Class Details

Location: Base Dance Studios (in London, by Vauxhall station)
Date/Time: August 08, 2024 @ 5:30pm-6:55pm (85 minutes)
Overall class difficulty: 5 out of 10
Combo difficulty: 6 out of 10
Freestyle exercise? Yes

Overview

This blog post serves multiple purposes.

First, it helps me experience gratitude. Attending this class is one of the ways I squeeze in (my low desire of) socializing with folks who share similar values (e.g. physical activity, curiosity, social contact)

Second, the post may motivate someone to take the class and perhaps they are on the fence and want to gain a little insight into what will be learned.

Third, this post is a form of reflection, allowing me to contemplate what moves and exercises I want to continue practicing.

The class agenda was as follows:

1. Warm up – often my favorite part of the class and I incorporate the moves into my freestyle rounds
2. Short combination – consisted of the chase, loose legs, dodger, former, tic tac toe (variation) and side walk (variation)
3. Freestyle partner exercise – each of us took turns with the (above) combination
4. Cypher – we formed a larger circle (still only consisting of 4 individuals) and exchanged with one another

To get a glimpse of what the class looked like, here’s a little reel I put together that’s part and parcel of my dance journey log.

Combo: Chase, Loose Legs, Farmer, Dodger, Tic Tac Toe, Side Walk

Overall, I felt the difficulty of the combo was 6 out of 10. The reason for the somewhat higher than average difficulty is because I was unfamiliar with the tic tac toe and side walk variation. Outside of these two moves, I was familiar with the other foundational moves (e.g. chase, loose legs, farmer).

Combo Breakdown

Chase (right)
Chase (left)
Chase (right)
Chase (left)

Loose leg (right)
Loose leg (left)
Loose leg (right)
Loose leg (left)

Dodger (left)
Dodger (right)
Dodger (left)
Dodger (right)

Farmer (right)
Farmer (left)
Farmer (right)
Farmer (left)
Farmer (right)
Farmer (left)
Farmer (right)
Farmer (left)

Farmer variation syncopated (right)
Farmer variation syncopated (left)

Tic Tac Toe variation (right)
Tic Tac Toe variation (left)

Side walk variation (left)
Side walk variation (right)

Areas of growth

As mentioned above, classes reveal what areas I’d like to work on (there are many). Here are the ones that I struggled with:

• Tic Tac Toe – Not only was the positioning of the feet challenging, but the groove and body positioning felt foreign
• Transition from dodger (last one) to the tic tac toe – while the dodger move itself was not challenging, theh transition out of this move INTO the tic tac toe tripped me up
• The side walk variation – Jevan loves this move and it’s a variation that I haven’t been able to stick for months. In fact, I struggle with this almost every class in which this move is part of the combo. My body is accustomed to a familiar move: the pow wow. That move has been committed to muscle memory so my body wants to default to the pow wow.
• The farmer – Though it is considered foundational and something I’ve thrown in rounds before, I’m not quite confident with the timing and feels a bit “off beat”
• Syncopated Loose Leg – fan of this variation that he introduced, the first time I’ve danced the move

Freestyle exercise

The freestyle exercise was essentially partnering up with one other person in class and each of us taking turns to perform the freestyle.

After each of performed our combo, our partner would then offer

1. A positive comment pointing out what they liked out of round and
2. An area of growth.

For me, the positive comment I received was that my loose legs were the “loosest loose legs” and that it was sublime. For the area of growth, she pointed out my farmer. Though she wasn’t able to precisely offer feedback, I felt even within my body that I was not stretching out the entire downbeat.

Closing – dancing for others AND dancing for self

In a nutshell, you can BOTH dance (for yourself) and perform (for others) — at the same time.

Most of the classes I’ve taken in the United States emphasize that house is a feeling. Instructors often encourage students to NOT perform and instead, dance … to be free. While this belief resonates with me, I find that this assertion can sometimes unintentionally invalidate another aspect of dance: performing.

What I appreciated about what Jevan said was that freestyling is both dancing for yourself AND a performance. I believe the two — dancing for self and dancing for otthers — can (and do) co-exist.

Sometimes I dance without the idea of performance and consider these times rare, consider them “catching the ghost”. Othertimes I’m a bit too in my mind and I find that I am performing. Often, it’s a combination of dancing for self AND for others.