The Dance Primer

I saved the best for last in this series getting to know Kevin Wong. I hope you’ve enjoyed his insight. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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A: What would be your number one tip for someone learning?

K: I would say listen to the music - a lot. ‘Cause the music, I think, is the key to the dance. Without the music you don’t have anything. So, yes you can practice. Social dancing is really important. Lessons are important, but I wouldn’t say they are as important as social dancing - a lot. But I would say listen to the music. Listen to the beat when you’re learning how to move your body to the music and getting the feel and spirit of the dance. That’s probably the most important thing. That will take you from being an intermediate dancer to a really good dancer.

A: Really being able to move to the music.

K: Yeah.

A: How would you define success in regards to dance?

K: Scoring one hundred points.

A: (laughs)

K: Next question.

A: Well, you know, I mean as far as a successful dancer, or a successful dance night.

K: You know, dancing is so much more of a process than… well it’s a process. So, it’s not like a game where you win it. I mean, yeah there are competitions but I’ve never been much of a competition person. So, I wouldn’t say success is based on competitions. I would say that there are particular dances that stick out in my mind as being absolutely phenomenal dances. And, you can’t really predict when they happen and they’re very rare. But when they happen it’s like, wow! All the $*#%* dances I had for three months straight, wow, this made it all worth it. This one awesome dance where the music was perfect, the follow was awesome, you were awesome, and it felt like everything came together. That makes everything else worthwhile.

A: What’s the biggest thing that sticks with you from maybe a mentor, or something someone taught you?

K: It’s not about the number of moves that you know. A lot of people when they’re first starting out think that you have to learn like one hundred different moves. And you always have to be doing a new move when you’re dancing. But, it’s not about doing moves. In fact, when I watch myself dance sometimes it’s like… I don’t do that many moves. I watch and I’m like, wow, if I could just clean up this one more part of my basic, the basic swing out, then everything would be better. So I should just concentrate on that. That’s it. It’s about the basic.

A: Thanks Kevin, I’ve really enjoyed your answers.

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Did you miss Part I or Part II of the interview?
Next week we’ll get to know a dancer through her personal narrative, “The Other Cinderella.”