FREE THE DANCE – FREE THE EXPRESSION
FREE OF IMPOSITIONS – FREE THE PEOPLE
In understanding dancing as a conversation Felipe and Tiago created the movement and name ROLEROTATION #rolerotation where the leader and the follower in a social dance, such as bachata or salsa, change/rotate roles in the middle of the dance, creating a dynamic “conversation” between dancers.
In popular culture: Nowadays, dancers see social dancing as a conversation between two people where the leader is asking a question and the follower is answering by doing the move adding their particular style. The problem with this, right now, is that (what is actually happening) is an “interrogation” and not a “conversation”, due to the fact that only one is asking and only one is answering. By using rolerotation, Felipe and Tiago created a more dynamic “conversation” rather than an “interrogation” of the leader to the follower.
Furthermore women have always been treated as followers and the men as leaders. This dicotomy implies that depending on your socially accepted gender you are imposed to learn only the 50% of the dance that matches your sexual gender.
Our main goals are:
1. To break free of these old popular culture based impositions.
2. To provide freedom and safety to everyone in the dancing scene to break free of culture impositions.
3. Provide full learning material available to absolutely everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, culture or beliefs.
Summing up, a total inclusion of all mentalities to create a richer dance scene and freedom of expression. We have proven that this way of dancing promotes mutual respect and gets rid of the “overpower” and pressure for men in dancing, by rather creating an equal power relationship between “two people”, two dancers, dancing together: equality, respect, acceptance and open-mindedness.
TECHNIQUE IN ROLEROTATION: the optimal ideal is to feel free to add whatever information to the conversation/baile. The way Felipe and Tiago do it is by switching roles in the middle of the dance. However, the continuous switching of roles is not strictly implied.
THE AIM of ROLEROTATION is to be free to choose which part in the dance you want to take “leader” or “follower” whenever you may want to; this is, being free of expressing yourself in whatever manner you seem suitable regardless of gender.
Ultimately, for the dance class, this implies a reciprocity in learning and an evolution as a dancer where everyone understands what the partner is doing at every moment. Instead of having only 50% of the information in the dance, you will now control both roles and get a full view of every dance from both perspectives.
BREAK FREE of the past norm where the man imposes and the woman follows.
BECOME A FULL SOCIAL DANCER.
Copyright © FelipeyTiago 2019
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What is Role Rotation?
Pros and Cons of Role Rotation in Social Dances:
How to Switch Roles in Bachata mid-dance
The concept of RoleRotation was created in Spain and Portugal by Felipe Ramírez and Tiago Adegas.
In the decade of 2010, Felipe y Tiago, explored deeper into the concept that there was a new way of dancing bachata and other social dances. In most social dances there exist two well-defined roles, that of the Leader (the person who leads) and that of the Follower (the person who follows the commands of the leader). If only one person leads the dance during a complete song, that person is imposing his ideas to the follower, partner dancing becomes an interrogation. The innovative concept of RoleRotation allows both people to exchange ideas and rotate the leading between them to transform the dance into a more dynamic and interesting conversation
Traditionally, it has been thought that in general, men leads the dance, but social dances, popular today around the world, evolve with society. Roles are not divided anymore by genders as in the previous century (a man would lead and a woman would follow the commands) but rather they can be chosen and stopped from being divided by gender. New professional and amateur couples of the same gender are created every day, a woman can lead, a man can follow, and they can do RoleRotation, looking for a more respectful dance where the use of power, leading and commands is egalitarian throughout the whole dance.
