Hey there, reader! My name’s Bernadette, friends call me Honey B – feel free to do so, yourself. I’m just a young lindy hopper, been swinging for a little over 3.5 years, without very much other dance experience. I’ll copy and paste (and update!) the full story at another point in time. I’ve recently joined a young, energetic, and exciting swing troupe in Sydney, after my great experiences dancing in Canada, and have decided to start a(nother) dance diary. In all honesty, I’m terrible at updating and I tend to forget, but I feel like if I out some of the points I need to work on here, I’ll better remember (writing it out it really cements it in my head; perhaps having to think through it while I’m writing and then seeing it again when I read the final post might have something to do with it… who knows?). Anyway, this time around, I won’t be writing out routine steps, seeing as this is kind of like copyrighted material, y’know? Intellectual property and dance property or something, so I might just write out my personal trouble areas to help me get a better handle on them.
So what am I working on at the moment?
I’m learning a couple of routines, keeping one fresh, choreographing one (and possibly writing a song for it) for next year, and working on learning the Big Apple and solo jazz and improvisation in general.
More specifically, I’m working on my swing out (well, that was obvious), particularly not travelling too much after 6. I’ve known this for years, but if I want to go back and work on technique, this is probably the most glaringly obvious thing I need to do. This is basic. I will be working on it all of November. And following that, I’m going to go back to working on bringing my butt in a little bit to further highlight my swivels.
I’m also working on variations, I want to work some Thomas and Alice triple step replacements (not triple step variations) into my dance.
And finally, because I’m a bit of a scatterbrain, I’m also working on (well, I will start seriously next week, anyway) my social dancing, because I want to place in a Jack and Jill by the end of 2014.
On to more specific specifics (woah), yesterday, I was sprung with the news that I was guest teacher for tomorrow’s troupe training session. I freaked out a bit and had a mild panick attack (not actually, I’ve heard they can be pretty bad), but then I sat down and thought of things I could bring to the troupe, and things that I would like to learn. Eventually, I decided I would do a class on slip slops and slides, because who doesn’t want to learn them? They look awesome and they’re fun!
So, here’s a list of what I intend to cover:
Slip slops on the outside leg, to the outside leg.
Slip slops out to either side, landing underneath yourself (left out, landing on right and right out, landing on left).
Slip slops behind (running man) and in front, landing underneath yourself.
Slip slops diagonally, front and back, both legs, all directions.
Double diagonal slip slops (fwd R, back L, fwd R, back L) etc.
Snowflake slip slops exercise.
V slides
V slides moving forward
Classic slides
Circle slides
Then I will get everyone to PLAY WITH THEIR LINDY!
As part of that, I’ll also be teaching a rough version of the Slip Slop Shim Sham, which I barely got a handle on today. So to sum that up (I’ll post my rhythmic diagram when I finish working it out):
Stomp drags are replaced by slip slops to the outside, landing on the inside leg. Start on one, with a slow, slow, quick quick, triple step rhythm.
Break step is a step, cross behind tap, step back, kick, slip, slip, slip.
Pushes are replaced by two sets of double diagonals then cross and slip back, step, triple step, but the last step of the triple is a slip, sliding the foot that steps on the “and” back diagonally and landing on the other foot to start the next set of pushes.
Short pushes: two diagonal back slips, each landing on the forward leg underneath you, triple step, two diagonal back slips, slide to the right.
Stomp off
Tacky Annies become: triple step, triple step, then slips, first to the back, then to the sides, and finally to the front,
Break step
Half break, cross, circle slide, undo the lock step
Break step
Half break, cross, circle slide, undo the lock step
Break step
Then break into the regular shim sham! That’s it!
Ok, wish me luck, these dancers are ten million times better than I am, so if they don’t learn anything, I hope they at least have fun!!!
lindyhopes 