Why Skye is amazing

Skye Humphries: Men want to be him and dance like him; women want to dance with him and then some.

Me? I'm a bit leery, a little bashful. When I see people being bombarded for dances (and wow does he usually get bombarded), lots of times I back off so that I'm not part of the problem. But when I was in DC for ILHC, there was definitely some space around him. I caught the end of a class that he taught with Marie from Sweden. They were teaching a move where the follower is led to zoom in on a side pass, and then the lead lets her momentum change his own. Pretty spiffy.

The thing is, people think Skye is so amazing because he's probably the best lindy hopper in the world, or because he's so musical, or because his expression is so clear & focused, or because he's such a badass. Those are all pretty cool. But to me, the reason Skye is so amazing is that he's so humble. I don't know him personally, and my interactions with him have been brief, but from my perspective as an instructor and a fellow dancer, he's so very kind. When I approached him after the class at ILHC to ask him for feedback on the move they'd been teaching, he seemed a little aloof. But he quickly connected with me by dancing the move with me and giving me just enough feedback on it so that after a few tries, I got better and better at it until he said it was feeling great. Marvelous! And all in a very matter of fact way that put no false hierarchical barriers between us. No bullshit. It was lovely.

I glimpsed more of his seemingly genuine humility and joy when the Boilermakers played that night. He was dancing right up near the band. Emboldened by my interaction with him after his and Marie's lesson and without a line of hungry followers waiting to dance with him, I asked him to dance, and we did! And then he asked for another - how very Herrang of him! At no point in the dance did I feel like he was dancing down to me; at no point did I feel judged. Plenty of less-than-the-best dancers have prompted those feelings in me, and I'm sure I have prompted them in other dancers as well. I felt like we were both thoroughly enjoying the music and having a blast dancing with each other. YES! Isn't that what we're all here for? Not to act like pricks, but to enjoy ourselves.

Of all lindy hoppers, Skye has the most justification and the most potential to really be a prick. Who would call him on it? He's the best. But he doesn't take that road, at least in the public eye, and that's why Skye is amazing.

Growth in dance, or "A fire has been lit under my posterior"

It was Lindy Focus time, and what a time it was! My Lindy Focus (dance camp) experience encompassed SO much: challenge, hard times, exhilaration, breakdown, amazing dances, convicting classes, growth, and eye-opening learning.

I volunteered again this year, but this time I was in the core group of organizers as the food goddess. Sure, I've cooked for KLX since 2005, which entails 2 meals for 150-200 people, but that didn't fully prepare me for my role at Lindy Focus. If you weren't an instructor, you just tasted a glimpse of the food I was in charge of, namely late-night treats like cookies, breads, cupcakes, and bean dip. I was also charged with making sure the instructors had breakfast and lunch each day, and that Michael and Jaya had food for dinner. By the middle of the event, there was a nice rhythm to my work, and I really enjoyed it; however, I underestimated how taxing the consistent effort would be. It's much different from two big meals, and if I do something like that again, I'll be more prepared. All in all, I tend to enjoy getting myself deep into the event like that, and the teachers let me know it was appreciated (although I am eager to hear more detailed feedback, constructive criticisms, likes and dislikes). But whenever I get that involved in an event, it's hard for me to let it go, even to get to sleep. I definitely should have packed sleeping pills, especially since I slept just a few feet away from the center of operations.

I got to take all of the Level 6 classes, and I was much impressed with them: they didn't let me down. They were consistently ass-kicking or inspiring and always challenging, each in different ways: this is what I prize. Andrew challenged our concept of connection and arm leading; Laura brought us back to the fundamental joy of the whole thing; Gina & Mike challenged our body mechanics and non-verbal communication; Bill pushed our creativity; Mike and Evita worked us like we were professional dancers (ok, they were probably nicer than that). I was definitely convicted in several classes as to how little I wait for a lead lately. Rarely at a lack for some sort of movement, I seem to have forgotten to follow. Luckily I was reminded, not only by exercises in class, but also on Saturday night when my dancing was very present and very awesome. I kept waiting, and my waiting was almost always rewarded. From this experience, I know that I can consistently be a better dancer, that for the most part, it's my choice about how responsive and present I can be, and I want to be that more. The overall classload resembled my best & favorite dance of the weekend, which was with Todd Dewey from Denver. Our dance had so many elements to it - Charleston, lindy hop, ballrooming, footwork, playfulness - and he constantly challenged my ability as a follower and a dancer in about as many ways possible. We both just brought it, and it was completely badass. Jeff Camozzi later told me that he had been talking to someone but found himself unable to continue the conversation while he was watching Todd and me dance. It was one of those rare moments where my dancing was pushed to its limits, challenged as I only dream of being challenged, and I met it with gusto. All that, and there was look of pleasant surprise on his face. That dance is one I'll remember.

Lindy Focus also confirmed what I've been thinking about my own path as a dancer: if I really want to plow ahead in this dance and realize all the potential that I have, I need a partner (or partners - not necessarily exclusive) to work with intensely. There are so many places I could take my dancing - Charleston; balboa; lindy: fast, medium, slow; blues; collegiate shag - I like that sort of traveling. So I am officially in the search for a partner. In the meantime, I'll continue to refine and explore solo movement and choreography, in addition to exploring my own strengths and learning how to capitalize on them. I emerge from the ashes of 2007 with resolve to work towards bettering my dance, both solo and partnered. I am a brave, new Megan.

Dancing, following, teaching, becoming

During a ballrooming class I taught with Chris, I got a question from one of the follows: "How do I keep this posture without getting tense?"

Good question. Excellent question. Because tension has gotten in the way of my following a whole lot. I've been searching, dancing, experimenting an answer to this question for a long time - at least since the first Southern Belle Swing Bash when I asked Nina and Naomi where I could just learn to follow better: "Is there a certain teacher, a workshop, some place I can go, something you can put your finger on?" Short answer: No. Naomi gave some good advice, but it was Nina's answer I really remember: "It's a personal journey." Amen, sister. I hated the answer at the time, but that was what she gave me, so I took it and have been working it out ever since.

So whenever I teach, I always want to have things to say to the follow. Not just yackety schmackety stuff to say so I'll at least be talking, but real things follows can pay attention to in their own bodies or a reminder to be patient and kind to leads who are learning. But how to relax? Because for me and for a lot of follows (leads, too), this is the real issue. And I wonder how much it has to do with freedom...

I think I've realized that there's only so much I can teach someone. I may be able to guide someone. I may be able to show/tell people how to hold their bodies so that they are highly likely to experience the sensation I want them to experience so that they can learn what I'm teaching. I may be able to give them metaphors so they can relate to this concept on a more visceral or personal level. I can't teach anyone to relax. The best I can do is create an environment where they are engaged, laughing, and open to trying out new movement... and voila! They are relaxed. This is the bigger part of teaching. I feel like I just realized that I could stumble out of Plato's cave.

Working up to the ballrooming lesson was really a gift. It helped my own ballrooming follow technique so much, and I made a huge step where teaching is concerned. For the first time ever, I taught a class strictly from my own style & technique... and I wasn't terrified. The ideas I presented were mine. The posture I taught came from my experience. I was surprisingly confident about my own ability; this is entirely new for me. Normally I doubt and fret and worry, but I was free from that.

I began by breaking down my ballrooming posture - the place I find my body most likely and able to respond, where I am most pliable and mobile. And I found that it was the same posture for running that I'd learned years before in my one semester of modern dance. It's also the same as the posture I adopt if I'm running down a really steep hill and decide to give myself over to gravity and just do a full-out run - I end up extending my torso at both ends and therefore stabilizing my core so that there's little or no noticeable pulse. I was thrilled to find these things! It was much like a treasure hunt. But in teaching this, I found that the posture alone doesn't give pliability or mobility. A lot of the follows were adopting that posture and then freezing it, not moving with it. I'm not sure how to tell them to relax into the posture; I'm not sure if I can. The most I could say at the time is that you should maintain energy and stretch within your own body even before the lead gives you any direction: your willingness and readiness for movement is one of the best tools you can give a lead. I also told them, once I found they were stopping/freezing/tensing their bodies in order to preserve the "ballrooming posture" I'd given them, is that the posture is a guideline, a good place to start, a reference point, and leads will likely lead them outside of the bounds of this posture. A good example is an up hesitation, where you're on your toes stretching up as far as you can go. It's definitely ballrooming, but the posture is not this stance I showed them. The goal as a follow is to go there with him, not maintain a posture that some teacher gave you.

So I was a little dismayed. I'd discovered this basic posture to teach, had them work with it and practice it both alone and partnered, and then they froze it instead of moving with it or exploring it or expanding it. Instead of taking the kernel idea that following is the ultimate goal and that I've found that this posture enables me to follow most and best, they put posture first because it was something they could hold onto. It follows. I should have expected it because that's by and large how people work, but I must say it blind sighted me - I didn't expect it at all. I've been looking at the Torah a little, so it reminds me of Moses leading the people to the Promised Land. At a certain point, the people got fed up with a god who's invisible and whom they don't understand, so they made a gold calf and worshipped it. Simple. They could touch the gold cow. It was nothing other than a gold cow, but they could definitely touch it. And Moses kept leading them, kept hoping they'd get it, and in large part, I think that's what we do with teaching. I think I would benefit from zooming out my focus to get a look at the bigger picture of teaching in one scene and my/our collective impact on that scene. It's just difficult to see circumstances in a new way when you exist within them.

So after this portion of the journey, my question is this: What is following? What IS it? Perhaps more specifically, what are the characteristics of the mental state of following and how do they influence the body? How do we focus on willingness, readiness so that they become a central part of us?