Great moves, but rhythm not so good

David

David

Administrator
Staff member
I was watching a guy dance tonight, and he really did have some impressive moves, and was leading pretty smooth. It's not really my place to say anything, but what are your thoughts on this?

A good number of people were watching, but I had difficulty.
 
I tried, but failed to imagine what you you're talking about. Acrobatics? Lifting the partner up and running around? ( I've seen that, very impressive :) ) Dips and tricks?

I don't see how one can lead complex dance without being in sync with music. The more complex dance gets, the more it depends on the partners being in the right position on the right time. Otherwise one arrives too early or too late and it turns into mess pretty quickly. Or not?
 
Sounds like he's in sync with the beat, but not the flow of the music. In other words, he was executing choreography not dancing it. To misquote the immortal words of Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. you gotta "Show me the music!" ;)
 
So for example on the 1 beat where we would expect him to break forward it was happening on varying beats of music.
 
Ouch. Well that's just bad dancing. There's no way around it. Even if the lead looks smooth and the moves are "cool", it doesn't mean anything if he can't keep the beat and stay in time. Anyone can go through a "cool pattern" they memorized and practiced and do it smoothly, if they just ignore the music and timing. Good dancers are able to do all that in time and to the music. Beginner dancers often lose their timing while practicing their new patterns on the dance floor, but you see them correcting the situation and getting back to the original timing at some point. If the dancer isn't even doing that, it means he's completely clueless about the music or perhaps deaf.
 
I see that all the time in my scene; it's almost the rule rather than the exception. To me it's a 'cheat': You can do all sorts of complex stuff if you don't have to finish in any particular timeframe. I also find it painful to watch, since it doesn't involve dancing to the music; but rather, it's 'dancing while music is playing in the background'. I get the same feeling watching people dance cha-cha On1.
 
There is only a place for that if he's moving his steps to compensate for a partner who keeps losing timing. Does he then get his partner and himself back on time before continuing?
 
MMaatttt said:
There is only a place for that if he's moving his steps to compensate for a partner who keeps losing timing. Does he then get his partner and himself back on time before continuing?
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Getting them is easy.. keeping them ? sometimes.. buena suerte
 
David said:
I was watching a guy dance tonight, and he really did have some impressive moves, and was leading pretty smooth.
Click to expand...

David said:
So for example on the 1 beat where we would expect him to break forward it was happening on varying beats of music.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid guys who lead lots of advanced moves but have no sense of timing go straight to my "leaders to avoid" list. It's hard to enjoy the dance when the guy is all over the place with his timing (and doesn't seem to realise it), and advanced moves led on the wrong beats are a recipe for injuring the follower.
 
MacMoto said:
I'm afraid guys who lead lots of advanced moves but have no sense of timing go straight to my "leaders to avoid" list. It's hard to enjoy the dance when the guy is all over the place with his timing (and doesn't seem to realise it), and advanced moves led on the wrong beats are a recipe for injuring the follower.
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Nobody is perfect, but you would expect there to be at least some respect for consistency of timing. Sometimes when I'm just fooling around with some new moves or making up something a move can go wrong where maybe I'm breaking forward on 5 instead of 1, but doing things like a dramatic pause or walk in a circle for a couple of beats gets me back easily.

I'm still learning about the places to dance in my area (OC), and there are definitely a variety of levels here.
 
Sure, everybody gets off-time, especially when trying something new; no need to feel bad about it. But some guys dance consistently off-time, where it seems like the music has no importance to them.
 
 
MacMoto said:
I'm afraid guys who lead lots of advanced moves but have no sense of timing go straight to my "leaders to avoid" list. It's hard to enjoy the dance when the guy is all over the place with his timing (and doesn't seem to realise it), and advanced moves led on the wrong beats are a recipe for injuring the follower.
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For me this applies to followers too. I know a few who hammer round any turn/spin as fast as they can regardless of the music or lead and seem happy to break on whatever beat they've finished turning on.
 
salsaflix.tv said:
For me this applies to followers too. I know a few who hammer round any turn/spin as fast as they can regardless of the music or lead and seem happy to break on whatever beat they've finished turning on.
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I see this a lot too. Even more so when dancing on2 with follows who aren't used to it.
 
Ok, so I came up with this real life example. You (as a lead) face away from the follow, she faces away from you. With the hand on her hip you give her double turn, while you turn yourself the opposite direction two times. Then with other hand give her double turn opposite direction. Rinse and repeat.

How can you lead this without having a good (or at least the same) rhythm for both partners?

(Keep in mind that this is a family forum and tracing her lower body at all times is not appropriate)
 
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