Disco Dance - Do the Hustle

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Disco Dance - Do the Hustle

By Bernard Lopez of DiscoMusic.com


I'm certain there are many of you out there who would love to learn the Hustle or any style of dance as well, but haven't taken the critical step. Perhaps you need to hear from someone who has done it already? Well here is some inspiration for you.

DiscoMusic.com visitor, Ed Gee from California is someone that I have been in contact with for a while who has taken to Disco Hustle dancing in a big way and proves that it's never too late to learn how to dance. Here's his story compiled from our many conversations:

Ed says: As for dancing: I can totally relate to you. I was completely self conscious about it. But at the end of 1993, I got invited to so many company Christmas parties and just dance parties in general that I finally said, "That does it! I'm going to learn how to dance even if it kills me!" So I opened the telephone book and found the nearest dance studio (I didn't care if it was reputable or not, it turned out that they are reputable). I committed myself to 30 hours of private lessons. The instructor there asked me, "What do you want to learn? The Fox Trott, the Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha?" I said, "I don't know. Just teach me how to dance whatever they do at weddings and company Christmas parties." She said, "Okay, we'll start you off with Cha Cha and EAST Coast Swing."

Well, we tried that for a while, but my instructor said to me, "When you leave this studio, you don't practice do you?" I said, "That's correct, I don't practice. Mountain biking and inline skating are my passions." She said, "Well, I know that you don't practice because it shows!" Ouch!

She said, "After this lesson, I want you to get in front of that mirror and look at yourself as you practice the steps that I taught you." So, I did... and that lasted about 3 milliseconds! I looked like an idiot standing in front of a mirror dancing! Also, I hated the Cha Cha and EAST Coast Swing.

I finally told my instructor to teach me something else. She asked me, "What do you want to learn?" I said, "Teach me some line dances." She was shocked. She expected me to make better use of my private lessons than to learn line dancing! But, some of the country/western bars that I was going to had line dancing and I wanted to be sociable. She taught me a bunch of them and it was fun! I was getting the hang of it.

This dance studio has classes throughout the week and a practice party on Friday nights. I started to attend the Friday night parties and met lots of new friends and I was actually starting to remember the patterns that my instructor taught me. Then I got bitten . . .

A song called "Cha Cha Cha" by Finzi Kontini came on. It had a real disco beat to it, not a Cha Cha beat. I watched this one woman and her male instructor dance to it. I told my instructor, "Look! What are they dancing?" She said, "That's WEST Coast Swing." I said, "Cathy, that's what I want to learn." She said, "Ed, WEST Coast Swing is one of the hardest dances to learn and you're barely getting the basics on the EAST Coast Swing and Cha Cha, but okay . . ." It's funny, three years later, Cathy told me that she told the owner of the dance studio that, privately, she didn't think that I was ever going to get partner dancing down.

I started training in WEST Coast Swing and absolutely loved it. It is such a versatile dance. You can use it for Rock-n-Roll, some big band swing music, and of course, Disco! The Disco music really turned me on the most. I started to train with other instructors who were experts in Hustle which is specifically made for Disco music. I trained heavily in WEST Coast Swing, L.A. and New York style Hustle. I don't have money growing on trees, but I've now had 299 hours of private lessons at $45/hr (hey, hey, all that spread out over 5 years), and 533 hours of group lessons. And, most importantly, I've had over 1500 (it's roughly 1575 hours now, but who's counting?) hours of practice

Obviously, I went overboard! If I had to do it all over again, I would have done lots of group lessons in WEST Coast Swing and Hustle, then taken two private lessons a month to take out the "rough edges" of my dance. But hey, I was way too self conscious about my dance so I completely overkilled the situation! But like you mentioned, everybody can dance once they overcome the obstacles. For me, the obstacles were to find the right dance and to practice and to get over my self consciousness on the dance floor.

If you get a chance, I highly recommend partner dance lessons. It really adds a whole new dimension to dancing. There are many times when either I or my dance partner screwed up a pattern and without saying anything to each other, our eyes meet and we know exactly what happened, but the people watching us didn't have a clue. We just smile at one another and continue dancing. One of my dance instructors summed it up this way, "The communication between two dancers is through the connection they make with their hands and by looking at each other."

Several women whom I dance with have said, "I can usually tell a man's personality by the way he dances with me. If he's rough with me or jerks me around on the dance floor, he usually is a jerk too. But if he leads me and is gentle with me, he also tends to have a gentle personality style too.

With due respect to the above women, personally, I think that a man can be a jerk but have a nice lead in dance simply because he studies hard or has taken private lessons to get rid of that roughness on the floor. Of course, that won't necessarily change a man's personality... One thing's for sure, dance is a good ice breaker and can provide a "first impression" to both men and women.

You'll notice that I emphasized WEST Coast Swing vs. EAST Coast Swing. There's a big difference. EAST Coast Swing is for big band swing music from the 1920s thru the 1940s. The dance is quite bouncy, goes all over the dance floor, and the music of course is fast. WEST Coast Swing has the couple dancing on an imaginary surf board. The patterns for the men are macho and the ones for the women are sensual. You got to see it some time.

One time in class, my instructors announced, "Okay, we're going to be teaching Advanced West Coast Swing and beginning Hustle next semester." I raised my hand and asked, "Hustle? Can you give us a 30 second demo?" He said, "You've been with us for how many years now and you don't know what Hustle is?" One girl said, "Well isn't it this?" She proceeded to do "Hustle" the line dance seen on Saturday Night Fever! I looked at my instructors and they looked at me and said, "Okay, we'll give a demonstration." He later told me that he didn't want people thinking that the line dance "Hustle" is what L.A. and New York Hustle dancing is all about. "That's not what Hustle is!" I told him, "I know that! That's why I wanted you to give a demonstration because we've been stereotyped. You also need to give demonstrations on what West Coast Swing is because when people hear the word 'swing' they think of Jitterbug, East Coast Swing, Lindy, Balboa, and Shag. We're stereotyped there too."

Hustle dancing is difficult to describe. It has been divided into two major camps: 1.) L.A. Style or "Street Hustle," which is the 116 to 132 bpm music (you weren't off when you mentioned 125 bpm), and 2.) New York Style Hustle in which the man really shows the lady off! It's done to music in the 108 to 116 bpm range, and when seen, looks very romantic and flashy at the same time. In either case, the timing of the man and woman's foot work is AND-1-2-3-AND-4-5-6. (There are some schools that change this count, but the majority of Hustle dancers are taught AND-1-2-3-AND-4-5-6.)

Part of what makes New York style Hustle dancing romantic is that the lady has some nice arm styling to really show her off and the patterns that the men lead travel all over the floor so it looks flowy. The transitions between patterns are very fluid, especially when performed to slow Disco music. I asked one of the leading authorities her opinion about high energy dance music and Hustle. She said, "If a song gets any faster then I might as well be in an aerobics class! The point is to dance and make it look romantic and fluid."

In L.A. style Hustle, the man and woman stay on a slot which can be likened to an imaginary surf board that they are on. There are advantages to this style of Hustle in that on a crowded floor, couples have a much less chance of crashing into each other.
Another advantage is that since the lady does not have to worry too much about "holding" her arm styling, the couple can dance to much faster music.

The bottom line is that people should learn both and have fun out there! One of my instructors told me, "The best dancers aren't the ones who can only dance with a narrow range of people. The best dancers are the ones who can dance with anybody." He's absolutely correct. I've trained in both camps and I can dance with ladies from both camps.

During my many discussions with Ed I happened to mention that I read "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse and and it sort of started this thing ticking inside of me to act. That is to take more chances in life and to live it to it's fullest. One of the things that the main character in the story does is to go to a jazz club and learn how to dance even though he is now an older man. Long story short; a whole new world opens up. Obviously the dance in the book is just a metaphor, but still interesting. OK, back to Ed now:

Speaking of Steppenwolf, Michael Monarch, former lead guitarist for Steppenwolf is heavily in the West Coast Swing community. He competed with a dance team at the prestigous U.S. Open West Coast Swing Dance Championships. He and his team placed 2nd in 1997. He competed with two different dance partners in 1997 and 1998, but didn't place. He's a totally cool guy who doesn't let anyone know he's a celebrity. He's extremely helpful when we ask him to share his dance patterns.

My dance partner and I competed in a dance event here in Southern California. It was the Country Boogie Dance Festival. It was a lot of fun. We competed in three Novice Class major events: 1.) Just Dance Hustle, 2.) Just Dance West Coast Swing, and a 3.) Jack-n-Jill West Coast Swing.

The Jack-n-Jill event is where each male competitor randomly draws a lady's name out of the hat. After that's completed, we are to dance with that person for about one minute. Nobody in the Novice Class is spotlighted. All the competitors dance at the same time. Afterwards, the guys randomly draw a lady's name out of a hat and we do it again. Then one more time (Three all together). Each time, it's a different song and different partner. The person who invented this competition said that he did it because he and his dance partner were always winning a lot of the contests that they were in so he thought to himself, "What if I had a different partner? Would I be winning still? Is my skill level really good so that I can properly lead any woman in dance and still win?" Thus, the Jack-n-Jill competition was born!

The Just Dance Hustle and West Coast Swing events were simpler. I got to dance with my dance partner who knows all my move and nuances. These competitions are known as "Just Dance" events. We dance ONCE to music for about 2 1/2 minutes. No one is spotlighted. All couples in their class dance at the same time. If there are a large number of couples, there may be multiple heats. My partner and I took 1st place in Hustle and 3rd place in West Coast Swing.

If we can win the Novice Class one more time, the committee members who hold all these competitions will bump us up into the Intermediate Class.

It's funny. Novice Class makes it sound like a bunch of beginners go out and compete. But statistically, most people who go out there and compete in the Novice Class already have three to five years of dancing experience. Of course, there are beginners out there too, but they usually get killed out there. That's why one of my instructors recommends that his students go out and compete as soon as possible so: 1.) They get used to the idea of dancing in front of judges, 2.) They get used to the idea of dancing in front of an audience, and 3.) They get used to the idea of losing and winning in front of their peers and strangers.

The first time my partner and I competed was over Labor Day weekend in '98. We trained really, really hard. We put in a lot of hours of practice, took a lot of private lessons to sharpen our presentation skills, and we analyzed all our patterns and strategized. We ended up getting killed out there! We decided, with great reservations on both our parts, to try competing together again. This time, we decided that we would: 1.) Not practice, 2.) Not take any lessons, 3.) Not go over any mechanics, and 4.) Just go out there and have fun!!! I guess it worked!

These dance events really are fun. Not only do you get to compete with people from different schools, but during the periods where there is open dancing, you get to meet new friends and acquaintances.

Now I asked Ed about what kinds of music do the dancers like. Being that Ed also DJ's using a Pioneer CDJ-700S he gave me a quick rundown of some good songs. In particular Ed told me that he DJ's for the New York style Hustle dancers. The speed that they like is around 108 bpm to 116 bpm. Songs like "Spring Rain" by Silvetti, "Boogie With Me" by Poussez , "Thumbs Up" by Bardeux, "Out of the Storm" by Incognito, and "Make It On My Own" (Spagotone mix) by Alison Limerick and countless other Disco classics.

I'll leave you with this funny story. One of the New York style Hustle dancers found this one song on 45 rpm. He played it back at 33 1/3 rpm and from there pitched it down another 8%. Someone told him, "That's a totally awesome song!!! I've never heard it before." He responded by saying, "And you never will anywhere else!"

A super big thank you to Ed Gee for putting up with all my questions and his willingness to share his experiences with others via this website. Keep an eye on him and his partner at a dance floor near you.

The End

Related Links

• Listing and memories of Disco era nightclubs
  
• 700 DJ Certified Top Disco Dance Songs
  
• Download Disco MP3 songs and albums
  
• Retro Hustle, Disco Style (Shawn Trautman's Learn to Dance Series) DVD
  
• Do You Want To Dance - DVD
  

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