FLOW IS :
" The experience that causes us to fall in love with dance, it is the perfect balance between control & chaos. It is a state of being where we are free from inhibiting self talk, where we are able to reach our peak performance. "
LANA WILLIAMS
What if you never moved
arkwardly
again?
Okay... Never is hyperbole, but what if you never felt arkward (even if you were moving arkward.. as in eccentric, one of the 3 classes of Vernacular Jazz).
Imagine that everytime you felt the instinct to dance, you were able to let go of self consciousness and dance!
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Imagine if you had confidence to step out of your own way and to let all of the movements you have dilligently learned happen, instead of biting down and trying to 'be perfect'.
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Whether on a social dance floor, in performance, in competition or in the middle of a jam circle, flow state is the freedom to allow our knowledge to express itself spontaneously.
The result; you are in a state of absolute awareness without any effort.
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Lindy hop flow is here to give you the processes that disinhibit the ego, we are here to share the tools o get out of your own way, and to find freedom in your movement - whether that be Eccentric, Class or Flash.
Whether you want to expand your teaching repertoire, gain the edge competitively or if you just want to go deeper into the Lindy hop.
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Is training this way for you?
In short - absolutely.
What to expect.
Professional style curriculum
Swing Intensive's classes are for everyone. Our classes are kept small so that we can give personal feedback to all of our student's.
This means that for beginners, you will recieve lessons that enable you to learn more effectivelely through out your dance journey. Saving you hours of wasted learning.
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for advanced dancers we can target specific areas of your training, giving yu targetted critiqu.
Authentic Vernaclar Jazz.
Swing Intensive's classes are for everyone. Our classes are kept small so that we can give personal feedback to all of our student's.
This means that for beginners, you will recieve lessons that enable you to learn more effectivelely through out your dance journey. Saving you hours of wasted learning.
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for advanced dancers we can target specific areas of your training, giving yu targetted critiqu.
A safe and friendly environment, to work hard and be challenged in.
Who is Lana & Ezra
" Lana's approach to teaching was transformative, it gave me confidence in the fundamentals so that under the pressure of my first performance i was able to remain playful & present."
Daniel Newton
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Warmup.
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Swing intensive warm up’s are designed to prepare your body, Activating, lengthening and strengthening muscle groups that are needed to dance with correct form.
The warmup is more than just exercise. It is an opportunity to enter into a relationship with your own body, to develop your balance and coordination. The warm up activates the nervous system and allows access to the expressive energy within our bodies. Enabling us to dance with more control and to avoid injury.
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Course structure​​
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Drills.
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This workshop will come with an online preparation course so that you can learn the footwork patterns at home. By practicing the drills at home, you will arrive ready to explore the micro variations within the exercise.
Our drills are designed to develop your control, posture, balance, rhythm and expression. Drills will always remain at the foundation of Swing Intensive training so expect to be doing plenty of drills together in the studio.
Drilling will give you more confidence and a more powerful attitude on the dance floor.
Movement.
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This Course will be built around fundamental Lindy Hop Movements. We will develop your understanding of the Lindy circle and core Lindy mechanics.
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Understanding Creativity.
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This course will develop your understanding of internal and external dance practice. We will explore how improvisation exists in all levels of dance, how can we create unique moment’s with our partner in all aspects of the dance. What allows us to have magical moments on the dance floor? How can we make those moments happen regularly?
You will learn how to find space for creativity with your partner, regardless of style or experience.
Studio 1, Circomedia, Kingswood, Bristol
29th & 30th January 2022 - The Lindy Hop Weekend - Bristol
Price £140 per person.
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Limited to 30 places. 5 remaining.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines this state as, “Concentration is so intense that no attention is left over to think about anything irrelevant or to work about the problems. Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted”.
This is Flow.
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The secret to accelerated learning.
All of us would have experienced a feeling of flow in your lives at some point. Either playing as a child, writing or reading, playing computer games or even driving. It is the experience of loosing all sense of time and enter into an effortless undistracted state. Complete focus. I often see it with my daughter when she is in her flow state of play - it is beautiful to watch.
But unfortunately as grow we place more and more pressure on ourselves to perform. this pressure, ultimately inhibits us rather than pushing us to new heights, as we might have wished.
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The beauty of dance is that it is a means to free ourselves from our day to day pressures.
You also may have experienced it, in dance, without knowing. Perhaps as a lead; that moment when you are social dancing and a unintended lead develops into a series of connected movements with your partner. What started as, perhaps an error, become movements that you are able to seamlessly guide into the next, without knowing or planning what you are doing, but creating a combination of sequences unknown previously to you or your dance partner that fit near perfection to the music.
Or perhaps as a follow; after completing a social dance, you exit the floor and someone asks you “what was that variation you did on the Texas Tommy, it hit the music perfectly”? and you weren’t even aware you had danced a Texas Tommy let alone the improvised variation that followed.
Or as a competitive dancer, either in a solo or partnered setting, where you feel as if you are moving in slow motion. As if all time has stood still. You have all the time in the world to feel every solitary motion of your movements. Where you are in complete synchronicity with the music, and afterwards knowing in your self that you have nailed it.
When achieved at the highest of levels, your ability to dance will look effortless, with you in the centre and in the upmost control. In performance, a dancer of this nature commands the floor and attention. You don’t know why, but you just can’t stop watching that person dance above and beyond all others. What you are drawn to is their ‘flow’.
Finding a flow state within your dancing isn’t only for the pursuit of discovering your highest level of potential and dancing. It also has other benefits.
Flow state can be a significant antidote to the pressures of life and can enable us to stand outside of our inner turmoil, and much like meditation, this absolute absorption and focus can be extremely liberating.
Ideally, learning to find flow, helps you advance a little everyday so eventually you can get to the top of your personal Everest, however big or small that is.
When you are able to unlock your own personal flow state in dance you will be able to better experience a deeper sense of connection with your dance partner and the music.
A deeper sense of flow connection to your dance partner opens the door to a new greater, almost euphoric, flow experience as a shared partnership.
I use my ‘flow method of teaching’ with even my 4 year old ballet students. You don’t need to know and understand the environment you are learning in, but hopefully you will feel the rewards.
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Most people assume that relaxation makes them happy. They want to work less and spend more time resting in a hammock perhaps. However, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book ‘Flow State’ reveals in his studies that most people have this wrong; “The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive or passive times… The best moments usually occur if a persons body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
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