I Get A Kick Out Of You....(Tube)

He Goes

I've always wondered how it was that people learned dances in the old days. We're told that people just went along to dances and learnt there, or they learned as children, but can there really have been such a cultural difference from current times? It seems very un-English to do something like that, what with the risk of incompetency being exposed or emotions being expressed. On the other hand, society frequently changes quickly enough to make one generation's norms completely alien to the next generation, so perhaps it's true.

So let's assume that this is true, and that most people just learned by observation and imitation. They'd:

• go to dances
• see a cool move
• try to work out how it was done
• try it out
• get it wrong
• try it out again
• get it wrong again
• ...imagine this goes on for a while...
• finally have some breakthrough in understanding
• do the move successfully!

This is all fair enough. And it still works as a study method - I've picked up a move or two this way. But now there's the internet.

What you can't do on the social dance floor you can do in the comfort of your own home. See a cool move on a YouTube video? Just wind it back a few seconds and watch it again. And again, and again. You can (if you've got the HTML5 version of a video) play it in slow-motion. You can pause the image so that you can work out where a particular hand or foot is at any given time. You get the benefit of watching dancers from all around the world just as easily as your regular dance-partners. And perhaps best of all, you can send the link on to a friendly fellow dancer - no more of that "oh, that was a really cool move that guy just led, I can't really describe it but if we keep watching perhaps he'll do it again". Instead: "watch this, the move at 3:10".

I'll admit that even with all these advantages I still find it difficult picking up fancy moves from videos, but I suspect that's a personal thing based on feeling faintly ridiculous practising on my own at home. Fortunately YouTube isn't only useful for instruction. There's also instant re-inspiration whenever I'm feeling like I'm starting to stagnate.

I love living in the future.

She Goes

I was out dancing last night, and towards the end found myself watching a favourite follow, whilest sat with another favourite. Dancing follow did some kind of bad-ass kicky-leg swing out styling variation, and the one I was sat with squealed with delight and demanded a repeat because 'she had to have it'! The one dancing responded with that she had no idea what she did so to point it out if it happened again.

How many amazing steps have been lost in the mists of time before camera phone footage?! Maybe that awesome step you were feeling really smug about could change the course of dancing history, if only it was documented?!

No? Oh well.

For the first 6 months or so of my dancing life I didn't watch a single clip on youtube. And then one night, I saw a clip posted on facebook, and before I knew it, it was 3am and I'd fiended off a few years' worth of competitions, jack and jills, showcases, and  I WAS SO GODDAMN PUMPED HOW THE HELL COULD I SLEEP!?

Awesome dancing follow, mentioned in the first paragraph, is a big fan of watching clips over and over, dissecting and distilling their secrets, analysing comparing, and filing them away like a sexy lindy squirrel. I am not like that. I like noticing trends that clips can set off though- a jump here, a variation there, that move where the follow continues spinning and the leader bounces them off their arms, and variations therein...

Lindy clips are like porn for me. If watching porn makes you horny, then watching dance clips makes me...horny for dance?....Dancey?...Dorny? OH OH OH! I have it!! It gives me the LINDY HORN!!

I'm a genius! Please, take that phrase and use it with my blessing. File it next to 'dafterglow'.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I tend to prefer watching Jack and Jills, invitationals mainly, because I'm so big on social dancing that I can relate to it more than showcases, for example. Most of the lindy rockstars in them are really relaxed and not out to score anything other than a smashing dance. I also find myself thinking about who I would dance with first, in a room full of rockstar dancers. (Lindy horn fantasies... guilty as charged...)

Here are a few ones I've been indulgingin/torturing myself with in the last couple of weeks;

The first dance in this clip (which is the full length version of the comp), recently did the rounds. It is an awesome example of two kick-ass dancers vibing with a song, having an actual dance conversation, and having tonnes of fun. I do like the full length clips when possible- it gives the in-jokes that develop more context. I also like being able to see the dances that don't work *quite* so well, the dancers nervous to be paired with such superstars, or when two styles just dont work. It also saves having to open millions of tabs on my browser! I like the all-skate at the end of this, it decends into hilarity. Just watch it!

This clip is another full lengther- and I love it for slightly different reasons. (interesting that both this and the one previous start with the same song- I only just noticed that) I can't decide what I love more- the lindy dances or the other ones. Watch it, you'll get what I mean. I LOVE the idea of dicking around and having fun like that. I want to have a go!

On the subject of dicking around, this clip had me in hysterics. (I was late to the party for this song but better late than never I reckon)

This clip is the stuff fantasies are made of. I can't see a guy-on-guy dance OR hear this song without thinking about it. I actually just lost 20 minutes of writing time watching it repeatedly. *sigh*

In fact, I just lost a few hours going though my saved clips. Dammit!!