Downtown Swing 摇摆舞大师专访 – Hyunjung Choi

INTERVIEW

2019年五一劳动节期间，Downtown Swing Shanghai 邀请了来自韩国的摇摆舞大师 Hyunjung Choi， 给大家带来了 Solo Jazz 以及 Lindy hop training 的 workshop。

workshop结束合影

在此期间，我们的两位美丽的小记者 Nasa and Joy 对这位世界级的摇摆舞舞者，长期在欧洲教课以及担任国际lindy hop比赛裁判的老师进行了一次专访。 如果你想了解 Hyunjung 老师是怎么开始接触摇摆舞的， Hyunjung 老师最喜欢的世界摇摆舞舞者都是谁，请一起来阅读这份由 Nasa and Joy 共同撰稿的采访。 〓〓〓 Here is the interview of Hyunjung Choi , the professional swing dance international teacher from Korea. The interview is made by Nasa and Joy during Hyunjung workshop organized by Downtown Swing in Shanghai on May 3rd , 4th 5th 2019. Please scroll down for the English.

HyunJung Choi

Hyunjung 老师可以说是亚洲摇摆舞舞者的骄傲，当仁不让的世界级摇摆舞大师。 曾经在 Herrang dance Camp 和 Soochan 老师一起受聘为 Competition Show 的老师，在亚洲老师中可谓是凤毛麟角。

Hyunjung 老师在 ILHC, Camp Hollywood 等世界最高级别的比赛中获奖无数，无论在 Lindy hop 还是 Solo jazz and Charleston 都首屈一指。

「正式采访」

Q1 成为Lindy Hop 舞者多长时间了？

▶ 14 年，当了 7 年全职老师 Q2 最喜欢的歌 ▶ “The sunny side of street” – Benny Goodman原始版本

Q3 最喜欢的音乐家？ ▶ Oscar Peterson – 因为我喜欢钢琴演奏 Q4 最喜欢的舞者？ ▶ 我喜欢和所有的人跳舞！如果一定要说最喜欢，那 Follower 中，我喜欢 Ramona Staffeld 和 Evita Arce，你可以在她们的舞蹈中感受到对舞蹈的热。他们最吸引我的是她们的人格魅力，而不仅仅是舞技。

Leader中，我很敬佩Nathan Bugh，他是一个独特的舞者，是一位大师。我同样很喜欢 Felix Berghäll，我认为他是一个很好的 Leader，他总会关注他的舞伴并与舞伴互动。

另外，我也很喜欢 Harlem Hotshot 舞团，他们的舞蹈体现了强烈的爵士根源（jazz roots），让我想起了当年的Black Spirit。

Q5 如何发现并爱上摇摆舞的？ ▶ 我一直喜欢双人舞。有一次我在网上搜到一个吉特巴舞（Jitterbug）的表演视频，那是一个的毕业表演，虽然舞者们都还是初学者，但他们的快乐和可爱感染了我，于是我加入了一个摇摆舞社群，开始以跳摇摆舞为爱好。 在跳摇摆舞以前，我尝试过 Jive 和恰恰（Cha-cha）。这两种舞蹈都很有趣，但是在初学阶段，他们总是让我练习一成不变的舞蹈动作组合（Routine），让我感到很厌倦、无聊，而且当时班上的女生太多了（笑）。 当我第一次遇到 Lindy Hop 时，我感受到了巨大的冲击：哇，有这么多的 leader（男生！！），而且所有人都可以选择去当 Leader 或者 Follower，甚至可以两者兼得！这意味着我在不认识这个舞者的时候就可以和他/她跳舞——可以和所有人跳舞！ 在初学阶段，我就已经是一个十分优秀的“摇摆宝宝”（Swing baby）。我当时很幸运，跳舞一年后就遇到了 Soochan Lee（ Soochan科普:亚洲最棒的男舞者之一，曾多次被邀请到 herrang dance camp 授课 ），当时他已经是一个跳了 3-4 年的摇摆舞老师了。Soochan 邀请我当他的教学搭档，从那时候起，我开始投入Lindy hop的学习与钻研。

Q6 如何成为一个全职摇摆舞老师的？ ▶ 我曾经是一个小学老师，对于韩国的女性来说，这是一份很好很稳定的工作。所以有4年半的时间，我白天当小学老师，晚上当林迪舞舞蹈老师。 长期的高强度工作让我的声带收到了损伤，所以在两个身份中做出选择，最后（大家都知道）我选了舞蹈。

Q7 你如何解读 Leader 和 Follower 这两种身份？ ▶ 舞蹈是两个人的对话。Leader 不应该仅仅是领舞（lead），同时需要倾听 Follower 根据音乐给出的建议。 在跳舞时，Leader 和 Follower 需要根据音乐相互匹配。

Q8 给 Follower 们的建议 ▶ a.懂得如何跟舞（follow），能够理解Leader想要完成的引带（lead）； b. 对音乐有自己的想法，并通过舞蹈表达，为双人舞增添点睛之笔。 这两点同样重要！

Q9 去了那么多地方，你觉得世界各地的 follower 有什么不同之处？ ▶ 欧洲舞者热爱自我表达（表现音乐），而韩国舞者恰恰相反，他们非常非常非常害羞，只想要好好地完成跟舞（follow）。 你可以自由选择任意一种风格，但我想强调的是，最重要的是能将二者结合，融会贯通地既完成跟舞（follow）又表达音乐。

Q10 给 Leader 们的建议 ▶ 我希望Leader们多倾听Follower的声音。当一个 Follower 想要根据音乐表达一些东西因此选择不 follow 信号时，请不要以为Follower“跳错了”，而是将她理解为一个让这支舞更有趣的小变化（variation）。 所以当 Follow 的动作建议与音乐契合时，Leader 们应该理解并匹配 Follower 的建议，就像之前提到的——舞蹈是两个人的对话。

Q11 对中国舞者的印象 ▶我觉得中国舞者非常热爱表达，你们的风格更接近欧洲舞者：）

Q12 对上海摇摆舞会的印象 ▶ 我觉得上海的舞会非常酷，因为大家都打扮得很复古！在韩国，常规舞会的场地相对简陋，所以大家的着装也比较随意，但是 Te Amo 酒吧有这么复古温馨的装饰和氛围，我能理解大家都会想要精心打扮来参加舞会哈哈。

Q13 对比赛的一些建议——固定搭档比赛（Strictly） ▶ 固定搭档比赛有两种备赛方式：1）编舞 ——提前准备好一套动作；2）培养默契，在赛场上即兴发挥。 大家可以根据自身情况选择，如果你选择提前编舞，我的建议是，你们需要练习成百上千遍，把所有动作熟记于心。在赛场上，舞者太容易因为紧张而忘动作了，尤其是 Leader们，所以一定要充分排练，避免在比赛时出错。 如果你和搭档已经有了一些比赛经验，并培养了足够的默契可以随音乐起舞，你们就可以尝试即兴 ——练习一些炫酷的动作（Fancy movements），在比赛时可以用在8拍动作的结尾 ，为你们的展示增添亮点。但想要达到好的效果， Leader 们需要对音乐非常熟悉，跟随音乐在最恰当的时机引带出这些动作。

Q14 对比赛的一些建议——随机搭档比赛（Jack & Jill） ▶ 在随机搭档比赛里，预赛是最重要的部分，因为大家的首要目标是进入决赛（进了决赛后就随缘了哈哈） 科普：JNJ的预赛中，参赛者以个体为单位进行评分，在决赛中与随机搭档以couple为单位进行评分。 在比赛中大家经常会遇到与自己水平不一致的搭档，而把进不了决赛的原因归咎于对方。 我觉得这完全没有必要，不论何时，Leader 和 Follower 们都应该享受与搭档共同跳舞。即使遇到比自己水平低的搭档，你依然可以给对方一个大大的笑容，鼓励他/她，激发对方的灵感，这些小技巧也会让你自身更加出彩。

Q15 给上海舞者的建议 ▶ 继续跳舞呀！同时，在跳舞的时候记得：节奏至上！Keep dancing! Keep the rhythm!

〓〓〓 1. How many years have you danced Lindy Hop? 14 years, 7 years FT teacher 2. Favorite song “The sunny side of street” – original version 3. Favorite musician Oscar Peterson – because I really like piano 4. Favorite dancer With respect, I like dancing with everybody. For followers, I was attracted by the personality of Ramona and Evita, not just the skill. You can feel the love from their dancing.

For leaders, I really respect Nathan. He is a master and is very unique. I also like Felix, because he always focus on follower and follower’s dancing. Besides, I like Harlem Hotshot team because of their Jazz roots. They reminds me of the black spirit. 5. How did you know about swing dance and fall in love with it? I was interested in couple dancing so I researched videos online, and found a very cute graduating performance on Jitterbug at beginner level. So I signed up with a community online and started dancing Lindy Hop as a hobby. Before Lindy Hop, I danced Jive and Cha-cha before. They were fun but I had to dance the same routine all the time, which made me feel bored. Also, there were too many girls (LOL). So when I first saw Lindy Hop, my mind exploded: firstly, there were a lot of leaders – boys; secondly, I had the freedom to decide whether I want to be a leader or follower, or even both, which means I can dance with everyone, when I don’t know them. I was really good as a baby-dancer and really lucky. One year after learning swing, I met Soochan, who had been dancing for 3-4 years and was also a teacher. He asked me if I would like to teach with him and from then on I started to get really serious about dancing Lindy Hop. 6. How did you become a full-time teacher? I used to be an elementary school teacher, a very stable job in Korea, and also very good for women. In the day time, I do school teacher, and in the night time, I worked as a dance teacher. After four and half years, my voice was totally gone. So I have to choose which teacher I wanted to be, and I chose dance. 7. How do you think about the role of Leader and follower? Dancing is a conversation. Leaders are not only leading, they also need to listen to the suggestions from followers and followers give suggestions according to music. Both of the dancers match the other’s feeling. 8. Suggestions to Followers a. Be able to follow, understand the leader’s will; b. Express/add/suggest something based on the music. Both important. 9. Difference among the followers? European dancers like to express themselves, but Korean followers tend to stay more truthful to following. It's not important which of these characters you prefer, but it's important to mix those characters and create a balance. 10. Suggestions to leaders For leaders, they have to listen to followers. When the follower wants to do something according to the music and chooses not to follow – it is NOT a mistake and it is merely a “variation”. If the suggestion matches the music, the leader should understand.. 11. How do you think about Chinese dancers? They like to express themselves more, like most European dancers. 12. How do you think about the dancing party in Shanghai? It’s very good and very cool because people always dress up! In Korea, some dancing venues are quite simple, so people often dress more casual for regular party. At Te Amo, the decoration is very vintage and beautiful so I understand why dancers prefer to dress up for the party. 13. Suggestions for competition – strictly For strictly: There are two ways: 1) prepare the routine – sequence; 2) just go with nature. You can choose either way. If you want to prepare the sequence, you should practice it over a thousand times. Because at the competition, everyone is super nervous, especially the leader. So it is very easy to make mistakes. At first, you may prepare the routine, and practice a lot. After years of dancing, you may get used to the competition and feel more comfortable with dancing, so you may want to improvise and practice more fancy moves in order to add them into the end of the 8-count when fits the music. To do this, the leader needs to listen to the music very well and be able to know when is the right timing. 14. Suggestions for competition – Jack & Jill Prelim is the most important part, because your first goal is get into the final. Sometimes, people blame on the partner when they failed. However, both the leader and follower need to enjoy the dancing. Even if your skill levels are not matched, you can still shine by being inspiring, giving big smiles, and encouraging your partner 15. Suggestion to Shanghai dancers Keep dancing! When you dancing, always remember – keep the rhyme!

采访者与文案：Joy & Nasa 文章编辑和校对：DQ & Lucy