It’s been a long time since I’ve been a part of any kind of dance class and I’m happy I got the opportunity to not only get this chance again, but to try out a new style of social dance that I haven’t had the opportunity to work with before. I really enjoyed learning the foxtrot as even though it’s helpful for actors to learn and have in their toolbox if they were going feature in a piece that was period or included this style of dance, but it’s extremely helpful for me to learn some new styles if I want to go into musical theatre in the future. I also liked learning about the history of the Foxtrot and how it was used as a way to find love before it seemed to go “out of date”. It’s not something I was interested in until it was introduced to us and since learning the basics behind the dance, I would love to learn about it even further and discover even more types of social dance and what history they have.
I found it easy to get into the rhythm of the dance, understanding each of the steps and putting them together to create a sequence, but I found it quite hard to let someone else lead me at first, especially when we were performing the choreography with our eyes closed. It took me a while to adjust to this but I eventually learnt that I had to take a few moments to breathe, ground myself and let myself go in the arms of my partner and trust that they will take me where they need to go. Once I mastered this, I felt a lot more comfortable inside the routine and was able to focus more on keeping my frame strong, and lifting my upper body and keeping it up throughout the dance. It’s very important to look confident throughout a social dance and this starts with looking self assured, which took me a long time to understand but once we created an immersive ballroom and made the atmosphere feel more realistic, it was easier for me to feel confident and assured with not only the routine, but being confident in the moment and during the time period that this style of dance was popular, it was important to show this confidence to find a potential husband or wife.
After taking part in this workshop, I went on to research more about the social foxtrot, what it was used for in the past and how it differs from the foxtrot we all understand more about. The social foxtrot was used in community dances and social events where you could meet new people and potentially find someone to marry, you have to feel confident with who you’re dancing with and especially for the men, you have to be self assured when leading a lady around the dance floor and if you mess up the dance or step out of time, your partner would walk away and potentially find someone else to foxtrot with. Social foxtrot seems to be a lot simpler than the well known Strictly dance, it follows some basic steps, using easy moves like a promenade and some slow walks, but the more confident someone becomes in the dance, they can begin to include more exciting moves e.g. a turn. I found this research really interesting for understanding more about the history of the social foxtrot and how it differs from the dance everyone is more familiar with. I’m so interested in learning how dance was used in previous time periods and I would love to hear stories from family members or articles where people talk about their experiences with social dance.
I really enjoyed the foxtrot session and it was the first time I was able to use the skills I had learnt prior to starting my training at Miskin, it’s reignited by passion for dance and I hope we get the chance to look at different styles of dance and how we can use them as an actor. If we do, I would like to experiment with becoming the dominant one in the pair and focus on leading instead of being led, rather than sitting in my comfort zone.
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