Swing Dancing. Aerials on the social dance floor. Is this subject really touchy? Well, if you’re getting tossed around without your consent, or if you’re getting kicked in the face by someone trying out their new aerials on the social floor, than it yes, it is.
The short answer is: don’t. Even little ones you want to practice. There are too many variables on the social dance floor for aerials to ever be a safe thing to do.
One of your responsibilities as a lead is to protect your follow. Playing around with aerials is reckless and dangerous and in no way protects her.
If you MUST learn aerials, do so outside the social floor, with spotters who know what they’re doing. You can learn some pretty neat stuff to try in jam circles or performances. But you’ve GOT to be smart about it. Enough said.
*Photo by flyinfootwork on flickr.
1 response so far ↓
1 Gidget // Feb 6, 2008 at 9:29 am
I agree. Aerials are insanely cool, but recently a friend picked me up and did an aerial with me without warning me beforehand, and not only did it catch me off-guard and could have hurt me, but there were mostly new dancers there at the time and to them it appeared that we were showing off. Aerials are really cool, but I’d suggest 1. Make sure you know what you’re doing and that the follow is aware before you throw her around, and 2. Only do them if it’s not going to hurt anyone or freak them out.
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