I just finished teaching a three-week course at Fizz called "Let's Rip It Up!" with Naomi Carmeli-Shabtay. Below you'll see the promo copy, the syllabus and two letters I sent to the class!
PROMO COPY
Lindy Hoppers, It’s time to kick it up a notch! Have you been wanting to hit the throttle on your swingouts? Are you wondering how all those competitors can keep up that pace? Do tempos above 200 BPM make you grit your teeth? Well here’s a class for you!
“Let’s Rip it Up!” is class designed to help you meet the challenge of higher tempo Lindy Hop! If you want to learn practices to help you practice that fiery footwork, while staying safe and sustainable! Neil Figuracion is teaming back up with Naomi Carmeli-Shabtay to give you ideas and techniques which will help you meet challenge after challenge!
So if you’d like to hit the NO2 on the dance floor, come join us at Fizz for “Let’s Rip It Up!” September 16, 23 and 30th at 8PM
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Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of what to expect:
Day 1 (September 16)
We’ll start with getting on the same page about the SWINGOUT. This day will be a basic review, so that all students have a shared vocabulary.
Day 2 (September 23)
Learn some simple ideas about keeping our bodies safe, then we’ll explore principles and vocabulary and practice techniques to help make a brisk swingout feel effortless!
Day 3 (September 30)
Let’s try other moves at high tempos and then go ahead and kick it up another few notches!
Day 1 will be suitable for new students who want to learn their first swingout. Please use your best judgment before signing up for Day 2 or 3.
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Neil Figuracion (any pronouns) hails from East Los Angeles and has taught Lindy Hop since the late twentieth century, on both coasts and parts in-between. Neil is incredibly proud of the years spent dancing with the elders of the Southern California swing dance scene and honors their legacy. And also, Neil has seen every movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise.
Naomi Carmeli-Shabtay (she/her) went to her first swing dance in 2014, fell in love immediately, and has been swinging out hard ever since. Her dance experience includes most things under the swing umbrella: Lindy hop, Charleston, balboa, shag, and she will try just about any partnered dance. Naomi believes a good dance has just a few simple ingredients: moving to the music, having fun, and avoiding injuries.
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SYLLABUS
Day 1
Warmup - let’s play! Watch and follow, it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect right now. Get out of your head and into your body!
The Swingout
8-count foot pattern, a tool for learning
Moving forwards and backwards
Follows Momentum - The End of the Line
Leads Weight Placement - Lead with your core
KEY FOCUS - Pivots
KEY FOCUS - Who carries your weight?
Two exits - Forward and Backward
Swivels
Simple turns
Question
What’s to come, first-timers, it’s up to you whether you continue. Naomi and Neil demo a few bars at higher tempos
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Day 2
Warmup - focus on ankles, knees and support, shoulder rolls, rolling spine plus some stretches
First - there are a few approaches to fast swingouts. In the long run your style is your own, but hopefully you’ll apply some principles to whatever you do. Because we’re learning vocabulary, you might get in your head, but remember to breathe and enjoy the process!
To keep you safe, be aware of any tweaks in your joints. Learn how to support your own weight and share in the balance of your partner
Principles of Fast Lindy Hop - Safety, Efficiency, Sustainability, Ease
GOAL - “I can do this all day!”
Safety - know your body, trust when it tells you to take a break, understand balance, communicate boundaries with your partner, shock absorption (supple rather than strong), cardio conditioning
Footwork
Charlestons with triples (increasing tempos)
Footwork isn’t mandatory, however your points of balance are crucial!
Balance solo and shared
Pivots
Exploring the two extremes of connection, the catch and the end of the line stretch
Goldilocks - weight is Too hot, too cold, just right
Timing
Degrees of rotation?
Leads - Getting OUT OF THE WAY
Let’s walk through swingouts checking those extremes, pivots when appropriate
Steve Rogers - Can you do this all day?
Swingouts to songs, increasing in tempo.
What’s your current comfort zone? What can you improve?
JAM!
Let’s Check In! Approaching Zen!
For Next Week - Please come with one move you’d like to practice at about 200 BPM (could be an underarm turn, charleston variation, )
HOMEWORK
Laura Glaess Drill - https://youtu.be/lT59ql64LGI?si=BIz5z_rTAjaaO5Gd
Fast Swing Outs Final Sofia - https://youtu.be/jCrplmLt238?si=jl6ECZsodcoQlXO3
Dax and Sarah 21 Fast Swingouts - https://youtu.be/jNGmvwRlH7c?si=XScDWIa3n5YTS3zb
DAY 3
Let’s Check In! Have we discovered anything since last week?
Warmup - Again focusing on ankles, knees, the support system, shoulder rolls, spine
Jedi Mind Trick - Let’s at swing out at various tempos
Workshop - We’ll group students into pods. Each student should have a move that they’d like to try at 200 BPM.
(Practice clapping on body approximately 200 BPM)
Then we give each pod a chance to try each other’s moves.
JAM
Let’s kick it up a notch! Raise tempos to 200 then 220 then 240
HOMEWORK a variety of approaches
Joe and Nelle DeMers - https://youtu.be/HXl1opnsp-0?si=KCKlOIIV3cOMbCWv
Tigert and Applegarth - https://youtu.be/Bcq4PJfYTmw?si=SsI8W7ccVlY6ol-j
Kenny Nelson - https://youtu.be/omX2mo8C5QQ?si=Ekh4JPlQ0HfjG6Qa
Oh and Ju - https://youtu.be/SCAyHWZDdG4?si=mcHGNmt_aN31mr8R
Youtube playlist with drum tracks
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqLKBNesVXghevlRRVd6KuzlhOlZs2eEl&si=2Md5HYUmX1UrZpJI
LETTERS TO THE CLASS
Fizz Beyond the Basics - Let's Rip It Up DAY 2 Summary, Feedback and Homework
Hey Y’all,
Thanks for joining the mailing list. Since you weren’t on it last week, I’ll be attaching the syllabus to this, so please check that out for more clickable links, and an overview of where we hope to go!
Here’s a summary of our class last night, along with a compilation of feedback and all the homework for you to do between now and next week. After checking in with a number of students, it seemed like there were some great insights gained! There’s still so much to learn and we’ll keep scratching at the surface next week.
DAY 2 SUMMARY:
There are a few elements of the syllabus which we breezed past and I’ll do my best to address those next week. I’ll mark those here with an asterisk*
Last night we started with a warmup, focusing on the ankles and knees at first, then shoulder rolls and elongating the spine. Then we did a balance exercise in order to learn to use our centers to focus our balance.
(Your center is roughly two inches below your belly button, and in toward the spine. We can shift your center to above a strong and supple standing leg to improve one-legged balance.)
To keep you safe, be aware of any tweaks in your joints. Learn how to support your own weight and share in the balance of your partner.
(*Remember to breathe and relax)
We briefly discussed a few elements of good fast swingouts - Safety, Efficiency, Sustainability, Ease. Naomi asked us to keep our swingouts smaller at first, outside of a specific stylistic choice, it’s more efficient and sustainable to maintain a smaller dance footprint.
Safety - know your body, trust when it tells you to take a break, understand balance, communicate boundaries with your partner, shock absorption (supple rather than strong), *cardio conditioning
* We skipped Charlestons with Triples/Transitional Lindy. Hopefully we can address this next week.
Footwork isn’t mandatory, however your points of balance are crucial!
*Of the two extremes of the swingout, we only explored the Face-off. We will spend time on the other extreme (the end of the stretch/beginning of the rock-step) next week!
The bulk of the rest of class we rotated through, dancing to drum tracks and songs at increasing tempos. The playlist for class is at the bottom of the syllabus.
DAY 2 FEEDBACK:
As I continued to check in with students last night, I found a few key moments of feedback. Many students felt they could work on their balance. Some follows felt a little dragged along by their leads, some of whom were still working toward cohesive swingouts. To this end, I will remind all students to take a breath and ask for a reset.
Since we only addressed the faceoff things felt more comfortable at that moment. We’ll need to address the end of the line next week and make sure that moment is as clear.
Generally speaking, the feedback I gathered after class all fits in the category of things we’d like to hear during class or things you’re empowered to communicate to your partner also during class. Of course things move at a quick pace so it might not be easy to verbalize, but I hope we can make room for more verbal communication next week!
HOMEWORK:
Your homework this week is to practice, watch youtube videos and choose a move for next week! Those are all outlined below.
Practice
Please practice the balance drill at least 3 times between now and next Monday!
Please practice your swingouts, also at least 3 times. Thinking about them isn’t practice. At the very least put yourself on a floor, do the footwork and imagine where your partner would be. Even better if you have an opportunity to dance with a partner.
Youtube
Laura Glaess Drill - https://youtu.be/lT59ql64LGI?si=BIz5z_rTAjaaO5Gd
Fast Swing Outs Final Sofia - https://youtu.be/jCrplmLt238?si=jl6ECZsodcoQlXO3
Dax and Sarah 21 Fast Swingouts - https://youtu.be/jNGmvwRlH7c?si=XScDWIa3n5YTS3zb
Next Week
Please arrive next week with one move you’d like to practice at about 200 BPM (could be an underarm turn, charleston variation, etc.)
That’s what we’ve got! As always, if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send a response to this email. In the meantime, I hope you’re well and see you very soon!
Sincerely,
Neil Figuracion
Fad23
lindygroovetechnique.blogspot.com
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Fizz Beyond the Basics - Let's Rip It Up DAY 3 Summary, Feedback and Homework
Hey Y’all,
Thanks for joining us for a few steps on the road toward faster swingouts! There seemed to be a consensus last night that establishing and maintaining some level of practice would help a lot. With that I’ll remind you that practice doesn’t need to be at a specific hour of your week, especially if that’s hard for you to manage. You can practice by tapping your feet to a rhythm while you’re doing other activities. When I was newer at dancing, I’d practice footwork rhythms while pushing a grocery cart, or tap out on the steering wheel while stuck in traffic. There’s a way to keep in touch with your growth, which is simply to keep doing it!
As usual, here’s a recap of last night’s class, a bit about the potential December class I’ll be teaching, as well as a small request. Your homework will be below the sig. As usual, your homework is up to you. However, I would not underestimate how important it is to see people doing the thing you want to do. Please make time for it.
I’ve also included the class playlist, so you can choose songs or drum tracks at various tempos.
DAY 3 RECAP
Last night we reviewed the moments around the Faceoff, and then took to the other extreme end of the swingout, the end of the line! We traced the connections from one partner’s core to the other partner’s core and then we danced, starting at 180BPM and working our way up! The big advice beside practice, is to remember to breathe!
Then we broke up into pods. The goal here was to workshop a move at a faster tempo, someone showing the group a move and then seeing how it would work at about 200BPM. Afterward we elected a couple from each pod to show off their discovery!
We closed with a check-in about the things we saw that excited us. I hope that you found something to keep you excited and I’d love to hear more about that in the future.
DECEMBER
I’m scheduled to teach the Beyond the Basics Class in December. It’s one of two classes, depending on the availability of a potential teaching partner.
If Heather-Grace is available, we’ll be teaching a class on Turn Technique! That includes leading and following a variety of turns or spins, the technique behind turning well and finding more rotational stuff to show off!
If I end up teaching solo, then I’ll be teaching a class on the Shim Sham, including Shim Sham variations and potentially a totally other 60s era line dance that is very popular back home, The Madison Time!
That’s all pending, so keep your eyes peeled for any announcements!
TESTIMONIAL REQUEST
If you’re so inclined, I’m collecting testimonials about my instruction. If you would like to send a brief snippet about your experience in one of my classes or just your time learning with me, I’d really appreciate it. This email is a perfect place to send your thoughts!
Okay y’all, that’s it for Let’s Rip It Up! I hope you’ve got some inspiration to keep you stepping. See you on the dance floor!
Sincerely,
Neil Figuracion
Fad23
lindygroovetechnique.blogspot.com
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HOMEWORK a variety of approaches
Joe and Nelle DeMers - https://youtu.be/HXl1opnsp-0?si=KCKlOIIV3cOMbCWv
Tigert and Applegarth - https://youtu.be/Bcq4PJfYTmw?si=SsI8W7ccVlY6ol-j
Kenny Nelson - https://youtu.be/omX2mo8C5QQ?si=Ekh4JPlQ0HfjG6Qa
Oh and Ju - https://youtu.be/SCAyHWZDdG4?si=mcHGNmt_aN31mr8R
Youtube Class Music playlist with drum tracks
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqLKBNesVXghevlRRVd6KuzlhOlZs2eEl&si=2Md5HYUmX1UrZpJI
