Adding a little drama to your dancing

[DanceMentor]

I performed twice last night.

The first time we were running a little late and then they were slow getting the music started. We dance perfectly. No mistakes. Everything went exactly as planned, at least technically. As I was bowing, I was looking at a lady smoking a cigarette, not bothering to clap, and sort of sneering at me. The rest of the audience clapped a little, but not as enthusiastic as I would have liked.

The second performance we decided that we would really put some passion into it. It was a tango (like the first one). When she got mad, boy, did she get mad. When she ripped away from me, it made me mad. I sneered at her right before she did our choreographed kick toward my face. The song was "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)", and I tell you, she was getting nothing from me! We made several mistakes, but we truly had drama, and the audience was ecstatic afterwards.

This is one of the problems I often see with Ballroom Dancing. People are judged for "technique", but not for "drama". Do you agree?

[etchuck]

This is one of the problems I often see with Ballroom Dancing. People are judged for "technique", but not for "drama". Do you agree?

Actually, quite the opposite. I think that if you do more performances or competitions, as much as technique is judged as important, showcasing/drama is certainly weighed heavily. You're supposed to do what it takes to get the attention of your judges, and flash certainly seems to appeal more than "technique".

[DanceMentor]

You're supposed to do what it takes to get the attention of your judges, and flash certainly seems to appeal more than "technique".
Well, that gives me some hope then! Maybe I can win a competition one day. Now all I need is a tan! :D

[Genesius Redux]

This is one of the problems I often see with Ballroom Dancing. People are judged for "technique", but not for "drama". Do you agree?

Absolutely--do you think the problem is just a matter of judging? It seems to me that many ballroom performers focus so much on technique in their practice sessions that when it comes time to perform, they're still focused more or less entirely on technique--turning the performance into what I would call a practice. A lot of the judges I've talked to say the same thing you've said--that they're looking for emotional content, not just technical precision.

To me, technical practice or repetition is there to create a muscle memory that would make the conscious focus on technique more or less irrelevant. (I'm overstating to make a point). Performance would be about performance.

I judge my own performances by my focus on intention and objective, however, not by what I feel. Your feeling is internal and subjective--the audience can't see you feel, nor do they want to. They want to see you do something, and they want to see you do something big! It sounds to me from your description of your tango that it was about the control of your partner--so that your objective throughout is to subject an unruly inferior to your will, prevent her from fully realizing her freedom. That's a strong objective that makes for a powerful relationship, and it's no wonder the audience caught fire seeing it happen.

When you have a strong and consistent relationship and objective, how you feel as you employ different strategies (read "steps" or "patterns") to achieve that objective will change with the specific dynamics of the relationship. You may not always be "angry," but at times find yourself "surprised," "bemused," even seized with "desire." The complex shifting of your emotion will, in my view, create subtle shadings in the dance that will ensure that no two performances will ever be exactly alike, keeping it alive. The hardest thing in doing something over again is not looking for a repeat of a previous performance, not trying to create another similar moment.

When you're focused in that way, you don't think consciously about your technique. Any more than an actor thinks about projection, or breath control, or where to throw focus. You hope that you've done it enough that these things become unconscious. If they're not--if you have to think about them--then your thinking about them will be telegraphed and distract from the actual performance.

Of course, after a lot of focusing on drama, even that can become a bit of routine. And let me say from my own experience, there's nothing quite so humbling as finding yourself on stage thinking about whether you're going to have a ham sandwich or a pastrami on rye while auto-pilot goes on and on about getting to nunneries and bare bodkins (can I say that on DF?) and rogues and peasant slaves--and being told, with quite genuine enthusiasm, by everyone after the show, "I've never seen you better!"

Perspective of a (luckily) working actor!

Genesius

[Genesius Redux]

You're supposed to do what it takes to get the attention of your judges, and flash certainly seems to appeal more than "technique".
Well, that gives me some hope then! Maybe I can win a competition one day. Now all I need is a tan! :D

You need to get down with Jim Croce, man:

"If I could get tan from a bottle...." :wink:

[etchuck]

You're supposed to do what it takes to get the attention of your judges, and flash certainly seems to appeal more than "technique".
Well, that gives me some hope then! Maybe I can win a competition one day. Now all I need is a tan! :D

You need to get down with Jim Croce, man:

"If I could get tan from a bottle...." :wink:

Darn it... you read my mind! I was going to mention, there is always "make-up."

[Sagitta]

Yuck!! I think. :?

I think that drama is important. Am just getting back into doing all of this after my absence. I was worrying about having forgotten everything first!! :oops: I've seen people dance with great technique and less drama and the other way around. I think drama is what catches the attention and where teh emphasis tends to eb in judging.

[KevinL]

Having only ever been in one competition, and only seen one other, I don't have much to say on this topic. However, it would seem that at a beginning level the focus should be on technique until you get to a high enough level that the technique is automatic and you move on to adding in drama and passion.

[etchuck]

Having only ever been in one competition, and only seen one other, I don't have much to say on this topic. However, it would seem that at a beginning level the focus should be on technique until you get to a high enough level that the technique is automatic and you move on to adding in drama and passion.

Well, from my jaundiced view, it appears that technique is important to a point, even in bronze level. The problem is that lead-follow technique isn't so important in competition as the stylistic flash of doing certain figures tends to be. If you screw up a step, you can cover by making it look "cool"/flashy, and that won't hurt you so much.

[Larinda McRaven]

I suppose that generally technique is equated to boring and dramatic is equated to messy.

So if we are talking about competition then I have to say that technique is more important. If I want to gesture to my partner and create an intimate moment as I spin into and land in a same foot lunge, then I need to do so with sound technique through my whole body. If my posture is bad and I move my arm to gesture from the wrong point of my back and it is mistimed with my step and rotation then ultimately my posture and balance will suffer and I just end up looking wobbly, and my feet will be messy as I try to support my body that is out of control.

But when Steve and I perform a show and we are not being judged on technical merit and there are no side-by-side comparisons going on, we let loose a lit bit. We don't throw all caution to the wind though, I still want to have balance and connections or the whole thing can fall part. But we don't seem to mind a bit of over dramatization in exchange of technique for the sake of a show.

[D-spot]

The one concept that I had the greatest difficulty in accepting in the dance world is that the cover (the look) is more important than the content (technique).
As long as it looks right, then it is right.
I feel that the technique is important to support the artistry rather than the other way around. Being strong on the feet looks way better than a wobble, so technique is important, but it is a tool to be used rather than a goal in its own right.

Someone, somewhere, somewhen looked at a couple and said 'that looks good, how did you do that?' and the technique arose out of that.
Wasn't it Wally Laird who went to Cuba and brought back a whole host of new moves?
Unfortunately I am a technician and my presentation sucks, hence I will never be a successful competitor.

D-spot
(make sense? or am I tired still).

[Seini]

The "drama" you talk of I think of as expression.

The expression I try to use has technique involved to make it fit the dance. After watching a performance tape I realized that the dramatic tango look I had was much more like anger, which is not enjoyable to watch... A really fun Latin routing (Jive, Cha Cha, mambo combination) I did recently had a lot of energy. So much so that I though it looked very sloppy. The expression I tried to use caused much of the fundamental technique to fall apart.

I have to work quite hard at the expression I am including in my performances.
:?

[Vince A]

I think it also depends on what you are judging . . . Pro-Ams vs a Showcase . . . I think would be judged differently . . and the levels should be judged differently . . .

All competitors better be dancing "to the music."

Then I look at the feet to see if they have the technical footwork . . . if they are doing the correct footwork, I'll look for more!

Then as the levels go up, I began to add in "styling." The higher you go in levels and the more the routines get closer to showcase, the more "drama" the better!

Take two identical couples . . . who have great technical with "alive" footwork . . . great arms and body language . . . good head movement . . . would tie on my score sheets . . . but if one couple adds some drama choreography to the music . . . whoa, extra points!

Believe me . . I look at everything . . . including the back of shoes - above the heel and heel itself . . . no worn out areas . . . better be polished! I even look at the way they are standing in-line during the introductions and as they themselves are being introduced. You better look and act the part of a dancer!

No one is deducted points, but certainly, if they are standouts here, they may get a point or something jotted down, just in case of ties at the end.

[Genesius Redux]

I think I know what Larinda is talking about when she says that people sometimes use technical to mean "boring" and dramatic to mean "messy." To say, such and such a couple was quite good "technically" is to imply that something was missing. To say that a particular routine was "dramatic" is sometimes to search for something nice to say in the face of a whole bunch of technical flaws.

To me, though, it's not a question of being technical or dramatic. You are looking at two entirely different things--on the one hand frame and footwork and the like, on the other connection and responsiveness to each other.

When I think of the "dramatic" element of dance, what I'm not talking about is some sort of uncontrolled pseudo-emotional display. That's just bad acting--Ben Affleck being sensitive on screen. What I'm looking for is a genuine connection between the partners--an awareness and responsiveness to each other and a sense of intentionality in the steps or patterns. That's not something you would look for instead of technical elements, but a general context within which the technical aspects of the dance are displayed.

What is a hesitation step? You might have one answer technically, and it would be right. But why are you doing a hesitation step at this point in the routine? Because it's part of the choreography? Not an answer.

I remember much to my delight discovering some of the language of a choreographed routine I did a couple of years ago to "My Funny Valentine." There was a series of arabesques, where we were both open to each other, leading to a finish entirely in a closed position. Each one of those arabesques, we realized while we were practicing, was the lady's invitation to the man to come into her life, each becoming a stronger invitation until the mostly open, parallel dancing of the first half of the routine (and the first half of the song) culminated in the closed position of the conclusion. Awareness of what the steps were telling us gave the routine a visible emotional content, and also suggested patterns of phrasing and interpretation that were not at first evident.

That phrasing and interpretation is partly technical--but it's made possible through an emotional connection. Your technical understanding is deepened by its emotional context. There's no real conflict between drama and technique.

Or take Macbeth's famous soliloquy:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To th' last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.

As everyone who has ever had to do Shakespeare in school understands full well, that soliloquy may be (technically) scanned in iambic pentameter:

- / - / - / - / - / -
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
- / - / - / - / - /
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
- / - / - / - / - /
To th' last syllable of recorded time,
- / - / - / - / - /
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
- / - / - /
The way to dusty death.

To read the speech like that, however, is to sound ridiculous. Another technical approach asks us to ignore and deemphasize conjuctions and articles and to emphasize instead the important nouns, verbs, adjectives.

You combine both and you notice the emphasis on the conjunctive "and" in the first line, building up a sense of mounting frustration, the natural emphasis on the first two words "Creeps in" together with "petty pace" and the repetition "day to day," the struggle against metrical regularity in the third line, and the final capitulation to the forces of order in "The way to dusty death," a phrase that shocks us by its metrical regularity. The technical play of this speech releases the emotion and the drama automatically--the sense of a man at the end of his rope, struggling against the inevitable consequences of his own actions, and finally giving in to them.

The drama of those lines does not exist in any sense apart from their technical execution. When someone says such-and-such an actor's performance was "merely technical," they are not saying that it is empty technique with no drama (although they think this is what they mean) but that the handling of the full range of technical issues is not in evidence--that issues of sound, stress, and breath have not created and released the emotion that is implicit in the lines.

I think the same might be said of dancing--the emotion is released by the technical execution, and the more complete a dancer's technical understanding the richer the expression will be. Likewise, an emotional understanding of the expression can lead to a firmer grasp of technique, so that whatever your path--whether you find in technique a new world of expression, or struggle your way from expressive need to technique--you will arrive at the same place, which we call performance.

And that's my little arty word for the day. Now I shall have a capuccino.

Genesius

[Larinda McRaven]

Genesius Redux, I totally agree, however I like your exanation better.

[borikensalsero]

Great Art GR... Great Art, way great...

If I see a technically sound routine, with no drama I get bored, I need to see what separates all the competitors from each other, which most times isn't technique, for they are all pretty much equally technical.

What takes me to the next level is the passion they have in the dance, the chemistry that goes beyond physical connection. That is when I'm jumping up and down during a choreography... that is what attracts me, the understanding that they see dance passed technique.

But heck, I would rather see a technically sound couple competing than two dancers looking like chickens with their heads cuff and being passionate. This is a comp guys, lets get with it, or go next door to the wrestling arena...

[dancin_feet]

It's amazing how much this forum coincides with things that come up in my dancing life!

I was at a competition on the weekend and watching the styling and technique of the competitors to help me with my upcoming exams and performances. One thing I did notice about couples my eyes were drawn to is that they really looked like they were enjoying themselves. This is something I know I am missing because I am concentrating too much on technique. I will be trying some of this tonight in my private lesson.

I also watched a Star Wars marathon over the long weekend and picked up something from that as well for my dancing.

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D

[SDsalsaguy]

I also watched a Star Wars marathon over the long weekend and picked up something from that as well for my dancing.

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D
Don't forget that it also always helps to use the force! :wink:

[dancin_feet]

I also watched a Star Wars marathon over the long weekend and picked up something from that as well for my dancing.

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D
Don't forget that it also always helps to use the force! :wink:

He he :lol: will give that a go too!

[Genesius Redux]

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D

Yeah--but his little muppet butt doesn't even sense the presence of the Lord of the Dark Side when he's standing right next to him!

Anybody beside me think that Yoda is originally from the ET homeworld?

[dancin_feet]

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D

Yeah--but his little muppet butt doesn't even sense the presence of the Lord of the Dark Side when he's standing right next to him!

Hard to see the dark side is ....... :D

Anybody beside me think that Yoda is originally from the ET homeworld?

Nah, ET's telescopic neck and Yoda's non existent neck tell me they are light years apart.

[Genesius Redux]

Nah, ET's telescopic neck and Yoda's non existent neck tell me they are light years apart.

Common ancestor, perhaps. Or maybe Yoda has just learned to keep his neck retracted. And while we're on the subject, what was up with blue dude with the giraffe neck? Wouldn't a neck like that be kind of a liability in a light sabre fight?

[Sakura]

I also watched a Star Wars marathon over the long weekend and picked up something from that as well for my dancing.

"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D
Don't forget that it also always helps to use the force! :wink:

He he :lol: will give that a go too!

Hah! The Force! Go Star Wars!!!!!!!!!! :D :D I haven't seen them in a while, but that should change this weekend. "Let the Wookie win..." :wink: Classic! (I wonder if anyone thinks that Mind Tricks can be used on Competition Judges... :roll: )



"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda :D

Yeah--but his little muppet butt doesn't even sense the presence of the Lord of the Dark Side when he's standing right next to him!

Hard to see the dark side is ....... :D

*bumps into a table* Owie!!!! See, Genesius! She's right! The Dark Side {of the table :wink: } is hard to see!!! :D :lol:

Anybody beside me think that Yoda is originally from the ET homeworld?

Nah, ET's telescopic neck and Yoda's non existent neck tell me they are light years apart.[/quote]

That's a horrible pun, DancinFeet... Awful..... And I love it! 8)

Common ancestor, perhaps. Or maybe Yoda has just learned to keep his neck retracted. And while we're on the subject, what was up with blue dude with the giraffe neck? Wouldn't a neck like that be kind of a liability in a light sabre fight?

*sarcastically* Oh, no, Genesius! It'd only be a little one! You know, nothin' to worry about. The Insurance companies have no problem with those people. :wink: :P

Sakura Kitty :kitty:

[DancePoet]

Liked Vince A's summary of what he looks for while judging.

In my last competition, my partner and I were the only couple in our age catagory and we were given 2nd because we were off the music. Not good, but obviously very important. I remember starting off slightly wrong, but coming back into it. Doesn't seem to have mattered, but a good example of why dancing "to the music" is key.

At the bronze level it seems technique is the focus for the judges before anything else. It seems footwork is first, which is why I seek learning the proper "heels" and "toes" of each pattern. Working on posture, creating good lines, and head motion also seem to be important according to some comments received from judges at my first competition. I still try to work in some body language, but my focus has been on the technique more then the artistic side of dance.

As the technique is perfected I find the "drama" is best acheived when it flows naturally as a result of my sensing the feel of the music. Making the connection with your partner seems to help, too. If both are on the feel of the music, then there is more cohesion and the dance looks better. I suspect the judges will pick this up as well, particularly at the higher levels of judging.

[dTas]

i think that the technique allows us to be dramatic. technique gives us the ability to stop on a dime, hold a beat, gesture our body in a particular way. without proper technique you'll be off balance and look out of control instead of looking strong and confident.

its technique that gives me the time and opportunity to give my partner a long aluring stare, or a quick glance. without it my stare will look forced and uncoordinated with my movements.

technique is not as hard or boring as people perceive... take two people holding each other in the park; during a summer sunset; next to a waterfall fed pond; with the sound of a sweet foxtrot coming from somewhere off in the distance. without apprehensiveness or insecureties just swaying to the music...

he's in control, she's felling his body. his heart is telling him how to move and how to interpret the sounds in the air. at this moment he has perfect technique, he's leading her using the skills he has incorporated into his body. he's not thinking of "isolate here, press there, keep frame, etc". he's letting his natural technique guide him in leading her in a gentle sway.

the technique let him be dramatic. he doesn't even have to know how to dance.

too often we let our mis-understanding of technique get in the way of our dancing. the technique is there for a reason, to allow us to move effectively from one step to another. how else would you take a step forward, and still be in control of what you are doing? we have to incorporate technique into our bodies to help us move more efficiently and have better presentation.

just because we know what to do doesn't mean we know how to do it, or more to the point... know how to dance it. our bodies need to be conditioned to accept the techniue as second nature.

now... choreography and music interpretation is a totally different animal. i can make up what i'm missing in technique with my interpretation of music and what move i choose to do at that moment.

[msc]

Eloquently stated, dTas.

[Kitty]

Great Art GR... Great Art, way great...
If I see a technically sound routine, with no drama I get bored, I need to see what separates all the competitors from each other, which most times isn't technique, for they are all pretty much equally technical.


Unless we are talking about Open level competitors (but most of the time even there), technique actually IS the drama. If you do steps correctly they'll look dramatic: posture, sharpness, hips, arm movements - they are all techniques that add to dramaticism.

The couples that look most dramatic to you are usually the ones with best technique (or biggest smile:-))

[DancePoet]

Liked your commentary dTas!