Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
Moving posts about recovery in smooth implies that recovery is too technique laden a concept to be discussed in a Smooth thread.
The posts that concerned quickstep had nothing to do with recovery, and were not moved.
American Smooth Thread
- Thread starter joy
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The posts that concerned quickstep had nothing to do with recovery, and were not moved.
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
Nothing has been moved. There is not yet a new thread on Recovery.
No. New. Thread.
Nothing. Moved.
Or that the Standard gown is less conducive to a high ronde.
Joe
Forum Master
Or that the closed position allows less freedom for a led high ronde.
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
I gotta say, I LOVE it when that happens. Granted, it’s only happened to me at an in-studio mini-match, and I know that the studio works hard at providing positive reinforcement whether it’s truly warranted or not. Nonetheless, it’s a GREAT feeling to hear spectators yelling, “goooo, PNP!” and “yeahhhh, PNP!” as we dance around the floor in front of them, finishing up with the MC announcing, “wow! What a great Viennese waltz by Pro and PNP! Well done!” (Especially since Pro & I don’t do anything flashy…just basic syllabus stuff, but hopefully well-executed basic syllabus stuff.)
#applauseaddict
I think we all sometimes underestimate how much people appreciate simple quality.
My anecdotal contribution to the discussion would be to mention that wife and I had a run of contests early in our Smooth career where we were making finals (including one outright win) in Silver and Gold Viennese with nothing but left turn, right turn, and one throwout to explosion in the corner. Our vocabulary was tiny, but what we had, we owned, and that is often good enough!
Warren J. Dew
Forum Master
I think that leading a ronde', high or low, is more difficult if one wants to keep closed hold throughout, but I don't think it's difficult enough to deter open level dancers. One can allow the hips to open while following the lady around in a constant frame.
I note that the head height Rudolf in my video upthread, while done in Smooth competition, was in fact led in closed position with a gown also suitable for Standard.
joy
Forum Master
I finally got to work on the ronde a bit with my Pro, which further crystalized how talking about technique on the internet can be full of hogwash and poppycock.
Since this is American Smooth, there is a strong Pull connection involved between the partners and you can be further apart, it's important for my posterior line to go backwards, which helps initiate the ronde.
No, it's not a rond de jambe.
Lots to practice and work on, and for my part, it's actually the core that needs the most strengthening.
Since this is American Smooth, there is a strong Pull connection involved between the partners and you can be further apart, it's important for my posterior line to go backwards, which helps initiate the ronde.
No, it's not a rond de jambe.
Lots to practice and work on, and for my part, it's actually the core that needs the most strengthening.
It's not a rond de jambe, never said it was. But it is an exercises to build strength and flexibility. If your core is rock solid but your hip doesn't flex enough to move correctly, you won't do a ronde in ballroom.
I think my first comment was to work with your pro. Glad you did that.
Quickandslow
Active Member
To change topics…. I am just starting my journey into open smooth and have been thinking a lot about finding my own style and personality in my dancing especially since smooth has so many options and looks. Would love to hear from others if they are on this type of journey or any thoughts!
ProgressNotPerfection
Forum Master
Much to my disappointment, my teacher has emphasized with me that until I am absolutely solid with my underlying technique, I won’t have the luxury of developing my own style or personality in my dancing. And I can’t argue with that, because every time I’ve tried to “let go” and just dance freely, my technique falls apart, with the result that my efforts at dancing freely just make me look silly and sloppy.
However, i’m not learning open smooth; I’m still in the early stages of silver smooth. So YMMV.
I'm told the same thing by my instructor - repeatedly.
It dampens the fun a bit for me, but I too understand. I don't want to appear silly or sloppy, which is probably easier for this music inspired bronzie to do since I'm just in the infancy stage of my ballroom journey.
singndance
Forum Master
I’m chuckling over this because pro yesterday reprimanded me for doing something I thought was ok but he thought was goofy. And I said to him, aren’t I allowed to add my own style and personality in on this??? To which he promptly replied….NO!!!….
I'm just a couple of steps ahead of you on this journey. And I just wrote and deleted a big long post about how this whole find my own style effort has gone in my partnerships, and what we've done to make progress, blow by painful blow. I even used bullet points.
And then I realized that all of it was just a lot of noise obscuring one simple idea:
You don't need to do anything to find your own style.
Your personal style is not something you build intentionally from scratch. It is instead an organic reflection of what you naturally do when nobody is telling you to do something else. In other words: If all you do is dance with emotion and abandon, your style will find you. The only hard part is recognizing it, and leaning into it once you do. That part *is* intentional.
For example. My wife has always loved Tango and felt bored by Waltz. The edgy, arrogant, almost angry flavor of Tango is something she understands and can lean into, while the sentimentality and wistfulness of Waltz is just not something she feels on a regular basis.
Where we are now, instead of coaches trying to hammer a "proper" Waltz feeling into her, they instead have been helping us find a dark, edgy approach to Waltz. And we've been finding one; channeling something akin to Maleficent. A Queen of the Night who has been wronged by everyone and forgives none of it, but chooses to honor us by deigning to grace the floor for this dance anyway.
In addition, our best coaches have recognized that her favorite Tango emotion is not passion, but challenge. And they have been designing our choreography in a way that emphasizes that.
*******
And I reiterate: we didn't have to do anything to "find" or "figure out" that my wife favors this particular style. That is just the way she is! All we had to do was recognize it and start leaning into it.
Consider additional evidence: most of the folks posting so far have not had any trouble finding their style! Instead, they've been told that they should stop, hold back, and do something more bland and vanilla for a while, because learning and maintaining technique is much easier when you start with a generic template.
The downside to this, of course, is that you need to then give yourself permission to go back to unfettered, genuine emotion once the technique is sufficiently in place.
Or, as one of my visiting coaches sometimes says: "Learn clean. Then make a mess. Then clean it up." It sounds to me like you're in the prime stage to start making messes.
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