention in a casual setting.

After Tango, go to the Contra dance and make it a night of dancing, only a few blocks away at the Boltin Center from 8 to 11, $8. See the Gainesville Folk dance newsletter for details.

Thanks to Essie for teaching the West Coast Swing Flash Mob dance. I listed the steps below, with my comments (of course).

If you like choreographed partner dancing, come to my Israeli Partner Dance session. We have countless, great dances and pieces of music. Monday 12/20, last night of Introduction to Israeli Partner Dancing series. You can come even if you missed the other sessions.

We are a little slow this month on dance opportunites, so take advantage of trying out some new things.

Andrea Pham is starting a new Tango series at the beginning of January. pham.andrea@gmail.com

Kay Picart is teaching two ballroom beginner classes towards the end of January. cjpicart@gmail.com

New Year's Eve Swing Dance in St. Petersburg. www.tampabayswing.com

Swing Dance USA video.
www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=132559143423230&oid=52918651040

Happy Dancing,
Andy

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Schedule: confirm all programs before going

1. Friday 12/17 - UF Tango Club at UF Tanglewood

2. Friday 12/17 - Tango in Ocala

3. Saturday 12/18 - Tango practice at UTC with Dubravko, 5 to 7 pm

4. Saturday 12/18 - Contra Dance at the Boltin Center, 8 to 11 pm

5. Monday 12/20 - Introduction to Israeli Partner Dancing

6. Wednesday 12/22 - West Coast Swing with Essie

7. Thursday 12/23 - West Coast Swing with Judi

8. Tuesday 1/? - Mostly Swing Dancing

9. Friday 1/? - UF Swing Club - on break until January?

10. Fri-Sun 1/14-16, 2011 - South Florida Lindy Exchange, www.soflex.org/2011

Article: West Coast Swing Flash Mob Steps

Other:

Argentine Tango with Andrea Pham in private home. pham.andrea@gmail.com

Ballroom Semi-Private Classes with Caroline Picart in private homes. cjpicart@gmail.com

Latin dancing on Tuesdays 8-10 Bachata and 10-11 free dance social, Thursdays 8-10 Salsa and Sundays 5-7 Salsa at the Unified Training Center, $6/hour. leydi@salsacalientestudios.com

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Quotes:

- I didn't really say everything I said. ~ Yogi Berra

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1. Friday 12/17 - UF Tango Club at UF Tanglewood

NOT MEETING THIS FRIDAY 12/10

UF Housing Tanglewood Common Room, 2907 SW 13 Street

8:00 - 9:15 Tango class

9:15 - 11:00 Tango practica and social

Class and practica is FREE for UF Tanglewood residents and students. $5 donation minimum is asked from others.

UF Argentine Tango Club, http://grove.ufl.edu/~tango/

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2. Friday 12/17 - Foundations of Argentine Tango in Ocala

Extensions School for the Arts, Ocala, FL

7:00 - 9:00 pm : Argentine Tango class

David Chayes, david.chayes@gmail.com, 352-328-7916

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5. Monday 12/20 - Introduction to Israeli Partner Dancing

Congregation B'nai Israel, 3830 NW 16 Blvd, Gainesville, FL

7:00 - 8:00 : For Beginners

8:00 - 9:00 : For More Experienced Dancers

Starts exactly on time. You can come late.

$5 per evening. Ages 22 and under free. Other students $2. If you have financial difficulties, you can come for free.

Contact Andrew, publish@israelipartnerdancing.com, 352-327-3672

On Monday nights, beginning November 22 to December 27, for 4 to 5 nights.

Everyone welcome. No experience and no partner needed.

We rotate partners and do dances more than once, so everyone gets to do every dance, everyone gets to dance the same amount and everyone gets to dance with everyone else. If you come with your spouse and you do not want to rotate, you do not have to. Rotating is your option.

Teaching is based on my book Partnership Dancing (tm).

Rather than memorizing choreography, the women will learn the skill of how to follow every Israeli Partner Dance without learning the steps. This is a good skill to have and is applicable to all social dances, particularly choreographed dances.

The men will learn how to communicate via their body language. You will learn how to get the woman to do what you want by manipulating space, without wrestling the woman around.

There is no gender bias. You can dance which ever part you want.

We may be videoing some of the sessions.

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6. Wednesday 12/22 - West Coast Swing with Essie

Eagles Club, 4562 NW 13th Street

7:00 - West Coast Swing class and dancing

$3 members, $5 non-members

Joshua Angel, joshuadancer79@gmail.com

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7. Thursday 12/23 - West Coast Swing with Judi

Imperial Dance Studio, SW 34 Street

7:00 - 8:00 : Class

$35 Month

Judi Markell, jlmarkell10@comcast.net

352-375-7763, imperialdancestudio@hotmail.com, www.imperialdancestudio.net

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8. Tuesday 1/? - Mostly Swing Dancing

Thelma Bolton Center, 516 NE 2 Ave

6:50 - 9:00 : Lesson and dancing

$8, $6 students with ID

Richard, 352-213-8769, mostlyswinggainesville@yahoo.com

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9. Friday 1/? - UF Swing Club

Weaver Hall Basement, UF Campus - this week

(usually at Unified Training Center, 809 W University Ave)

8:00 - 11:00

www.FloridaSwingDance.com

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Article: West Coast Swing Flash Mob Steps

Essie taught the West Coast Swing Flash Mob choreography last night. Below are the exact steps.

Flash Mob is an Internet fad where a bunch of people show up at a place all at once. West Coast Swing Flash Mob is a dance that West Coast Swing dancers do when they get together at a Flash Mob.

This is a fun thing and possibly a good way to get people interested in social dancing.

I have a couple of concerns, which I have written a lot about over the last several years. My book Partnership Dancing (tm) was originally developed to address these concerns with how people dance to choreographed partner dances.

The big concerns are:

The woman should follow the man and not do the choreography on her own.

The man should let the woman do the steps on her own and not try to wrestle her through the steps to keep up.

The woman needs to maintain her own balance and not pull with her arms.

The choreography needs to be leadable.

1. The Woman Should Follow the Man

If the woman does not follow the man, then the couple cannot dance together. They will just be two people dancing in close proximity. Every step will be a test of wills as they struggle with each other to coordinate when and how to do each step. This destroys the physical and emotional beauty of the dance.

If the man forgets the steps, they will not be doing the dance anyway, so the woman trying to lead herself through the choreography is not going to accomplish anything. In my experience, it hurts, because it confuses the man. I believe is easier for the man to follow another man, if his woman is following him and he will catch on quicker.

2. The Man Should Let the Woman Do the Steps on Her Own

By this I mean the man should signal the woman, but not physically push and pull her through her steps to see that she keeps up. If he tries to force her through the choreography, she could get hurt. Again, in my experience, applying force slows her down.

If the woman cannot keep up, the man should alter the choreography to the woman, not the woman to the choreography.

3. The Woman Needs to Maintain Her Own Balance

In choreographed dances there is a sense of urgency to do the steps. One of the problems I see is a woman, in her haste, may get too far away from her partner and then use her arms to pull herself forward. This puts her behind the music.

What the woman needs to do is maintain her balance on her own over her own feet, particularly when she changes direction.

4. The Choreography Must Be Leadable

There are many benefits to leadable choreography. For one, it feels better, since you are doing your steps together with your partner. Another is a woman can do the dance without learning the choreography, if she knows how to follow.

If the choreography is not leabable, then the choreography is performance, not social dancing.

When Essie was teaching, she said this was a performance piece, but to me, this is social dancing in a public setting, not a performance. There are dangers and expectations inherent in performance dancing that are not in social dancing. The people there were social dancers, not performers and came out for social dancing.

If this was social dancing, it was great, but if it was a performance, it was not well done. So I vote for social dancing.

The problem with the presentation of this choreography is the woman has to know her steps because there are unleadable elements. In a good choreographed partner dance every step can be lead. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of wonderful partner dances in Israeli, Casino Salsa, Contra, English, International, Square, Swing Rueda and other types of dancing that can be lead. To show off West Coast Swing certainly it must be possible to come up with choreography that is leadable. In my explanation of the steps, I have offered ideas on making the sequences leadable.

West Coast Swing Flash Mob Choreography Steps

Am using the video linked below for clarification. While the teachers broke the steps down in 8 counts to the music, I broke them down by the element combinations so you can see every step. The steps described are the woman's footwork. The man does whatever he needs to, to get the woman to do her steps.

1. Right Side Pass with Under Arm Turn - 6 counts - 1, 2, triple step, triple step

2. Lunges - 10 counts - Forward 1, forward 2, quarter turn left step forward and lean on right 3, return left 4, finish turning stepping towards start on right 5, forward as in 2 on 6, turn and lean as in 3 on 7, return as in 4 on 8, return as in 5 on 9, return to start 10. Basically, the woman does a basketball type turn twice around her left leg.

3. Whip Turn with a Rock and Forward at End - 8 counts - 1, 2 triple step, 5, 6, back on 7, forward 8. This is a normal whip turn through step 7. Instead of taking two steps in place with and 8, you take one step forward. She did this other ways as well, including forward and hold 8, forward and 8 hold 1 of the next figure. The key thing here is to come forward after 7.

4. Leans - 4 counts - lean left behind man 1, recover stay on left 2, lean right on right 3, recover stay on right 4. Not really leadable as done, maybe sort of the first lean, but not the second. However, if the man put his left hand a little around back on his hip requesting the woman's left hand, this and the next figure are leadable.

5. Walk Around - 4 counts - left in place 1, step over the man's left left leg with right 2, finish stepping around with left and face man on 3, touch right leave right free on 4.

6. Boogies - 4 counts - in place step side to side, for woman right, left, right, left.

7. Send Out - 4 counts - forward 1, forward 2, send out to open break and turn back to back on 3 and 4.

8. Bugaloos - 4 counts - starting back to back, man with left, woman with right, 4 touch steps to pivot and face each other.

9. Reverse Whip with Woman Left Under Arm Turn - 8 counts - forward 1, forward 2, man steps to his right out of her way, woman turns left under arm one and more on 7, finishing last half turn on 8, man goes under arm while woman circles 5, 6, returns to starting position 7, 8.

10a. Forward and Turn Left - 4 counts - forward 1, forward 2, turn left 3 and 4.

10b. Slap Belly - 4 counts - step left slap belly with right 1, step right slap left 2, step left slap right 3, step right slap left 4. The belly slaps are not leadable, but that is alright, the woman is supposed to stay there anyway.

10c. Turn Left and Anchor - 4 counts - turn left stepping back away 5, 6, anchor 7 and 8. Think of 10a, 10b and 10c as one 8 count figure, with 11 being 4 pauses in the middle, which is why this figure numbering starts at 5. The man can lead this last turn if the woman does not know.

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