Videos of famous social dance teachers doing demonstrations aka demos are very important and often the reason why someone might choose to start learning a certain dance style. Both learners and other teachers look at demos as a source of inspiration. However if you’re a social dancer, you need to be aware of some caveats.
Demos are usually recorded at the end of dance workshops and the main purpose should be to demonstrate whatever was taught in class with music. In reality there are many other things going on in the background and these videos aren’t purely educational material anymore. Here are some things you should keep in mind when you look at demos from your favorite artists on social media.
1. These instructors have danced with each other for many years.
They train together multiple times a week and they know each others’ style, preferences and history of injuries. They can compensate for each others’ mistakes, making the dance appear smooth and seemingly perfect. The follower can predict what move comes next and therefore has many opportunities to add styling, more than you would in a real dance setting.
As a student watching, you may therefore get the impression that your dance needs to be super smooth as well and you shouldn’t make any mistakes. On the social dance floor however, you’ll often be dancing with people you don’t know and you cannot realistically expect a high level of connection with everyone.
2. They dance in a sensual way probably because they’re a couple.
Not all, but many dance teacher couples are also couples in real life. They may choose to dance in a sensual way during demos, because it makes sense for them personally. However this does not automatically mean that YOU should dance in a sensual way with everyone at the social. Unfortunately demos have led people to believe that this is the case and certain dance styles have to be danced sensually. Which leads to a number of issues that deserve a whole separate article.
3. They have a lot of free space for dancing.
During demos, the instructors are dancing in a big empty area, students have formed a big circle around them and the only person close to them is the videographer with a camera. This means they have a lot of space to move and they use it to do big showy movements like arm stylings, acrobatic movements, leg kicks etc.
However when you are dancing at a party, you have other couples dancing close to you in every direction. You need to be mindful of not hitting others or stepping on anyone’s feet. Leaders need to look out for their partner’s safety and be extra careful not to lead any movements that their partner doesn’t have space to do. “Floor craft” is a whole separate skill that needs to be trained as a social dancer. Therefore you shouldn’t copy all the moves that famous dancers do in the videos where they are the only ones dancing and have a lot of space.
4. They know that this will be recorded for social media.
Instructors know that their demos will be recorded and shared on social media later. This is good marketing for them as teachers and also for the organiser of the event. Especially at big international dance festivals. Therefore they add in show elements that serve marketing purposes and look cool, but aren’t necessarily something you should try to recreate on the dance floor yourself. Some dancers even make their demos into a piece of art, instead of an example of social dancing. They may use music that isn’t normally played at socials and stretch the limits of the dance style with their choice of moves. All of this is wonderful to look at, but shouldn’t necessarily be recreated on the dance floor.
You can see how demos are a completely different environment from a social dance party and how in this case, dancing serves a different purpose, therefore demos can’t always be used as educational material for social dancers. Inspiration – sure, but not for directly copying moves.
It has been proposed that instructors make their more experimental pieces as separate videos and not use classes and festival workshops as a place to film themselves. Will they take this piece of advice? Time will tell.
Now that you know what is happening in demos, where do you find realistic examples of what is possible on the dancefloor?
What I would recommend doing is watching your favorite artists social dance with strangers or other teachers that are not their practice partner. Best would be to see this in real life, but there are some videographers that film social dances as well. Watching other people dance at festival parties is generally a good idea, as there are dancers who are not instructors, but are really good as well.
Have you seen your favorite artists dance in real life with other people than their dance partners? Is it different from how they dance in demos?
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