Structure of dance and musicality

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Offbeat

Son Montuno
I came across these two clips randomly and thought of this topic. Since neither are salsa, it is easier to discuss.



Really great collection of old music. I think dancing is swing of jitterbug/Lindy hop or ECS type. More bouncy. All dancing is impromptu.

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This is WCS Jack and Jill. The partners are choosen randomly and music to dance is choosen randomly too.

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The dancing in first video is good but I can feel something out of place. The inherent nature of bounciness, I think makes it hard for them to be musical to that type of music. On the other hand WCS structure allows for smoothness as well as more freedom. Just lets the dancers exhibit great musicality.

This may be controversial, but I am beginning to think that line or slot structure is better for musicality than round dance structure.
 
Offbeat said:
The dancing in first video is good but I can feel something out of place.
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Because they're not dancing to the music you're hearing. It's disconnected which makes it hard to watch, you can't empathize.

My problem with wcs is that men's movements tend to look affected/not masculine. Girls look great.
 
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Offbeat said:
The dancing in first video is good but I can feel something out of place. The inherent nature of bounciness, I think makes it hard for them to be musical to that type of music. On the other hand WCS structure allows for smoothness as well as more freedom. Just lets the dancers exhibit great musicality.

This may be controversial, but I am beginning to think that line or slot structure is better for musicality than round dance structure.
Click to expand...

Those swing dancers have style. It looks to me they were very musical.

The Westies, on the other hand, look like amorphous blobs to me.

Salsa is great because you can choose to dance circular, linear or both :)
 
SalsaGipsy said:
Yes, the music in the first video is not the original music and at points it even doesn't match the timing of the dancers. You can also see that the character of the original music was quite different.
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Do you mean they played covers of original or someone dubbed different music over the dance?

I am aware that the music they are dancing to is cover version in the first video.
 
SoFloW said:
Because they're not dancing to the music you're hearing. It's disconnected which makes it hard to watch, you can't empathize.
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That is what I meant. The structure of dance makes it disconnected to dance to that type of music. They are trying their best to match the music imo.
 
SalsaGipsy said:
There it is, very different story:
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There are many other clips showing swing dancing to big band and rock n roll type music. Those videos are really good and great to watch. Swing dancing fits that type of genre like a glove. But when you change the genre to something that calls for smoothness, you can see the disconnect due to bounciness conflicting with smooth melody.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
Those swing dancers have style. It looks to me they were very musical.
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Sure enough. They did best within their dance structure to be musical. No doubt about it. I can see that. However the disconnect to the music exists for me at least.

Chris_Yannick said:
The Westies, on the other hand, look like amorphous blobs to me.
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Don't know what you mean by amorphous. IMO they killed it. Their expression to the music was spot on to me.
 
Offbeat said:
Sure enough. They did best within their dance structure to be musical. No doubt about it. I can see that. However the disconnect to the music exists for me at least.
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That’s because the music wasnt even the original music and was dubbed over the dancing. SalsaGipsy posted the correct video with the correct music. My gosh that music was bad in the OP...like terrible elevator music.

Anyway, I don’t agree that circular dancing is less conducive to musicality than line dancing. I would say they’re equal based on the dancing I’ve seen.
 
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Offbeat said:
I came across these two clips randomly and thought of this topic. Since neither are salsa, it is easier to discuss.



Really great collection of old music. I think dancing is swing of jitterbug/Lindy hop or ECS type. More bouncy. All dancing is impromptu.

-----------


This is WCS Jack and Jill. The partners are choosen randomly and music to dance is choosen randomly too.

***************

The dancing in first video is good but I can feel something out of place. The inherent nature of bounciness, I think makes it hard for them to be musical to that type of music. On the other hand WCS structure allows for smoothness as well as more freedom. Just lets the dancers exhibit great musicality.

This may be controversial, but I am beginning to think that line or slot structure is better for musicality than round dance structure.
Click to expand...
 
Offbeat said:
Don't know what you mean by amorphous. IMO they killed it. Their expression to the music was spot on to me.
Click to expand...

I see the musicality. The style is what I don’t jive with. Leaders and followers look exactly the same to me

WCS is a weird genre of dancing. What exactly is it? R&B? Pop? Jazz? Modern? Swing?

If I can not immediately identify the dance by its music, then I start to question the very nature of the dance. From what WCS dancers tell me, dancing for them is supremely about how they interpret the music with their partner, but it doesn’t matter what music is being played as long as they can groove to it.
 
Chris_Yannick said:
I
WCS is a weird genre of dancing. What exactly is it? R&B? Pop? Jazz? Modern? Swing?

If I can not immediately identify the dance by its music, then I start to question the very nature of the dance. From what WCS dancers tell me, dancing for them is supremely about how they interpret the music with their partner, but it doesn’t matter what music is being played as long as they can groove to it.
Click to expand...

There have been many posts on DF about WCS .Essentially, the music seems to go with the 'times'. When I learned this back in the 50s it was danced to blusey type music at a slow rempo .

Actually, when one gets into WCS the music choices become apparent . It originated in Calif ( long Beach so I was told ) and was constructed in a slot which allowed more couples on a dance floor .
 
It’s also interesting to see how WCS started changing in the 90s from it’s roots to today. Here is the same gentleman (Rob Royston) competing in the 90s. (Not sure if it’s improvised like the first video. This looks like a choreo). Notice the different style from modern day WCS.
 
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Groove On said:
It’s also interesting to see how WCS started changing in the 90s from it’s roots to today. Here is the same gentleman (Rob Royston) competing in the 90s. (Not sure if it’s improvised like the first video. This looks like a choreo). Notice the different style from modern day WCS.
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That has totally lost the essence of WCS.. The tempo leaves no room for sensuality.
 
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