Jeongnyeon

Swing Dance Meditation: Part 6 - A Dance Philosophy Somehow Inspired by K-Drama

I watched Jeongnyeon twice over earlier this year. It was the time when I had completed my Lindy Hop beginner classes, and had begun dipping into the wild uncontrollable world of socials. Being freshly inserted in this hullaballoo, I experienced a period of transition where everything was overwhelming and uncomfortable. During this time, thinking about Jeongnyeon and the way she handled her difficulties became a source of inspiration and strength for me.

Jeongnyeon finds her own Bangja

Jeongnyeon skips class and found the silly at the square. She brings the same silly to the stage and endears the crowds with her own special, extra silly Bangja. I learned that dancing Lindy Hop was not merely a static, historically-informed exercise where I do the exact moves of the ancestors, but adopting an attitude; you might make mistakes, but just as a wrong note played with confidence becomes a right note (example here), the same applies also to dance moves.

There were a few socials where my interior focus was to own the bullshit. I frequently make the mistake of initiating something silly, then in the middle of it backpedalling because what if I was too silly? When this happens the follow catches a half-cue and becomes frustrated. In September last year I made a choice to consciously choose to follow through the silly move, instead of instinctually pulling back. Just by that choice, I felt that I had progressed from the beginner ranks.

I find my own Jeongnyeon and Yeongseo

The character of Yeongseo was Jeongnyeon's foil. She is in many ways Jeongnyeon's polar opposite: Jeongnyeon is spontaneous, free-spirited, acts on instinct, and prone to trouble, while Yeongseo is academic, serious, stable, and a hard worker. The Bildungsroman was not written just for Jeongnyeon, but for Yeongseo as well, such that the latter, while initially standoffish, eventually became more co-protagonist than antagonist, and their paths of growth eventually converged. Jeongnyeon needed Yeongseo to grow in maturity and regard for others, and Yeongseo needed Jeongnyeon to let go of her inner baggage and to express herself more creatively.

I have felt the tug of both characters in me on the floor. In November I reflected on my dance and found out that I needed to be a lot more mindful of my follows, and my leaning hard into spontaneity, while a response to my old trauma, came at the cost of potentially alienating my friends. Because of this, I began to learn from the best leads on the floor: this would be Geir, who does not pull fancy moves, but moves with the music and makes his follows feel at ease - to the follow, this was a bigger plus than fancy moves by far. I signed up for extra classes to pay attention to the ineffable qualities of dance. I also began to build an interior dossier on each follow's preferences and dispositions, so that I could dance the best way with every one of them.

Of course, in this process I get to lose some of the silly which I had accumulated in September and October, which entails even losing some moves. I am currently scrambling to get them back. Insh'Allah, I will find a happy medium between these two philosophies.