Justfordancers

The Point at which

2011-05-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

we begin to recognize where we are in the music's time,

when we touch each other in rhythm and not only just by chance,

and our partner becomes our partner in rhyme

we dance.

Dance in Encinitas

2010-05-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

So it's Saturday night and SwingDiego is done done. Missed that. Missed out on the posing the rapturizing, the ohmygod did you see thats. Ah well. Meanwhile, it was still Saturday night and so I decided to give the social dance party at our studio, Dance North County, a whirl. And whirl I did. About 60 dancers, all ages, sizes and experience levels gave the room just enough fullness to make it fun and yet have plenty of room to dance. DJed tunes provided a range of dance choices from west coast to salsa to samba and back, with a few country two-steps and waltzes thrown in. $10 at the door, iced water and party platter treats to eat, and dancing 'til you dropped. And the dancers, were friendly, open about their level of competence and willing to try. I thorougly enjoyed myself and plan to head down again this coming Saturday, for the 4th Saturday of the month dance, too.

San Diego Dance class

2009-12-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, San Diego, we're back. Starting Sunday, January 10th, Just Dancing will be teaching a new social dance class at our Encinitas location in the Dance North County studios. The class will meet at 2 PM in the small studio and will offer a lot of Salsa, a bit of Swing, and a modicum of Foxtrot to round out your month. This is a beginning class but it will welcome those with experience who want to brush up on their basics and meet new dancers, too. As a big bonus, mention this blog post and you'll get to take us up on our half price offer. Since the class costs $32 per person or $60 per couple for the four week offering, that is quite a savings. But what the heck, start off the New Year by giving and you're bound to receive. Don't forget, Sunday the 10th, 2 PM, Encinitas. Call (760) 942-2374 for more info.

The Dancer is dead

2009-06-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Moonwalking to whatever everland, tune smithing to the last, finally like Marilyn and not Elvis, gone from the dance floor. While, we gather, cry, despair at the waste, decry the quick buck media grab at our attention, and just like with any other death try to make some sense of it.

What miracles there are

2009-06-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

I can only watch in awe.

And highly recommend, the dance that makes up this author's oeuvre.

Some Delicious Tangos

2009-06-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

I know, what tango isn't somewhat delicious? The way we hold our breath as she enters his embrace.

The way we catch our breath as he begins his chase.

The shudder of our breathing as at last we see love's full face.

Dancing with the Stars again

2009-03-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

As you know, we are now into the third week of the competition and after last night's elimination dance we can see a familiar pattern beginning to emerge. I think it is fairly clear that a part of the script is that certain actors are necessary to keep the story line going. What else could explain Steve Woz continued presence.

Dancing with the Stars teaches

2009-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

you stuff but real time dancing Jack n Jill looks like this:

What the F...?

2008-07-03T07:35:00.001-07:00

So lets see if this dances.

Now, that's dancing.

2008-06-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

As time has gone on, SYTYCD has gotten more and more sophisticated and inbred. This dance from Travis just an example.

But is it dancing? pt. 2

2008-06-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

We see it on the tube via SYTYCD and we see it on the street in Venice or Santa Monica, but is it dancing?

Evolution of Dance

2008-06-07T19:39:00.001-07:00

But is it dancing? pt. 1

2008-06-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

That is always the question.

Just Dancing . . . the story

2007-06-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

And so we start. Staggering into the future by writing about the past. It seems that was just yesterday I started this career, this life thing that I’ve been doing for lo these many years. Just yesterday, I was a child who spent my life in an internal dialogue. I learned early that I would have to figure things out for myself. I’ve been constantly amazed at how things turned out as a result of my decisions. Now as my life’s flight is looking to land, I realize the enormity of what is coming. The finality.

Ah well, the topic is just dancing, not me, so lets get on with it.

Tunes play. The day gray and cool. Order is my play. I think if I try and put things into some semblance of order that I’ll calm down and be in control. But actually what happens is that by getting myself to work, I actually get to work.

So here we are and where to go from here is the question?

One summer night in El Cajon dance spot called Park Place, I discovered the difference between a dancer and a person seeking social solace from dancing. It was contest night and the buzz was on. I had been walking from my place on 2nd street up to the bowling alley where Park Place was for several months, at least, once a weekend. It was great. No one at home to report to, Jace had moved to Santa Barbara and Karen was history. And finally, I could go dancing any time I wanted to.

Rock and roll. Although the bar was small, the band made up for it by playing tight and just right for free style to the max. I’d forgotten how good it felt. Rum and coke, a little smoke and wham bam thank you mam.

I can never get enough of the movement, the slip and slide of the rhythms and our bodies in superglide.

So I’m hyped, ready to go and happy to just be there. And that’s when it happens. A couple are standing out towards the center of the dance floor waiting for the band to start. They’re talking and looking around. So I saunter over. “You two going to enter the contest?” I ask.

She looks at me, her smile fading into a mild look of concern as she realizes that I’m actually talking to them. “No, . . . I don’t know.” she says as she looks at her companion. He turns his back towards me and says, “Hey, there’s Sid.”

And they both walk away.

Meanwhile, and earlier at a different bar, a lady named Susan had pointed out to me that she appreciated my willingness to dance but she really liked the way that guy over there was moving to the music. Broke my dancer’s heart. Same as when I got embarrassed by two of my students seeming to make fun of the way I used my hands as part of the dance. My way of using a frame, hippy that I was.

And then there was that chat in class with Teresa where she pointed out that if I didn’t move my shoulders when I danced the cha cha, I wasn’t really dancing cha cha.

So, on the outside looking in has always been the way it’s been.

5/15
In the other room, I can hear the tv. Terri watching last night’s tape of the Dallas game. And I am here trying to find the direction I need to go to get something done that is worthwhile. It is hard to pinpoint what that might be. And then I have to develop a belief that once I've gotten somewhere I’ll actually have gotten somewhere.

Roses

2007-06-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

I can fix sad roses . . ., she says

And her smile confirms
Like rain on the earth
That indeed sad roses
Is familiar turf.

But it’s not so easy
This task in my mind
The world with its roses
Is definitely blind.

They’re scentless you see
And sad for a reason
These roses I give
No matter the season.

So it isn’t the wilt from
Stem to the hilt
Nor the mad range of
Colors that drives me so sad.

But the lack of a scent
And the image it recalls
That hammers at my heart and
Raises all my walls.

I can fix sad roses her smile supposes . . .

As she arrays them in a vase
Then turns and pauses
At the frown she can see
Is still on my face.

So she takes my hand and
Pulls me in a way
That suggests dancing
As we begin to sway.

And it’s then that my senses
Pick up the scent
Of timeless embraces
And memories well spent.

I can fix sad roses.
I can her voice murmur . . .

And her smile is my smile as we waltz down the aisle
And the laughter we hear
Is from children at play or a family gathered
‘Round the tree on Christmas day.

And the roses are real
Red, white, and yellow
And the music is moving
And her touch smooth and mellow.

And its night on our porch swing
In a light breeze
And the roses are shadows . . .
With a backdrop of trees.

Jack and Jill O'rama

2007-06-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

Jack and jill contests in dancing have a long and some say down and dirty history. I know at least two guys named Jack who claim that they invented them. And I know quite a few jills who learned that the best way to win one of these storied events was to follow her jack anywhere. But, of course, that's not what I'm writing about today. Today everything is all squeaky clean, and held in a very expensive modern hotel ballroom. The dancers all take lessons (or teach them) and stress the importance of honoring the rules. Oh yeah, one of those Jack's who claims to have started it all, he's still around judging today's contests.

Swing it slow

2007-05-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

is the whole idea behind West Coast swing, a dance style that has evolved, influenced, and educated us about how to dance ever since its inception in the early 50's. I like to think and sometimes teach that the incubator for this style was the meeting of the minds and bodies of guys and girls at USO's and big band dance halls up and down the west coast during WWII. It was here that swing styles from all over the country began to mix and mesh. Dancers swung hard and fast, and slow and close. They learned that they had to watch each other, copy each other's steps, cover each other's moves. Still, I'd bet the dance had no real name except swing or jitterbug, or sometimes lindy. But in the 50's that changed as people no longer came to the west coast to prepare for war but to vacation or move here to live permanently. It was then that the dance that Arthur Murray was calling Western Swing began to acquire a new name that was more specific to the region where it was danced - the West Coast - and more descriptive of how it was danced, laid back and casual. One distinctive difference that began to develop in these formative years was the use of a slotted floor pattern as opposed to the circling one that characterizes all other swings. Latin Hustle, Lindy, and even Cha Cha may have suggested this option since the syncopations and triple rhythms of those dances were definitely being used in the West Coast. Eventually, and by this I mean some 45 years later, this slot and the way the follower is led to replace the rock step of swing with walking steps forward, means you can recognize the West Coast Swing immediately as what is being danced. Yes, the dance was born, evolved into it's own style and most importantly, has kept growing through all the styles that have tried to effect it. It is its strength and its weakness. West Coast prides itself on being able to absorb other dance styles, dance fads, and dance influences and still, because of its unique floor pattern and obvious foot pattern differences, remain the West Coast. The only place where I see this unique quality being lost is where the tempo of the swing being danced is closer to the BPM of East Coast. At this tempo it is too easy to rock back in the closed position and swing out your partner in a circular pattern lead. And on these dance floors it's quite likely you'll see more than one style swing danced to the same song. You'll see puzzled looks on the face of the followers, and consternation in the grimace of the leader. This is where the dance dies. Unless, the leader recognizes the responsibility that comes from setting up the slot and consistently refusing to use a rock step in any pattern. Until this happens, the dance will continue to confuse its practitioners and frustrate those who really like to dance the slow and sexy West Coast Swing.

Another Night

2007-05-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

It's late when I get back home. My body is still sticky with sweat, my breath reminiscent of rum and coke, my shoulder just beginning to ache. I keep thinking that if I could somehow just go back and redo, just jump in my time machine and slip back to 1995, I could use what I know to create a whole different ending for this story. But that's just nostalgic whining, right?

Things have changed for me in this dance world. So many opportunities missed that I can't count them. Anyway that's not what I want to write about anyway. All of my recent dance experiences have had the same tone. I feel like there should be more. I should have more students to teach. I should have more comradeship with other teachers. I should be able to connect better with the network of dancers that my world provides. But I can't figure it out. Yet.

It's been awhile since I donned this guise, pt.2

2007-04-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

So without even looking at what I said back then, I'm going to tell you these days my dancing has taken on a curious and intellectual glaze. I dance but I feel once removed like I'm watching myself in a mirror or like a ghost would watch its former self while waiting for the great next door to open. It isn't as though I'm not enjoying myself, I am. But something is missing or coming and I haven't figured out what it is. So there.

Sometimes we plan

2006-12-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

I really want this new class to succeed but it isn't. I can't figure it out. But it could be that by offering it on a Saturday at mid-day I'm putting it in the wrong place. Unfortunately for me, this is the only time the studio is available and that I want to teach it. Ah well.

I think therefore I dance . . .

2006-10-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

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.

I owe it to Skippy . . .

2006-10-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

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.

First Saturday . . .

2006-10-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

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.

I just

2006-08-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

want to say something about the way dancing makes a person feel. It's on my mind because of the Lindy workshop that I went to last night. I started off on the edge of things and it was clear to me that it wasn't going to be the fun that I thought it would. But then we circled up and did some warm up footwork and then chose partners to learn the routine. I recognized it immediately and so again I was ready to be bored. Only I wasn't. As soon as we began working on it, my partner began to smile. and this made me smile. And I still am as I remember it.

Planning is everything.

2006-08-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

So we are set to begin in October. The Jitterbug Club will meet once a week to dance, and to learn anew, and answer some old, old questions about Swing dancing. The sub title of the course is "Master Your Swing".

Never Let Go , , ,

2006-08-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

I know that time has passed since I made the claim that I was starting a Jitterbug Club. And that could make it seem as though I may have given up because the first meeting did not go so well. But actually, what happened was that my summer commitment to the fair season just interrupted the start up. So get ready to jump and jive folks 'cuz the dance world needs us.

Jitterbug

2006-06-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

I am starting a Jitterbug Club. And the main reason is that the local dancers and dance teachers are using a one swing fits all dance step to dance to our live local dance music. It feels so wrong to be hearing up tempo blues swing music and see the dancers use West Coast to interpret it. Or even worse, to have your partner think she's dancing West Coast and there is no slot and she doing a rock step. It's flat out ugly. And the local instructors who should know better encourage this by teaching West Coast as though its a slowed down version of East Coast Swing.

Judge Judy, Judge Rheinholt, Bud Cort . . .

2006-02-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

Oh my God, I laughed out loud as Micheal's droll description of the mock trial sequence on Arrested Development played itself out. And even as I watched, I couldn't help but think about the terrible judge's dilemma developing on Dancing With The Stars. What the hell are they going to do when Jerry Rice wins the competition because he receives the most popular votes? Each week the judges have scored him lower, and each week the voters have placed him higher. It's tough enough that both Drew Lachey and Stacey Kiebler are very equal but with Jerry in the mix the show's really liable to end up even worse than last time.

Meanwhile, I really feel that the show itself has matured well beyond expectations. The Barry Manilow version of Unchained Melody with the slow motion montage of the competitors dancing in the background made me feel as though the screen was in fact dancing with me. And the developing dialogue between the dancers and the judges is absolutely educational to any dancer wanna be. Something you rarely get in real competitions is a direct conversation with the judges. You may get their scores sans comments but never get to explain what you and your choreography were about. So Jerry with his broom sequence and George with his Zorro mask, and Stacey with her angry countenance are all quite useful to a dancer watching the show in order to learn. And I like it that the pros are starting to talk back too.

Things get worse . . .

2006-02-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

I have begun to limit my dancing time. I think I'm hoping somehow to avoid the past. When my shoulder began to ache year around, I had to give up beach volleyball. Before that, when my knees were so sore that I couldn't land from a jump or walk up stairs, I gave up surfing and sold my car so I could continue to play basketball. Through it all, my driving need has been to keep on being athletic. So I've reached a point where it takes two days for my body to recover from a night of full out dancing. But as the saying goes, if I ain't dancing, I'm dying.

So things get worse but with luck I'll be on the dance floor when the light flickers out and the bluesman wails his last song.

Wearing it out . . .

2005-11-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

The dance has been good to me but now just when I have the time to spend dancing often my body appears to have worn itself out.

Why I want to talk dancing

2005-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

I go dancing at least once a week. The band starts up and usually I am one of the first onto the floor. And right from the start I am dancing. Sometimes, well even maybe most of the time, my partner acts mystified by my confidence. But I don't really care about that except as it impedes our progress. I am a firm believer in the "Shut up and dance" school of thought. I can only have a discussion about what we are doing if it really is mutual. So I try, and sometimes fail, to dance through my connections with my partner and let that be my conversation. Because it isn't that I don't want to talk, I just don't want to talk about dance when I could be letting the dancing do the talking.

Westie world and what it means . . .

2005-09-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've been talking dance on both coasts the last couple of weeks thanks to a blogger visit that cued me into www.strictlywestie.com a New York based West Coast Swinger's blog. I have wanted to be able to discuss the social, political, philosophical sides of dance and that's what this and the OC group are all about.

Been gone so long it looks like up to me, hee, hee, hee ...

2005-08-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

So it has been a summer of dancing for me. The high point being when Terri and I were dancing at Pechanga resort and the crowd gave us the floor and then applauded as the song concluded. And we were just dancing with each other the way we do when its been too long which it had been. But the rest of the summer stuff wasn't so bad either. Every Wednesday we watched Dancing with the Stars and damn if it didn't really grow on me. I generally hate dance competitions but in this case the spirited dancers and the fact that we got to know them and the judges made it a fine experience. And now I read the other day that they are going to stage a dance off because of the calamity of the last vote which clearly showed a favoritism towards Kelly that wasn't warranted by her last dance.

We are just now starting to get into the Fox show, So You Think You Can Dance, however. The whole reality thing is just too boring. It's just like being forced to watch your neighbor's videos of their vacation. The deal of making up reality so it seems like a story is surely some sort of cosmic joke, right? Anyway, another great highlight has been the discovery of the OC Swing club site and especially the Underground where all the discussions take place.

Wow!

2005-06-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

I signed up for this dance discussion group of mainly lindy hoppers and it is so great to be writing about and discussing dancing with dancers who also want to talk about dancing. If you click on the previous entry you'll link to it. The discussion part is in the OC Underground section and man oh man do the discussions range far and wee. Take a look at dance link in this title.

Swinging Out

2005-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Just joined a new dance chat room group up in OC County and the initial results are promising. For one thing the people I've met so far have really wanted to share ideas about dancing. Now alls I have to do is follow the old bouncing ball and see where it takes me.

Skippy Blair Reunion

2005-05-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

I just received the annual invitation to Skippy's dance do up in LA and as usual I'm sorely tempted but then I remember how I really feel about all the judgemental one way thinking that goes on at these events and I realize again why I just can't give it even tacit approval anymore. I love the saying "Shut up and dance" and I really feel it should applied forever to those who set themselves up as judges.

Tango

2005-05-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Tango for some reason seems to scare my dance partner. This Friday night I am going to see if I can discover why when we go to a milonga and dance show at our local dance studio.

Went out dancing and

2005-04-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

The music swung and the dance partners were sweet. A tall blonde took my lead and turned it into a wavy graceful line, a dark brunette, older, but in love with dance, took my lead and turned it into a chance to express her hope and willingness to try, and then later, another blonde almost captured my love of the dangerous with her smooth and dynamic explosive hips, capricious smiling lips, and courageous dives into my leading dips.

Dance lets me lead many lives. I found myself at the break outside gazing at the bright, clear sky and the sparkling stars. I felt the need to breathe it all in. In my mind, as I, we, move to the music and in and out of each other's embrace I try to trace the maybe of what each move means to her to me? I romanticise by playing with the possibilities. It's good but sometimes frustrating. The dance partners are like ice cream when I can't get enough. The overload is dangerous.

Sometimes I try to . . .

2005-04-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I try to . . . remember dancing as a kid. In my memory the radio plays from a car parked in the grocery store parking lot. We dancers are swing dancing to early rock and roll not really aware that things are about to change. My friend, Wendy, who later died from cancer, jumps into my arms for a side to side scissor move and I swing her right then left then up high before bringing her down. We're dancing so fast it's like we're running.

Neo-swing

2005-03-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

So I guess, my guess, is that neo-swing is that thing with swing that started with the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Big band music with a rockabilly beat. Up tempo stuff that was purely electric in its effect on the dancers as they tried to still dance Jitterbug or East Coast just twice as fast. And I'd say that it was definitely the back door that let the Lindy return to swing currency. That and the fact that dancers in the nineties had learned about crossing over from one style to another through the incredible increase in dance competitions in the Country and West Coast Swing worlds. All those dancers who were learning how to learn and at the same time seeing dancers cross-over from one form to another. Country dancers doing swing. Ballroom dancers dancing country. And all of this supported by a dance community that wanted to include as many young dancers as possible.

The music changes the dance

2005-03-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

So here's an interesting phenomenon. Lindy can resist Hip Hop because its music of choice developed in the 30's and 40's and 50's of the last century. And yes you can remix that music but then you can't really dance the Lindy to it. But sadly enough the Lindy's sister dance, the West Coast Swing, has no such built in protection. It is a dance that it's followers and teachers apparently believe can be danced to any style of music. It's inclusiveness allows it to transmute, they contend, any new music into it's form. So in the 90's West Coast could absorb country swing and now in the 2000's it can digest Hip Hop.

itspinahile, eh?

2005-03-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

Down the road I go, been dancing to older style live music lately and I find myself wondering about that gap that seems to be growing between the gymnastics of Hip Hop and the social dance my generations have come to love known as swing. It seemed for a while, at least, that the Lindy dancers and the hip hoppers had a lot in common. They appeared to like the side by side patterns, the flips, the slides, the splits, and spins. And because they both require a sort of gymnastic physicality they both seem best suited to the young.

But now I see that this illusion can't hold. The crowds of youth that hang their jeans low and turn the bass high are not the same as the crowds who venerate the tap dancing glide of Frankie Manning. By their nature each of these groups excludes rather than includes.

You get what . . .

2005-02-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, if you are lucky you get what you want, like that wonderful dancer who suddenly appears at your side and beckons you to the floor or that turn that works just as you had hoped. Or when the person you were meant to be with in life's long dance moves into your arms just as though by chance.

So the next week comes . . .

2005-01-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

The happy hour starts slowly as the dancers filter in from work, the men usually there first, the women taking the time to go home and prepare themselves, and the couples usually meeting up before coming in together. Most of the time even the band assembles itself slowly. The freeway traffic or the job impeding their progress towards the night's playing time. Sometimes the summer day, daylight saving time in place, makes it hard to come inside. Still, it's the dancing that draws, and the contact that passes for friendship, or relationship, or communitas. The dancing that I know I don't want to take so seriously that I forget that keeping it casual and lightly connected is what has always made this work for me. It's when I forget that that things go bad, get rough, and life like a boat on the sea can capsize on me.

So the next week comes and I'm still hearing that light laugh, seeing her eyes, in my mind my thoughts are scrabbling around like rats in a maze hot on the the scent of cheese. And now it is time for happy hour.

She had eyes of light and I . . .

2005-01-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

In the parking lot, I checked to see that my car was still unlocked and opened the trunk. But this was just to save time. I had to think. What the hell, so she had lights in her eyes, something else was at work here. The age old need to travel a different road. Shit, I slammed down the trunk lid and instead moved up to the passenger door and opened it. In the glove compartment I found what I needed. My last joint. Ironically, I needed to clear my head.

It's been a while...

2005-01-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

She comes into my arms and I do mean that to sound like it sounds. Because before I can stop myself I half groan half sigh, and she laughs. We are melting together like hot fudge on vanilla ice cream. Melding together like a fan of playing cards in a gambler's hands. We can't stop the osmosis of heat, can't tell which is sending which the receipt. Damn, I have to go, can't stand this . . . even as we keep responding to the beat.

So I talked to the dude . . .

2004-12-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

So I talked to the dude at Very Fine shoes, ok he wasn't very dudely, he was really just an order taker who had to go ask someone else the answer whenever I asked a question. And he told me that even though they had emailed me that they could special order any size shoe I wanted that really wasn't the case. If it wasn't in stock they didn't have it. The same old, same old news.

More dance shoes

2004-12-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today I received in the mail the 2005 Very Fine dancesport shoes catalog http://www.veryfineshoes.com/. Very stylish, very sophistcated shoes for all dancesport activities, and yet, there was something missing. Apparently, no male who dances for sport has feet larger than size 13. Except, of course, I am a male who dances and my feet are a very american sized 13 1/2.

The Move On

2004-11-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

"I took one look and I knew."

Ever say that? Well, I just did because that's the way I remember it. The way she moved, the serious but committed look she gave her partner, and the way the dancers seemed to part before my eyes like a red sea moment as I continued to watch her progress on the floor. I had to dance with her. And so fate, smiled at my plans, if plans were what they were, and let me move on in.

Thanks

2004-11-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

So, things are happening here. Slowly but surely I'm connecting up with a wider and wider universe. Even though as I explore the blog environment I definitely feel my own limitations. I'm a writer, a thinker, a dancer and a confirmed readaholic but computers are just the tool that saved me from typing hell and though I know how they work, I cannot find the time or inclination to add bells nor whistles to what I have to say.

Sometimes you have to go where the music takes you

2004-11-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

Way up in Canada, where I've met some of the most mellow souls, is a dance group worth the while and then some. If you don't believe me, then follow this link: http://dancing.org/desiderat.txt and see for yourself. Meanwhile I found this on the site's swing dance quotes list: "I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his "divine service."- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

It's in the feet

2004-11-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise that dancers love their feet. After all, they're what takes them where they want to go. But dancers are driven. And when the feet they love begin to hurt, which they do after a full night of pounding the boards, dancers usually keep on dancing. Which is why, I'm supposing, that the dance shoe makers have jumped full bore on to the dance sneaker craze. What I don't understand and what I'm going to try and explore further is why male dancers with feet larger than size 13 can't buy a dance sneaker and why, coincidently the dance shoe industry in the US still caters to european size dance shoes?

Just dancing ...

2004-11-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Just Dancing . . .

Some thoughts about how to keep your feet moving while out there on the dance floor of life.

Life is strange the way it dances us around and then lets us realize that "life is strange." I have been wrangling around this blog for months, getting sidetracked by business, then life, then more business and finally by the summer's hot sun and the lure of dancing as I tried to set it up so I could write about dancing and invite others into the conversation. And then today, well, actually tonight, I finally couldn't stand it anymore and so I made myself take the time to go to Haloscan and re-read all the instructions. It probably helps that they have made many improvements to their system while I've been dancing around. But now, as you'll see, we're up and running. Whoopee!

So here I sit contemplating going to another Skippy Blair night www.skippyblair.blogspot.com and wondering if the whole damn thing is worth it. Worth the anguish of not being credited for what I've learned, for what I think, for what I'd like to share. I love to take part in what happening but twenty years of teaching dance should count for something in the ongoing creation of a body of dance knowledge. What am I trying to prove I have to ask myself? But there is really only one answer to that: myself.

Just Dancing , too. . . that's what I'm thinking as I look into the worried eyes of my partner. She's apologizing and I'm thinking "it's okay, it's just dancing" when my brain finally registers what she's saying. "I can't seem to hear the music, I know this is a West Coast Swing but I can't hear the beat in the music." Oh my god, my mind goes, as I realize that she's talking about a phenomenon that I've had happen to my own dancing ears from time to time. It's like you can't, I can't, tell what the song actually is. I can hear the sound but it's really like the wall of sound that reverberates off of the cliffs as I walk the beach when the surf is really pounding. As a matter of fact I think that's what may be the cause here. Some how the music from the sound system/band/dj is reverbrating off of my inner ear in such a way as to make me feel like I'm going deaf. One time I remember telling my partner, listen, for some reason I'm not hearing the beat so if you don't mind I'm just going to follow you. The funniest part of it was that when we walked off the floor a dance teacher friend of ours raced up to tell us that in her opinion we'd just demonstrated what good dancing was all about. We both just cracked up.

Shall We Dance?

2004-11-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Movies are strange when it comes to dance. For some reason the film makers think we would rather see computer generated images, speeded up action, and slow motion takes than real dancers dancing. But this film did something for me that many years of dancing and many years of wishing have not. It got my lover to see what tango is really all about. The heart is the music, the mind is the matter that changes the story to fit, the dancers tell it all. She has always said she didn't like the way the men wanted to hold her, how the music was so dark. She prefers the romance in a Nightclub Two-Step. But watching the two dancers, J Lo and R Gere, the lights dimmed and the scene already set let her see that this was not about their being in love or about one or the other trying to gain the other's love but about using the dance to express the emotion of the music. And now, too, I think she knows that whenever I dance with her, in my mind, it's a tango.

It's just dancing . . .

2004-10-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

That thing that little kids do when the tv commercials play, that old folks do when the big band at the fair starts the crowd to sway, that all of my swing time, two-stepping friends do just about every day. It's just dancing that sets me up and lets me go, that cheers my heart and happys my soul. It's just dancing and it's been with me as far back as my memories know.