I just started to formally study the precious bits & pieces in the access-limited Advanced Ballroom section, and elise suggested blogging about it... which I think is excellent idea... and so, here we go!
I started out with studying the "Schools of Thought in Standard" thread created by DSV. I'd read through it previously, but not with the same care as today, and this more thoughtful read has been illuminating.
My self-diagnosis (which a comment made by DSV within the thread seems to validate) is that my training thus far has been Body/Square. I had originally thought it was primarily Square with a bit of Body, but I think because of the influence on my primary instructor and his partner, it's actually a primarily Body approach that has made its way into my instruction.
The biggest tip off: DSV's comparison descriptions of the positioning of the body during the Feather. I've been trained from the beginning that the default position of my body is right-forward, which caused me no end of puzzlement when I started entering into technique discussions on another forum and found not one person who could validate a right-forward body position, with everyone else asserting it was definitely left-forward. It was this exact point that first caused me to ask on the forum if there were different schools of thought... in fact, that there simply had to be, because here were dancers receiving quality instruction who were at odds with this very simple piece.
I also recall when I first started dancing Foxtrot with my last lesson & practice partner, with whom I did take a lesson with my own primary instructor, and with whom I took regular coaching for a time. The minute we'd take off, it felt all wrong to him because I was *not* left-forward in my body. I wonder now what his own pedagogical lineage is... if it is more Round-dominant. Am going to inquire to puzzle that one out.
But right-forward as default has been drilled into me, by both my primary instructor and his partner. I can see her again & again always bringing that right side (not shoulder, but actually the right side of her torso) toward her partner and even up a bit, with very precise isolation. And one thing I noticed the last time I danced with my instructor (it was late August or early September), was that the freeing up of my body which I've been accomplishing all year enabled me to do this right-forward isolation with more relaxed ease. It seemed to allow a radically improved coordination of body action, which was very palpable to him, and felt so good to me.
Don't know if I'm off-base with all of this regarding the right-forward body, but that's the first thing I've taken out of today's read-through of the thread.
For my own benefit, I'm going to summarize the Schools of Thought in Standard thread under a separate post.
Phew, that was scary!
