(Thanks Kevin Sue for the picture. Note: this picture is not a picture from the lindy hop class).

Tomorrow will be the last class I will be filling in for Bees Knees beginner lindy hop class on Monday nights. Kathleen and I were temporarily filling in for May/June this summer and usually after the class we go through a post-mortem analysis of what happened and what we could do better. One of the key discoveries that we found was that the students who come to these beginner lindy hop classes were already excited about learning the dance. They didn’t need convincing. In fact, most likely they are looking for any reason to continue taking the dance class so that they can tell their friends to join in as well. When we figured this out, it made teaching the class flow more naturally and more importantly, we could just be ourselves. The pressure was off our shoulders to try to continue to get students for future classes and we could instead focus on providing a valuable lesson.

When you love the dance so much that it comes out of your pores, you do not need to convince students this is an awesome dance for x/y/z reasons. They will see it and feel it from you. Then, they will tell their friends ;-).

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The more I teach, the more I recognize that compared to great teachers in Toronto like Mandi and Arthur, I flat out suck at it. I over analyze movement and often go a bit overboard on my explanations. I’m working on it though. :-)

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Note: Perhaps I sound like a jerk in this article. Admittedly I am judgmental and sometimes have an inflated ego, but I hope that tough love and constructive criticism is a good thing.

Every dancer will reach plateaus, where some fault or choice they make in their dancing limits them from further progression and stifles their dancing in some way. The trick is dancing self-awareness and constant inquiry into one’s limits or seeking of feedback from others to break free of these technique plateaus. Spending time at these plateau levels can help with confidence and move repertoire on the dance floor, but I don’t think that it will make your dancing feel any better and I don’t think that it makes you a much better dancer.

It bothers me when people stay at these plateaus for so long, that they forget that they are only a tiny way up the mountain (terrible metaphor, sorry folks, and no refunds). I don’t like it when dancers who stopped trying to push their dance technique forward feel entitled/cocky/superior based solely on the amount of time they have been dancing for or the amount of moves they can do. I find that these people can be too quick to correct others, unwilling to learn new things, annoying to work with in dance classes, and not great at teaching others the dance.

Am I saying that I hate dancers who aren’t good? No! I prefer dancing with an eager beginner than with a cocky mediocre dancer. I have a little personal saying “I like intermediate dancers, but hate mediocre dancers”. But Kevin, you say, what is the difference between intermediate and mediocre dancers? Intermediate dancers are going somewhere, they are so called in reference to other levels (i.e. beginner and advanced). It is another way of saying “somewhere in the middle of the journey” to being good. But if you aren’t going anywhere, if you have no destination in mind, you aren’t intermediate, just mediocre.

The Moral of the Story: You shouldn’t expect others to put up with your consistent bad dance habits because you are cocky or unmotivated, but conversely if you are trying your best to learn the dance and be a good social dance partner, don’t let the quality of your dancing make you self-conscious. There’s probably some parable about the tortoise and the hare or the little engine that could that best illustrates this.

The Moral of the Story Part Two: Dancers, examine your own dancing, try to improve yourselves, ask yourself what the great dancers are doing that you aren’t. Don’t rest on your laurels just because you are better than the beginners. People get better at dancing through effort passion and (sometimes) sacrifice.

- Your (Somewhat) Friendly Neighbourhood Kevin Temple

NOTE: Kevin is not a particularly good dancer, but he tries.

This quarter was the first time I have actually taught a continuous set of blues lessons in my life. There I’ve said it. The cat is out of the bag! I mean I have always been trying to figure out moves with my friends even before I even knew it was called “blues dancing”. I remember finding a page on Apple’s .mac webpages of “dance moves” and trying to copy it at school. Last night marks the end of the first quarter of 2010 and the end of drop-in beginner blues class hosted by Bees Knees Dance. It will soon be replaced in April by a progressive series (wow!) beginner blues class. Here a few things that I’ve learned along the way (please note I am no expert in teaching or teaching methodologies).

Working with the “I already dance blues” scene aura

To be honest, the greatest challenge I have encountered so far (and biggest learning growth) in Toronto is trying to figure out when I get the “I already dance blues” attitude when trying to convince others I think would be good candidates for the beginner blues class.

“Why would I need to take dance classes in a dance that I already do at the bar and [the weekly swing dance venue]?”

You know, from one point of view they are completely right. There is no “right” and “wrong” way to dance blues (ed. see Bryn’s comments after the post though) as there is a right and wrong way to dance other dances such as ballroom or the local flavor of lindy hop. So why even bother with a class?

So my strategy – instead of trying to convince them that what “they” are doing is not what the rest of the blues dance community in North America are doing, I am simply going out and dancing blues that I know as much as I can, wherever I can. Then when others ask me what kind of “styling” I am doing, I point them to awesome workshop events (and consequently youtube dance clips ie. bluesshout) that I have learned from, and if they want to learn but a small piece of that, “hey by the way I’m trying to unload all my knowledge to the dance scene as fast as possible so we can grow”.

Dispelling the “blues is dirty” mentality

Yes, I get it. You went to a blues house party one time and all you saw were people grinding all up on each other and getting drunk. Yes, that’s a part of the blues dance scene here but it doesn’t have to be like that all the time. In my opinion, blues dancing is a very classy dance. Let me show you why… [proceed to show dance clips online].

As an added learning benefit of my crusade to make blues dancing in Toronto a more “legitimate” dance, I’ve started actually reading more about the history of blues music, culture, and dancing. Win-win.

Get people interested in the music (and the rest will become easier)

The music is super important to a dance.

If your students are not into the music, they won’t be into the dance. During the classes I try to introduce as many great blues tracks as possible and I always send a track list to anyone that asks. I have found that by doing this, students are more likely to come back and take additional classes.

It’s a bit more effort to do this on a weekly basis but…

Teaching is hard work

Teaching does not make me a lot of money, when compared to the amount of time spent doing it. Between renting out studio space, emailing interested dancers and answering their questions, constantly printing promotional materials, lesson planning, and going out social dancing as much as possible, I probably would make more money working at Starbucks (which conveniently is underneath where we hold classes). But you know what? I would do it all for FREE because I love every single moment of it.

It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of hard work. But each and every time I end a dance class, I feel reinvigorated about the dance myself which means I want to work even harder to make the next class better. The personal growth for myself clearly outweighs the time spent prepping and teaching.

Actually care!

I’ve also learned that you actually have to really care about your students. Like actually. For reals. Otherwise, it will show through in your teaching and in the class. You cannot fake sincerely wanting another human being to succeed in something that you love doing yourself.

Admittedly, during the course of this year, I came to class one time just not being motivated or interested at all. It was a blizzard outside, I had a long day at work, and I’m pretty sure hills were being perpetually created wherever I started walking towards. Never again.

If things were getting a little stale, I changed something up, anything really to get me amped up again. For example, maybe the warm-up is just a bit longer or with a more jaunty song, or perhaps I’ll try to put a more “intermediate” move in just to see if I can break it down for everybody. The lesson for me really was to not let external factors negatively spill onto my students, who have taken time out of their evening to come to class.

I cannot stress how much actually caring has been beneficial to the success of the blues dance class.

Have a great teaching partner who will compliment your strengths

Kathleen has been a great teaching partner this year and keeps my craziness in check. She’s also the same height as me.

Randy is gonna be teaching in the Toronto area this month!

Note: the above image was not taken in Ontario. Here is a quick view of where I will be teaching and DJ’ing in March:

• March 12 – Dovercourt – Blues
• March 13 – OWO (London, Ontario) – Lindy Hop Workshop
• March 26 – Dovercourt – Blues

(1) This friday at Dovercourt there is the “Friday Night Live Band Swing & Blues”, March 12, featuring the Tyler Yarema Trio (vocals, keyboards, drums, upright bass)!

I will be teaching a beginner blues slow drag class at 8pm. The dance starts at 9:10pm to 1am and I’ll be DJ’ing the band breaks.

Dovercourt House, top floor Dance $13, $15 with one class, $18 with both. $3 off for full-time students

(2) On Saturday March 13, I’ll be teaching a lindy hop mini-workshop with Alcina Chiu at UWO. I have a soft spot for university swing clubs (having learned from one myself) so I’m really AMPED to be teaching for them.

The workshop is from 2-5pm and the social dance from 6-10pm .

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=342866544252

(3) On Friday March 26, I’m teaching at “Friday Night Live Band Swing & Blues” again. This time I will be teaching a beginner juke joint blues class at 8pm. The band playing this night is the “Johnny Max Band!” and they sound pretty awesome. As before, I will be DJ’ing when the band is not playing.

Dovercourt House, top floor Dance $13, $15 with one class, $18 with both. $3 off for full-time students

(4) As always, every Monday night I teach BEGINNER blues with Kathleen Molto at the Yonge & Bloor Studio for Bees Knees Dance (just in case I didn’t spam it enough times).

Gotta love Dublin. There’s so much drinking and dancing in such a small area that one can hardly sit still long enough to realize just how much euro one has really spent (fyi, it was a lot). I was able to fly to Dublin (albeit after a bit of stand-by ticket scare) and attend the Dublin Lindy Exchange to meet some dancers from across the Atlantic. Having never been to Herrang dance camp, it is such a great feeling to meet lindy hoppers from so many other countries in one location having the time of their lives. To be honest, I was a bit nervous about dancing in Europe. I have only ever danced in North America so I did not know if my dance style would mesh well with other dancers. I often get this feeling when out traveling to unfamiliar dance scenes. I always chalk it up to the “big dance pond” syndrome that I self-conscientiously get. The Dublin dancers were great however and were very hospitable from the moment we arrived to the Pillars Room to the very last dance of the weekend.

During the day when not out dancing, my traveling companion, Genevieve, and I did the tourist thing and visited the Guinness Factory tour, risked dismemberment by using the new city bike program, and met up with my good old Irish friend Laura. We also saw some traditional Irish dancing (crazy!) and even did some salsa dancing on the streets (what?) near O’Donnell bridge. Being only there really for three days, I feel that I need to come back at least two or three more times to really feel like I’ve “visited” Dublin. I guess I’ll just have to put it back on the list :-)

In other dance related news, here are two quick events that I am putting on in Toronto:

Teaching A Class Series

In Toronto news, I will be teaching a beginners Lindy Hop class every Tuesday at Dovercourt House starting next week (September 22nd). I’m very excited to have to opportunity to teach this class in Toronto so hopefully it goes well.

Fund Raiser for Hamfats’ Blues Team

The past month or so, I started up a Blues Dance Team to work on some more advance blues dance concepts that I can’t work on the dance floor as well as to compete in the North Star Blues Exchange. We are holding a fundraiser to get us to Minnesota.

Facebook Even Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124675049209#/event.php?eid=132311290775

Last week, I taught two beginner classes for the first time at Toronto’s main swing dance night, Dovercourt House (with the lovely Kathleen). The past year I have solely been working on improving my dancing and trying to travel as much as I can. I did not expect myself to be staying in Toronto for very long, as I had aspirations in my home town of Vancouver and the mecca city of dance, New York. I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring finally and was fortunate to be asked to teach the drop-in class last Saturday. I know for other teachers that have been teaching in Toronto for a while, Dovercourt House is not such a big deal, but I was very amped to showcase why I heart lindy hop so much.

At the end of the two beginner classes, I received some very encouraging and positive feedback :) Thanks to all those who made it out and for those friends of mine who came to help out and support me. You guys/gals are the best.

1. Randy waiting for class to start.

2. Randy and Kathleen teaching swing dancing. Randy looking goofy as usual ;(

3. Kathleen teaching the ladies.

4. “Boop, Bap.”

5. “Kathleen teaching Suzie Qs”

6. Oz and follow