I've been dancing for 6 years, and it's more and more rare to have a "aha" moment. This video gave me the aha from the very beginning! Solving another mystery! Great great content💥
@IanCheng94 I know the feeling, and while the "aha" becomes more rare as you become more experienced, it also feels so much more exciting when it happens! I've been dancing for about 25 years, and am still learning new stuff. It never ends man. How were you thinking of partnering before this video or the "aha" moment?
@@rhythmjuice Now that I think of it, I often put matching and adjusting both under the "matching" umbrella unconsciously. The frequent case would be dancing with someone with high energy on the social floor, and end up both out of control and exhausted at the end of a song, because we try to match each other's level of energy higher and higher. And the worse case would be trying to adjust, but really only did the "matching", and end up not doing both, but only something vaguely in between.
And a question: here you explain the concept using the basic moves, Dax. But you wouldn't really introduce it to beginners, right? It requires quite some experience. Or are you looking at it differently? 🤔
@oksanapavlova1695 Actually, when we've been teaching beginners for the past 5-6 years and working on basic moves, we really emphasize adjusting first, and prioritize making the move "work," no matter what your partner is doing. This empowers both new leaders and followers to feel like they can take responsibility for the success of the move, if needed. This way, everyone reaches a point where the move is working much faster than if they were relying solely on lead/follow matching. Once the move is working, we start focusing on tips and details that will help them work toward a 50/50 split of the workload and a connection that feels more like matching. BUT, this approach works in our classes because we always "calibrate" before we "communicate." In other words, we set a short, repeatable move loop as a pattern before improvising with move choices, so both people can focus on adjusting rather than worrying about lead/follow. Once that loop is flowing smoothly, improvising with additional choices becomes really simple. I hope this answers your question. It honestly deserves to be its own video, but for now, feel free to reply and let me know what you think. Just like we have to choose between adjusting or matching during a dance, as teachers, we have to decide which one we want our students to prioritize and set it as a clear intention for the class, so everyone understands the strategy. Alternatively, you can ask the students to come to an agreement each time they rotate, so they are in charge of deciding which approach they’ll prioritize. The thing about a learning environment is that we can talk about how we are going to practice. Sarah and I call this a communication agreement-something you set with your partner that provides context and creates intention before practicing something. So great to hear from you! I miss dancing with you. Cheers! 😊
This is exactly what I need to learn. So I'll ask- how much matching and adjusting is involved with beginners versus pros? Is there always SOME no matter how experienced your partner is? EDIT: You answered this towards the end. :)
@@rhythmjuice You did a really good and comprehensive job on explaining the two approaches, so it's tough to recap that without copying what you said! But, if I try.... I would say matching is a way to behave more like a pair or couple, rather than two individuals. Adjusting would a more subtle way of saying "compensating" or even "correcting."
@@jplatter6629 Thanks for the kind words and sharing how you'd answer the question. I definitely feel like the more time you spend working with someone, the higher chance you have of achieving matched connection. I like to think that matching is the reward you get from building lots of trust with the person you are dancing.
So great to hear your teaching again, be it from the screen! 🤩
I've been dancing for 6 years, and it's more and more rare to have a "aha" moment. This video gave me the aha from the very beginning! Solving another mystery! Great great content💥
@IanCheng94 I know the feeling, and while the "aha" becomes more rare as you become more experienced, it also feels so much more exciting when it happens! I've been dancing for about 25 years, and am still learning new stuff. It never ends man. How were you thinking of partnering before this video or the "aha" moment?
@@rhythmjuice Now that I think of it, I often put matching and adjusting both under the "matching" umbrella unconsciously. The frequent case would be dancing with someone with high energy on the social floor, and end up both out of control and exhausted at the end of a song, because we try to match each other's level of energy higher and higher. And the worse case would be trying to adjust, but really only did the "matching", and end up not doing both, but only something vaguely in between.
And a question: here you explain the concept using the basic moves, Dax. But you wouldn't really introduce it to beginners, right? It requires quite some experience.
Or are you looking at it differently? 🤔
@oksanapavlova1695 Actually, when we've been teaching beginners for the past 5-6 years and working on basic moves, we really emphasize adjusting first, and prioritize making the move "work," no matter what your partner is doing. This empowers both new leaders and followers to feel like they can take responsibility for the success of the move, if needed. This way, everyone reaches a point where the move is working much faster than if they were relying solely on lead/follow matching. Once the move is working, we start focusing on tips and details that will help them work toward a 50/50 split of the workload and a connection that feels more like matching.
BUT, this approach works in our classes because we always "calibrate" before we "communicate." In other words, we set a short, repeatable move loop as a pattern before improvising with move choices, so both people can focus on adjusting rather than worrying about lead/follow. Once that loop is flowing smoothly, improvising with additional choices becomes really simple.
I hope this answers your question. It honestly deserves to be its own video, but for now, feel free to reply and let me know what you think. Just like we have to choose between adjusting or matching during a dance, as teachers, we have to decide which one we want our students to prioritize and set it as a clear intention for the class, so everyone understands the strategy. Alternatively, you can ask the students to come to an agreement each time they rotate, so they are in charge of deciding which approach they’ll prioritize.
The thing about a learning environment is that we can talk about how we are going to practice. Sarah and I call this a communication agreement-something you set with your partner that provides context and creates intention before practicing something.
So great to hear from you! I miss dancing with you.
Cheers! 😊
They are back. Thank god. 2025 is going to be great
😂🎉❤ LFG!!
This is exactly what I need to learn. So I'll ask- how much matching and adjusting is involved with beginners versus pros? Is there always SOME no matter how experienced your partner is?
EDIT: You answered this towards the end. :)
@@jplatter6629 Awesome! I’d love to hear how you would answer the question in your own words. Give it a go 🙌
@@rhythmjuice You did a really good and comprehensive job on explaining the two approaches, so it's tough to recap that without copying what you said!
But, if I try.... I would say matching is a way to behave more like a pair or couple, rather than two individuals. Adjusting would a more subtle way of saying "compensating" or even "correcting."
@@jplatter6629 Thanks for the kind words and sharing how you'd answer the question. I definitely feel like the more time you spend working with someone, the higher chance you have of achieving matched connection. I like to think that matching is the reward you get from building lots of trust with the person you are dancing.