Confluence of Interests

[Bailango]

The opening is unrecognizable to me as WCS, but the most of the rest does look like (not very good) WCS as done by people who primarily do other dances (especially the lead).

Start to end is WCS that I commonly see when I go out. Most of those people don’t have any other dance background.

 

[David_In_CA]

Start to end is WCS that I commonly see when I go out. Most of those people don’t have any other dance background.

That's thankfully not what I see in the scenes I've been in.

The opening looks very Latin American (or pseudo-Latin-American), like they are going to go into bachata sensual or something.

The rest of it looks like bachata dancers who took a month of WCS. There's some personal movement skills, but it looks like people who know another dance that are practicing WCS.

 

[stash]

The opening is unrecognizable to me as WCS, but the most of the rest does look like (not very good) WCS as done by people who primarily do other dances (especially the lead).

I agree with this. Neither of their WCS frame/connecting is very good. It seems very disconnected to the rest of their body. They seem to be good dancers in general. I get latin vibes overall from this clip. However they do look like two people enjoying WCS in the moment. If I saw them out on the social floor, which is WCS bread and butter, I would not think they would stick out that much in a crowd.

 

[fiesta0618]

Posture in WCS is not like ballroom. It's a street dance. I've been told by multiple champions that I need to modify my posture to look more like I'm a street dancer, especially as a leader, to look more like I belong. It still has to be functional. But I have to look like I don't give a damn. It's a fine line to walk, and not particularly easy with my previous dance background and engrained habits (good and bad).

This is an absolutely golden bit of nuance. Posture must be functional, always...but different aesthetic goals require us to dress it up differently. Which explains why some variants of functional can look odd in context, while non-functional can pass muster if it has the "right vibe." And it's awfully difficult to tell the difference on visual inspection alone!

I will surely use this framing of the idea in the future. Thank you!

 

[opendoor]

..need to modify my posture to look more like I'm a street dancer.. It still has to be functional..

Well, I doubt how far-reaching this dictum is. Why don't we all continue to dance in practice hold? Back in my ballroom days in the 80s, I danced in the standard frame, and I found it very restrictive! Around the turn of the millennium, I learned the embrace of the tango milonguero style, and I found it to be a hindrance, too. So, where are the limits of functionality?

 

[Mengu]

Well, I doubt how far-reaching this dictum is. Why don't we all continue to dance in practice hold? Back in my ballroom days in the 80s, I danced in the standard frame, and I found it very restrictive! Around the turn of the millennium, I learned the embrace of the tango milonguero style, and I found it to be a hindrance, too. So, where are the limits of functionality?

There is always a balance to strike between cosmetic and functional components. We just try to figure out how to make it functional within the confines of cosmetic expectations.

With posture we have a few blocks of weight we can arrange in different functional ways, and it's just a matter of figuring out when and where to move those blocks. We also have to be aware of how those blocks affect our partner.

Frame is similar, but more prominent in how it affects the person attached to us. How comfortable standard frame is probably depends on who you learned it from. Many dancers do make it overly stiff and uncomfortable. It doesn't have to be.

I'm not too familiar with tango embrace, but it seems functional to me when I watch it, so that's probably also a matter of how it's explained and understood.

Practice hold is of course functional, but not the right cosmetic look.

One other common thing about posture and frame is that they are both dynamic. So the moment you start thinking of them as a position, you instantly lose function in movement.