Connection & Musicality

The last workshop at Portland was with Murat and Michelle. He walked us through the pause, that chance in the music to reconnect. This put in to words what I felt when I danced in Argentina. It is an unbelievable thing to watch an entire floor dance together. Collisions are few and far between as the dancers hear the music and dance to it. Together. The pause is just that, the pause. Collect with feet together, ocho cortado, the cross. All are ways to reconnect with both your partner and the dance floor.

I've mentioned it before, but here in Victoria, we are in a race to get to the end of the dance first. We rush through moves, don't hear the melody of the music, only the rhythm—beat, beat, beat we move. Pause and listen and you hear a room of people. You hear the underlying melody of unity. Unity to each other, to the dance, to your partner and back out again. It builds an intense energy in a room. No longer are you dancing your own little dance in your own little world, you are dancing everyone's dance. You breathe in the synergy and it builds and builds and builds.

How do I bring this home without offending anyone? How do I tell my leads (including the wonderful dancers) to wait, to breathe in the pause. How to you create a room of such synergy? Once it starts, it will look after itself. But how to start it. Guess I'm going to have to learn to lead.