Social Dance I Guidelines
Richard Powers


This course focuses on contemporary non-competitive partnered dances including...
    Cross-step waltz
        Rotary waltz (the original waltz)
            4-count swing
                6-count swing (East Coast Swing)
                    Triple 6-count swing (also called East Coast Swing)
                        Nightclub Two-Step
                            Tango
                                Bachata
                                    Cha cha
                                        Salsa


New information is in bold red.


1. ATTENDANCE

You're allowed six absences.

Instead of coming to classes, I'm sending you written descriptions of our remaining steps and figures, with the accompanying videos.

I trust that you will read the first three of these Web pages (click the links at the bottom of the pages to continue to the next of the three), read my emailed dance descriptions, watch the videos, and dance them to get them into your body/mind, with or without a partner.  Stanford Honor Code.

Making up extra absences

If you happen to have more than the six allowed absences, you can easily make up an absence by:

1) Submitting some dance music.  You can submit music files via Dropbox or leave a USB drive, which I'll return to you.  You may also use Google Drive, but invite/share the folder to my gmail address, vintage@gmail.com, not vintage@stanford.edu.  Submit music files, not just song titles, YouTube links or Spotify lists.  Please don't attach music files to an e-mail.

You need only submit three or four tunes to make up each absence, but students often like to turn in a full mix, which is always helpful.  It should be music for some of the dances we've done, not just random listening music.  i.e., be able to reply with what kind of dance would be done to each song that you submit, if you were asked.  A maximum of 5 absences can be made up this way.

2) Writing one dance essay per absence, a half-page (or more) essay on any dance subject, preferably observations, personal reflections or insights on social dancing.  Attach it to an email to me (vintage@stanford), not using Google Docs or Canvas.  A maximum of 4 absences can be made up this way.

The deadline for turning in absence make-ups is Saturday March 14th, at midnight.


2. GOING OUT DANCING

This requirement has been dropped for this quarter.  If you didn't manage to go out dancing yet, you don't need to.  I'm glad that most of you did.


OTHER INFORMATION
Videos of our Dances

Nick and Melissa Enge made videos of all of our steps and variations when they assisted this class.

              Cross-Step Waltz, Rotary Waltz and Polka

              Four-Count, Six-Count and Triple Swing

              Club Two Step (Nightclub Two-Step)

              Social Tango

              Bachata

              Cha Cha and Salsa


The Attendance Sheets

                   

I emailed you the final attendance sheet, to let you know how many absences you have.  Let me know if you didn't get it.

The number before your name indicates how many times you've gone out social dancing.  The extra Going Out Dancings will be deducted from your absences at the end of the quarter.

The italic letters after your name indicate which classes you missed, a through z.  + indicates an absence make-up besides going out dancing extra times.  They will also be deducted from your absences at the end of the quarter.


My Thoughts, Philosophies and Musings on Social Dance

            See http://socialdance.stanford.edu/Syllabi/musings.htm


Dance Music Suggestions

            See http://socialdance.stanford.edu/discography.htm


Where to buy dance shoes, if you want them

            See http://socialdance.stanford.edu/Syllabi/DanceShoes.htm


The Quotes of the Day
Dancing is the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.
          - Henry Havelock Ellis

It is not necessary to change and adapt.  Survival is not mandatory.
          - W. Edwards Deming

The art of life lies in a constant re-adjustment to our surroundings.
          - Kakuzo Okakura
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.
          - Scott Adams

Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.
          - Bertolt Brecht

You can make more friends in a month by becoming interested in other people, than you can in a year by trying to get other people interested in you.
          - Dale Carnegie
The waltz can be sad and at the same time uplifting. You have to see life from both sides, and the waltz encapsulates that.
          - Andre Rieu


The waltz held the feeling you get when you finish a well-loved book. It left me longing for something I couldn't name.
          - Louise Miller

Never have I moved so lightly. To hold the most adorable creature in one's arms and fly around with her like the wind, so that everything around us fades away.
          - Goethe
When you're swing dancing, for a few minutes you become an actor, a dancer, a choreographer. You become the best version of yourself as you let go of life's concerns.
          - Ashley Clark

Want to dance Lindy hop correctly? Then don't be real concerned about "correctness."
          - Lindy Hopper superstar Leon James

Dance to express, not to impress.
Intelligence will take you only so far. Over the long run, how well you relate to others is more important.
          - Steven Jarrett

Logic will get you from A to B.
Imagination will take you everywhere.
          - Albert Einstein

Dance isn't something that can be explained in words; it has to be danced.
          - Paige Arden
While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. That is why I dance.
          - Hans Bos

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
          - William James

I think those who say that you can't tango if you're not Argentine are mistaken. Tango was an immigrant dance, so it does not have a nationality. Its only passport is feeling.
          - Carlos Gavito
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
          - Maya Angelou

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
          - Theodore Rubin

On with the dance! Let joy be unconfin'd; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
          - Byron, Childe Harold, III
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
          - Robert Heinlein

In the ballroom, all should act as though the other person's happiness was of as much importance as their own.
- Nilsson Ball-Room Guide, 1871

Self-absorption kills empathy. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands.
          - Daniel Goleman

We evolve by overcoming hardship, celebrating social diversity, asking questions, and enjoying challenges.
We devolve by succumbing to intolerance, selfishness, ignorance, and sloth.

          - Bradley Travor Greive
Social dancing is human contact that allows you to touch what your partner is thinking.
  - Saloni Sanwalka, Social Dance I
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.
          - French Proverb

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.

          - Friedrich Nietzsche
The term "coming of age" always seems to apply to teenagers. But you can come of age in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or maybe never. I define it as beginning to value other people for who they are, rather than what they can do for you.
          - Roger Ebert
The greatest gift we can give one another is rapt attention to one another's existence.
          - Sue Atchley Ebaugh

Fun is fundamental. There is no way around it. You absolutely must have fun.
Without fun, there is no enthusiasm.
Without enthusiasm, there is no energy.
Without energy, there are only shades of gray.
          - Douglas Hall