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Is Social Dancing Storytelling? (S06 Ep01) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

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  How do you work with your partner to Co create these
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  stories while staying connected? I find that people that come
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  from countries or regions that have a very, very strong
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  instrumental influence in their music.
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  They usually connect more in Brazilian Zook or in salsa
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  bachata to the instruments. And here, very honestly, I
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  personally have a hard time visualizing my social dance,
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  particularly as storytelling. Maybe cautiously so.
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  To me, it's exactly actually listening to a story that the
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  music is telling and trying to almost do interpretive dance
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  because the music to me already has a story.
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  So it's like a three-way collaboration between the three
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  of us, me, my partner and the music.
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  So there is a really important step to it, which is connecting
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  with your partner in a way to see how much your partner is gay
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  to embark into this journey with you.
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  I'm not off time, I'm just being musical.
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  You did your whole thing, but you didn't do it with me.
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  You didn't by yourself. Hello, hello and welcome back to
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  Zook Nerds. We are here together in person.
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  Alison Sanji and the amazing. Guy, brother.
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  Hello everybody. We are together again, again,
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  again. Yes, we've been together before,
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  but this is a whole new experiment that we want to do
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  and to bring to you guys where we're not only going to be doing
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  our usual thing and sharing our experiences, but we're actually
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  going to be picking questions from our Facebook group.
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  So from you guys and discussing here, consider this one-on-one
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  Q&A perhaps as if you met us in person and you bring us a
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  question and we share our stories.
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  We have selected here a question from Amit Hamburkar and he's
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  from LA, correct? Yeah.
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  Was in California if I'm not wrong.
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  Yes. Amazing.
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  And he boasted like a really interesting question here about
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  storytelling, about creating a whole story when social dancing.
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  Yeah. So basically he mentions that he
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  has been trying to create more meaningful stories through the
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  scene by channeling some emotions, and that sometimes he
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  has a hard time crafting a complete narrative in his words.
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  And then he has then three questions here for us.
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  The first one is, does anyone else think of their social
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  lenses as a form of storytelling?
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  Like this question is a really interesting question.
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  Yes, we hear that a lot. We hear that a lot.
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  I have actually taught a couple private lessons where this was
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  actually the topic where you know the case was a leader
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  actually wanting to create a story and having a hard time by
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  doing so. And the second one, how do you
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  approach creating and sustaining the narrative?
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  And the last one, how do you work with your partner to Co
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  create these stories while staying connected?
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  So really cool. 3 questions and let's kick it off.
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  Do you want to start? Yes.
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  One of the things that he did mention here is that he
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  struggles to connect to the lyrics and he's more connected
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  to the instruments. There's that part shoe.
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  And there's a little bit of a cultural background here because
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  he also mentioned that he comes from Bollywood dancing.
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  So I know the guy, he's from India.
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  And he mentioned to me in class that he really loves the
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  instruments and the beats and he, almost like myself, lose
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  control when the music is super, super strong.
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  So then he finds that disconnect.
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  And I told him, I actually have seen that as a pattern depending
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  on where you come from. I find that people that come
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  from Brazil or South America or India, Middle East countries or
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  regions that have a very, very strong instrumental influence in
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  their music, they usually connect more in Brazilian Zook
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  or in salsa bachata to the instruments.
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  And then people that come especially from European
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  background and some parts of Asia as well, they're more
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  connected to the voice, the melody and the lyrics.
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  So that's already a very good thing to observe, not
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  necessarily to make an opinion or a judgement here, but it's
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  something that you might recognize in your home dancing.
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  It's really true. Being from Brazil, we have
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  specific bands where the drums, the percussion is a really
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  strong feature of these songs. And even like the popular music
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  that people dance like they're more really more popular in the
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  radios, radios old men, but they're really.
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  They still exist. Yeah, it's really more popular
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  in the mainstream. There are more percussion
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  related while here in Taiwan, actually.
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  I have been hearing music walking around in the cafes, in
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  the places, and they truly are more theological, more calm.
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  It's almost like he was like a bossa Nova but without the style
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  of the guitar. It's interesting that you
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  mentioned bossa Nova, because now maybe for the first time
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  ever, I realized that bossa Nova is still Brazilian in the way
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  the instruments and the lyrics are sang and kind of the
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  rhythmic of the lyrics and the voice, but the main, main, main
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  focus is really how the voice plays.
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  Yes, the poetry of everything. Less than the traditional root
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  samba where the voice almost talks to the instruments.
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  Just like in salsa when you hear there is a conversation between
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  the instrument and the voice. But then when you look at bossa
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  Nova, I guess there's a mix there, but it's way more about
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  the voice making the rhythm. It's more calm, yeah.
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  It's a different melody. And yes, Amidst mentions this
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  that can naturally focus more on the music than the lyrics, which
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  for him adds a layer, a unique layer to how you experience
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  interpreted dance. So.
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  To answer the questions, does anyone else think of their
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  social dance as a form of storytelling?
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  And here very honestly, I personally have a hard time
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  visualizing my social dance as particularly as storytelling,
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  maybe consciously so. Like I don't consciously think
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  of my social dance as storytelling in the sense that I
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  am channeling some emotional or something like that.
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  It's more that we do have or I do have some idea of beginning,
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  middle, end more in terms of how the dance is built.
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  For example, not start to dance immediately doing all the things
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  and I would start to dance shifting weights, walking
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  around, doing the more basic stuff and then evolving into
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  something maybe more complex as the dance goes by and as the
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  music tell me things too. And I don't see that.
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  I don't categorize it as storytelling necessarily.
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  I don't know how the how that works, but do you see it like
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  telling a story or more going through a progression?
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  To me, it's exactly listening to a story that the music is
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  telling and trying to almost do interpretive dance because the
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  music to me already has a story. OK, so or maybe the DJ, as they
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  are playing and doing their magic, they're trying to build a
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  story or an atmosphere, a certain vibe or a certain
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  journey with the music and with the way the DJ is playing with
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  the music. So no, I wouldn't say that when
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  I'm social dancing I am storytelling, but I'm more like
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  interpreting the story that I feel like the music and my
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  partner and I are creating at that moment.
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  So it's like a three-way collaboration between the three
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  of us, me, my partner and the music.
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  But I do see how this is something that is really, really
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  useful in specific training sessions or choreography for
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  sure. I have done that through
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  choreography many, many times over the years and occasionally
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  in training sessions. So that's where I really, really
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  see it applying. Because when you think about
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  social dancing, we fall into that issue of the leader having
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  a mindset or an idea or a plan and then going out in the social
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  and inviting a person to dance with that has no idea what it's
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  about to happen. The leader.
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  Already has a. Plan and then the follower is
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  kind of like trying to figure out what is going on, what are
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  we doing here? And we've discussed this before
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  when we're talking about the Jack and Jill training issue,
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  where sometimes a leader wants to train Jack and Jill and they
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  just invite people to dance and they go Jack and Jill mode.
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  And then maybe halfway through the dance, the follower realized
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  what's going on. Oh, OK, My leader is training
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  for Jack and Jill. They are not really asking me to
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  dance to dance with me. I think that could also be a
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  problem if you are a storyteller and you don't communicate that
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  with your partner. So if you do want that, maybe
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  spare that for some specific training sessions outside of the
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  party. Or if you might have a friend
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  who is into it, go and ask them for a dance and tell them, you
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  know, why don't we do an experiment now?
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  The music is just right and I'm feeling something.
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  Do you feel that thing? Can we play with that at that
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  moment? Otherwise, I don't know.
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  I think there could be an issue with how the followers are
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  enjoying this. Yeah.
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  I have seen this mostly in private lessons.
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  Really. When the leaders come and they
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  say I'm having a hard time expressing my musicality to my
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  partner when I'm dancing, can you help me with that?
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  And then when they showcase what they mean by it, express my
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  musicality is really, sometimes they go, they just go.
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  The music begins and the person is already going.
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  So there is a really important step to it, which is a tuning
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  with your part. Connect with your partner in a
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  way to see how much your partner is gay to embark into this
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  journey with you. There is a word in English that
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  is very unknown, but I'm going to stay here and then I'm going
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  to go into the dictionary and look it up.
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  I. Might have to.
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  Be the same. Let's go.
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  It is actually almost the same as it is in Portuguese.
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  The word is ludic. Ludic in Portuguese is logical,
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  which she refers to storytelling, which refers to
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  this space that is more metaphysical.
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  Yeah, you are channeling archetype, you are channeling a
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  story and then through that you create your desk.
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  Is it like a persona creating a persona in the moment?
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  It's more maybe yes, maybe no, I don't know, just one second.
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  Let's see what ludic is here because it's related to
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  storytelling and it's a term that we used to use a lot back
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  in my training in Rio. So ludic means showing
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  spontaneous and undirect playfulness, which is going into
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  this like this different place in your mind.
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  There's not so much into the technique that is not so much
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  into doing things correct. It's more into connecting your
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  partner and play inside the play.
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  We do have the aspect of storytelling, of channeling the
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  music, of channeling whatever is that the music is guiding us to
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  think. So I remember these specific
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  trainings that, for example, genre used to play this very
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  traditional Brazilian Zook song. And you would ask us to imagine
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  where people are when they're singing their music, where they
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  when they're listening to that song.
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  And they would say, imagine that you are on a beach about to meet
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  your partner and your partner is right there looking at the
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  sunset. So there's all these
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  visualizations. And we would go with this
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  intention in mind. And the most important thing is
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  like we're saying before, how much your partners gain for it
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  because if they are not, it is not going to work at all.
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  And it reminds me of a very specific private lesson that I
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  was telling Alex for you before we started, which was really
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  interesting. I was with a friend teaching the
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  private lesson, and the leader says I cannot convey my
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  musicality to their followers. They seem not to understand.
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  And the leader has had a very particular, very confident idea
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  about his own musicality. I know what I'm doing.
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  I know my stuff. And then those two people, what
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  I'm saying, I'm not off time. I'm just being musical.
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  Exactly. And then my friend said, OK,
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  let's this. And then as soon as the music
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  started, no, no, before we said play the music that you like to
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  this. We want to see how you express
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  yourself in the stuff that you really like.
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  Then you plays. And then from the get go he
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  went. He went in and out and all the
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  possible adjectives. And my friend just stood there
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  kind of moving her body. And then by the end she said a
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  very simple thing. You did your whole thing, but
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  you didn't do it with me. You did it by yourself and then
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  it was all flustered. No, but the language just said
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  look I could have done everything that you was leading
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  me to do. However, the fact that you did
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  not connect with me in any way before took me out of this idea.
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  And I think it's important to mention that this friend that
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  you're mentioning is somebody who is a master of dance.
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  Yes, she's a master of death and she's a master of engaging.
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  She's a master of bringing Wayne to her vibe to her universe.
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  So she doesn't like nobody. And it was important for him to
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  listen that from her specifically.
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  So in that case, for me was like, I'm just sat down and
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  agrees with everything that she was saying.
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  She's a specialist, on that note.
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  Exact because there was one part here that I meet mentions.
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  I often find myself struggling to craft a complete narrative.
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  The emotions in the song tend to pull me in a different direction
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  and by the end of the song I sometimes feel a disconnect as
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  though the story has broken. And this is really related to me
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  when I read this. And I don't know how you feel
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  mesty about this. It's more relating to a
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  frustration that comes when an expectation that was created is
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  not fulfilled. So you had an expectation of
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  creating a story, but the music that you're listening to doesn't
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  really help with the initial intention.
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  You and your partner did not connected or found attunement to
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  the level that would help you go through that story.
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  And therefore you feel that frustration in the edge or you
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  might feel a frustration in the end because that story they were
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  trying to create had broken. So I think in the end of the
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  day, maybe understanding storytelling from multiple
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  perspectives, from multiple points of view, you can
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  understand storytelling. No, not necessarily from the
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  perspective of really creating a narrative, but maybe creating a
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  path, maybe creating a roads that you go through with your
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  partner in a very practical way. Like he works for me.
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  We think about movements. We start with the simple stuff
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  and then we go, go, go, go all the way into.
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  We find a connection, a rhythm with each other that we can go
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  into something more complex, that we can go into more
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  expression, more face and stuff like that.
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  So I don't know, something more broad maybe than the idea of a
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  story that is connected to a narrative or something like
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  that. Yeah, being the moment being
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  connected with the moment, being present.
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  Because I think there's an expression that says the
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  expectation is the thief of joy, right?
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  So always thinking about, OK, I had a desire maybe of doing
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  something and that thing is not coming alive at that moment.
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  So then re shift, refocus and think, OK, what else is here?
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  And what else can I have joy from?
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  How else can I adapt to what is happening at the moment?
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  Maybe I thought I was ready, but then the moment didn't happen
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  within me. And then I'm blaming the
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  partnership and the connection and the music.
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  But really just connect with the moment, be present and
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  understand that yes, storytelling is beautiful.
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  People who can do this are like masters and they're gifted and
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  they trained and learned so much about it, which is not something
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  that I do socially. And there's nothing wrong with
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  it, but I think as long as both are in the game to play that
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  game, everything is fine. Even the Jack and Jill training
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  that I mentioned before, or storytelling training, or maybe
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  just the other ways to then Zook, like more high energy,
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  more lower energy, lots of travelling and Wi-Fi, no
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  travelling at all, just staying on the spot.
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  All of these things are part of our community and we embrace it.
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  We enjoy it when the moment falls into place or when we have
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  certain intention to it and we agree with our partner to do
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  that in that moment. And in the end, you're going to
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  find someone that is going to go with you right away and you guys
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  are going to tell a beautiful, amazing, crazy story.
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  It's going to be amazing. You know, you will find people
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  that will be in tune with you in that sense.
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  That's for sure. The thing for us, I think in the
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  end for me especially, it's just broaden the spectrum of what is
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  possible and the possibilities that what comes to creating a
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  connection with someone when you are social messing.
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  All right, so I think that's it for this question.
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  Thank you so much, Amit, for posting this and sharing your
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  experience and being with us in the group.
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  And for those of you who are listening and watching, if you
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  want to maybe have your question answered in a future video,
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  please share them in our Facebook group, Zook Nerds, and
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  we'll see you in the group and in the next episode.
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  Bye everybody. Thank you for coming.
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  Thank you very much. Vicious, vicious Abrasins.
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  Ciao.