Extreme Dancesport Dance Camp?

Anyone has previous experience attending 2 day dance camps before? Do you really learn something useful within such short workshops? Is the material usually more suitable for higher level dancers or also good for newcomers and bronze level? Thank you.

tuxedosam said:

Anyone has previous experience attending 2 day dance camps before? Do you really learn something useful within such short workshops? Is the material usually more suitable for higher level dancers or also good for newcomers and bronze level? Thank you.

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I have been to one of these (with a couple of the instructors doing this one, actually) and did find it to be useful. There are certain pieces of information that I definitely use to this day ("laser eyes" as provided by Eddie Simon which I actually use walking down the street to work almost every day to test the theory). One of the instructors also had a terrific segment about hair and make-up, which for a beginning competitor, I found very useful. One thing I would recommend, at least for the ladies, is to wear dance sneakers or low-heeled practice shoes. I remember my back *aching* after the first day.

I would go to this myself but I already have plans for that entire weekend.

does anyone have a link, schedule or more info?

mamboqueen said:

There are certain pieces of information that I definitely use to this day ("laser eyes" as provided by Eddie Simon which I actually use walking down the street to work almost every day to test the theory).

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Hey, MQ... spill on the laser eyes! Or at least offer a long weekend training so I can find out how to use them.

Sounds very X-men. LOL

Samina

found it, it's the weeknd on yale.. could have been interesting to attend

Katarzyna said:

does anyone have a link, schedule or more info?

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extremedancesport.com


"laser eyes", and I'm paraphrasing from memory, is essentially focusing your vision (like a laser beam) on the side of the room that you're traveling to in order to get others out of your way. Hmmm...that sounds rather obvious, but when he put three couples on the floor, and he did it with one couple, the other two cleared the path. So, when I walk down the street, I'm focusing straight ahead to see if people walking toward me in my direct line move out of the way. It works 99% of the time. And the other 1% I get whacked with someone's rather heavy bag!

I'm sure this isn't really any great shakes to the accomplished dancers here, but it was certainly news to me.

That makes a lot of sense. One of the important skills for floorcraft is to be able to read where the other couples are likely to go next. I can recall a studio where the teacher demos would tend to chase most of the followers around like a flock of geese, while the leaders were pre-emptively getting out of the way. But you can't always read another couple - especially if you are not dancing but are trying to avoid a couple who is, who may be trying to make up their mind what you are going to do, which if you are not dancing is a lot less predictable than it would be if you were dancing.

So using your sightline to declare your intent could help a lot with letting others read you.

Sounds like if you do it right, it even triggers into a more-fundamental-than-dancing perception reflex.

Its not just that, he also talked about how the intensity of the "laser eyes" helps to create emotion -- the focused/directed state, doesn't look like a stare from the audience or judges perspective, but helps to add intensity and purposefulness to your expression -- whether its inward,outward or partner based.