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Lindy Hop across the Border Solid Lindy Hop Links Music Reading & Film Steps |
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Lindy Hop across the Border Solid Lindy Hop Links Music Reading & Film Steps |
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Traditional Social Dancing
has evolved naturally through communities, along with traditional music.
It is natural, easy, joyful, free, equal, and sociable:
it affords improvisation and individual style within a strongly supported dance community, has no classes, hierarchy or separation into performers and spectators, and is considerate, not competitive.
It is grounded:
it is physical, creative, aesthetic, and transcendent, but is neither sport nor art, neither randomly individual nor uniformly regimented. It resists sophistication, commercialization, and institutionalization.
If Traditional social dancing were discourse, it would be neither debate nor monologue, but conversation.
Our dance style is simple, joyful and lively, with mostly Alpine and Nordic roots. These country dances (like the Alpine Waltz) are at the source of many more sophisticated city dances (such as the Viennese Waltz). Our old dances are easy to learn, and contain the implicit universal principles that are shared by the newer or more complex dances. Our dances range from Alpine (Waltz, Schottisch, Polka, Zwiefach) through Nordic (Snoa, Hambo), to Celtic Set Dances, traditional Jazz, and Zydeco. We hope that our dancing moves others to say "This is so much fun, I want to do this too", rather than "This looks so intricate and difficult, I could never do this". I see instruction, performance, and competition as contrary to the nature of traditional social dancing, as they can make it appear regimented, difficult, forced, tense, ostentatious, and exclusive. I regard performance and competition of social dancing as ironic but somewhat necessary today, as possible ways to inspire potential dancers with an inkling of the simple joy of traditional social dancing. This web site is a gift for dancers. Everything is a work in progress. Improvements and criticism are always welcome. |
