I am just reposting because it is exactly true.
The Swing Dance Ladder
by Noëlle Gray
June 15, 2007
Lindy Hop and Blues instructor Noelle Gray gives us her insight as to what defines the various levels of dance within the swing dance community.
Beginner: Has taken one class but is still afraid of everyone and probably won't ask anyone to dance. They see better dancers and hope one day they will be half as good!
Novice: Has taken a couple of classes and has started to build a knowledge base. They have started to get past the fear and are starting to watch the dancers they think are better then them dancers to see if they can pick up some flashy or new stuff. They only try the flashy stuff on each other. They want to dance with the better dancers and when they get up the courage they feel really happy!
Beginner-Intermediate: They think they know more than they actually do and as a result, try stuff that hurts their partner. They are beginning to take risks which is good, but don't have enough knowledge base to understand that moves they are trying are still probably beyond their technical level, which is very bad. These are the dancers that tell the beginners, novices and intermediates what they are doing wrong. They haven't quite developed the humility it takes to move on.
Intermediate: They've realized they only know what they know and it isn't as much as they thought they knew. They keep dancing because it's still loads of fun, they have friends in the scene, and they are beginning to understand there is more technique to learn and they have enough of a knowledge base where they can discover those techniques while social dancing. They are open to feedback and while they still take risks (which is great), they do so with concern for their partner. They recognize there are subtleties in lead/follow and want to know more about them.
Intermediate-Advanced: "Oh my god! If I take lessons I'll improve more! Gimmie classes! Lots and lots of classes!" OR "I know enough. I just want to have lots of fun and learn by social dancing. Boy am I lucky to have this awesome fun thing to do!" OR possibly "God, I'm bored. It used to be fun but now it's just not. Maybe I'll go learn Tango." (or possibly all of these at once)
Advanced: Don't ask me. I'm not there yet!
Noëlle Gray
http://swing-dancer.com/page.php?60
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1 comment:
So you would be which? ;-)
By that definition I'm definitely intermediate, but I've called myself that for some time, cause I'm as far from being a beginner as I am from being an advanced dancer.
I don't know about the overlap between intermediate and advanced. Advanced, to me at least, implies lots of hard work to learn a lot of crazy things, such as we see mostly in performances and competitions. But it also has elements of deep thought and practice put in over a long period of time, of musicality and style and timing and biomechanics. This is the difference between someone who can dance and someone who has developed enough skill and understanding to teach what they are doing to others, i.e., it's the difference between "Hey y'all, watch this" and breaking things down bit by bit so that less-skilled dancers can learn it (or at least they can become better dancers by improving their technique).
Aramis
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