Wednesday, October 11, 2006

I think therefore I dance . . .

I think but that isn't the all of it. I dance as I think, I think as I dance. The coincidence is wonderful to me. I marvel at the wonder that my body can find the movement in the music while my mind explores the meaning of the movement. It didn't always work that way. As I was learning how to dance in the formal way, I thought too much about what I was "supposed" to do. My mind got in the way. But gradually my body took over and I began to recognize what I was doing, what I was capable of doing. I left behind the awareness of what I didn't know and the obsessive concern for what someone else thought.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

I owe it to Skippy . . .

that my first eletter came out today. I tried to keep it simple. Thanks for coming, see you next week. I am still enjoying the feeling of teaching a class again. Studying the differences and similarities amongst the various steps we do to swing has been my main avocation for years. Now I'm finally ready to teach again. I could say I owe it to Skippy and it would be true. She introduced me to the idea as a way to keep the dances separate. And I am taking the idea another step forward. I show the students the differences and similarities as a tool and that keeping them separate is the way that they can use to dance the current dance floor mix of swings: East Coast, Lindy, Jitterbug, Balboa, West Coast and One-Step, successfully.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

First Saturday . . .

is the name of my new dance workshop. I think I may have borrowed the idea from a teacher of Lindy up north of here. The swing workshop is free, and draws a crowd. I then form the classes that follow out of paying students. The first session drew 18 and six signed up to continue. I am offering it as seminar of swing: lindy to west coast, jitterbug to one step, with the east coast in between.