Last weekend I was at a swing dance workshop in Edinburgh called "The University of Swing" organised by Edinburgh University's very own swing dance society. It was great and I hadn't been to a weekend workshop since one in Aberdeen almost four years ago. The university gimmick worked quite well with the three streams for beginners, intermediates and advanced...s being renamed Bachelor of Swing (BSw), Masters of Swing (MSw) and Doctorate of Philosophy in Swing (PhDSw) respectively. They had wee paper degrees rolled up on string to decorate the hall for the Saturday night social and all in all it was very lovely.
I decided to do the whole weekend as a lead, traditionally women are follows and men are leads, as I felt I would get more out of the weekend as a lead. I had started leading as a necessity when I first established the society at Dundee because, quite simply, there weren't enough! It was really interesting to learn how to lead and I enjoyed working out the moves but after a while I did start to begrudge it just a bit. But then, I dunno, something clicked or switched or whatever and now I actually prefer leading to following (although I will still always love following particularly when a fabulous hunk of a dancer is leading me into swingy glory). I could have easily done the PhD stream as a follow (check me!) but I've been noticing on the social dance floor that I have a gap in knowledge of intermediate lead moves. I've done one or two advanced classes or workshops as a lead where the move there and then is broken down so I pick it up ok but generally speaking, on the social dance floor, you don't use advanced moves nearly half as much as you use beginners and intermediate ones; unless you know your partner really well and dance with them very regularly and as I often spend more time following than leading on the social floor I don't get the opportunity to practise those moves as much as I would like so I start to lose them. That was a long rambly sentence. So yeah, I have my basics and I know a few advanced moves (which aren't necessarily that useful in a social dance) but I had a dearth of knowledge regarding intermediate moves as a lead and I thought this weekend would be a really great opportunity to fill that gap and just learn all the tricks and nuances that come after a weekend of intense dancing.
I'm a great believer in giving and receiving plenty of feedback in a workshop environment, on a social floor it's considered bad etiquette to give unsolicited feedback, so I would often ask my follows questions after we'd tried a move such as "how was that connection" and "how did that feel, could you tell the change?" One of the follows said "it's so great that you talk about the move and ask for feedback, not a lot of others in this group are" which took me aback slightly but I know how, sometimes, even a workshop environment can be intimidating. I just happen to have an over-inflated ego and massive lady balls. I am, though, one of those really annoying people that asks the teacher loads of questions too. But I had a nice moment where I put my hand up to ask a question and the teacher said "is it ok if we just get to you in a minute?" but by the time they came round and asked if I was ok my partner and I had answered it ourselves. A little bit of personal problem solving. It felt good.
The social dances were great, although I felt like I was in a bit of a no woman's land in a way. On the social dance floor I lead and follow but as I had lead in the workshops I didn't really meet any of the other leads (this happens a lot, you tend to meet everybody in the opposite role but not that many in your role, as you don't dance with them) so I didn't really get asked at all by leads outwith the Dundee group. I obviously could have gone and asked them but I was more interested in asking the follows as I wanted to practice what I had learnt, but then I got weirdly nervous. And not many of the follows (outwith Dundee) really asked me as I suppose they only really thought of the leads as the men, which is fair enough as that is the traditional role. One or two of the follows that I had met in the workshop, though, did come up and ask me to dance as a lead and it really made my night. One of the best dances I had on the Saturday was with a woman from the intermediate stream who asked me to dance. I got asked again by a follow from my workshop at the blues after-party, even though I know very little blues - and I told her this, which was really great too, a confidence boost. I went ahead and asked one of the follow teachers to dance too and she complimented me on my leading which was nice although I am aware she was at the weekend in a teaching capacity and is encouraging to everyone, but it was still nice to be told I lead well.
There are some cool little moves though, I just dunno if I'll ever get. There is just a (and I may well lose some people here) masculine energy from the male leads (I don't necessarily think that leading and following is or needs to be gendered, it's just that tradition has fallen that way, what I'm talking about is when men are dancing whichever role) that I must be trying to emulate when I lead on a subconscious level (as I most often see men leading) but I can never get quite right. Maybe it's just a confidence thing? Who knows. And I always feel more confident leading when wearing trousers and more pretty and graceful following when I'm wearing a dress or a skirt. And I know that that is just social conditioning. But it's a strange one.
In other news I submitted some comedy sketches to a BBC Radio 4 show. I have no expectations (even though I have them a bit) but I have no expectations on what will happen. I think I read that for their last submissions something like 800 sketches were sent in. Maybe more. Maybe it was over 1000. Both those numbers ring a bell. I also booked a ticket to a comedy writing speaker thing at MediaCity so it would be great to get some tips and meet people. I feel so silly saying that I want to be a writer and particularly write jokes, I suppose it's because I know other people who want to be writers but who just aren't very good and I'm afraid that people will think that about me when I say it. Please do not use this blog as a measuring stick, it is waffle, drivel and just word vomit. It's just that I've tried to get sensible publishing/media jobs and I'm aware that creator jobs are hard to come by, extraordinarily competitive and have little money until you really make it, but I've been applying for sensible office type jobs in the sector and I'm getting nowhere so I'm actually going to give this a jolly good go and start writing properly.
Tomorrow.
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