Generally, I believe that most leads have somewhere between 10-20 moves that they have locked in and use routinely on a dance floor. Then depending on the music (no Charlestons to slow songs), the follow you're dancing with at the momment(that duck under might not work so well if you're over 6ft and your follow is under 4ft), and the lead's mood (pecking is great when you're in a mood to make goofy faces with it) they usually synchopate and stylize those moves and try to fit them into the music that is being played.
When it comes to leading a dance, I've always used the analogy of writing poetry. In poetry you tend to have two ends of a scale. On one end, Shakespearean sonnets & vilanelles and on the other free verse and pictographic. BOTH can be aesthetically pleasing and expressive, but in different ways.
A Shakespearean sonnet is poem with a FIXED form with rules that you must follow or it's not a sonnet. It must have 14 lines, the rhyme scheme is specific (The 1st line must rhyme with the 3rd line, 2nd line must rhyme with 4th line, it must end with the last two lines rhyming together as a “rhymed couplet”), and the verbal rhythm of each line of the sonnet must be in iambic pentameter, consisting of 5 accented syllables and 5 unaccented syllables. The rules may seem a bit extreme but that is the point. It's a challenging way of forcing the poet to find a way to use his vocabulary to fit these constraints. When I want to compose a sonnet, I usually do a bit of research on the subject and usually end up running across new words as well as new uses for words I already knew. It may seem constrictive, but this fosters ingenuity, technical command of language, as well as awareness of form. In relation to dancing, this extreme style of dancing would be like showcase choreography. Where the music and the dancers are carefully scrutinized and studied and every step, arm position, facial expression, and orientation on the floor is taken into consideration. I love watching choreographed dance performances, because you get to see the dance in ways that you would never see it at a club. And unless you and your partner have the power to think and physically react at the speed of light (it has to be faster than sound, which will be the music) and plan every contingent as the song unfolds; this style of dance is basically impossible to pull off.
Then we have free-verse, where the literal and symbolic meaning of the words, as well as the very sounds of the words themselves make up the guts of a verse. The form is completely at the discretion of the poet. It doesn’t have to rhyme. It doesn’t matter how long it is. It doesn’t even have to “make sense” in a literal way. Where in the other form you had to push yourself to find a way to say what you wanted to say under a strict set of rules, here the poet has carte blanche to say whatever however he/she pleases. At this end of the poetic spectrum, the very idiosynchracy of an individual contributes to a poem. Like in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky the words are non-sensical and never existed in any dictionary in the world, except for Carroll’s. The style may seem limitless and abstract, but possesses the power of imagination. Where infinity is given a definition as high as the poet can dream. But as wonderful the notion of having infinite expressive power may be. What’s the point of expression if no one understands it except you? If you’re that self-centered; it won’t be a problem. On the dance floor this can be a very loose and wild interpretation of what we’ve come to call “playing.” This far out on the scale, unfortunately turns into movement that is so self-absorbed that it can leave your partner staring at your gyrations with a funny look on her face. Just as a free-form poem doesn’t have to resemble anything, neither does this style of dancing.
I believe everyone falls in somewhere between. Some indentifying and practicing more toward one end of the scale than the other. So how does this relate to Ron? I’ll tell you. One thing I hated to hear when I started dancing was “Just dance to the music.” “Just feel the music.” “Let the music guide you.” Man that would bug the shit out of me! That’s like if every time you were asking someone literally (as in what street to take) “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” and they kept saying “A lot of practice.” It’s meaningless!
I needed specifics and it wasn’t until I started taking privates from Jamie, that I started to get them. When I asked Jamie how to hit a break, he didn’t say “By listening to the music.” He said, “How about like this, or this, or this, or that?” and proceeded to show me a mess load of “techniques” as well as MOVES that I could use to hit those breaks. Then he encouraged finding ways to customize them to my own likings to help me develop a style that I could claim as my own. Granted just moves won’t make a good dancer, but it is a vital component. And especially for people (like myself) who are not 2-3 year veterans and possess a natural sense of musicality, knowledge of jazz, and backgrounds in other forms of dance, the moves are a necessity to a certain extent. Moves are as Margret has said many a times your VOCABULARY. To use the poetic analogy. Before I start writing non-sensical, abstract, poems like Jabberwocky, I have to learn how to spell, compose a sentence, and learn some words to put into that sentence. Building a vocabulary is in poetry because it gives the poet more opportunity and power to do more with his poems. But at the same time, they are useless if he doesn’t learn how to use them properly. Before I start “playing” off some sax solo while trying to lead at the same time; I’m gonna work hard on getting my swing-in to look as sharp as Jamie’s. Andy, and the others’ll tell you when I was first starting, I was a Move Burglar/Fiend! I couldn’t get enough. I watched videoes that were copies of copies of copies. I pestered other dancers. Then somewhere along the lines, I realized I had to buckle down and refine my technique, and musicality. But I’m glad I took the time to learn those moves, because now I have more stuff to refine and play around with. I love cool, kick-ass moves.
Ron, if you want more moves, I say more power to you! Don’t feel guilty about it! New moves rule! They are soooo much fun! And as for the “same old moves,” I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was falling into the same old rut a few months ago. So this is what I did. It worked like a charm for me. I hope it helps.
I figured out the ones that I always did over and over and over. The ones my brain just can’t seem to escape (except the standard swing-out). Then I picked out the top five offenders and forbade myself from doing them. When I did this I found myself actively searching for something to fill that void. The secret to incorporating new moves isn’t concentrating on them before you go out on a floor. It’s concentrating on not using the ones you always use over and over.
The fear factor of new moves. Don’t take it seriously. When you think back, everytime you’ve messed up a move. The follow and you usually either laughed or shrugged it off. Hell half the fun of dancing is blowing a move completely and making something funny out of it. If you just do the new moves you’ve practiced (practicing them is a given), don’t worry about what other people will see or think. Hate to say it, but when you go to dance, no one is paying any attention to you on the dance floor. They’re too busy concentrating on their own dancing. Don’t try to do fifty new moves at once. I usually find or make up a new move/variation that I like and then I just keep doing it with everyone I dance with for about a week or two. After that many times of executing that move, it becomes one of your locked in moves. And viola! You now 11, 16, or 21; instead of 10, 15, or 20.
Here’s a mental exercise:
Picture a lemon in your mind. Now pretend that you’re describing that lemon to someone who’s never seen or heard of one. But without using the following words:
-small
-yellow
-fruit
-sour
-bitter
-oval
Now try to dance a song without:
-swing out w/ follow’s inside turn
-tuck turn from closed
-duck under
-swing-in (lindy circle)
-back charlestons
Just by not doing these moves (I think they’re ones that everybody uses over and over), I’ll bet you’ll find yourself doing all kinds of stuff you thought you had forgotten.
Man, did I ramble! I know it was long as hell, and remember. I am not a teacher. So everything I wrote was probably junk, but I hope it helps you, Ron or anyone else.
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By Ron on Wednesday, June 23, 1999 - 01:16 pm: Edit