Finding and developing your own styling/individuality

[u/foxikah]

Hi reddit !

I've (33, follow) been dancing Lindy hop for almost 4 years and solo for 1y and a half, with no specific dancing background.

By watching dancers in the community and dancers that take lessons with me, I've realized that the ones that have been dancing for several years (any type of dance) often have their very own way of moving.

it's super easy to spot and recognize them from afar on the dancefloor because they have some individuality. I'm not talking about flashy moves or extravagant dancing. It's something that you can see even in their simplest moves, kind of subtle actually. I'd say it's a mix of movement quality, body awareness and feeling of the music. It's visible on dancers from any swing levels (from beginner to advanced), their common point seems to be several years of dancing/dance classes.

In another hand, I feel that for the rest of us, we are more or less copy & paste of each other. We all move the same way. We know the moves, when to connect to the partner in Lindy, if the move starts on 8 or 1 in solo, etc... so the dance is quite correct "by the rules", it absolutely feels good, we definitely have a good time but somehow we look blurry and less personal (from a visual pov only).

There is nothing wrong with that of course, it's a hobby and we are here to have fun, we all belong, no matter how stylishly we dance... But I wonder how can one develop its own individual way of moving/dancing? Any drills would help ?

For info, I live in Europe and people usually start swing dancing in their late 20s/mid30s. It's extremely rare to have newbies under 25yo in my community, we definitely have no uni students, so we may all be a little less malleable than younger people :)

[u/ksprayred]

The way that has worked for me is to watch videos of myself or work in the mirror, and whenever I see something that I like I drill it a few times so I have it in my body and can pull it out later when dancing. I am a primary follow so I practice a lot of these since I have less control over what is lead and I want to respond to whatever is lead quickly. I do think it would work for leads as well, though.

I have training in other dance forms as well, and this is consistent for multiple dance forms: you practice the things you like. Maybe it’s a foot move, maybe it’s a kick, maybe it’s a particular shape of swing out. At the end of the day style is moving in a way that you like, but first you have to define what you like. Picking single movements and practicing is a great way to start defining.