I suspect the reason why we don't always start patterns on 1 is precisely to allow for improvisation. Oftentimes songs have breaks that always come on the same beat. Take for instance Heart attack and vine (by Tom Waits): it has many breaks, all on 1. If the leader was to always start a new pattern at that point, there would be no way for the follower to mark the break, as she would always be "walking forward" (or rather being led forward, to be more precise). On the contrary, you want those breaks to come in the middle of patterns to be able to mark them in various different ways. Right?
I heard a WCS Pro leader once say in a workshop, that if the follower's play disturbed his plan to hit the phrase change, then for him the dance/game was over and he would just lead simple patterns until the end of the dance. So glad to hear that is not how we should be viewing dancing, as it put me off from ever wanting to try to "play".
Using words to count swung rhythm was huge,,, A lot of songs I thought were swung were straight and some songs they have a swung 16th note and a straight eighth. Also the other big thing is I have been told by a chief judge that I should default to a swung rhythm in comes. Thx M &T. This is brilliant!
I must have driven my leaders crazy since I always wanted to start on the 1 of a phrase! I just had my eyes opened!!
I suspect the reason why we don't always start patterns on 1 is precisely to allow for improvisation. Oftentimes songs have breaks that always come on the same beat. Take for instance Heart attack and vine (by Tom Waits): it has many breaks, all on 1. If the leader was to always start a new pattern at that point, there would be no way for the follower to mark the break, as she would always be "walking forward" (or rather being led forward, to be more precise). On the contrary, you want those breaks to come in the middle of patterns to be able to mark them in various different ways. Right?
I heard a WCS Pro leader once say in a workshop, that if the follower's play disturbed his plan to hit the phrase change, then for him the dance/game was over and he would just lead simple patterns until the end of the dance. So glad to hear that is not how we should be viewing dancing, as it put me off from ever wanting to try to "play".
That is sad to hear. Definitely not yes &
Using words to count swung rhythm was huge,,, A lot of songs I thought were swung were straight and some songs they have a swung 16th note and a straight eighth. Also the other big thing is I have been told by a chief judge that I should default to a swung rhythm in comes. Thx M &T. This is brilliant!