The Chapters

A brief summary

Each Chapter of Masters of Social Dancing follows the same MoSD system:

- have between 10-12 hours over the course of 2-3 days (occasionally 4); and

- can be taken in any order.

Most Chapters are designed to offer a similar level of depth, challenge, and discovery within the MoSD experience.

What changes from one Chapter to another is what Trait we focus on and which set of Foundations, Movements, and Skills we cover to improve on that Trait. 

Each Chapter then focus on at least one Trait and is themed around the Title associated with that Trait. Some of the Chapters are:

- Footwork Chapter - Meet the Basics Benders

- Floorcraft Chapter - The Floor Travelers Guild

- Musicality & Versatility Chapter - The House of the Music Seekers

Taking more Chapters gives dancers the opportunity to experience the system more fully. It allows them to see how the same Skill can impact different Traits. It also allows them to see how their dance resonates with more people, observe their growth over time, and expand their vocabulary. The more Chapters you take, the more complete your picture becomes, both on how your dancing feels today and of what you are capable of building next.

Overview

What's normally covered in the 12-hour program, per Chapter.

Footwork Chapter

Meet the Basics Benders

The Footwork Chapter: Meet the Basics Benders, is where Gui Prada and the Masters of Social Dancing begin the quest of transforming the “basics” into tools for deeper social dancing. It's where we extract from the fundamentals patterns of the dance all its powers and use them for the greater good and to become true Basics Benders.

This Chapter is centered around giving tools to develop the Technique: Footwork Trait. It's designed to help dancers understand the foundational structures of the basics and through their variations develop ways to travel through space.

Rather than treating basics as something to move past quickly, this Chapter breaks them open so dancers can discover how much expression, connection, depth, challenge, and creativity already live inside the foundations of Brazilian Zouk.

Throughout “Meet the Basics Benders”, we work with the Foundations of Posture, Weight Transfers, Pivots, Timing, and Tracks. From there, we build and refine core Movements such as Linear Basic, Lateral, Viradinha, Walk Around, Elástico, and Cuddle, then use Skills like Direction Change, and Travel to turn those basics into living tools for the dance floor. 

When this Chapter is offered in a 10 hour format, we reduce the amount of time dedicated to some of the elements mentioned above.

Body Movements Chapter

The Grounderers Tribe

The Body Movements Chapter: The Grounderers Tribe, is where Gui Prada and the Masters of Social Dancing turns its attention to one of the elements of Brazilian Zouk that many are self conscious about, take long to embody, a bit longer to feel good, and bit longer to feel as it looks.

The main focus of this Chapter is the development of the Traits of Technique: Body Movements, giving dancers the tools to practice and integrate the body movement paths that can add new layers to the dance.

Rather than focusing on adding body movement patterns, this Chapter helps dancers refine what they already know and do. Throughout the Chapter, we visit the Foundations of Posture, Weight Transfers, and Tension & Pressure. From them, we develop our basic body movements giving special attention is given to Neutral Execution, since mastering the neutral execution of movements is one of the keys to developing your range and ability to connect your body movements with your partner's. 

We also focus on the Skills of Embraces and Size Modulation: the first being directly related to the comfort of the physical connection and the second to adapting size of execution.

When this Chapter is offered in a 10 hour format, we reduce the amount of time dedicated to some of the elements mentioned above.