u/aFineBagel

More a random story time, but last week I decided to hit the beginner lesson as an experienced lead just walking about the venue waiting for the social, and ended up really vibing with a follow there. I asked them to dance during the social and the dance was actually SOOOO good. I only led basics, really, but the vibes, chemistry, physical connection was just there.

The thing I find so interesting is that we danced I think 4 times, and each dance became exponentially worse in a mechanical sense - we clearly were still having a lot of joy together, but by dance 4 we became really disconnected and there was no flow in the dance. I have to think that maybe I just became more and more experimental with the partnership and they were still a beginner at the end of the day, but idk lol

Do y’all ever have days or even just moments where everything goes off the rails or your favorite partner and you just aren’t making sense suddenly?

Kind of an offshoot of all the FB memes lately with novice dancers and blues songs, but it had me curious on how many people had to make an active effort to learn and do swung rhythm

I feel like I have zero frame of reference for how potentially hard the concept is as I have a musician background leading into a Lindy Hop background before I did WCS. Did any of you have some awkward transition period where you had to actively digest the difference of swing triples vs straight triples, or did you kind of naturally grasp the difference in the music and act accordingly?

Hello, dancer from 4 hours away wanting to visit this smaller NJ/NY event! If anyone is able to host me or share accommodations I would love you forever

(sorry for posting in general Reddit, I just don’t think there’s a housing page for this 😅)

Kind of a silly comparison, but have you all ever felt like meeting dancers in the scene feels like unlocking characters in a video game? Like, you go in and start off with a limited list of characters (the people who specifically ask noobies to dance or are super extroverted and just ask everyone) to start off with, and then after gaining some experience YOU ask someone to dance and they just kind of exist as an option from then onwards.

I've noticed in 2 different dance styles that people will go months to YEARS not even looking your direction at socials, but if you ask them a singular time then all of a sudden they're "unlocked" and will start to ask you to dance.

It doesn't even have to be an "oh wow this person is actually really good, I guess they're worthy" type of sentiment; I have fairly mediocre dance friends with whack connection and timing issues (love 'em, but just being honest lmao) get asked by higher level folks just because they've been asked before by said friend. I've also noticed that dancing in classes doesn't count towards this, it HAS to be a social dance experience.

Y'all know what I mean?

I'm a 32M social dancer, which is to say I go to dance socials (Latin, Swing, Ballroom, etc) where everyone dances with everyone. Before any assumptions are made about my intentions, I'm just gonna say now that my split of demographics I typically dance with is probably 80% older women (50+), 5% men, 10% women my age I'm not attracted to, and then 5% is women who I would actively want to pursue something if ever the possibility arose.

I saw a gal the other day on Hinge that I see every week at a social but have never danced with whether due to some level of intimidation (she's a higher level dancer in a style I just started) or because she is just so very much my type that I feel general nervousness looking to interact with her. Idk why my brain works the way it does, but seeing her on a dating app has me like "o she's just a person, could I maybe just start asking her to dance and see what happens?"

The question isn't at all "Do I assume knowing she's single means it's fair game to hit on her irl" because I know that's odd, but moreso would it be creepy start asking her to dance now that I've sent a like on a dating app? Would it APPEAR like I'm doing the former? Quite frankly I don't know if I even register as existing to her, but theoretically she should vaguely know I exist as we've been in the same space every week for like 4 months now even if we've never danced/talked/made eye contact. Who knows.