"I'm craving some kind of structure to follow so I know what to practice that will get me to the next level"
"I have heard so much random advice, I feel lost and confused by conflicting ideas - I'm not sure what to focus on to improve, "
"I feel lost - constantly wondering what the judges are looking for in my division. How can I shoot at a target blind?"
"I see so much wrong in my videos and get discouraged. I want to be able to express myself more and feel like I'm really dancing."
"I love my coaches, and I work hard, but I see others improving faster than me and I'm tired of being stuck or left behind"
"I know I've been improving, but in competition, I fall apart. I need strategies to stay focused and not panic"
Introducing the
Way beyond a workshop...way beyond a theory...
A comprehensive program that delivers
a powerful, progressive, and most importantly, proven method to learn WCS
that solves your learning frustrations and
rescues you from your struggling...
Sam Jackson
I immediately saw results after taking the Swing Literacy program. For the first time in my (substantial) dance experience, I had a coherent and structured approach to learning dance. I had gained knowledge and skills that I feel would have taken many years to develop by any other method. Each new topic in the modules felt like a revelation, impacting my classes, as well as my own dancing, significantly.
Jen Malcolm
Life before Swing Literacy was frustrating!!! I was doing poorly in competition and was not exactly the most popular dancer on the social floor. After 2-years of rarely making finals in Novice, I started working with Myles & Tessa. I jumped from Novice to Advanced in just 1 year (6 events)!!
M&T's Swing Literacy system is brilliant. I can see many more “Tessons” and “Mylestones” in my future."
Imagine...
Myles brings a lifetime of dance background, including classical solo dance training, Ballroom, Salsa, Theatre Arts, and 6 UCWDC World Championship titles, He also brings Karate, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Jiu-Jitsu, golf and motorcycle racing to the table, and considers himself an eternal student of manipulating kinetics for sport and art.
His studies in all of these non-dance fields, along with being classically trained and studying the inner workings of over 20 different dances, is a huge part of what made it possible for him and Tessa to create Swing Literacy.
Myles is also a highly respected WSDC Chief Judge known for his lightening-fast evaluation skills he can back up with technical analysis.
Tessa’s academic background started with competitive swimming, where she received National Coaching Certification, created a Coach Training Program, graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Kinesiology, and started an Olympic-track coaching career, all before returning to school to complete her Bachelor of Education.
Tessa has been professionally practicing physical education, movement analysis, and pedagogy for the past 30 years. She is a believer in constant improvement and evolution, which helps her maintain her West Coast Swing skills as well pioneering the powerful and effective suite of programs (Swing Literacy).
Solve all your technique confusion once and for all so you can decode any instructors’ advice and leverage it to learn more advanced material.
Learn what you should be spending your time and effort to work on first to make the biggest improvement impact on your dance
Improve your ability to learn faster so that you can get more value out of any workshop, video, or lesson.
Solve all your technique confusion once and for all so you can decode any instructors’ advice and leverage it to learn more advanced material.
Learn what you should be spending your time and effort to work on first to make the biggest improvement impact on your dance
Improve your ability to learn faster so that you can get more value out of any workshop, video, or lesson.
Drastically improve your “quality of movement”, so you get more recognition from more experienced partners, peers, and judges.
Finally be able to “feel like you’re dancing”, comfortable, self-expressed, and musical instead of just marching through patterns.
Be able to survive and compensate for any social dance partner, (without sacrificing your own fun) and become one of the most desirable, social dance partners in your region.
Drastically improve your “quality of movement”, so you get more recognition from more experienced partners, peers, and judges.
Finally be able to “feel like you’re dancing”, comfortable, present, self-expressed, and musical instead of just running through patterns.
Be able to survive and compensate for any partner, (without sacrificing your own fun) and become one of the most desirable, social dance or J&J partners in your region.
Hisaki
Minoda
Swing Literacy Bootcamp was the light that enriched my life the most in Corona time! Nowhere else can you learn WCS in total, and it's a great tool for someone in a small community like me here in Japan who doesn't have the opportunity to get new knowledge and dance every week with coaches. It is a precious place with friends from all over the world. We have a guidebook and community packed with the resources we need. Experience the amazing verbalization of WCS. I recommend it!
Rae Bailine
This Swing Literacy program is 1,000% worth it! I cannot even begin to tell you guys how much value I found out of this Bootcamp. I can't have imagined going through quarantine without it. With WCS, I felt like I just jumped into the middle and have been looking for a breakdown of everything - this gave me the info I needed to understand the root of the movements and get it into my body. My perspective of dancing has changed - I feel like my eyes were only cracked open, and now they are half open and I can start to see more of what's going on.
Jasper LaFortune
Swing Literacy was the missing piece in my dance education. So many blocks in my dance growth I didn't understand until I took this course. I find myself going now back through all my previous lessons and advice and using Swing Literacy to figure out how it all fits together. This experience has also changed my practice habits. Before, I had no idea how to practice. Now I have a social group I practice with and they keep me motivated to keep improving. This was a unique and invaluable service. 100% worth it.
For Westies of all levels, all over the world, to #trainsmarter and get the dance they deserve, this course also fills in the gaps that many competitors are missing at in every level.
included with your purchase:
This edition of the Bootcamp will focus on
Module 2 Partnership Movement Skills and Module 4, Musicality Skills
Get the whole story of WCS musicality and help you see how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together and where your blindspots might be
Training your brain and body to improve reaction time, manipulate your speed, and use more complex rhythms
Get more creative in your improvised WCS dancing and more versatile in your musicality with any partner
Build your repertoire of lower body styling, grooves, footwork syncopations, and practical ways to improvise with them
Includes:
Workshop & video review for competitive Bootcampers:
Online 2-hour levelled workshop exclusively for your division
You'll be assigned an extra 2-hour Zoom session dedicated to topics around competition techniques, tactics, and strategies, and interactive coaching and feedback to help you apply what you learn in the Bootcamp in a more competitive way appropriate for your division.
Competitors who register will be sorted by division once the Bootcamp gets started in January.
PLUS: Personal comp video review from M&T
Make it official
The Bootcamp provides the practical component required to complete your Swing Literacy Dancer Certification you can add to your resume and upgrade in the future.
Knowing how to practice WCS more efficiently and have more fun doing it - solo or with a partner - so you can progress faster than ever before
Getting more value out of every class and workshop by applying a fresh method to HOW you absorb, retain, and apply the content you learn
Becoming a better “player” at the Conversation Game of WCS so you can co-create musicality and enjoy more balanced dance "conversations"
Being able to connect better and be more musical with any partner, so you can elevate any dance and never feel limited by your partner's skills
Unlocking the missing physical skills that have been holding you back from feeling and looking more musical and connected
Getting the complete story of musicality that finally ties together all the random bits of advice you have heard and fills in all the gaps you are missing
Solve all your technique confusion once and for all so you can decode any instructors’ advice and leverage it to learn more advanced material.
Learn what you should be spending your time and effort to work on first to make the biggest improvement impact on your dance
Improve your ability to learn faster so that you can get more value out of any workshop, video, or lesson.
Drastically improve your “quality of movement”, so you get more recognition from more experienced partners, peers, and judges.
Finally be able to “feel like you’re dancing”, comfortable, self-expressed, and musical instead of just marching through patterns.
Be able to survive and compensate for any social dance partner, (without sacrificing your own fun) and become one of the most desirable, social dance partners in your region.
This is the catalyst that gets the results you've been chasing
The DDP is totally different from a weekend workshop - this is material you're going to want to work on and refine for years to come. In fact, each time you review it in the Bootcamp, you hear something new you weren't ready for before, and it causes all new breakthroughs!
Aaron Abramowitz
I was blown away by how well M&T were able to teach remotely. By demoing over video and working with the partner I wrangled to assist, they were able to diagnose and correct many (so many!) things in my dance. Surprisingly, I was also able to learn several new skills that I previously assumed required hands on training, and their frequent comp and social dance video reviews confirmed that I was on the right path.
Ruth Cnaany
Since working with Myles & Tessa in my Fast Track Coaching program, I feel like I have cracked a "glass ceiling" that until now was unavailable to me. I feel much more confident in my ability to follow higher level dancers, I move more gracefully and interpret the music more creatively. I'm enjoying my dancing more than ever and see this enjoyment reflected back to me from my partners on the dance floor.
Glenn Clark
"Swing Literacy has changed my entire perspective on how I look at not just West Coast Swing but all Dancing in general. As someone who has spent years practicing and thousands on lessons in both Ballroom and WCS, I can honestly say that this is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to learn how to dance. Thank you so much M&T for all of your dedication to not just dance but to the art of teaching it as well."
When we first started teaching WCS way back when, we followed the model of our own (awesome) teachers, and didn't question if it was the best method - it was just the method we were used to. But something never felt right. Something was missing, and we felt there must be an easier way.
So we started borrowing pedagogical methods from Tessa's training in teaching school and coaching sports. We taught the same West Coast Swing that everyone knows and loves. We just changed HOW we taught it and the order we taught it in.
Several years of research and testing proved that our evolving method was way more effective than the way we were taught, and way more fun for our students. Students in group classes, workshops, and private lessons were improving faster AND having more fun learning! We even used these methods to accelerate our own progress, launching us to Champion level in both improvisation and choreography competition.
We really wanted to share this method so everyone can enjoy the same results and help West Coast Swing grow strong and healthy around the world! We knew it was going to revolutionize the way people learn and train their WCS, so we didn't just create a workshop or an intensive - we produced an entire certification program for teachers, called the Swing Literacy Teacher Development Program. If you are a teacher, check this program out instead.
It has been so successful all around the world, we created a version just for DANCERS...the DDP!
Is this program just for newer competitors, or would it be relevant to a seasoned competitor?
The Dancer Development program is incredibly relevant to experienced competitors. Regardless of your past education, it is a unique method that requires training to understand and put into practice. Your years of experience might make you quicker at learning it, but they don't exclude you from getting an immense value from the training, because the content is not something you have likely studied before. You would be surprised how much of your dance is simply "surviving" when it could be "thriving".
How long does the DDP take to complete?
It depends on how focused and motivated you are. The total DDP takes about 40 hours. Module 1 is mostly theory that can be read or consumed like a podcast. In the rest of the Modules, each lesson might take 10-30 minutes to work through, some with a super short quiz at the end. In this Bootcamp, we will be focusing only on Modules 1, 2, and 4.
What kind of assignments and testing will I have to do?
In the DDP, all of your coursework is online, inside this website. You will be able to progress at your own pace, and return to re-read material. Each lesson requires you to answer a few multiple choice questions in order to access the next lesson. There is no final exam.
Can't I just download the videos and do it offline?
No: The program is not just a bunch of instructional videos. The DDP takes advantage of the power of a digital course. It includes mostly written material, supported by videos, images, article links, and interactive quizzes in a progressive sequence to create a more thorough and balanced learning experience than simply reading a manual or watching a video.
Can I just take the Competitor Lab or the Bootcamp and not the Dancer Development Program?
No. The Bootcamp is simply a delivery method of the DDP - the Bootcamp and Lab don't exist on their own. It's like a book club - there's no point in showing up to the meetings if you have no intention of reading the book.
What happens after the Bootcamp?
When you complete all 6 Modules of the DDP, you will receive Swing Literacy Dancer Certification.
You will have 3 years access to the Dancer Development Program website and the Bootcamp Facebook group. After that, members get ongoing access in Momentum (membership exclusive to alumni).
Benefits | 6 Private Lesson package |  |
|---|---|---|
Developmentally appropriate skill progressions & drills | Limited | |
Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies for all fundamental WCS skills | Limited | |
3 years access to online multimedia course that is constantly being updated | ||
10 Lessons on how to optimize dance learning & practice | ||
12 lessons on the hard-to-find details of WCS technique | ||
6 Lessons on mastering pattern skills | ||
6 lessons on developing musicality skills | ||
5 lessons on survival tactics for social dancing | ||
7 full-length M&T Instructional Videos | ||
Audit and upgrade of your skills inventory | ||
Audit and upgrade of your patterns & styling inventory | ||
Swing Literacy Dancer Certification | ||
Group Coaching with Champions and master teachers | ||
Dedicated private online practice group with peers trained in feedback exchange | ||
Access to adding on courses for Teachers & Competitors | Cell | Cell |
Access to the Momentum membership for alumni upon graduation | Cell | Cell |
Purchasing Options |
The Swing Literacy program for me was like a eureka moment, finally understanding what I had been missing. Having a path connecting the common ideas together, often in logical, causal ways, creating real understanding, gives a real level of confidence to build my dance on. I couldn’t recommend this course more highly, to both existing teachers and students alike. The ideas and concepts in the material are so effective and make so much sense, one might wonder why this isn’t the standard for all.
- Ian Manson
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