"I am a firm believer that you can not learn a dance without a consistent, progressive curriculum, that having classes at random, from different instructors and on different levels is disorienting, like picking crumbs from a table. You guys are brilliant, this is exactly what I needed and was waiting for. And, all your efforts to constantly add-on, adjust, upgrade are so much appreciated! Thank you!"
Get the complete picture of musicality for West Coast Swing and learn the mental game and personal movement skills necessary to bring them to life.
DIGITAL COURSE:
Developing Personal Musicality
in WCS
20h online course for West Coast Swing with Champions Myles & Tessa
GET THE MUSICALITY YOU'VE BEEN CRAVING
Can you relate?
If ANY of these apply to you...
We get you! You're not alone!
Musicality is the WHOLE POINT of dancing West Coast Swing!
What good are patterns and figures if they don’t fit the music, right?
The good news?
You can train your musicality for West Coast Swing *without* needing a partner!
So, HOW can you train to dance more musically?
You basically have 2 choices:
CHOICE #1: TRADITIONAL METHOD
This is likely how you’ve been learning already:
We all know how that’s going…
so let's look at a different option:
CHOICE #2: SWING LITERACY METHOD
Like this:
I’ve had plenty of diagnoses but have never been told how to make the corrections. I always felt confused by classes and workshops that alluded to some techniques, but never really went into detail about them. It made such a difference to have M&T give us a succinct language to communicate skills and techniques. Not only did they give me the coaching I need to understand how to make those corrections, but the clarity and consistency of their method gave me the structure I needed to reinforce concepts and build new habits.
Linda Kilhoffer
Delivering missing critical skills
I feel as though in other intensives, instructors will demonstrate patterns and strategies, but will not connect these to the basic skills that are required to perform these patterns/strategies. Myles and Tessa do a fantastic job explaining what prerequisite skills are required to compete the task at hand, and that helps people catch onto the material SO MUCH quicker.
We have a huge class of dancers (especially leaders) who are missing critical skills in their dance, trying to perform patterns and strategies in which they don't have the underlying/supporting skills for. Swing Literacy focuses specifically on filling those gaps in dancers' skill base. I definitely attribute MUCH of my success to your teaching style of skills before patterns.
Brendan Souvenir
Changed my approach
This course helped me to discover missing elements as both a student and as an instructor. We have all wondered why some things are more difficult to learn. The Swing Literacy program changes the way you extrapolate and helps you plan your next steps in a much more "engineering viewpoint."
Maria Blackwell
Novice to Advanced in 6 events
"Life before Myles and Tessa was frustrating!!! I loved going to dance events, however I was doing poorly in competition, and was not exactly the most popular dancer on the social floor. After a 2-year streak of rarely making finals in novice, I started taking regular private lessons with Myles & Tessa. I jumped from Novice to Advanced in just 1 year (6 events)!!
M&T have taken years to analyze this dance and have figured out how to simplify some very complex ideas. Their Swing Literacy system is brilliant. I can see many more “Tessons” and “Mylestones” in my future."
Jen Malcolm
Best teaching method I've ever experienced
Best teaching method I've ever experienced (and I've completed 22 years of formal schooling!) It's like having the reference book on everything WCS PLUS the physical drills, feedback and supportive learning community!
B Tarbell
Train your musicality... smarter
To *feel* better dancing musically, you need to build very specific skills - but this goes way deeper than simply memorizing variations and copying style you admire.
Some skills are fundamentals that you might have skipped over, and some are music-specific skills that you have to intentionally seek out because they tend to get de-prioritized in classes and workshops.
But it's harder to build these skills when they are mentioned or delivered only sporadically - a workshop here, a video there... Having to assemble your own WCS puzzle can be tedious, especially when you don't see immediate improvement so it's hard to get motivated to learn more when you feel like you haven’t really finished absorbing and implementing the random bits you already have.
This is exactly why we built this course:
DIGITAL COURSE:
Developing Personal Musicality for WCS
Includes 3 Modules
to improve your musical movement in WCS without needing a partner
- Don't just learn more about how to dance - use the science to learn more efficiently by learning how to learn
- Learn a way to build skills progressively to develop your movement fluency, which is the quality-of-movement you've been craving
- Learn how to better prioritize, structure, and optimize your practice habits so you can be confident you are not wasting time
- Body positioning, Posture & Core, Footwork Technique, Weight transfer control & timing, Spinability, Body Pulse & Groove
- Discover what foundational physical skills you might be missing that is holding you back in your development at any level
- Get detailed explanations of how to develop each skill, and the recommended sequence for each
- Solve all your technique confusion once and for all so you can decode any instructors’ advice and leverage it to learn more advanced material
- Get a much clearer picture of what “quality of movement” means at your level, and ways to improve it in your dance
- Beat, Rhythms, Layers, Phrasing, Rhythm Variations, Artistic Strategies, Dynamics
- See the complete story of musicality that finally ties together all the random bits of advice you have heard and fills in all the gaps you are missing
- Get the fundamental music theory all WCS dancers need to know, sequenced in a way that makes it easier to learn
- Learn how to strategically practice listening to and predicting music no matter what your musical background is
- Learn how to effectively practice musical movement both solo and with a partner
- Manipulate your movements to "play" with features in any genre so you can access & upgrade musicality no matter what level you are
Get a sneak peek inside
It's not a workshop, and not a series of instructional videos.
This is a multi-media course you can start any time and complete at your own pace with no need for a partner. You'll want to start ASAP to get the benefits in your WCS, but you have access for one year so you can take your time reviewing.
If you think you "can't learn online", this course will surprise you!
This course is actually a portion of the complete Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program (DDP) 50-hour, unparalleled, comprehensive learning system that consists of 6 core modules.
These provide the complete, clear curriculum and training program you've been looking for.
After this course, you can add on Modules 3, 5 and 6 continue your Swing Literacy journey
The clear curriculum and training program you've been looking for.
Here are some of the key takeaways you’ll get from the Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program:
Relief from overwhelm
Solve all your technique confusion once and for all so you can decode any instructors’ advice and leverage it to learn more advanced material.
Figure out what to prioritize
Learn what you should be spending your time and effort to work on first to make the biggest improvement impact on your dance
Learn skills faster
Get more value out of every class and workshop by applying a fresh method to HOW you absorb, retain, and apply the content you learn
Conquer "Quality of Movement"
Drastically improve your “quality of movement”, so you get more recognition from more experienced partners, peers, and judges.
Own your dance
Finally be able to “feel like you’re dancing”, comfortable, self-expressed, and musical instead of just marching through patterns.
Get more fun dances
Be able to survive and compensate for any social dance partner, (without sacrificing your own fun) and become one of the most desirable, social dance partners in your region.
What makes it worth it?
10/10 Highly recommended!
10/10 Highly recommended! The course material is highly relevant, intelligently sequenced, and will lead to rapid improvements in the quality of your dance. The progressive skill building nature of this course makes progress easy and long lasting.
Paul Diffendaffer
Connects all the loose ends from multiple teachers
This is different from any other learning format, and is an opportunity to be exposed to a new way of learning WCS. It is strategic and very well communicated. It keeps you motivated and accountable. It also provides you a sense of Community with others that are like minded. SL is different in that it starts with the foundation and builds from there, as opposed to my past experience, where a multitude of teachers and lessons were constructing a dancer with spackle. Takes all the loose ends from multiple teachers and weaves them into a comprehensive approach that supports the learning process.
Joan Izumigawa
Juicy details about "how" and "why"
I highly recommend the Swing Literacy program for anyone who would like to understand the mechanics of WCS. The pedagogical approach is highly effective as the content and drills build on each other and you'll see results quickly. The program gives you the language to articulate yourself more clearly in class to ask better questions as well as all of the juicy detail you always wanted to know about the "why" and the "how" it works.
Tairra Sitek
About Myles & Tessa
Partners for 22 years, Myles & Tessa have dominated the Showcase division and compete at the highest level in improvised competition. They also teach workshops, train teachers, judge and perform on the global circuit.
Tessa has been professionally practicing physical education, movement analysis, and pedagogy for the past 30 years, in the context of multiple sports and dance styles, with degrees in both Kinesiology and Education.
Myles has a lifetime of dance background, including classical solo dance training, Ballroom, Salsa, Theatre Arts, and 6 UCWDC World Championship titles. along with being classically trained and studying the inner workings of over 40 different dances.
They are creators of a teaching methodology called Swing Literacy which uses the science of learning to help dancers learn WCS faster and train smarter. They specialize in training dance teachers to do use it too, and tour globally delivering this system.
Feeling much more agile grounded, and in control of your timing
Better posture, footwork, spinning, and grooving
Finally understanding how all the musicality advice fits together
Unlocking rhythm variations you've always coveted
Being able to dance musically to ALL the layers of a song, not just phrasing
Being able to dance musically to any genre, with any partner
Is this program just for newer dancers, or would it be relevant to experienced dancers & seasoned competitors?
The Dancer Development program is incredibly relevant to experienced dancers. Regardless of your past education, it is a unique method that requires training to understand and put into practice. Your years of experience might make you quicker at learning it, but they don't exclude you from getting an immense value from the training, because the content is not something you have likely studied before. You would be surprised how much of your dance is simply "surviving" when it could be "thriving".
How long does it take to complete?
It depends on how focused and motivated you are, but 25 hours is a good estimate. There are 3 Modules with 4-6 Lessons each. Each lesson might take 20-60 minutes to work through, some with a short quiz at the end. This includes a little bit of practice time, but you are encouraged to add more as needed.
What kind of assignments and testing will I have to do?
In the DDP, all of your coursework is online, inside this website. You will be able to progress at your own pace, and return to re-read material. Each lesson requires you to answer a few multiple choice questions in order to access the next lesson. There is no final exam.
Can't I just download the videos and do it offline?
No: The program is not just a bunch of instructional videos. The DDP takes advantage of the power of a digital course. It includes mostly written material, supported by videos, images, article links, and interactive quizzes to create a more thorough and balanced learning experience than simply reading a manual or watching a video.
How long do I get access for?
You get access to Modules 1, 2, and 4 for one year, which you can renew or upgrade for longer access.
How can I access DDP Modules 3, 5, and 6?
These are currently available within the full Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program which you will have access to at a discount after this course.
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100%
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You are fully protected by our 30 day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your purchase, for any reason at all, simply contact us within 30 days and we will promptly issue a refund.