Lindy Hop vs. Improv Comedy

Cat Foley is an improviser and lindy hop dancer. She regularly performs improv with the Impropriety crowd up in Liverpool and recently took part in the 33.5 hour Liverpool Improvathon. This is taken from her regular Lindy-hop blog at RockStepTriple.

"As well as being a keen swing dancer, I’m also a comedy improviser. This term can mean many things, most of you will recognise this as being what they do in “whose line is it anyway”, well imagine that… but better J Add to this an image of ‘long form’ as being an extension of one of the whose line games, where players will take one character and run with it for anything from 10 minutes to 50 hours (yes- that does really happen!). So the reason for this most recent of my blog posts is that more and more in my mind the two have been fusing, and I have been exploring how the fundamentals of each can be used to explain the other.

So here it goes,

The Fundamentals of Lindy Hop explained via the Fundamentals of Improv.

YES AND…

This is an improv game whereby 2 players will engage in a scene, speaking one statement each at time that must begin with “Yes…and”. For example

Player 1: Lets go to the shop
Player 2: Yes and lets go by bike

Player 1: Yes, and I’ll sit on the handlebars
Player 2: Yes, and we can sing less than Jake all the way

The converse of this exercise is “yes… but”

Player 1: Let’s go to the shop
Player 2: Yes, but my foot hurts
Player 1: Yes, but can’t you try and walk
Player 2: Yes, but it really hurts etc. etc.

So the ‘yes but’ exercise involves the players blocking each other, they shoot down ideas and create excess negativity - it can still work as a scene, but has none of the energy of “yes, and” where the players accept each idea and build on it making it even more awesome. The same is true for linty hop. If you take what your partner offers to the dance, and build on it, true magic can happen. If you are constrictive and try to reject offers made by your partner you may still get through the dance, but at least one of you is going to feel rubbish about it. I personally love those dances when you can’t quite tell who started having the boss ideas, but by the end you are both doing sick variations that really hit the music and you end the dance grinning like an idiot.

FIND THE GAME

In any improve scene, no matter what the ‘game’ being played is, there will be an internal ‘game’. For example the characters may be in opposition, physically or emotionally, one may copy the other, one may be ignored etc etc. Really good scenes may include these games implicitly and this will definitely be happening in your lindy, even if you have never thought about it. Say for example a follow throws a musical variation to hit a break on the end of a swing out- you know the same musical break is going to happen 3 times in a row in this track, so you lead 3 swing outs to allow her to hit those breaks… that’s a game! Or you copy the follow… that’s a game. Or the follow leaves the next break for the lead, in a call and response fashion… that is most definitely a game. This can make for really great social dancing, as it requires a connection between lead and follow that is not purely physical. However, they game should always be a fair one - a leader playing ‘lets see how many tension changes I can put into this 3 count send out to try to catch my follow out’ or a follow playing ‘what if I make my connection really heavy so the lead actually can’t move me?’ that ain’t no fun for anyone. Invite your partner to play a game that you are involved with too..

Check this out - and look for the game at 1:16 – brilliant.

PIMPING

There is such a thing in Improv as ‘pimping’ whereby you will give someone a lead in to a scene that will really give them something to go on, i.e. “oh here comes spaghetti armed Joe” rather than “oh here comes Joe” because then Joe has an immediate character providing a strong physical offer to the scene, and he will (hopefully) get an instant laugh!

The Whose line? Game ‘Superheroes’ is a great example of this:

In your dance you can do this- as a lead- if you know your follow can shake that thing- give them some room to do some kick ass swivels. As a follow, be grounded so he can use you for those cool compression spins or rides, and give the lead the limelight to show off occasionally. Never thought I’d say this- but PIMP YOUR DANCE PARTNER- do this selflessly and you will both feel fecking awesome!

Juan beautifully executes a neo-swing pimp on Laura here at 0:26

DON’T TRY TO BE FUNNY/CLEVER

Classic Improv error- trying to be funny

Classic swing dance error- trying to be complex

If you go onto a stage as an improviser (particularly if you are in a scene with others) trying to be funny, either you will alienate or fail to connect to the other characters and therefore be intensely not funny, or your gags will flop if the scene doesn’t go the way you intend.

If you are dancing, the same is true. Say Max and Annie taught you 385762 footwork variations at Herrang last month… great- good for you, but dancing them AT a beginner, who is going to be thrown off by them and can’t cope with your many changes in connection- not cool. Also dancing them with anyone and looking smug at how amazing you are, scoffing at their lack of fancy footwork- also not cool. Stressing about always having to fit every variation you know into a dance and generally feeling shit about your dancing if you don’t- incredibly not cool. Chances are, if you stop thinking about it and really listen to the music, it will happen… as if by magic. Also, respond to your partner- if their connection is awesome and you’re feeling great- throw loads of the things in, you’ll probably end up inventing a load of new ones together. Not trying to be cool/ clever/ funny generally makes it happen anyway.

And here is Skye- keeping it so simple and chilled – incredibly cool without over-complicating it.

LISTEN

This is a fairly obvious one, but definitely worth mentioning. If you are in a scene with someone else and you don’t listen to what they are saying, chances are the scene won’t make sense and whoever you are improvising with will be quite put out because they have nothing to work with. So when you dance with someone, it should not be 2 people shouting at the top of their lungs, one person shouting at the other so they can’t hear the other whispering, one shouting whilst the other ignores them, or two people blankly staring into space thinking about whether anyone will ever use cassette tapes again. The partnership should be listening to one another, speaking at the same volume mostly, with moment of excitement (like someone announces they are engaged) or that quiet moment where one reveals a secret to the other. The conversation may still be polite and formal, but so long as both are listening, this is no bad thing. If the dance ebbs and flows like a conversation where both parties have something to say and listen to what is said then you’ve hit the jackpot in my book.

DON’T PLAN MATERIAL

If an improviser rocks up to a gig with planned material- the audience will know, the other players will know and generally you could ask yourself what is the actual point of you being here, why aren’t you doing stand up?
So routines are stand up right, and social dance is improvisation- so do that. I get when you are starting out you know sequences of moves, and that is great- practice them at every available opportunity. However, always improvise at least SOMETHING - stand in closed and wiggle a bit- this way every dance has something different in it that very importantly hits the music- coz that’s swing! You don’t need moves to be a good leader, you need good connection- to your partner and to the music!

TAKE RISKS, BE FREE TO FAIL AND IF IT’S BAD - MAKE IT WORSE

In Improv, my colleagues are always telling me, when I get nervous or cut up about a scene I feel I have just fluffed, that it is pretty much impossible to ‘break’ a scene. Even if you weren’t funny or you said nothing and broke character and did an interpretive dance about a manatee… you did not ‘break’ improv.

So- Dax (or equivalent celebrity super-lead/follow) is in the room. Dance with him- why not?! It is virtually impossible to break a dance too! Say during this dance you miss a few leads, you turn yourself the wrong way, you slap him in the face, lose a shoe and end the dance in the splits. SO WHAT?! You have not broken the lindy hop- get back out there and dance with someone else. Or go into a jam circle and totally make an idiot of yourself if that is what floats your boat. Obviously you don’t have to take such risks if you don’t want to, but never ever feel like you can’t take them because you aren’t good enough- everyone wants to grow and learn (few are more critical of themselves than advanced dancers) so get in there and BRING IT… if that is what you want to do. Or find your own understated ways to push yourself and take risks in order to improve - nothing ventured, nothing gained!"