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students; his backgrounds in ski-teaching and dude-wrangling are what help him to analyze dancing in a way no other dance teacher has before. Gary presents his Heinsian Dance Method and Philosophy from---where else?---but his own Swingin' G Ranch in a special place out west, where you'll find them swinging lariats by day . . . and dance partners by night . . . and ski poles through the winter-time.
It may not be enough that Gary Heins is a darn good dance teacher. So, to enforce great dancing on the Western Dance Floor, and help you feel safer, he has been appointed U.S. Dance Teacher, with a jurisdiction anywhere Western Dance or Barroom Dance is done. He's not much into entering subjective and political dance contests, typical of Ballroom Dance, but it does help if you have an authoritative credential of some kind.
So, what about it? I hope you don't just skip ahead in this book, missing crucial bits of information and philosophy, getting distracted by too many other marketing ploys invading and bombarding modern society, . . . from unintimate Line Dancing . . . to sterile non-physical "Social Networking" on the Internet Computers---you don't want to end up on the wrong side of the fence. I hope you benefit from this book to your full potential---our society needs it, there's a partner out there who needs it. Gary has spent a couple of decades doing research learning dancing and teaching dancing---as much as skiing and horses, it's his First Love. It would break his heart if you didn't learn too---it would break my heart. While his method is the easiest one ever, it does take a lot of Heart to learn dancing and be a dance-abiding citizen---it may be easier for some not to learn, obviously, and sadly. But: . . . like Charly McLain sings, . . . "You Don't Have the Heart . . . To Break Mine In Two."
---Jane Dantz
Forward Foreword -- 21
22 -- Heinsian WESTERN SWING
Dancing Is Like Riding a Horse -- 23
Dancing Is Like
Riding a Horse
Years ago, dancing as usual one busy Sunday evening at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, Wyoming, I walked up to the bar between sets to get myself a beer. A real stout cowboy almost twice my age right there leaned over and whispered,
"Hey, I'll bet: you're either a damn good hand, . . . or you're a whimp." "Yep," I agreed, raising my beer, "I'm either a damn good hand, or I'm a whimp." Well, my reply didn't satisfy his curiosity, so he pursued it further: "You work for some-body around here?" And I told him the truth, that I was "a wrangler at the R Lazy S." He smiled and stuck out his hand: "I used to be pick-up man for old Bob when he had the Jackson Rodeo." This man knew for sure now that the way a hand dances and gets along with strange women . . . does have something to do with the way he rides and gets along with all sorts of horses.
Cowboy/Lady Reciprocity
It would be difficult to write a book on my dancing without mentioning an older top-hand named Ray Hunt.
One of the best Horseman in the world, Ray Hunt says in his book, Think Harmony With Horses, that riding a horse is like dancing; and yet . . . people sometimes resent it and look at me real strange when I say that dancing is like riding a
24 -- Heinsian WESTERN SWING
horse. The title of this book obviously stems from the title of his book (just as his title may stem from the classic Think and Grow Rich). Some women might have trouble with the title
Have Harmony With Women, but the fact remains: a guy cannot dance his one best woman to her full potential . . .
until he can dance with a number of different women in order to learn the common denominators---I'm not talking about sex here, I'm just talking about dancing with your clothes on. I am not trying to be cute when I say these things---sometimes the strange is truer than fiction,---so, please, hear me out:
I love horses; and young horses, I believe, are prime examples of good honest pupils---man would do well to learn the way a horse does, at his own pace, in his own good time.
You cannot tell a horse what to do or how to do it, but you can sure try to set up new situations in a progressive order so that the horse will learn in a relaxed manner what the rider wants and when he wants it---it's the same thing with dancing. ---And how a young horse performs is a reflection of the rider, as how a new woman performs on the dance floor is usually a reflection of who's leading. Whether in riding or in dancing, it is a leader/follower reciprocity---the jobs are equal but different: the man must respect the woman for her part as a follower, or he has no business being her leader on the dance floor. Said the wife of legendary ballroom dancer Arthur Murray when he died: "The secret to my husband's success is that . . . he understood women"---I wonder if it will be said that the secret to horseman Ray Hunt's success is that he understood horses. In keeping with Huntian/Heinsian Philosophy, a woman, in effect, already knows how to dance: she can go forward or backward, she can take quick-steps or slow-steps or triple-steps, she can probably spin---women have been doing this at home in the kitchen with the broom for centuries, I'm told, because their men have neglected to take them dancing---except now we have quick-fix line-dancing, and too many couples moves resemble painting by the numbers, like the
Dancing Is Like Riding a Horse -- 25
difference between good typing and good writing. Ballroom Dance was a big flash in the pan decades ago, Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire leading the way, usually with the same trained partner over and over, doing complex choreog-raphy that takes months to get right, and Ballroom still has its occasions, but how many people do you know now who truly find it easy to learn and love Ballroom Dancing?---it's a tiny percentage of the overall population, similar to Square Dance Clubs. It's this kind of grid-lock status-quo influence that's causing our Western Dancers to become more and more robotic as they look for more and more complex steps and turns to memorize, whether it be via Line-Dancing or line-dance infected couples-dancing. I'm sorry, Art and Fred---and this is nothing against Ballroom Dancing really,--
-but Ballroom lessons as we know them have always been too complicated, too formal, to truly help the masses: it's not uncommon to see tears of despair in a serous Ballroom Dance lesson; but, in my lessons, the only tears you see are tears of joy. It's kind of like the general attitude that pervades English Riding in the horse arena, which does not ex-hibit the unbridled spirit of great colt breakers like Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, Pat Parelli, Craig Cameron, and others. ---There shouldn't be a lot of difference between English and Western Riding, nor Ballroom or Western Dancing: a horse is still a horse, no matter what hemisphere or job to be done; and a dance partner is still a dance partner, no matter whether uptown or downtown. Sometimes, in the right company, I refer to my program as Barroom Dance Lessons---my way of lightening things up. No wonder it takes a few outlaws like Ray Hunt and me . . . to break the ice between horse and dancer. I understand and respect the new-age empowerment of modern woman taking place nowadays, and I believe that my comparing woman to a beautiful twelve-hundred-pound athletic animal that can either be full of affection or kick a man's head off . . . is in no way degrading to women---the horses are okay with it too, by the way, even the studs. In highbrow horse-training, the
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horse is subservient, a slave; but, in a Ray Hunt clinic, the horse is a partner to be fully respected for his wants and needs. So the Western Dance floor may be the last vestige of some kind of romance; . . . and our objective, on the dance floor anyway, is for the man to get her to move where he asks when he asks, and in a way that she loves it. This spontaneity takes discipline on the man's part, especially with today's woman, who needs to dig deeper and deeper to find it in her heart to trust him, . . . and it helps if a guy can shoot from the hip.
Ray Hunt doesn't just train horses; he trains people to train, and ride, horses---and I train men to dance women.
What works with horses and riders, . . . I try in my brand of ski lessons; what works with ski students, . . . I try with horses and riders; and . . . what works in riding and skiing, .
. . I try in the dance hall. I believe that Western Dance should be every bit as spontaneous as Rock-n-Roll---it's just that we are playing tennis with the net up rather than down, dancing as a couple rather than as two individuals, a sort of four-wheel-drive dancing. . . . To enable the man to learn all the possible moves, I've broken things down in a certain logical order, not unlike the way chemists have organized the Periodic Chart of the Elements; this way, the man can learn the moves in the most efficient schedule while staying in his comfort zone, and he won't have to memorize things, as he will want to dance the moves in any order anyhow according to the changing music. As for the steps, or gaits, I want to keep them simple and natural to fit the music rather than some legislated political agenda. . . . But, remember, this book is not just about dance moves or steps; it is about attitude and desire and the universal feeling necessary for two strangers to get along. . . . In the Bob Wills to George Strait tradition, for purity and high standards---you may choose to dance to any kind of music you please,---I'll lead all you cowboys through my western-swing dance progression with the "move-basics" clarity of reinsman Monte Foreman, the scheduling and timing of hackamore reinsman
Dancing Is Like Riding a Horse -- 27
Ed Connell and Al Dunning, and the powerful spirit of most gentle top-hand Ray Hunt. A guy may need a kind of dude woman to start out with as you play around with the crucial beginning moves and steps, someone safe who's patient and attentive and well-danced; but it's true you'll need to dance with a lot of different women of varying conformations, dispositions, and experiences . . . before you can become a great dancer, as it takes a lot of horses before you become a great rider, any trainer will attest.
I think it's important to note that . . . none of the famous dancers we've been dealt over the decades . . . are known for anything substantial aside from their complex choreogra-phy; but, when we look at the greatest horsemen, their claim-to-fame points to disciplined spontaneity, adapting and improvising with the situation at foot. It's not that the famous dancers couldn't do it; it's just that they've never made it the focus---yet this is the focus that the common man needs, being allowed to dance right now, and dance well, without endless excruciating rehearsals first. I'm proud to be the one somehow chosen for the task. It's like what Ray Price sings as the Bob Wills sanger in Clint Eastwood's Honky-Tonk Man: "I never chose the music, it chose me."
Three Main Rules For Leading
---Three Basic Rules For Following---
In short, using just quick-steps, slow-steps, and triple-steps, and simple combinations of these three most-natural easy steps, I teach the guy three main rules for good leading all the way through the class, while exploring all the ways a couple can turn without getting too gymnastic or acrobatic, without teaching a horse to rear. . . . So: I teach the leader to (1) know your moves and steps, or know yourself, the same way a good horse trainer wants to know his own moves before ever sticking his foot in the stirrup. Further, I will suggest that you (2) pick great music, or a comfortable environment, the same way a dude-wrangler might pick the appropriate terrain for a riding guest, or a cutting-horse
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trainer might pick a certain cow to cut for a particular part of a particular horse's training, or how a ski instructor might offer a certain steepness or snow condition to a certain-level ski student. And, furthest, I stress again and again . . . how you can (3) meet your partner with a light touch---you won't just make her do the move like most inconsiderate tough cowboys do, you want to be considerate enough to know how to set it up and make it easy for her or any other woman to do each move without being resistant. . . . Oh, one more thing, and this is important: dancing may be like riding, but take your spurs off before you dance with any woman---we don't want you using any more pressure than it takes, and we don't want you getting tangled up with yourself or any other dancers out on the floor, please.
The woman's part is more subliminal, but I ask her to do three main rules for following: (1) keep your fingers and elbows bent and ready, so that the man always has a handle and something to work with; (2) keep your feet quiet, usually your right foot forward in the Northern Hemisphere for the foundation swing moves, so that the all four feet stay under the couple instead of wandering off and hindering balance; and (3) always wait, and let the man lead, lest you become a runaway and scare him half to death. . . . How does a woman know these three simple rules for following?
---A confident man she can trust . . . will kindly ask her to adhere to these simple rules as they get to know each other--
-I have done it successfully for ten- or twenty-thousand grateful dance partners. All I do is whisper at a key moment: "Keep your fingers bent, don't let go," or "Right foot forward, keep 'me quiet," or simply "Wait, wait, don't turn, don't turn"---and they almost always comply. They love it when a guy can bring out their talent, just like a good horse.
When I start a several-week dance lesson, it is standard procedure for me to ask for a volunteer female out of the class to help me demonstrate, in about a three-minute swing song, much of what the class will learn turn-wise---this provides proof that, if a guy knows how to lead, he can dance
Dancing Is Like Riding a Horse -- 29
extremely well with even an "untrained" woman. I model this after the way a younger-n-stronger Ray Hunt used to begin his five-day horse-training clinics . . . by putting the First Ride on a relatively untouched horse in the course of about ninety-minutes. Throughout the week, I have the various females to take turns helping me demonstrate the moves and steps---there's no need for a choreographed ex-tensively-briefed Ginger Rogers here. When the other men witness that an average guy like me can get the job done with almost any woman, they start seeing all kinds of light at the end of the tunnel.
Besides maybe those robotic dancers you see in the big city, a common complaint from women coming off the dance floor is that each man they dance with leads different, way different and erratic; very few men have done their homework in knowing all the basic moves, picking the right music, and finding out the universal laws of physics and biomechanics governing great dancing---they don't learn the common denominators. ---Dude horses incidentally have the same complaint about their different and erratic riders day-after-day or week-after-week; but all the great colt-breakers, taming the bronciest of time-bombs, have the same basic functions in common: they all treat each horse like a horse, they know how to keep each horse in their comfort-zone this side of trouble, and they all know how to meet them with a light touch---they have to know this stuff, or they wouldn't survive long in the training business, literally. Whether with dancing or with horses, compassion and confidence goes a long way. ---So why can't we have a few great dance leaders, each one bringing every woman back from the floor better than the way he found her? Do young unridden colts and fillies go out of their way to ask their trainer "How can I help?"---No! so why should a stranger on the dance floor? --
-The horse trainer has to go out of his way to find out the wants and needs of his partner, and there are some universal laws that hold true for any couple with four arms and four legs, let alone two arms and six legs. Whereas other men
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will have to be careful to dance with gentle trained women, you will be willing and able to dance with the untrained ones, even the difficult ones, because you'll have the skills and confidence as well as the desire, . . . and further because you'll have their attention and respect. By the end of this manual . . . or the end of my six-week lesson series, you should be certified . . . to dance with strangers---and how much more spontaneous and confident can you be?
The Art & Science of Western Swing--I -- 31
Enforcing
the Art & Science
of
Western Swing---I, II, III
You should know that I use the term "Western Swing"
for two different meanings: first, it is a term to describe a certain song type, or a couple of types, with a prominent western-dance beat, usually full of instrumentation; then, I use it to describe my brand of Western Dance as a whole, and for good reason. It's been my observation that most dance classes put too much emphasis on complicated steps, which never allows a man to reach his potential with all the possible turns. So I teach a fair amount of turning from the get-go, without making the guy worry too much about his feet, and hers; and I constantly teach the principles of turning, which go well with any step or partner. Once the turns come easy, then we can start concentrating more on the feet .
. . and put the two together. I know this looks like a long list
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of steps to learn, let alone turns, but the steps I offer are somewhat more natural than in any other dance class, as you'll see---the music makes me do it. You don't have to delve into everything in this book, as there may be some song types that are not your cup of tea, not your style, and you don't have to dance to them---your girl might wish you could dance to them, but then you might need a different girl. . . . Don't be overwhelmed, Guys: learn as much, or as little, as you want; . . . the main thing is . . . to make at least one woman happy on the dance floor---that'll be one less woman I have to worry about.
A Quick Word:
---About . . . the Music, Dance Floors, Etiquette Before we dive right in and start getting our feet wet, I need to say something about the music. Not every song is a dance song, and not every band is a dance band; but, by the same token, more music is more danceable than some people think. There is so much great dance music available that it doesn't make any sense to dance to bad music or even great music that's not dance music---it's all subjective, of course.
Some of the greatest musicians, like legendary guitarist Chet Atkins, are known for their high ticket prices, and it is generally understood that you come in and sit down, and shut up, and listen intently to every note he plays, even watching his fingers as close as you can, in awe at his skill. Then a great vocal group like the Sons of the Pioneers is soothing music that you might here in a Used Book-Store, and it is great music for atmosphere . . . or bedding down the cattle . .
. but not for dancing. I once went to a wedding reception in Montana that had hired a well-known bluegrass band---they wondered what was not quite right about the evening, so I honestly told them: bluegrass is more fun to dance to informally out on the grass on a summer afternoon; but the shuffling of the people's feet on a hard-wood dance floor tends to be too much for their strings-only music. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, who got famous along with the 1940s Big
The Art & Science of Western Swing--I -- 33
Band Era, on the other hand, was meant for dancing, with all the added horns and drums---this is what Ray Benson's Asleep At the Wheel is famous for in recent decades, and don't forget their mastery of constant improvisation, which keeps it interesting for the dancers.
Now there are a lot of bands now in the Bob Wills tradition, George Strait & His Ace-In-the-Hole Band among them, as well as Oklahoma's Reba McEntire; but any music that has a lot of instrumentation is probably a likely choice for dancing, with the musicians taking turns in the spotlight, which can give a song more variety and help it last longer. --
-Hearing a saxophone and other horns, maybe a piano, an occasional harmonica, . . . teaming up with the steel guitar and fiddles and regular guitars and bass and drums, is more than icing on the cake; and hearing a xylophone in Ray Price, or a flute in Marshall Tucker, . . . is a real treat. When people attend a Ballroom Dance, the night isn't complete without hearing "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade"---I feel the same way about "San Antonio Rose" and "Faded Love" for a Barroom Dance. A lot of people stereotype country music as being "too twangy," but Country-Rock groups like The Eagles and Poco and Crosby, Stills, & Nash . . . have been as twangy as the best of them. . . . Meanwhile, however, another band I danced to at another wedding reception, though they had all the instruments, created its own subliminal problem: every song they played had the same beat, so the dancers slowly but surely couldn't do their full repertoire---a well-rounded band doesn't make that irritating mistake. ---We need everyone do to their part, and I am trying to do mine, by looking at this dance business from all the angles.
The music makes a huge difference, and it shouldn't be an afterthought. When phenomena like Line-Dancing and similar fads take over, it can have an impact on what the artists crank out: such crappy knee-jerk hits like "Achy-Breaky Heart" come along and take over the floor from couples who want to dance with disciplined spontaneity---"The
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Macarena" and "The Electric Slide" have dominated dances floors for umpteen years only because the couples teachers haven't done their job. If we address the needs of more couples, and strangers who want to dance with the opposite sex, the bands will be inspired to crank out even more nice dance music. How the Radio treats music is another factor, how long a song can be, and so on---and Radio DJs may not particularly care if a song is danceable or not, since they may cater more to stressed-out people stuck driving in city traffic.
Yet great dance music is fine for just listening to too, and it drives you to want to get out and dance more often instead of just sitting on the couch.
So, one of the common problems I find with dance students is . . . they fret that they don't always know what to dance to when they go home to practice. See the song list of several hundred danceable songs in the back of the book, to help you understand what all is out there, and what you may already have at home in your music library. Keep in mind, this list is highly flexible: many songs you can do more than one thing to, and they might be hard to put your finger on. The more you dance, the more you will develop an ear for what you hear and prefer for each step. Even though this book is about Western Dance, there's no law that says you can't modify the style a little bit, wear non-western clothes and put your own flare on it, and do it to whatever music you choose---that's our secret: even I like The Pre