Tips for the aspiring dancer

Waltz is easy. Lindy Hop is not.

When I teach someone to dance, I don’t just teach them steps. Steps are useful, but they’re a very small piece of a much larger picture. I’ve said many times before to many different students that the dancers do not choreograph the dance. The music choreographs the dance, the leader interprets it, and the follower dances it. But music, especially jazz, isn’t always straightforward. It’s chaotic, passionate, and powerful with many different levels to explore and enjoy. In it’s own way, music is alive. And the choreography that the music gives us doesn’t always lead us to something we already know how to do. Those are the moments when the street dances come to life.

Swing dance makes a wonderful pastime. If you just want to take lessons for a month and try it out, we will welcome you with open arms. I promise you’ll have a great time. But if swing is something that captivates you, if you watch the masters and think, “I want to dance like them,” then be prepared. It takes time, energy, and a lot of practice.

Is it hard? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

Here’s the good news. Everything you learn, you get to use from day one. Take the steps that we teach you and go use them! Go dance! Even in Sioux Falls, there are plenty of places with music and a dance floor, and that’s all you need. The practice and the experience are invaluable, and besides, isn’t that why you’re learning to dance in the first place?

So the key is to find the right class that can make you want to get out and dance after the first day. If you’ve got that, “BRING IT ON” attitude, go for Lindy. If you want something easy to learn, East Coast Swing. Something more exotic? Salsa. Then, whichever one you choose, don’t just take the class. Explore the dance on your own. Listen to the music, think about the steps, find a way to mold them to fit your own style. The key to being a street style dancer is to understand something about the music that no one else does. That’s how you build a style that’s unique to you.

That’s how you get to be a star.

A few opening words

My name is David Tritel, and I am the owner and instructor for the Sioux Falls Swing Experience.

For over a year now, every time someone finds out that I moved out to Sioux Falls from California, I hear the same question.  “Why?”  Well, lots of reasons… but only one important one.

Swing dance is my life.  I live it, I eat it, I drink it, I breathe it, most importantly, I dance it.  It’s brought me more joy and excitement than anything else in my life, not to mention friends across the world.  And the more people I talk to, the more I realize that most people don’t have an activity that they are passionate about, or a community to be part of that brings them that kind of joy… yet.

Sioux Falls is a wonderful place.  Once you get past our world-famous winters, you find a beautiful city that is one of the largest commercial and cultural centers in the Midwest.  The people here in Sioux Falls are important to the rest of the world, but they are missing out.  There are ways to live so that you can look at yourself in the mirror every day, proud of who you are and what you are part of.  There are ways to make your life passionate and exciting and, most of all, fun.  Swing dance is one of them.

I moved here to share with Sioux Falls the wonderful experience of swing dance that someone, many years ago, changed my life by sharing with me.

 

For more information about Swing and Salsa dance in Sioux Falls, call (605) 212-6230 or write to lindyhop@swingexperience.com.