Dance Gears

There are millions of different kinds of dance frames and connections. Entirely different ones can be equally wonderful.

At the same time, there is a general arc, from "less" to "more" connected dancing.

I've long tried to put words to that, but it is mostly something you have to "feel", by dancing with lots of people far better than you. Like bike riding, it is really hard to feel and really wobbly at first, but with practice, it becomes second nature.

In the same way, "more" connected dancers connect quicker and stay more connected more of the time, right down to the micro-second level.

I think I have found a word that helps explain the difference between "less" and "more" connection: "neutral".

It is not something I've heard anyone use in dancing. Hmmn.

Intermediate dancers are frequently in "dance neutral". Tippy top connected dancers are almost never in "neutral".

Think about driving. Once you start on a car trip, you are in gear, from start to finish. You might have to switch from forward to reverse, but you do that by "going through" neutral, not by shifting into "neutral".

Intermediate dancers pretty quickly drop into "dance neutral", when no particular momentum move is happening. That is not what you do in a car, though. If you put your car in neutral at a light, it takes an extra second to get moving again, as you wait for the transmission to engage into "forward".

It is the same with dance. If your dance connection has dropped into "neutral", it takes precious micro-seconds to re-establish connection, for the next movement, and the dance fluidity becomes jerky.

Just like at the traffic light, high-end connection dancers are often stopped, but with "forward connection" firmly engaged, not moving only because the brakes are on to prevent movement. Once the brake is released, the movement continues on its own in the same direction, with no need to even touch the dance gas, just like in the car.

The well-connected lead will:

- Offer a "gear direction" 100% of the time

- Maintain the direction of that "gear" at all times

- But stop and start the motion in that direction (just like at the traffic light)

- Then periodically, change the gear into a different direction.

- But never put the gear into neutral.

The "I am in forward gear, but not moving right now" concept, which is so natural in a car, mostly does not exist on the dance floor. I would say only 1% of dancers have a deep sense of that. Because of that, all the other dancers rarely "feel" it, and may be completely unaware it exists...

And that "in gear, but not moving" is actually the place high-end dancers spend much of their time.

"No Neutral!" are words that cannot get you there on their own, but might open the door to some dance experiments and readiness to feel that magic place of "in dance gear, but not moving right now".

PS - Note, however, that unlike a car, us dancers have other options than just forward and backward:

- We can have "side" connection and gears, which adds richness to just forward and backward

- We can change the "elevation" of our connection, from

"in the floor" blues to

"inches lower" Lindy Hop to

"floating" foxtrot to

"off the floor" ballet.

And we can blend those levels in different dance styles.

- Since there are two of us in a social dance, we can move not just in synch, but against each other, meshing gears in ways far richer than a dorky car transmission!

Those are topics for another day!