Tuesday 24 November 2009

Who was General Melée, anyway?

I have noticed recently that as soon as there isn't a general melée, it becomes possible for people to tell when they personally do something that eats space or disrupts the flow, because now it makes a difference, when it didn't before. People who always assumed their own floorcraft was fine and all the bumps were someone else's fault, suddenly have convincing evidence that something they normally do, doesn't work.

So they change it. Two or three partners have told me that they were changing their dance for this reason, and I have heard the same about others.

And on the occasion I'm thinking of, even though quite a few people were beginner-to-middling dancers who danced rather mechanically, and so found maintaining the flow quite challenging, it still worked and I didn't get a single touch, even though it was full enough to go to two lanes.

Luckily, it seems the things that do work are often the ones that are simple to lead and follow, which doesn't hurt at all. Ghost noticed that, here, and he experiments with some easy but powerful skills, here.

3 comments:

Captain Jep said...

Ooh ooh people actually thinking "I need to improve my floorcraft" in London? :) Which floor were you on?

Glad you escaped the clutches of Major Scrum as well ;)

msHedgehog said...

Salon Room at 33, couple of weeks ago. It works pretty well so far - the only time it doesn't is if there aren't enough people on it, interestingly.

Anonymous said...

@H
It's probably because as soon as people see space, they want to utilise it. I danced with an Argentine from BA at The Dome last year and the floor was surprisingly roomy and he told me that although there was a lot of space, he still danced small. People need to contain themselves and get into that habit. Start as you mean to carry on.
I'm glad that things are changing and working.