On the comp floor - what do you think about?

[cornutt]

I have the opposite problem, I can't stop smiling a lot of the time... I find it very difficult to look serious and dramatic in tango... But if I pretend DP is someone I reallllly don't like, it usually works out

I once started a tango by making the most awful scrunched-up face I could manage, and I held it through the whole heat.  The judges were cracking up.   

[elisedance]

I have the opposite problem, I can't stop smiling a lot of the time... I find it very difficult to look serious and dramatic in tango... But if I pretend DP is someone I reallllly don't like, it usually works out

I once started a tango by making the most awful scrunched-up face I could manage, and I held it through the whole heat.  The judges were cracking up.   

Did you score well?  I mean this is important, perhaps a smile on the judge's face is much more effective than a smile on the dancer's

[SwingWaltz]

I think about.....when I get off the floor, I'm going to have a beer! 

[cornutt]

I have the opposite problem, I can't stop smiling a lot of the time... I find it very difficult to look serious and dramatic in tango... But if I pretend DP is someone I reallllly don't like, it usually works out

I once started a tango by making the most awful scrunched-up face I could manage, and I held it through the whole heat.  The judges were cracking up.   

Did you score well?  I mean this is important, perhaps a smile on the judge's face is much more effective than a smile on the dancer's

We placed first, but we had no competition in that heat. 

[elisedance]

...except yourself, from the sound of it

[millitiz]

Depends on the style.
In standard, I think. I have a whole checklist when I dance. Hip swing? Check, movement? Check...

In latin, I guess I still think. But on slightly different things. Such as, EVERYONE, LOOK AT ME, I AM SO AWESOME!!!! Or Bang, hit this position. Although I guess I also have a checklist for Latin - except it is shorter than Standard, it seems (Interestingly, in Latin, I think I mostly go with the practice hard, and hopefully techniques will stick).

Want to touch on the "getting into the zone." It was kinda an interesting experience. So at my last competition in Standard, I suddenly didn't want to dance anymore - at the middle of the competition. I don't know why (probably my body is running out of fuel, too. I think I have really bad stamina. Or I use my body in a inefficient way - or rather, I always like to think that I dance like the last 100 ft of running.). I just wanted to get off the floor and to get done with it. But once I raise my hand to invite my partner into connection, my mind get to the competing mode - "frame, check, posture, check, connection, check...1,2,3, go...hip swing, check, hit position, check..." The negative feeling and the feeling that I am going to die is only at the back of my mind. Once the music stopped, after bowing, I then started to think "OMG, I couldn't breath, I don't want to dance anymore, please, just leave me be! Please, don't recall us, please!"...And then we kept getting recalls  (And eventually got first in many dances - although that wasn't a very prestigious competition). Back then I hated myself getting into the zone automatically .

I would also like to note that, when there are collisions (unfortunately, there is an area where both of us could not see), I will get frustrated, and that get me out of the "rhythm," or the "zone."

[Spiral]

[snip]  EVERYONE, LOOK AT ME, I AM SO AWESOME!!!! [snip]

I love it! Wish I could get into that zone. I think this should be my goal for this year.

[elisedance]

[snip]  EVERYONE, LOOK AT ME, I AM SO AWESOME!!!! [snip]

I love it! Wish I could get into that zone. I think this should be my goal for this year.

Well WE think you are awesome already!! 

[GreenEyes26]

In Standard, I go back and forth between, "Yay have fun!" and "Push, pull, get over the foot, and REACH! to stay with partner's huge steps!"

In Latin, I think: "I'm awesome - you have nothing on me," and "Move! Otherwise I'm going to run you over!"

[Becca]

In Standard, I go back and forth between, "Yay have fun!" and "Push, pull, get over the foot, and REACH! to stay with partner's huge steps!"

In Latin, I think: "I'm awesome - you have nothing on me," and "Move! Otherwise I'm going to run you over!"

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!

[elisedance]

In Standard, I go back and forth between, "Yay have fun!" and "Push, pull, get over the foot, and REACH! to stay with partner's huge steps!"

Well, you have to stop, OK?  Use the swing/fall to match his distance and then let your foot drop to your ballance point when you get there.  Anything else will look forced and one thing we responders must not look and that is as if we are working...

[samina]

After recent competition, I can honestly say I don't think about very much!!!!  Not sure if this is good or bad.

I think its exactly what you should be 'thinking' about.  If only I could make my mind go blank and just respond...

instead of trying to "make" it blank, instead direct it to focus on just a few simple things. even the words "this... this.... this.... this..." can be so helpful. the overall effect then is "blank", because you end up thinking about whatever comes up in the moment, "this" moment:

   "this... give right side to him"
    "this...give right hand into his"
    "this...give left shoulder blade into his hand"
    "this... MOVE"
    "this... BE STILL"
    "this... BREATHE"

not that i'm any expert...clearly not... just sharing what helped me a lot to overcome "bizzy, desperate mind" on the comp floor.

sometimes all i thought about was "you can make it... you can make it... you can make it..." so i wouldn't collapse.  

[elisedance]

After recent competition, I can honestly say I don't think about very much!!!!  Not sure if this is good or bad.

I think its exactly what you should be 'thinking' about.  If only I could make my mind go blank and just respond...

instead of trying to "make" it blank, instead direct it to focus on just a few simple things. even the words "this... this.... this.... this..." can be so helpful. the overall effect then is "blank", because you end up thinking about whatever comes up in the moment, "this" moment:

   "this... give right side to him"
    "this...give right hand into his"
    "this...give left shoulder blade into his hand"
    "this... MOVE"
    "this... BE STILL"
    "this... BREATHE"

not that i'm any expert...clearly not... just sharing what helped me a lot to overcome "bizzy, desperate mind" on the comp floor.

sometimes all i thought about was "you can make it... you can make it... you can make it..." so i wouldn't collapse. 

The amazing thing is that I have got quite close to this objective and its improving every time we dance.  But I don't relate entirely to how you put it. The critical word is 'wait'.  Yup, it leads to another oxymoron: the most active thing in dancing is waiting.  In waiting we allow our minds to go blank - but once the wait is over and my (subconscious) knows what to do, I (passively) move like lightning - to the next active moment of waiting. 

[samina]

if "wait" works for you, wonderful! i have worked with that as well, to create lag time to follow the man's energy or movement when otherwise i was rushing & not waiting to respond. what a difference!

i also like "NOW" as a way to either create action OR stillness.

simple sure is better. and sounds like you've been finding what works for you, elise.

[Some guy]

The critical word is 'wait'.  Yup, it leads to another oxymoron: the most active thing in dancing is waiting.  In waiting we allow our minds to go blank - but once the wait is over and my (subconscious) knows what to do, I (passively) move like lightning - to the next active moment of waiting.  

I've had quite a bit of success with this.  I've been told to wait and not to bother activating anything within myself.  In other words, every time, I want to do something, I should hold back and banish the thought.  Activation muddles it up and interferes with the natural flow: if I activate myself, instead of the lady finding herself automatically move, she has to actively follow and read what the man's activating.  Hard to enjoy the dance that way.    

If I may be so bold, the concept I've had a lot of success with is changing the perception of the players involved.  The traditional perception is that the man is the frame and the lady is the picture, or at least, that's what I've been told before.  The man has a lot of pressure to make the lady look good and the lady has a lot of pressure to look good.  I've been told to change that paradigm: to put it in Elise's terms, I would say the man is the violinist (timing, direction, volume, notes), and the lady is the bow.  Everything else around them makes up the violin. If the lady lets herself be the bow, the "perfect follower", they'll make beautiful music together.  The bow will be a bow no matter how many mistakes the man makes.  So the lady has to be totally comfortable just *being* the bow.  Alluding to what we discussed in the "perfect follower" thread about how the perfect follower is totally unforgiving: the bow will never help out the violinist by correcting his timing, notes, etc.  All the bow does is "wait".  The bow never activates itself.  It is activated.  The violinist doesn't consciously activate himself and see if he can make the bow activate: the violinist directly activates the bow.  As a result, his body is activated.