Are socials a place to be challenged? (Yourself or your partner?)

I recently posted a video with a pattern and wrote, “I challenge you to try this one at the social.”The first comment I received was:

“Social dancing is supposed to be easy and non-challenging! It’s for unwinding, not for show.”

They say that if you have haters on social media, you’re probably doing something right, right? Hahahaha.

Now, I do understand where this concern might come from. There are a lot of people trying things on the social dance floor that look terrible, but most of the time, there's one main reason for that: lack of technique.

If you start “trying things” as a leader or follower without the necessary technique, you can lose connection — or worse, hurt your partner.

That said, experimenting, making mistakes, and learning from them is a natural and powerful path to creativity (we use this A LOT). There are levels to this:

• One thing is trying new ideas while ensuring you don’t hurt your partner.

• Another is trying things with no regard for your partner's safety or experience.

For me, social dancing becomes “easy” because of proper technique. You might look at an advanced movement and think, “That doesn’t look easy at all,” but someone with solid technique may be able to try it smoothly and safely during a social.

And hopefully, with good judgment, you’ll know when and with whom to try each movement.

For example: I wouldn’t try a crazy toalha variation with someone who doesn’t even know how to do tilted turns.

I’m one of the lucky people who turned their passion into a profession. Even though I work with dance, it’s still my way to unwind and relieve stress — but that doesn’t mean I don’t challenge myself.

Now, in this next sentence, I know some people will start reading and think, “See… he thinks the dance floor is a place to perform a show,” or something like that.Please read until the end.

I see dancing as a sport — and like any sport, I train and practice a lot so that when I go to the “game,” I can perform.When I say perform, I don’t mean putting on a show. I mean using all the skills I’ve practiced, from complex patterns to how I embrace and touch, so that when I’m on the social dance floor, I’m ready to apply the right technique at the right moment.

For me, challenging myself is a path to growth.

I want to be challenged. I want to challenge myself. That’s how I improve my technique, musicality, creativity, connection, adaptability, and more.And for that, I work hard on my skills — so I can do all of this seamlessly and without hurting my partner.

Many of the movements we do today in Brazilian Zouk were born because people challenged themselves, made mistakes, and created something new from those mistakes.You need to get out of your comfort zone to grow.

So yes — to me, social dancing is a place for challenges.You just need good judgment to know:

1. When to try something

2. What to try

3. With whom to try it

   
   

By Tiago Movimentus___________________________________

*I use Chat GPT to correct my grammar, since English is not my first language,

 but NOT  to create the content of my text