Hi, Tessa here. Since 2002, I've been writing advice articles for West Coast Swing from my perspective as a WCS Champion and 30 years as a professional teacher and coach. My mission is to help dancers #trainWCSsmarter and teachers #teachWCSsmarter, which we do thoroughly in our Swing Literacy training programs.
These articles are my way of contributing some free, bite-sized education to the community to help inspire and motivate with practical, actionable advice for your dancing.
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I highly encourage everyone to leverage these free resources by sharing them in your community groups and with friends you know who could use them. Enjoy!
Are you curious about what it takes to do a Rising Star routine? Are you an event director interested in supporting and promoting the next generation of routine competitors? You probably have a lot of questions. This article is aimed at answering them:Who should compete?What is the purpose of the tour?How should I budget for a
It’s great to see students all over the world taking the initiative to practice on their own. Practice of personal movement skills is part of a balanced diet of partner dance learning and skill development, regardless of your ambition level. We are strong advocates of “homework”: once you learn your skills in your lesson, you need
If you haven’t heard about this psychological concept, you need to. Understanding it can have a profound effect on your dancing, but also other areas of your life you may be self-sabotaging. Let me give you a little definition first, then I’ll discuss how this could be… the most important thing you ever learn in dancing.Defining Growth
The West Coast Swing world is a strong supporter of social dancing: the improvisation side of the dance. The idea of speaking a language in order to carry on a conversation with anyone in the world without planning, is of the highest value. However, almost all dance forms have a facet to them that involves a
Do you live in a community where there’s not a lot of dance resources? (dancers/dance parties/instructors) Do you have a bunch of keen dancers that want to practice outside of class but aren’t sure where to start? Are you starving for feedback to know that you are on the right track? You don’t need to wait for the
Ah, the eternal competitor question… “What are the judges looking for?” Consider that judges are not necessarily “looking for” positive elements of your dance as much as they are “looking to eliminate” negative elements. We call these “red flags”: bad habits or errors that prevent judges from giving you a callback to the next round. Judges
Do you hear feedback from teachers and judges that you need to work on your timing? Or maybe you can feel you’re off time a lot but don’t know how to fix it? Being off time could be referring to 10 or more different issues. Whenever a teacher or judge tells you you are
Steal dancing is when you are dancing with your partner and a 3rd person amicably “cuts in” for fun. This game is different than a typical social dance: it becomes less about patterns and musicality and more about flow and transitions. Here’s a quick example of it in a competition, but this is
Since there is no universal criteria for judging West Coast Swing competitions, if you’re like most competitors, you’re in the dark about what actual skills the judges are judging in Jack & Jills. Musicality as an art is subjective, but as a skill it’s quite easily defined. The question we get asked about it most
Private lessons are a mystery to many dancers, not just the newbies. Veteran dancers tend to forget this valuable resource that can help guide them through the tough phases in their dance development and achieve their goals. Let’s demystify and help you understand exactly: Who can benefit from Private Lessons Why you should bother
Here’s a master list of all those “If only somebody had told me” tidbits of information might make the difference between you finding Westie Heaven or Westie Wasteland! Over the years, we have collected questions from both Beginner and Experienced dancers. They live on our website in the FAQ section, which grows constantly. It’s kind
Does this sound familiar? “Workshops are all the same”“I don’t learn well in workshops”“Workshops are only for beginners”“Workshops are only for serious dancers”“I’ll never retain it all anyway” These are all reasons dancers give for why they can’t/don’t need to attend workshops. They sound valid on the surface, but are actually evidence of