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 & teaching.
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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!
As creators of the Swing Literacy Development Method, we train teachers on a regular basis, and get asked all the time, “What do I need to do to start teaching?”. This question is quickly qualified with assuring statements like: “I know I’m not advanced level yet, but there’s no one else in my town who can
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
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
Something doesn’t add up…. How many WCS patterns do you think you’ve ever learned? Just calculate how many patterns you learn per week, then multiply that by how long you’ve been dancing. Now, how many of those patterns have you actually adopted into your social or competition dancing? Oof. That’s a big difference. That’s a
Fashion, just as West Coast Swing itself, evolves as trends change and new technology becomes available. Let’s discuss WCS shoe fashion!
Before you get all scared, let me clarify: I’m referring to a diet of dance, not a diet of nutrition. This sadly misrepresented word is technically supposed to refer to a regular balance of fuel, not a short-term restriction of it. So, using the original intention of the word, ask yourself how your “dance
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series have garnered a massive response – when I opened up the floor to take suggestions for more tactical questions, people really unloaded! Well, I’m honoured, because that’s exactly what we’re here for. Not just this article series, but ALL the Swing Literacy programs: to fill a need and
When it comes to social dancing, many dancers ask us questions like “How should I handle it when…?” or “What do I do if…?” These are Tactical questions. In Part 1 of this series, I defined the difference between Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies which are important distinctions to read about to help you get
“What should you do if…”, “What happens when…”, “How can I handle…”, “How do I deal with…” These are all questions that students of all levels batter their teachers with. They are tactical questions – they ask for circumstantial advice, or recommendations for particular situations that have to do with not just the physical
What does it take to have a WCS dance where both partners contribute to the fun? As a leader, do you wish playful followers would let you lead more? Or wonder why more followers don’t play with you they way they do when they dance with other leaders? As a follower, do you
We invite you to enjoy these rare but super-effective teaching tools from our massive collection: Gamification Trained Feedback pods The Missing W’s Good teachers are collectors, tinkerers, and experimenters. They hunt and gather for nuggets of tips and advice to scuttle home to their students in the hopes that it will entertain them and help