Amateur American Smooth

[Mr 4 styles]

I got hit in the head a few times...

ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smidra86]

ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

You should see my vid from osb actually zlapi actually slaps me full palm in the face during vwaltz, I recoil a bit and sync is like are you ok and I respond yeah im fine keep going keep going.

 

[Mr 4 styles]

zlapi actually slaps me full palm in the face during vwaltz, I recoil a bit and sync is like are you ok and I respond yeah im fine keep going keep going.

if its on you tube ill watch it

 

[Dancing Irishman]

I don't know just how prevalent this is, but I've run into my fair share of instructors who were, for wont of a better term, international snobs. I know a couple, for example, who would have made lovely 9-dancers. Akita and I both tried to gently nudge them in that direction. They adamently refused, pretty much considering the American styles beneath them. Taking my own am lessons from their original instructor, I feel pretty comfortable saying that had a lot to do with the training they received from the start of their competitive careers. I hear quite a bit from that instructor that if I were doing am-am smooth, I'd move pretty much immediately in championship (a ludicrous prospect, for the record) and have heard his wife decry junior couples learning smooth. (Because it's for old people who can't hack it at standard. Supposedly.)

I have the vague impression that that's better than it used to be and that smooth is starting to get more of the respect it deserves on a larger basis. But ultimately, I think the answer is having the championship field hit a critical mass in terms of competitiveness, and I think having more serious competitive couples dancing it from a young age is a really important part of that. In short, I think we need more junior and youth smooth couples.

I definitely heard that from my old coach too. "Pro rhythm is for the couples who got tired of losing in latin" we're his words, more or less exactly.

I also think more collegiate teams taking smooth seriously will help out a lot. The biggest two teams in the Midwest treat smooth as an afterthought, or at least that's my impression (I was told by multiple members of the bigger team that their approach was to win smooth with the best standard technique and the fewest patterns possible).

 

[dlliba10]

It would be interesting to hear about how the current Smooth pros, who were originally Internationally-trained, decide to make the switch into the American style.

We had a lesson with Slawek where he explained also that it kind of happened due to a number of factors: Marzena had her baby, the studio they were working for needed them to teach American style, etc. I didn't know about the bet part, though -- I bet that's a bet they were glad to lose (or win, whatever side of it they were on. )

I also think more collegiate teams taking smooth seriously will help out a lot. The biggest two teams in the Midwest treat smooth as an afterthought, or at least that's my impression (I was told by multiple members of the bigger team that their approach was to win smooth with the best standard technique and the fewest patterns possible).

I think I've said it before and I'll say it again -- one of my proudest accomplishments was getting my team to take Smooth seriously and not just an afterthought after Standard. I rose through the ranks pretty quickly, and I tried to show through example how cool Smooth (and Rhythm) were. Now, there are quite a few Gold-breaking-into-Open couples taking lessons, working hard, respecting the style, when before there had been just a few, if any, Bronze couples doing their natural turn, closed change, reverse turn, spin turn in Smooth.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

I definitely heard that from my old coach too. "Pro rhythm is for the couples who got tired of losing in latin" we're his words, more or less exactly.

I also think more collegiate teams taking smooth seriously will help out a lot. The biggest two teams in the Midwest treat smooth as an afterthought, or at least that's my impression (I was told by multiple members of the bigger team that their approach was to win smooth with the best standard technique and the fewest patterns possible).

I'm surprised that the teams in Midwest have this attitude. On pro-am side of things, I do mostly Midwestern comps, because that's where I live, and in my experience pro-am smooth was always bigger compared to pro-am standard.

 

[Egorich]

I'm surprised that the teams in Midwest have this attitude. On pro-am side of things, I do mostly Midwestern comps, because that's where I live, and in my experience pro-am smooth was always bigger compared to pro-am standard.

Canada is the same. Probably because it's "funner" to dance

 

[Warren J. Dew]

I definitely heard that from my old coach too. "Pro rhythm is for the couples who got tired of losing in latin" we're his words, more or less exactly.

That's kind of a sad commentary. It used to be that the top rhythm couples were couples that had always danced rhythm, and had never danced latin. And those couples were comparable to the top latin dancers in the world - I saw a show once that included a head to head competition between the U.S. rhythm champs and the world latin champs and the judges had them splitting the dances.

And before you ask, they found music that worked for both a rhythm dance and a latin dance - for example, I think they found one piece of music that could be either a mambo or a samba.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

I don't know just how prevalent this is, but I've run into my fair share of instructors who were, for wont of a better term, international snobs.

Yes. To be fair, though, back when I was competing in smooth, our coach was an American style snob.

But ultimately, I think the answer is having the championship field hit a critical mass in terms of competitiveness, and I think having more serious competitive couples dancing it from a young age is a really important part of that. In short, I think we need more junior and youth smooth couples.

If you truly mean competitiveness, and not just numbers, I would agree that would help. However, we also need for American style to get over its desire for differentiation from international style from fear of unfavorable comparison. If American style dancers compare unfavorably to international style dancers in some aspects of their dancing, we need to buckle down and work on those aspects until they compare favorably, rather than just avoiding comparison.

 

[middy]

You should see my vid from osb actually zlapi actually slaps me full palm in the face during vwaltz, I recoil a bit and sync is like are you ok and I respond yeah im fine keep going keep going.

Haha I've been there! Got totally whacked in the face/ear by a rather tall and stunned for a second. He's super nice though and apologized profusely afterwards.

 

[middy]

I'm surprised that the teams in Midwest have this attitude.

Well, for whatever it's worth, my current Midwest team is generally stronger in American style. Not sure why, perhaps the strengths of the coaches, past and present. And, for people specializing more and dropping styles, everyone seems to stick to smooth, regardless of whether they're a more standard or rhythm/Latin person. Just a fun observation. Currently we have...4 open-level smooth couples? Pretty awesome.

Maybe that's part of why I've come around on really liking smooth (really preferred standard a lot more before, now they're on more equal footing). I still don't get rhythm technique at all though. :/

 

[mindputtee]

Yeah and they made us all dance on that tiny floor at the same time.... I got hit in the head a few times... :-/

Yeah... I tripped someone. Couldn't see where I was headed spinning out and down into a deep lunge. Another couple completely trips over my stretched out back leg. I felt really bad.

 

[smidra86]

if its on you tube ill watch it

It happens at about 7:00 min

 

[middy]

You reacted as if nothing even happened!

 

[middy]

Yeah... I tripped someone. Couldn't see where I was headed spinning out and down into a deep lunge. Another couple completely trips over my stretched out back leg. I felt really bad.

It happens to pros too! I can't remember the exact video, but Slawek and Marzena totally trip over Susan, who was in a split on the floor. They got back up, checked that everyone was ok, and continued on.