Topic: The really unofficial "What to teach for the Black & White Ball?" thread (Read 7725 times)

Okach · « **on:** November 04, 2009, 09:13:33 PM »

Whether you be an experienced ballroom competitor, total novice or occasional dabbler in the partnered dance, what dances would you want to see taught for the 2010 Black & White Ball?

Okach · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2009, 09:42:19 PM »

And in my creaky aged mind I posted this in the wrong forum, but I can't seem to find a delete button...

saebel · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2009, 06:48:43 PM »

For beginners:

Waltz
Tango
Rumba
Chacha

For intermediate dancers:

West Coast Swing
NC2S
Hustle
Salsa

That might be a little ambitious, though. But at the very least, WCS should be in there, since we seem to have an All-Star WCS dancer lurking around. It'd be a shame not to take advantage of that.

milkychu · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:17:02 PM »

I wanna learn the Waltz! Btw its my first time at fanime, does everyone dress up in black in white formal attire? and what day and time is it?

tkdteo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2009, 12:35:27 PM »

Milkychu

The Black and White Ball is a semi formal event but your attire does not have to be black and white. It is just a suggestion. But the bare minimum dress for males are button up long sleeve shirt and slacks and dress shoes (no sneakers). For women, it is a blouse and skirts below the knees and dress shoes as a minimum. There will be more details on this as Fanime gets near. The BWBall is taking place on Sunday May 30, 2010, the times will be in the evening but that is not set yet. I hope that helps.

- Jim
BWBall Head 2010

Okach · « **Reply #5 on:** November 18, 2009, 05:35:08 PM »

lol, I would help with the classes no matter what they taught. But yeah, it would be nice to take advantage of the body of work I've accumulated for a long time

. Besides, I spent a solid week accumulating appropriate Asian language WCS songs. Pity to waste that...

caskaslyrk · « **Reply #6 on:** November 19, 2009, 11:55:00 PM »

Salsa would definately have to be intermediate, teaching one person to dance alone salsa is COMPLETELY different than partner salsa

Waltzing would be fun or the fox trott...Merengue would be easy to teach as well and is up beat

I didn't go to the black and white ball last year so I am not sure if you are only referring to "couple" dances...but a "boy band" dance lesson would be interesting and very funny to watch..LOL

Okach · « **Reply #7 on:** November 20, 2009, 12:06:44 AM »

The difficulty would be finding Asian salsa songs...that aren't in Spanish.

.

caskaslyrk · « **Reply #8 on:** November 22, 2009, 02:00:58 AM »

Quote from: Okach on November 20, 2009, 12:06:44 AM

The difficulty would be finding Asian salsa songs...that aren't in Spanish. .

LOL...that is true...but Koreans really like salsa for some reason...LOL you can do a remix version... mark anthony mixed with L' arc~en~ciel LMAO

Okach · « **Reply #9 on:** November 22, 2009, 02:42:27 PM »

Nah, I'm having too much fun looking for J/K-pop songs to play for WCS.

saebel · « **Reply #10 on:** November 23, 2009, 10:39:07 PM »

Quote from: Okach on November 18, 2009, 05:35:08 PM

lol, I would help with the classes no matter what they taught. But yeah, it would be nice to take advantage of the body of work I've accumulated for a long time . Besides, I spent a solid week accumulating appropriate Asian language WCS songs. Pity to waste that...

Ooh, share info! It'd be a big help to those of us stuck in a rut of blues/contemporary. (Bread and butter, sure, but I need some variety.)

Also, I gave it some more thought. ECS (beginner)/Lindy Hop (intermediate) might be fun, too. But then there's the question of who'd teach it all...

Okach · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2009, 04:16:56 PM »

Ha, it's basically K/J-pop that sounds like contemporary music right now. It's been hard to find decent slow songs (Shell from Witch Hunter Robin is like the only decent one I've found that doesn't make me want to gnaw my arm off). But speaking from an overall perspective, the cool thing about WCS is that you can dance to '60s music on. I just finished a convention where I heard AC/DC, the Temptations, Dion and the Belmonts, Michael Jackson and Peaches & Herb playing.

OniCourseMusha · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2009, 04:47:57 PM »

I would like to see more Vienna Waltz around for beginners. IMO its easier than Modern Waltz and I've seen many people learned V Waltz easily at Dickens Fair including myself and this coming from a guy who's taking Intermediate Ballroom Dance at CCSF.

Okach · « **Reply #13 on:** December 02, 2009, 06:11:40 PM »

And if all else fails, spinning around the floor is real fun

.

NekoMiki · « **Reply #14 on:** December 06, 2009, 03:06:48 AM »

Viennese Waltz (at least the one I am thinking of, danced to really fast music) is, in my experience...really hard ._. The music is almost stupidly fast and it is very easy to get offsync with your partner.

Last year I tried teaching the reverse turn (left) and it was a disaster because I didn't want to introduce the Viennese cross. Next year, if I get the chance again, I'll be sure to teach the natural turn (right), which doesn't have the cross and at least will travel in the right direction even when not done perfectly.

As for other dances, I agree that Merengue is something that is easy and fun. Lindy is fun too, but the Lindy whip can be difficult to understand. One dance I want to introduce is Samba, at least to those who are willing. The rhythm might be hard for some people and it is not an easy dance, but I am hoping at least some might be interested.

Okach · « **Reply #15 on:** December 06, 2009, 06:16:29 AM »

Viennese reverse turns are ridiculously hard to control - I remember careening off the floor one time and luckily encountering some soft yielding objects (i.e. other people). Samba basics aren't hard. Lindy is a fun dance, though the swingout is notorious for being more complicated in feel than looks.

saebel · « **Reply #16 on:** December 11, 2009, 10:27:37 PM »

Well, it's why I'd recommend slow waltz instead, for raw beginners. The tempo and footwork gives 'em more time to think.

I'd teach single-time East Coast swing for beginners - not lindy. Lindy should be for the intermediate dancers. The nice thing is, the swingout and a whip are basically the same with some minor variations in footwork (as I'm sure okach knows!), so if there were also WCS classes for the intermediate dancers, the patterns could more or less transfer between the two dances.

Also, I second the vote for merengue. It would be great for super raw beginners who are afraid to do anything too crazy off the bat

Okach · « **Reply #17 on:** December 14, 2009, 05:05:16 PM »

Well, not quite...

. You can make a swingout look more like a whip and vice versa if you alter footwork, but it feels way different.

Agreed on the ECS and Merengue comments. My personal take is to go for something like six dances since the ball is only about 4 hours long

. So, I would go with

ECS
Merengue
Waltz
Cha-Cha
WCS (Well, what do you expect?)
Salsa

saebel · « **Reply #18 on:** December 14, 2009, 07:13:04 PM »

Quote from: Okach on December 14, 2009, 05:05:16 PM

Well, not quite.... You can make a swingout look more like a whip and vice versa if you alter footwork, but it feels way different.

True, but I think at the "I just learned this" level, it's pretty similar. Enough so that a WCSer can sorta fake lindy (without tripping the lead, at least). Heh. Once you add technique, that's when they start to diverge, for sure.

Okach · « **Reply #19 on:** December 15, 2009, 02:37:11 PM »

Yeah, we just need to bend the knees more and bounce

. Lindy to WCS leaders are noted for their bent more than normal knees and balls of feet steps (except for Ben Morris, but you can still see a little bit). But connection's the main difference.

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Author Topic: The really unofficial "What to teach for the Black & White Ball?" thread (Read 7725 times)