Which dance do you dance besides tango most frequently?

[Steve Pastor]

Another dance I very recently became fascinated with, on a limited scale, is tap. This because of Fred Astaire in the "Bojanlges of Harlem" number in Swing Time. Copyright issues have kept it off of YouTube. Fred does some stuff I want to teach myself.

 

[Zoopsia59]

Well, on the other hand there is the history of the thing, which I know most people are unaware of. ... Wills played lots of blues songs as part of what is now called Western Swing. Wills and other Western Swing outfits played for thousands of people in Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s. Although there is no smoking gun that "Western Swing" the dance had anything to do with "Western Swing" the precursor of West Coast Swing, it's certain that "country" people danced swing to that music. (More in the original musc thread!)

Before Wills there was Jimmie Rodgers, who was recording blues since to dawn of recorded country music. (His records sold in the "race" market, too, accroding to the authro of "Leaving the Delta...")
Then there was Hank Williams who did tons of blues.

I agree that some country music, or at least some country artists, was (were?) influenced by blues, but I don't think you could say the reverse holds true... Neither Delta blues nor Chicago blues were influenced by country music. That it gets played in country venues on the west coast is a separate thing. All I was saying was that HERE in MY part of the US (not on the west coast) West Coast Swing dancers tend to be swing dancers and to some extent Latin or Ballroom dancers, not country dancers AFAIK.

But maybe that's because the WCS dancers I actually KNOW attend those other dances and I don't attend country dances (although country does get played at ballroom dances). I do know a few guys (non-dancer types) who will go to a country dance and do 2-step, but they won't being doing anything else, and they wouldn't DREAM of attending any other kind of dance. (After all, real men don't dance, right?)

So I was quibbling with your assertion that "In the US" (etc) as though all of the US is the same in these things. Clearly it isn't.

 

[Zoopsia59]

It WAS a funny scene. Too bad they didn't know any Hank.
.

"We've got BOTH kinds here.. Country AND Western!"

Still cracks me up. (I've actually been to small southern bars like that one, though they didn't have chicken wire across the stage!)

 

[Zoopsia59]

I picked other. Whatever you call the dance you do to rock music.

embarrassing?

 

[Zoopsia59]

My favorite dance is Viennese Waltz, but I rarely get to do it even when I go to a ballroom dance.

Aside from AT, the dancing I do most is probably ballet & jazz, but in the form of classes, not performance. For social dancing, I'll do any ballroom, latin or East coast swing dance that gets played at a milonga. I don't go out to ballroom dances anymore.

I would like to learn quickstep. I've tried to learn WCS and I have trouble with the push-pull thing, which is probably why I also have trouble with colgadas. WCS is the only dance I can't follow even at a beginner level. All the other dances I follow pretty well with only basic instruction (Chalk that up to learning to follow in AT!)

 

[AndaBien]

... Viennese Waltz...East coast swing ...

In addition to AT, add in Blues and Foxtrot (my style, not ballroom), and you're my type of partner.

Actually, I don't do any of those dances in the "officially correct" style. I have other ideas about how to dance.

 

[Steve Pastor]

"We've got BOTH kinds here.. Country AND Western!"

At one time there was a really big difference between the two. Now, there doesn't seem to be much western in country.

Still, when even people in LA don't know about Western Swing, I don't expect people in the East to know about it. (Santa Monica hosted Spade Cooley's Western Swing outfit in their ballroom on the pier for about 5 years in the late 40s. Their historical society tried to get me interested in Lawrence Welk at the Aragon.) Although they may wonder why they play country in what has been dubbed "California Mix."

Mary Ann Nunez first saw WCS at a country venue in the early 80s.

Yeah, there's a wide diversity not only across the US, but from venue to venue as to what is danced in "country" places.

When done the way Skippy Blair has been teaching (definately from the woman's perspective) there isn't a whole lot of pushing or pulling in WCS. I can testify to that because she cured me, and brought my style into the 2000s out of the 90s honky tonk/old style I had learned and danced for years.

My friend from the Southeast tells be the dominant style of 2 step uses the honky tonk hold - right man's hand on the woman's shoulder. True where you are?

Didja know Bo Diddley recorded Merle Travis / Tennessee Ford's "16 Tons," and he was supposed to be doing it on the Ed Sullivan Show, then did "Bo Diddley," which didn't go over well with Sullivan. One of the producers heard him singing it in his dressing room, and asked him if he'd sing it. Elijah Wald lists ample evidence that "blues" musicians also did country. But that's not what people wanted them to play. And THAT goes back to the beginnings of recording in the US, too.
Quincy Jones played schottisches and polkas when he played in Seattle in the late 40s (It's on video at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.)
Then there was Ray Charles' 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and its sequel Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2,
Can you play and sing a genre of music and not be "influenced" by it?
Oopps. Off topic!

 

[twnkltoz]

I think we're largely arguing about semantics. Strictly speaking, country dancing DOES include West Coast Swing, because when you go to a country dance or a country dance competition. WCS is danced there. However, that doesn't mean WCS is a country dance. That isn't the only place you see WCS, and WCS dancers tend to be a different crowd although there's some crossover. WCS dancers tend to have a little different style than the country dancers who do WCS, and the music played at dedicated WCS venues is different. Just like when you go to a ballroom dance, WCS will be danced there, and it's often taught by ballroom teachers in ballroom programs, but it's a different style and a different crowd, for the most part, than the WCS crowd.

 

[Zoopsia59]

I think we're largely arguing about semantics.

Good post, and I think you're probably right. That means that Steve is judging based on his experience of country dance events where WCS gets played and danced, and I am judging based on my experience with WCS dancers, who are a certain "crowd" of WCS lovers (who typically also do tango, latin or ballroom since that's how I know them) The few people I know who are primarily country dancers don't do WCS. (and even the women wear boots to dance)

So we're both right... I like that! Win-Win!

 

[flyingwind66]

you spelled ballet wrong and honestly I'm a little confused as to why you combined it with modern dance?

Ballet is my first and favourite form of dance and is something I started at 4 years old. I have done on and off for something totaling around 13 years.

I have dabbled in:

jazz - for a year and hated it
hip hop - for a few classes and discovered I can't do it to save my life
belly dancing - for like 2 classes each of tribal and cabaret and it's not bad
lyrical - for a year which I quite enjoyed and might pick up again
ballroom - for a few months... I only liked the waltz, the tango and little bit of the meringue... and hated the foxtrot... and the chacha... and the salsa... basically I didn't like having to learn all the different dances when I didn't like most of them and that all had very different steps etc.

I picked up AT shortly after that disaster with ballroom (admittedly not as big a disaster as my attempts at hiphop) and loved it! Argentine Tango a difficult dance and it took practice and though I haven't had much time to go to lessons and milongas, I can see AT being a constant form of dance in my life like ballet has been.

 

[Steve Pastor]

Nice, and welcome to DF.

 

[Subliminal]

Ballet is my first and favourite form of dance and is something I started at 4 years old. I have done on and off for something totaling around 13 years.

Welcome to DF flyingwind!

Ballet is cool. I thought about taking lessons for a while to improve my balance and movement. Don't really have the time though.

 

[opendoor]

you spelled ballet wrong

¡ Gulp ! to my dancish illiteracy

..honestly I'm a little confused as to why you combined it with modern dance?

For sociological reasons (only personal observations): In my hometown Hamburg (north of Germany) I found different approaches: single women under 35 very often have a flamenco or ballet background, but switch to tango for the better gender ratio. Women that show up at 40+ come over from salsa. Couples starting tango most likely have done BR before. Dancers (either gender) that have done BR before very often continue with tango. Dancers who´s first dance experience tango ever is, tend to learn other dances later on, especially lindy hop.
I put ballet and modern dance into the same drawer because either is taught rather academically and got an comparable audience. I know there are tremendous differences but they did not back up to expand the list.

And welcome to DF !

 

[flyingwind66]

Welcome to DF flyingwind!

Ballet is cool. I thought about taking lessons for a while to improve my balance and movement. Don't really have the time though.

I know what you mean! At the beginner levels you can get away with once a week (and most adult classes are once a week anyways) I haven't done any ballet since last June because I wasn't able to do it 9+ hours a week anymore with school and work.

¡ Gulp ! to my dancish illiteracy

I put ballet and modern dance into the same drawer because either is taught rather academically and got an comparable audience. I know there are tremendous differences but they did not back up to expand the list.

And welcome to DF !

I'm getting all these "welcome to the board" responses and was confused until I realized that I think this is one of my first posts I've been lurking on here since I started AT in september because I feel like I don't have sufficient knowledge to contribute well to the discussions.

It's interesting that you put them both into the same category because I personally don't know any modern dancers that don't have a ballet background though I know there are plenty out there. I've never taken a modern class before, not even at a workshop.

I realized that I also missed one more category of dance that I'd done (also for years, silly that I missed it right?) I am part of the SCA/medieval society and we do recreations of historic dances from court and from folkdance... I put that on the shelf for years because it happened to be at the same time as one of my ballet classes for the past 3 years.

 

[AndaBien]

...I've been lurking on here since I started AT in september because I feel like I don't have sufficient knowledge to contribute well to the discussions...

Yes, welcome to DF. Since you've been lurking, you must realize that around here everyone is an authority and no one is. I'm sure you have opinions, preferences and experience, which no one can argue with, although we might try. Beginners experiences are as worth discussion as more advanced ones. So join the fray.