Blues
dancing"Blues dancing" is the name of a new kind of partner dancing that has emerged over the past few years. Not a new dance, a new kind of dancing. It's not the same thing as just dancing to the blues, which has been around forever, and people do lots of different ways with lots of different dances. Blues dancing is a new kind of approach to dancing with a partner. It's done mostly to blues music, but you can do to any kind of music; there's really nothing inherently bluesy about it, except that blues - slow blues in particular - is by far the favorite kind of music for dancing among blues dancers. Blues dancing has a few key elements that set it apart:
Blues dancing is not based on historical blues dancing, though some blues dancers have gotten interested in studying those dances. It's not at all the same thing as other dances that are done to blues music, e.g. west coast swing.
Blues dancing feels really wonderful to do. I've fallen in love with it, and would love to share it with anyone who's interested. Blues dancing has more of everything I love about partner dancing, like connection, play, creativity & joy; it's mostly free of the stuff I hate about partner dancing, like pretense, authoritarian attitudes, stuffy organizations & machismo. It makes other dances I used to love seem a bit dull by comparison. Blues dancing can be a little scary at first, because it doesn't have a set structure like step, step, rock-step or quick quick slow; also scary because blues dancers tend to dance close & sexy. The blues dance classes I teach are aimed at making it a little easier to give it a try.
Blues dancing is radically different than other partner dances. To begin with, there's no such dance as blues dance, because blues dancers make it up as they go along: blues dancing is partnered improv. There's no right way to dance to the blues, so no wrong way either. There are no rules: rules and rulers are irrelevant. No blues moves, no blues footwork: blues dancing isn't based on moves. Instead of executing moves and patterns, in blues dancing you improvise with your partner, the 2 of you creative equals, no longer locked into a lead-follow hierarchy. You both follow the music: the music rules supreme. Blues dancing is a 3-way connection: 2 partners meeting in the music to play. What counts is the connection: you and your partner, connecting within the music, dancing together. You want moves? Footwork? Knock yourself out: use whatever you got from other dances, and make up your own as you go. Just dance, and see what happens: "Wow! What did we just do?"
In some partner dances (which shall remain nameless) dancers and dance teachers seem to ignore the music. They listen just enough to say, “Aha, this is a [fill the blank].” Then they dance their routines for [fill the blank] and the music be damned. Blues dancers dance inside the music; the music's the third partner, the one both of you are dancing with. The music shapes and textures your movement. Blues follows stay with the music whether their partner does or not, and blues leads keep up and learn to follow. Blues dancers are subverting and redefining the lead-follow relationship, looking for active, creative partners who'll improvise and play with them in the music. This isn't just switching roles, brother; this is blending the roles into something new.
I was teaching blues dancing the best I knew at Waltz etcetera as far back as 1999. Back then I taught what we called blues one-step and we all thought it was pretty cool: struttin' around the outside of the room with a partner, executing various pauses, moves, & this & that, even playing with the rhythm a little bit. But I'm here to testify that I have been saved, brothers and sisters; I have found true blues dancing, and that ain't it, not even close. I mean, sure, doin' a little strut here & there can make for a fine moment, especially if the lead's struttin' backwards and the follow's doin' a lindy drag all draped all over him, mm-hmm! If you wanna dance blues, you need to get your fine self outta the traveling lane and over into the middle of things in the steamy heat of the dance floor. Blues dancing's all about playing in the steam and the heat, and no amount of dandy stepping or strolling around the periphery is gonna get ya there. Quit fooling around out on the edge of everything and cut to the heart of the dance.