What's The Fuss?
08.22.07

Over the course of time, I have been involved in more than a few sports or activities; football, chess and wargames to name a few. In each activity, learning the basics, the rules, and grasping the strategies that are applied to try to "win" are important steps to being a good player.
 
While dancing in this community, I have seen a large portion of the participants skip over the basics and declare themselves dancers. After traveling and dancing across America for the last 6 or 7 years, I am going to say somethnig that may offend some of you; "We have very few dancers in our area who qualify as anything higher than beginners."
 
This is not an attempt to pad my own ego. As a participant in large scale events in dancing, my opinion of my standing in the dance world is that I am a relatively small fish. Rather, it is my hope that some who have taken this view will take a step back and take a reality check.
 
There are some of us who believe that there is always more to learn and follow up that belief by pursuing the knowledge and skills to be better in our chosen passion. Being a world champion may be out of reach to any of us, but truly becoming an accomplished dancer takes more than an 8 week course. I submit that being able to label yourself a dancer takes an investment of time and energy that can't be faked through.
 
Why bother? In my opinion that investment you make in your dancing benefits the dance community along with your personal growth. Follow me on this path for a bit, please.
 
Each of us as dancers bring our own interpretation of material we have absorbed from teachers, videos and other dancers we interact with. The more material each of us has a mastery over, the more we get noticed as dancers and partners. Please note the term mastery in that last sentence. If you don't have your basics down pat, you will have trouble executing higher level material and you miss out on the "mastery".
 
The attention you gain as a stronger dancer creates a flow of other dancers that want to "do that thing you do!" Let's face it; we all like to belong to a group that has respect and admiration, right? Being popular, when handled properly can be a grand thing. Although some may become competitive in an unhealthy way, if we are realistic in our goals, more accomplished dancers around us give us more material to try out on each other, more partners enjoying the benefits of those techniques and a spiral to better dancing for all of us begins to form.
 
A stronger dance community emerges from this process. There are always going to be people who will not continue to invest in their dancing. Some have other priorities or budgetary issues that force them to continue to learn in smaller, slower doses. Although becoming part of a dancing circle of friends will help, these dancers will only be able to do what they can and this article in no way should be construed as negative. The Real World sometimes gets in the way of our passions for all of us (See past articles on my recent truck sitting adventures for example). The fact is, these dancers are involved when they can and want to learn more. The motivation will pay off sooner or later.
 
However, for those of you that think you are doing so well with little to no investment in your dancing, you really need to think again. Especially in West Coast Swing, the evolution of dancing will steadily pass your lessons of 5 or 10 years ago, leaving you as a dancing dinosaur on the current scene.
 
I have been involved in several efforts to bring in special talent to highlight and promote the idea of progressing our dance level and growing our community. In a couple of situations with Goldcoast Ballroom, we have seen world champions and icons of the dance world made available to all of us. In some cases, I have seen more out of town dancers show up and take advantage of these opportunities than the locals.
 
How could this be? These events have been advertised in the community through email, flyers, newspaper advertisements and announcements at other dances and events. Some organizations appear prepared to ignore these opportunities to promote dance in their style. Hopefully, you are plugged into more sources than these groups. Plenty of advanced notice has been available. Could it be that there are so many dancers who believe they don't need the information?
 
Don't let yourself become someone like that. Unless you are a world champion, there is always something to learn, new people to meet and more material to share than most of us can experience in a lifetime. Also, don't short change your community. We need everyone to be excited, ready and willing to learn and enjoy dance in all its' forms. Get involved and grow as a dancer. We will all be glad you did!