SWING DANCE: LEVEL TWO - PE 147 SPRING SEMESTER

SWING LEVEL TWO - PE 147 - Spring 2008
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED JUMPSWING/CHARLESTON
Credit or Non-Credit
Instructors: Kurt Lichtmann
with Vicky Alexander
Map Calender Tunes Add-Drop Grades Club Nite Out Contact Phys Ed Syllabus Shim Sham

vicky & kurt

WHERE: Helen Newman Dance Studio
WHEN: Sundays 2:30pm-4:00pm, twelve-sessions
START: Jan. 27, 2008
COST: $53 per student.
CLASS SIZE: Limited to 20 students!
No partner needed ! ! !

INFO SESSION, REGISTRATION HELP
MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
BARTELS HALL RAMIN ROOM
You may also register on-line through Course Enroll at the computer room in Bartels.Help will be available.

NON-CREDIT, NON-STUDENTS You may register in class, check to "CORNELL UNIVERSITY"

ADD-DROP
Tuesday, Jan 23 - Friday, Feb. 8, 10:00 -11:30am and 1:30-3:30pm Phys. Ed. Office- TEAGLE HALL
(late enrollment fee $30 for credit students enrolling after this time)

PRE-REQUISITES:
Either PE 146, or good familiarity with single-step 6 count footwork, leader-follower technique, basic turns OR many years of jazz/ballet. You are going to want to practice at least once a week, but it will be worth it. Lots of fun, useful, challenging,showy, and pleasurable material! Please bring dance shoes or dance sneakers to class (don't have 'em? Check the DANCE SHOE page). What do students have to say about the course? Check it out.

SYLLABUS:
1. Partnered Charlestons: more advanced and challenging moves.
2. Jump Swing: Jump Swing. Tunnels, Ducks, Orbits, Pretzels, Reverses, ...
The most advanced course of its kind in the area. Hot dancing to fast music.
3. Collegiate Shag, St. Louis Shag, Carolina Shag, Balboa: groovy moves from other swing styles that fit in with what you already do just fine, different each semester!
4. Footwork variations: Sugarfoot variations, Scissors, Grapevine, Swivel, etc.)
5. Movement: what it means to feel "grounded", "centered", how to do it, and exercises to develop it.
6. Connection: employing the muscle tone required to feel better about dancing together

The current incarnation of PE147, in addtion to a continuation of JUMPSWING, is a dedicated Lindy Hop Level I & II course, very much aimed at communicating the inner physical sense of momentum, balance, grounding, centering, RHYTHM, connection, feel, and all those ideas that are so vague and baffling to those who are clueless as to their meaning, when instructors casually thrust the terms upon them. Based on experience with instructors of all abilities, and our own analysis, we continually explore effective exercises that communicate and develop the feel and joy of this sophisticated dance. The core move, the SWING OUT, hence becomes all the more physically and energically intelligible.

PE147 incorporates what we call Jumpswing - it is just a name that we have applied to subset of Lindy Hop 6 & 8 count moves, strategically collected as a complete syllabus for the average dancer, much more effective than triple step or single step east coasts swing as an entry level pedagogical strategy. We love it, our students love it, and I have seen top professional lindy hop champions dancing jumpswing sequences, although they just call it fast lindy.

Since its inception, PE147 has evolved to suit the needs, desires and abilities of the students who take the course, just as PE146 Swing Intro has similarly evolved. We take a strongly creative, evolving approach to instruction. We support the Cornell Rooftop Mayhem Swing Club (a Jumpswing Club) and the Cornell Swing Dance Club (a traditional Lindy Hop Club).