New Year Dance Postcards

Celebrating the dawning of a new year has been a part of human culture for a long time. Fortunately, dancing fits very well into any sort of revelatory event. Remember the Yuletide dancing chickens? For the New Year's Eve ball below, I give you...dancing cats and dogs!!! How egalitarian!




An elegant affair, I'm sure...




Technically these two are skating, but skating is a form of dance, after all.



An enchanting scene in the moonlight before or after the dance.




Me neither. :-) Kidding. My dances all belong to Gary.

Masquerade New Year's balls were common way back then.

Another masquerade party.

Sweet and old fashioned.

The New Year's kiss...especially nice at the end of a dip. I'm very much looking forward to mine.

Frosty The Snowman

Another arctic blast from the past...

Suzy Snowflake

Possibly the creepiest animation I've seen!

The Bop - Part I

The bop. It's funny, you hear a name like 'the Big Bopper' and you don't link it to an actual dance. The other night, while pouring through Flickr feeds for dance pictures I stumbled across the insert from a Ray Conniff album entitled Dance the Bop and there were the steps distilled down into words and pictures. Now, I have a theory that you have to know how to dance before you can learn verbally but that might just be me. None the less I thought I'd give the insert in the eight pages in which it was originally printed.

Page one is a typical cover sheet. I feel for the poor Siamese cat that got roped into being the 'cool cat' for the album art shoot. I have to wonder if the animal belonged to Conniff, Art Silva, or some plebe at the record label. Probably a fifty year old teen who, in the middle of a concept meeting, piped up with something like, "So there's this cat and we print 'the cool cat says…'but see, it's a real cat…" Shortly after that he found himself parking at the back of the lot and getting a lot of looks while he ate his lunch alone in the cafeteria.

Cool Cat informs us we should use the book as a study guide - damn and I'd planned on using it to sort seeds and stems. That's probably evidence that the authors of this guide were less hep than they'd like to have thought. Mastering every step before proceeding seems a bit unproductive. I mean, to be a master don't you have to absolutely and totally grasp a step to the point where you're a resource that others come to for instruction (i.e. a master)? Waiting until you've reached that Zen-like level of dance sensei-ness could result in never getting past page one of the instruction manual. I also question step three of the 'To Start' section - ever try to read a book while dancing? Not sure about you but I'd puke. I'm pretty sure a true master doesn't puke on the dance floor.

The author of this instructional guide, pictured staring dumbly into the middle distance, is Art Silva. Art seems like a real authority figure in spite of his apparent youth. He comes off like a James Dean-esque Marlin Perkins, expanding in definitive tones on the habitat and customs of teens of the era. He knows the kiddies well enough to tell you what they approve of wherever they congregate. The byline claims Art's a dancer, actor, and instructor. Dancer - I'll buy that, instructor - sure, but actor? IMDb would differ; it has zero references to Mr. Silva. Possibly an oversight, maybe he worked in films too small to be noticed - history has a way of erasing people from existence.

Ray Conniff, on the other hand, has withstood the test of time. I took a moment to listen to some of his music - good stuff, but so help me I can't imagine 'bopping' to anything the man performed. Saying Ray Conniff and Bop in the same breath is a bit like saying Lawrence Welk and Jitterbug together. There's a slight possibility the encantation will rip a hole in the fabric of reality and you'll be attacked by flying monekys. I mean, can you really think Rebel Without a Cause and hear the strains of Tico Tico playing in the background? Go on, try. I'll dial 911 for you.

Hair Flair

Warning: girly post.

As I’ve stated before, dancing is an unusual activity in that it is athletic, but also artistic, and therefore most dancers want to look good when they dance. This can pose various problems. Makeup must not run. Clothes must stretch. Shoes must be comfortable. And all jewelry must be secured.

Speaking as someone who has had earrings fly off in the middle of a fast Lindy, reminded of said fact by the man the earrings had flown into, the last is perhaps the most important. Drippy mascara and a giant rip might cause one embarrassment, but it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Sparkling missiles do.

And that goes for hair adornments as well as the more traditional jewels. As much as I love my rhinestone clips and bands, they won’t stay in my hair. At least, the way I wear my hair; I don’t like it to be lacquered within an inch of its life. But I have found something fun to add a bit of dance safe sparkle to one’s hair…hair on a clip.

These things are called various names…if you do a search for “clip in hair” you will find them. (I like easiLites for real ones, Clarie’s for synthetic.) Both real and fake have their ups and downs. Real hair has an inherent creepiness…just whose hair was it? The up side is it looks, well, real, even when it is dyed wild colors. You can put them in and curl them as you would your own.

The synthetic kind is plastic. It looks it. However, since it isn’t real, you can find pure colors and tinsel not ever found with real locks. Another down side is you can’t use a curling iron. Trust me on this one. I wasn’t stupid enough to do it on purpose, but one evening I was in a hurry and…let’s just say I ruined a perfectly good iron.

Both are easy to put in, stay firmly in place, and are easy to remove. For the holidays they are especially nice. New Year’s Eve I’m wearing a glittery rainbow top and hair flair to match. Ahhh, New Year’s…where too much sparkle is never enough.

Stepping and Sweets

'Tis the season - as Lucy Van Pelt would say, "Santa Claus and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe and presents for pretty girls." Well, she left out Christmas parties. This past weekend we attended the Brickyard Boogies Christmas get together and I tossed my culinary glove in the ring for the annual cookie contest. I didn't win but I had a great time trying. Here's the recipe I used in case you're interested:

Chocolate Mint Wafers

1C AP Flour plus more for dusting
1/4t Baking Powder
1/2C Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4t Salt
6T Unsalted Butter
1/2C Sugar
1 Large Egg
1/2t Vanilla Extract
12oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1/4t Peppermint Extract

1. Wisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar with an electric blender. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour (or overnight).
3. Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Form balls of dough (approximately 1t each) and place on prepared sheets 2 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a glass in flour and flatten balls into 1 1/2 inches round (1/4in thick).Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until slightly firm to the touch - about 8-10 minutes. Immediately transfer to wire rack and cool completely.
4. Combine chocolate, peppermint extract, and 1/8t salt in a large heat-proof bowl and set over simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth (2-3 minutes) and remove from heat.
5. Replace parchment on baking sheets. Holding each cookie across the tines of a fork, dip in chocolate to coat completely, then tap underside of fork on side of bowl to allow excess chocolate to drip off. Place on parchment and repeat until all cookies are coated. Decorate with nonpareils if desired. Refrigerate until chocolate is hardened (at least 1 hour).

The cookies were a hit among my friends and family, but as I said, they didn't bring home the prize. The winner was a great batch of almond sugar cookies. When the whole subject of cookies and dancing comes to mind I do have one bit of advice: dancing and over-indulging in cookies don't mix. I advise sticking to the sugar buzz stage!

The Hatfields and the McCoys

I apologize in advance for going on and on about our ballroom struggles, but since this dance blog is supposed to be our complete dancing journey, Gary and I both feel we must report what we are thinking and experiencing. I also believe Gary and I are fair people. We will never blast anyone, but we realize this is our opinion, and opinions are just that, no more, no less.

Dancing, in many ways, is a microcosm of human behavior. There will be different opinions, usually around those who want to maintain the status quo vs. those who want to change it. Within dancing this manifests itself by the push and pull between ballroom studios wanting to codify and preserve, and club/street dancers wanting to expand and evolve.

Take swing dancing. Before the Internet and before traveling was commonplace, every city had their own swing; west coast and east coast of course, but also more intimate city/area dances like the Arkansas street swing, the St. Louis imperial swing, and the Detroit bop. Each locale reveled in their own style. However, when folks did come together, dances merged and spawned new variations. The swing styles of the 1940s therefore, didn’t look anything like 1950s styles.

Then came studio swing. The formally wild and free dance was captured, roped, and gentrified. They had to…how else would they teach it in large numbers? Now everyone could learn to swing, not just young city hipsters. Ballroom studios also preserved the dance; who knows how many wonderful swing varieties faded from existence because people stopped doing them? The swing taught in ballroom studios might be a bit stiff, but at least it exists. Also to ballroom’s credit, many people don’t live in the areas street swing “evolves”. Or perhaps they are too shy to “get out there” and learn on the fly…maybe they need to learn by prescribed steps. And maybe, just maybe, learning by dance experts is not so bad; a little ballroom technique never hurt anyone.

But of course, as with many large institutions, what was once one of many ways to learn to dance became the only way. Ballroom swing, with its formal movements and codified steps, began to think of itself as the holder of the dance chalice, as it were. Only they could interpret and teach the correct expression of swing; any variation was wrong, sloppy, or silly.

Street swing dancers revolted. Some even formed their own studios. And many became just as high and mighty as ballroom studios; only we can teach swing. Ballroom studios kill the natural expression and evolution of dance. Ballroom studios are exclusionary and pretentious. And so on.

Swing dance is only one example, unfortunately. The latin community feels much the same way about salsa and other latin street dances now found in ballroom studios.

Ultimately, we need both. If club/street dancers didn't exist dances would become stale and old fashioned. Without ballroom studios many dances would die because there would be no one preserving dance styles and teaching the masses. What I don’t like is the assumption …from both sides…that the other is wrong.

There are studios where the old and the new happily co-exists; someone, for example, knew the tango before he or she combined it with west coast swing, creating swango. And that someone probably had ballroom instruction. In previous posts I’ve stated that these egalitarian studios are mostly found on either coast, not in the mid west. That’s a shame, but Gary and I are determined to create our own virtual eclectic studio.

Heck, perhaps by the time we’re done we can all have a big party. With dancing, of course. :-)

PS. Check out the Galaxy Studio, not on a coast, but in Texas! Their motto is “there’s a dance style for everyone”. It doesn’t look fancy, but then, they want to offer low prices so everyone can learn to dance. They teach all styles of dance including Break Dance, Hip Hop, Ballroom, Sexy Stiletto (don’t know what that is but sounds wicked and fun), Zumba, Ballet, Classic Strip Tease, and more. Cool. A waltz class down the hall from a strip class. Gotta love that. One two three, flick those panties. I think I shall call it…saltz, hee hee.

http://www.galaxydances.com/galaxy_dance_studios_home.html

My People

Check it out...tango blended with west coast swing!!! It's called swango. I'm thinking Argentina tango...look at those leg flicks. I LOVE this!!!

Close and Move On

Ever have a dentist appointment that you dreaded? Maybe you had a cavity that needed to be filled and you knew the drilling would hurt like - well, a lot? So, for hours before the appointment you tried to figure out if - just maybe - the pain was imaginary and you could just go on like nothing was wrong. In the end though, painful or not, you got the tooth drilled and filled and eventually felt a lot better for it.

This week's been that way. The dust on our doomed routine has settled, the initial shock and disappointment (though still present) has faded into clarity, and it's time to move on. Well, it's time for us to move on.

It's not surprising that a ballroom studio teaches ballroom style and values ballroom priorities. When Kelly and I first started dancing we had no idea that there'd be any difference between a place teaching ballroom and a swing-oriented club. I mean its all dance, right? The short answer is yes and no. Yes, swing is a dance just like any of the ballroom dances. No, the core philosophy of swing and ballroom aren't the same.

In my heart I'm a club dancer. I love swing in all its variations from South Carolina Shag to Arkansas Street Swing and from Rockabilly to Bop. That doesn't mean I've given up on learning and dancing the Fox Trot. My heart beats in a certain ardent way when I think about listening to a romantic Goodman tune while I circulate around the dance floor. In the final analysis, though, I don't need medals, trophies, or ballroom strictures to tell me I'm a good (or bad) dancer. I feel it.

2010 will start with more exploration and more fodder for our blog. We're going to take on Latin dances from Afro-Cuban instructors, we're going to plumb the depths of Swing instructors, and we're going to try to capture the elusive Fox Trot. Raise a glass to the new year and strap on a fresh pair of dance shoes. The band's warming up and it's almost time for the ball to drop in Times Square.

A Red Ryder Official Carbine-Action Two-Hundred Shot Air Rifle

I looked for this old Chicago Sunday Tribune story (and a better image) but came up empty. The first thing that struck me about the cover was the way the fellow is dressed - but then, that makes sense. A dude ranch wasn't a working ranch, it was a kind of tourist setup where bumbling city folk from the east could come west and play cowboy with real horses. The picture also reminds me of Ralphie in Christmas Story - poised with his trusty Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle dressed head to toe in drugstore cowboy finery. Of course Ralphie opted for Woolies instead of regular old leather chaps but that's a minor detail.

What dance are they doing? Texas Two-Step, of course!

Change

Change can be many things both good and bad: it can be chosen or forced, planned or unexpected, sad or exciting. But, even if the change is something you want, need, or is all around best for you, it isn’t ever easy.

Gary and I are changing our relationship with our studio. There. I said it. It isn’t easy. It’s very very sad, and I’ve cried over it. Someone reading our blog posts may think this decision stems from the fact that we weren’t able to have input into our routine, but upon further contemplation, that just pushed us sooner into this eventual outcome.

Because deep down, Gary and I both knew this would eventually happen. I fought that feeling with tooth and nail. So did Gary, although he recognized we weren’t getting everything we needed long before I did, being more perceptive and wiser than I. Even after the Routine Incident, as Gary is now calling it, I held on. It will all work out. Everything will be fine.

But after a long discussion late into the evening, we decided we have to make some changes. Why? In a nutshell, our vision of dancing doesn't match theirs. There is not a “right” and “wrong” here. Gary and I didn’t know what we wanted when we started, and a ballroom studio is a good place for any dancer to begin, even if eventually you decide ballroom style and rules are not for you.

What we need and want now is an eclectic approach; a place where ballroom instruction lives down the hall from a hip hop class. A place where dances can blend and evolve. A place where experimentation is appreciated and celebrated. There are indeed such studios…on the east and west coast. None, alas, around us.

But that just makes it harder, not impossible. What we are going to do is find different studios that teach different things. Our current studio for fortrot, swing …and the rockabilly. Our teacher learned that dance for us, and we appreciate that she did. But we will also investigate local swing dance clubs and conventions for street swing. And fortunately, Indy has a huge Latin community, so there are two bona fide Latin studios we can get salsa, hip hop, and other club Latin dances from. We are also wanting to learn Argentina tango, and believe it or not, Indy has a studio that specializes in that…who knew? We want to get out there and experience dancing taught in different ways. Again, we don’t think our approach is better than ballroom…just another expression of dance.

For those of you who are beginning your dancing quest, here are some words of advice. Don’t just sign up at a studio. Go in and ask them questions. Find out their expectations and yours. Ask other students…those that attend, and if you can, those that left. Ask them why. Also, ask yourself how creative you are. If you have any artistic blood in you, know that ballroom dancing and subsequent instruction (and in our case, routines too) are exact to ballroom specific standards. Nothing wrong with that, but understand that experimentation and ballroom dancing usually are not used in the same sentence.

Ballroom dancing is very popular, but there are other ways to dance, and to learn how to dance that are equally valid. That is our quest for the coming year.

We appreciate everything we have received from Melissa. I hope she would take this as a compliment, but it is because of her we want to broaden our scope...we wouldn't be where we are in our dancing without her guidance. We value and respect her and her expertise. She learned and taught us rockabilly when no one else would, and we will never forget that. Gary and I still believe Melissa is a fabulous, wonderful, teacher and we know we will continue to learn much from her.

Dancing has become more than a hobby; it has become a way of life. And that means expressing ourselves completely through it. We can no longer get everything we need from our studio. That has been a gut wrenching realization. But perhaps, in the end, all works out the way it’s supposed to. I’m sad, but I feel free. Excited. And a little scared.

The adventure continues.

Disappointment

"The theater, the theater, what’s happened to the theatre?
Especially where dancing is concerned
Chaps who do taps aren’t tapping anymore
They’re doing choreography
Chicks who did kicks aren’t kicking anymore
They’re doing choreography
Heps who did steps
That would stop the show in days that used to be
They’re doing choreography
Through the air they keep flying
Like a duck that is dying
Instead of dance its choreography"

Choreography
Danny Kaye
White Christmas

Yes, as Kelly said the routine is a thing of the past. Last week we decided to discontinue our quest – probably making it the shortest lived quest in quest history. Unfortunately, brevity isn’t equivalent with ease. We’re both unhappy and disappointed – but we come out of the experience with a better understanding of what it is to be involved with a routine.

Kelly said it all: we expected one thing and our studio had different ideas. There were miscommunications all around. We expected collaboration and the studio was offering to choreograph a routine for us to perform. Yes it make sense that the studio wants the end result to be a good advertisement for their business and their instructors. It all makes sense but making sense isn’t the same as the reality feeling good. To be honest, it feels pretty rotten.

Those of you considering a routine should ask two questions. Firstly, ask yourself what level of involvement you want to have in the construction/choreography – for some people the answer is you’d like to have a routine designed for you and for some, the answer is you want to have an integral part in creating the routine. It’s important to know the answer to this question before you take on the second: what level of involvement does your dance studio or instructor allow. If your dance instructor requires total creative control over the routine and you want to play a large part – you’re not likely to be satisfied with the outcome. In our case, we wanted a high level of creative involvement and our studio would allow none. Hence, for us, no routine.
There was a little tense discussion with our instructor, then we ditched. I hate to get all poetic and big-headed but dance (for me) is about self expression and having fun. That wasn't what a routine would have been and so it wasn't for us. The music goes on and the experience hasn't dampened my like of dancing. I'm still jazzed when I get to spend an evening with my girl and a good swing band in a fine old dancehall. There's still magic in a hardwood floor massaged by decades of dancing feet. Kelly and I are fond of saying that dance is a form of athletics; the athlete has to be resilient – even when things don't turn out as expected.

Miscommunication

I remember right before my freshman year in college I went to a new hairdresser. It was a hip, funky place smack dab within the hippest, funkiest spot in town. I saved up for months…wasn’t cheap. I wanted to make a good impression on…stop. As a good friend of mine says, who am I kidding? I wanted to meet boys.

So off I went, hoping to get a new do pretty enough to cause young men’s hearts to flutter. I slid into my seat. What were you thinking, said the neon-haired man. (That should have told me something.) I don’t know, I said airily, something cute. Something swingy. What I got was over permed and colored, not swishy at all. When I said “cute” I meant Farrah. The hair dresser obviously had something else in mind.

Which brings me to our dance routine. What Gary and I wanted was collaboration between our wonderful teacher and us. We knew we couldn’t do the whole thing…we have no experience with choreography, and of course she knows way more steps than we do. What we did want, however, was the freedom to create our own story line and work out some of our own steps, and in fact, had started that process.

Unfortunately, there was miscommunication. Our dance studio wants control over all choreography. I get that; every showcase is a representation of their studio. What Gary and I had hoped for was that collaboration would be acceptable, since our teacher would have been part of it. But that was not the case; either our instructor designed it entirely, or the routine was not to be. And since Gary and I do want input, we are not going to do it.

Sigh. Miscommunication happens all the time, especially when both parties are vested in the outcome. Looking back, I think we both heard what we wanted to hear; I know our teacher was as disappointed as we were.

I think this has been a very good lesson. Communication is always important, but especially so with someone you see every week in a business setting. Every week is the key. Most professional people you see only once in awhile, so you don’t have to remind yourself that if you are paying someone to do something, it is a business relationship. Duh. But with someone you see every week it becomes easy to forget that. You get sloppy. You communicate in half sentences like you would to a best friend or sister.

Not to say you can’t mix friendship and business…you can…but whenever you are paying someone it is first and foremost about the business. We thought we explained ourselves to our instructor, but we did it very quickly after a lesson. She’ll get it, we thought. She knows us. She understands what we want.

But she didn’t.

Learning to dance is an intimate experience. You are touching. You see each other every week. You are exposing your weaknesses. It is easy to fall into a belief that you’re all just hanging out. But you can’t expect a business relationship to be like one with your mom, your sister, or your best friend…they are not going to be able to fill in communication gaps. Again, not that you can’t mix friendship and business, or that you can’t have a friendly business relationship, but ask yourself this: if you are not seeing that person socially other than within the setting you are paying them, then what you have first and foremost is a business relationship.

So like that hairdresser, you have to be very clear about what you want. Anything less isn’t fair to them, and it can only end in what happened with us… disappointment on both sides.

Saying that, we of course will continue our lessons, sadder and wiser. Because Gary and I both still feel Melissa is The Best Dance Teacher In All The World.

It's a Wonderful Life

Maybe the 20's and 30's are starting to come around again. Both decades were marked by a fad for dance contests and the current craze for Dancing with the Stars and So you Think you can Dance sort of look back to that trend. I'm not sure what to attribute the 20's/30's fad to and I don't feel like I can comment with too much authority since I wasn't there to experience either era. As for the modern trend? Personally I link it with my reason so many people have a taste for reality shows: you can watch people acting like idiots without their behavior impacting you personally.

Those of you who've read Blue Suede Souls know I've got a real nostalgic streak but that streak doesn't extend to the fad for dance contests. There are a couple of reasons for this (and they apply to the modern fad too). First off, the whole idea that any judge or panel of judges could, on any given day, make a decision on who is the 'best' at any dance style (or worse, compare say Waltz and Jive and come up with a 'best') is ridiculous. It falls into that old algebraic conundrum of dissimilar terms, they can't be compared.

Another difference between the 'good ole' days' and modern times is that in the 20's/30's there seemed to be a focus on quantity rather than quality. Dance marathons were the rage with contestants dancing to the point of barely remaining upright so that they could win cash prizes. Maybe this was just part of 20's youth culture – an emphasis on virility, endurance, and strength over refinement, skill, and experience. As I said earlier, I'm not qualified to interpret and I can only imagine what the experience must have been like. Jam 200 teen-somethings onto an improvised (or actual) dance floor and the band kicks off the event with all the festiveness of the first day of a carnival. After a few hours the weaklings are culled from the heard, after a dozen hours only the most determined remain and the crowd of onlookers thins. Sometime after about twenty hours the crowd returns to see the end, it's like waiting for a matador to dispatch the bloodied beast he's been tormenting. Finally one of the couples drop and the other is crowned victorious. The swell of adrenalin is just enough to get them to smile for the photos – then they're asleep before they're out of the venue.

How do I hook this up with the holiday? Well, one of my very favorite movies contains a nice dance contest scene. It's a Wonderful Life depicts a Charleston Contest. George Bailey gets roped into accompanying Mary Hatch to a high school dance and then finds himself in the midst of a Charleston contest. I love the teetering on the edge of the pool portion of the scene – they move up and back, unaware they're about to plummet into the swimming slowly opening gymnasium swimming pool. Sometimes dancing feels like that scene. You're out there, having a good time and going at it like wild but totally unaware that disaster looms just at your heels. At least in the movie the disaster only ended in winning a loving cup and plundering the high school locker room for dry clothing! Anyway, I did my best to find a clip to show but You Tube came up bare. A still will have to do for this post. Maybe at some point the video will fall into my hands and I'll air it.

Oh, and a little something to show I'm not all about flashing back to the way things were in 1946 when It's a Wonderful Life is set. The movie contains one of the hardest scenes in cinematography for me to watch – the scene where drunken druggist Gower slaps a young George Bailey in the head until his ear bleeds. The violence is troubling enough by itself but the 'angelic' commentary provides a window into the thinking of the era. Clarence doesn't show a hint of horror at what has happened to George, he doesn't remark on the violence at all except to say 'is that the boy who got his ear slapped back…' when he sees Bailey as a grown man. Omission, for me at least, is acceptance of normality and that says a lot about the era of this film. I guess not all that's old glimmers with a soft, sepia-toned love light.

Holiday Dance Postcards

The holidays are here!!! I can't wait to dance to Rock Around the Clock, Marshmallow World, Jingle Bell Rock, and all the other wonderful holiday tunes. Here are some couples dancing. Check out the one with the woman wearing the beautiful red and green dress. Also some very talented chickens. Oh, and the pine cones. Who knew they could dance?

The Routine

I’m excited too. As Gary said, we went from no, don’t think so, to um, maybe, to yes let’s, and now….I’m really excited!

We did have some concerns. As Gary said, at first we didn’t want to spend time on it…we were just beginning to dance, and we wanted technique and steps we could use out every week on the floor.

But we also thought that doing a routine meant it was choreographed by someone else. To us that meant coloring in someone else’s lines; we wanted to do the drawing ourselves. Well. We've learned two things. One is that a routine can be designed by someone else, but it doesn’t have to be. Two is that having someone assist and suggest isn’t a bad thing. And of course, since we have the best dance teacher in the world, she is going to let us have as much artistic control as we want, while gently suggesting that perhaps, a triple wheelie backwards flip just doesn’t fit in that waltz part. :-)

So. We gleefully picked out a weird and wonderful song and have already started to create steps. We’ve written the story line for our routine. I’ve even ordered the skirt. But here’s the hard part: I CAN’T TALK ABOUT IT! I want to. I really do. But Gary wants to keep it a surprise mostly, so I’m honoring that. But how can I talk about its evolution without telling about it??? Heavy sigh.

I so want to blab. I’m a blabber about my creative process, as you might know from reading my writer’s blog. Funny, because in any other area I’m as tight as a clam. When people tell me stuff and say don’t tell, you can bet I won’t. Even when I’m not sure I keep my mouth shut. I don’t discuss me much either, except for my creative endeavors.

My artwork, my books, my dancing, about all of those things I can chatter away. I don’t know why exactly…I don’t necessarily want the feedback…once I start talking I’ve already decided, but I DO enjoy getting embellishment ideas from others, so maybe that’s the reason.

But mostly it just feels good to let the cork out of the bottle. And right now I’ve got all of this fizzy goodness locked up inside about the routine. ARGGHHHHHH!!!

But then, Gary’s already posted the song. Shouldn’t I get to let out one little peep? I’m gonna. Our song, Planet X, is based on the old sci-fi move The Angry Red Planet, and our routine will reflect a little of that.

Ah. I feel better now.

Just Routine

Kelly and I made a big decision recently. Well, a big decision for us and our dancing. We decided that we would undertake doing a Routine at one of the upcoming Fred Astaire events. I call it a 'Routine' because the thing has taken on an air of event-ness that I think warrants capitalization. Small 'r' routine is, well, just average, normal, and nothing out of the regular every day thing while big 'R' Routine has weight, heft, and is just something you've got to decide to take on or let go by. Up until recently (and I think I've written about this) we'd been of the opinion that though Routines were cool we weren't interested in doing one. This wasn't because we didn't think it was worth our time or because we didn't appreciate the artistic component - frankly we just didn't want to devote a large portion of our time and dance lessons to a onetime thing.

Now, before I'm reminded of this fact, yes - I know that some of the moves we learn for the Routine will translate into everyday social dancing. I also know that the combinations of moves won't easily make that leap and I don't plan on becoming one of those dancers who have to run over three people because the double lutz always comes after the back flip sow-cow.

That said, the more we discussed Routines and their pros/cons the more Kelly and I found ourselves saying things like. "If we did a Routine…" and "I think a good tune for a Routine would be…". We were talking favorably about something that, before, we'd been set against. So, we decided we should take the plunge.

So, in true Kelly and Gary style we've selected a bizarre song. I've included the YouTube video here - it has nothing to do with dancing really and generally consists of a pretty hack (if funny) video, but it gives you an idea of what feeling the Routine will have. I'll be writing more about the process of choreographing, practicing, and generally making sure we don't make fools of ourselves in coming posts so keep an open eye.

Being Happy

Without getting too philosophical, I believe it is every human’s right, goal, and reason for living to be as happy as possible. And yes, I also believe that includes helping others, but one can’t assist anyone else if the well is dry, so to speak. Being happy obviously means you must know what brings you joy. Duh. But I think you also have to be aware of what doesn’t.

Gary and I have taken that very seriously with our dancing, which must sometimes drive our dance instructor Melissa crazy, although as you know from many previous posts she has risen to the challenge. We have chosen not to follow any prescribed dance course, deciding instead to follow our own hearts.

The downside to that is there are, and I’m not kidding, probably a million dances from which to choose. The odds are good that we may try some we don’t like. Sometimes that can be a big disappointment.

Take the shag. Don’t you just love that name? And it’s a beach dance…the shag is danced regionally in southern coasts on open-air dance floors, soft island breezes playing through one’s hair while sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas…sigh. OK, so maybe I’m romancing it a bit, but I had such hopes for the Carolina Shag. Gary too. We’ve tried to like it; we took a class in it last year during the 2008 Moving Across The River dance workshops, and also this year.

But we just didn’t feel it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very cool dance, sort of swing/river dance shuffle mix. We saw many many examples of expert shaggers over the weekend. I love some of the fancy footwork and pretzel-like turns. And then we had a revelation. Why not take some of those moves and put them into a swing we DO like? I mean really. If we can put samba and cha-cha moves into our West Coast Swing, surely we can add a bit of shag in there.

So that’s what we’re going to do. We learned something called a shag belly roll which sounds creepy but in truth is a wonderful face to face intricate step. It’s a definite toe-smash risk, but so worth it. And, if we ever do go to one of those romantic beach dance floors we can do our WCS Shag…The Wag, ha ha.

Check out these shaggers: it may not be for Gary and me, but maybe it is for you.

Move Across the River 2009

Move Across the River 2009 was a blast and a whirlwind – two days (Friday and Saturday), four classes, and three dances means coming home very tired and a little sore! In the last forty-eight hours we’ve taken classes in Chicago Jitterbug, Arkansas Street Swing, St. Louis Imperial Swing, and Carolina Shag and from some great instructors. I think one of the most valuable things that came out of the weekend was a realization about my own learning style and how to get the most out of these group sessions.

The thing to remember – I discovered – is that the instructors are teaching a routine and (unless you’re planning on doing a routine yourself) you’ll probably seldom use the moves in the same order as they’re being taught. So, the point is to learn the moves themselves as individual units and not worry so much about the transitions.

Secondly, there are going to be some instructors you don’t gel with. That’s okay – it’s no big deal, you don’t have to be in tune with everyone who teaches at every event you attend. For me it’s a lot better to bail on a session than to stand around getting frustrated. Sometimes I can even pick up a move or two from the sideline when the pressure is off.

We came away with something called an Illusion Turn, A Man’s and Woman’s Neck Wrap, and a Belly Rub from the Carolina Shag – all of which we’re working on perfecting so that we can work them into our various swings.

Danny and the Juniors

Here's a fun little memento of 1957. Danny and the Juniors playing what (through the bad video quality of the era) seems to be an outdoor venue though the posted of the video didn't provide any information to confirm that assertion. I find something interesting in this video. Try to make out the dances that are being done and you'll see ECS (hard to tell if it's single or triple) and what seems to be a very relaxed rockabilly swing. What you don't see are the crazy aerials and breakneck pacing that you get nowadays. My father-in-law often bemoans how his beloved ragtime music is treated like the idea was to play it as fast as possible and I think his concern carries over to other genres. The music's got a danceable pace, not insanely fast and not dragging – it's being played at the tempo it was meant to be played at which means over a hundred people can get on the dance floor and they don't kill each other doing moves that take too much room or they're not capable of executing at the right speed. Nearly every modern swing band ought to remember this and maybe learn to read time signatures!

Dance Power

In reference to Gary's post about dance power... there is such a thing! Check this out!!!

Finally...

Finally the Halloween pictures re uploaded and ready for your viewing pleasure (though I have to say, it seems like if they're Halloween pictures they ought to be there for your viewing horror…). One week, two parties, and about 400 miles later Kelly and I have attended both the Indy Dancers costume party at the East Side Moose Club and the Casa Loma Halloween Masquerade party. Both were great and now it's kind of good to settle back and relax into a pre-tryptophan stupor while we rest up for the big three: Thanksgiving, Yule, and New Years.

St. Louis' Casa Loma Ballroom is a fantastic place to dance. The floor's in great condition, the bands are good (if a bit loud), and the crowd is diverse. This year, though, that crowd was a little thinner than in 2008. I don't know if it's due to the economy or the fact that the party fell on Halloween night and parents had to tour their kids around - whatever the case, the balconies stayed empty all night long and the dance floor was noticeably emptier. Most of the time I'm all for a bit of elbow room on the dance floor but not when It makes me worry over a storied ballroom's future. Maybe I'm being alarmist - I hope I am - but only time will tell. I guess I shouldn't bust the post-Halloween sugar high with my concerns. Better to savor the moment for none of us have control over the future.

I always knew that the Electric Slide was the devil's dance. There's something satanic about it - okay, maybe not satanic but you know. I've never been good at following rules so I guess I'll never be any good at doing line dances.



This is either the Macarena or a group of NFL referees practicing the signal for a good fieldgoal attempt. Isn't the Macarena the perfect dance for a mime? All those hand motions? Well, maybe not since this mime doesn't seem to be keeping up with the crowd.


Perpetual motion - if you could bottle this kind of energy we won't need coal gasification, wind turbines, or solar power. The nation could be powered by DANCE POWER! Oh, notice the shiny, oil slick looking to the right? It isn't a party until a guy dressed as a sheik slings MGD all over the dance floor and then has to be led off by his rather embarrassed looking spouse.


My favorite costumes of the night. They didn't take home first place in the costume contest - they lost to the entire cast of Carrie - people just go for a psychotic, psychic chick drenched in pig blood, I guess.

Casa Loma Ballroom Halloween 2009

On the way to St. Louis Gary and I discussed looking to another venue for Halloween 2010. We loved dancing at Casa Loma last year, but St. Louis is a long drive, and, it’s expensive to stay near the ballroom, at least, if you want a neighborhood that’s safe.

But it’s hard to imagine having a better time. Gary and I had a fabulous, magical evening at the fabled ballroom; we danced until I almost collapsed. Literally. My legs stopped working. We had to quit in the middle of a fast medley, but that was OK. To say that I couldn’t possibly do one more dance was the best feeling ever.

The band, That 80’s Band, was, if a bit too loud, very good. They played 80’s music. Naturally. So we got Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, Cher, Joan Jett…all the icons of the 80’s. Good dance music for swing and a few rumbas. It was fun, being Halloween and all, dancing to Thriller, Ghost Busters, and Werewolves of London.

The costumes were wonderful, from the sublime (a jellyfish), to the hilarious (the ENTIRE cast of Carrie…they won), to the er, questionable. You know the expression “her headlights were on?” Well, first imagine a woman in a tight top. Her headlights were ON, shining brightly through the thin material. Funny. We were garbed in Star Trek attire; Gary in a red shirt and me in a red dress. We had regulation pins and bags that looked like tricorders. I even found a pair of black stage boots (Sansha brand) that although were not as comfortable as my dance sneakers were fine for one evening after I put a couple of shoe inserts into them.

The crowd was its weird normal self. We saw some truly expert club dancers (hoping to steal some of their moves), free form expression (aka hopping up and down and having a blast), and of course, the annual beer baptism which luckily occurred when we were sitting down.

I feel freer there than anyplace else. I think it’s a combination of Halloween magic, the historic venue, and the costumes. Is that 20’s era flapper woman sitting next to me in reality a ghost from times past? Or is she even a she at all? We sat next to a table of cross dressers. :-)

You just never know on Halloween. And that’s the beauty of the holiday. Sigh. I wish it wasn’t over.

Here’s a video of Ella Fitzgerald performing one of her favorites. The band she’s singing with, Chick Webb and his Orchestra, gave Ella her start…at the Casa Loma Ballroom. Enjoy.

The Skate!

Sometimes I feel sorry for my dear wife – putting up with my sense of humor can't be easy, especially when dumb luck conspires to set up a perfect situation. Just yesterday evening, during dance practice, she showed me a new WCS move she's working on called 'the skater turn'. It, as you probably can guess, looks like you're skating, complete with hands folded behind the back. Since I don't skate all this was okay but she could have been showing me the 'falling from an airplane without a parachute' because I would have had just as much basis for comparison. Anyway, during my usual web trawling for old ads and sheet music covers I happened to come upon this little gem.

Apparently, back in the forsaken part of the 60's when Madison Avenue was desperately trying to pet the Mod market, Career Club (manufacturer of Nerd-ware) decided they wanted to get hip to the frug. Of course, since this ad comes from 1967, they'd pretty much missed the entire psychedelic/mod thing and were stumbling blindly into the Disco Era. Ah, the days before Madison Avenue defined youth culture…weren't they grand?

To be honest the steps of this 'dance' read like a vision summoned from some dank church basement after passing around the wafer box one too many times. Note that boy and girl never touch. To me this smacks of the covert moral cops of the 1950's trying to control the misguided youth they begot. Funny that a generation which grew up on songs like Cab Calloway's Reefer Man and danced jive and bop would be so intent on the whole 'no touchie' thing.

As for the fashion – the blog from which I filched this ad made the point that all fashion is relative and I agree to an extent. It's impossible and unwise to attempt to judge what was stylish back in '67 with the sensibilities of the new millennium. I will say this guy's belt makes it look like his plaid undershirt has come un-tucked and it looks like dorkopotamus stole his hair from one of the members of Devo. I also find it interesting that the pose our hip young couple is styling in the ad doesn't match any of the described steps of the dance. I guess you can't capture true dweebdom on film – it's like a UFO or vampire or something.

Oh, and I should mention, Kelly's skater manuver looks nothing like the WASPercising shown in the ad. It's just unlucky enough to share the name!

Peas, Icing, and Travel

Admit it. I had you at “peas”.

If you’ve read my earlier posts you’ve heard me praise the wonders of ice to reduce swelling. You also remember that I discovered frozen peas work best; they are flexible and mold to the exact contours of, in my case, knees. I tried the expensive kind with faux ice, but when those freeze they freeze hard, and, they are rectangle. Knees are round. I don’t know how those things would work with any body part, as none that I know of are square.

Anyway. The peas work great. Except for travel. I’ve learned that icing works best pretty quickly after exercise. We mostly dance close to home so this is no problem; I come home, pour myself a glass of wine, and throw the peas on both knees while watching TV with my dance partner. However, the times when we travel father way can be troublesome. Even with a cooler, frozen peas start to smell, um, rather vegetable-like after awhile.

We are about ready for a trip to St. Louis and I really didn’t want to bring my peas. Then Gary discovered something cool (so to speak): disposable ice gel packs. They are not something you’d want to use all the time because at three bucks a pair you’d soon build up a hefty bill if you use them often. But for once in awhile they are fab.

What I have right now are Medline’s “instant cold” packs, but I used another brand last weekend. They all seem the same so look for a good price. What they all have in common is interesting directions. Squeeze the pack until you hear a “pop” the box says. OK. So last Friday after the rockabilly dance I took one out and pressed gingerly. I didn’t want an explosion of blue goo. Nothing happened. So I twisted harder. Still nothing. I gave it to Gary who squeezed with all his manly might…still intact.

Finally he threw it on the floor and stomped it. That worked. So. You don’t have to worry you’ll accidentally ignite them. And understand you'll need lots of pressure to break the inside seal.

How did they work? Beautifully. They stayed cold about twenty minutes. Prefect. And I arrived home with my clothes not smelling of peas. :-)

A Signal from Mars

This might be my favorite cover art from any piece of sheet music! A Signal from Mars published way back in 1901 and composed by Raymond Taylor and arranged by Edward Taylor Paull. It's a ragtime march – not sure if that's particularly Martian – and the tune has a lovely simplicity about it that the cover's complex, sci-fi look doesn't reflect in the least.

Edward Taylor Paull grew up in pre-Civil War Virginia and worked selling organs (instruments, not kidneys). Mr. Paull and I have a strange, Kevin Bacon-esque connection – recently I've been travelling to VA on business, specifically a placed called Middletown which is near Strasburg, VA. The snippet from The Music Critic and Trade Show (February 20, 1882) shows the our connection:

"MARTINSBURG, W. VA., February 9, 1882

I have nothing special to report to you from this section of the country, as far as musical entertainments are concerned.

The demand for musical instruments here and throughout the valley of Virginia is becoming much better than it was heretofore. I do a good business with the Estey organ and Weber and Fischer pianos. I flatter myself that I sold the last piano that was sold in the year 1881. I sold it and closed the bargain just one hour and a half before New Year's day, or half past ten o'clock at night. The piano I sold was a J. & C. Fischer square, the purchaser being Mr. Phillip Rodes, of Strasburg, Va. There may have been a piano sold later in 1881, but I doubt it.

Yours, very respectfully, EDW. T. PAULL."

I'm going to try to look up the Mr. Phillip Rodes of Strasburg, VA mentioned in the letter in a census to see if I can find where he lived and then correlate Mr. Paull's account with some pictures of the address as it stands today. Wish me luck, as I know from being a fan of Lilkes work on his home town of Minneapolis, the present has a way of utterly obliterating the past! Another bizarre connection is that E.T. Paull's first piece was The Chariot Race or Ben Hur March which was based (of course) on the Lew Wallace novel Ben Hur – a Tale of the Christ. The connection with me? Here in Indianapolis, I attended IPS 107 Lew Wallace grade school. E.T. Paull was a very successful composer and his (extensive) biography is available on Perfessor Bill Edward's website.

Oddly enough, Raymond Taylor, the composer of A Signal from Mars, seems to have completely vanished into history. Maybe this was a one-off composition or maybe he composed later under another name. Whatever the case I find no evidence of him on the net (not that the net is the end-all-be-all of information sources – it's just the one I have available to me at the present moment). Hopefully, I'll turn up more information Mr. Taylor soon.

The sheet music artwork is absolutely striking. Glittering stars float on a blue-black background while in the foreground sits blood-red Mars. Two Martians (I suppose – actually they look like Greeks or maybe Bedouins) stare at a distant (and oddly longitudenized) globe, onto which they project their 'signal'. Apparently in 1901 folks figured we'd get our first evidence of extraterrestrial life via semaphore or Morse code flashed over navy-style signal lamps. Seems a little inefficient to me, what with all that distance and those atmospheres in the way and all, but then I'm no Mars expert. I think it's interesting that the Martian light illuminates the Americas while Asia and Europe languish in the dark.

The lettering on this piece makes me think of the great art nouveau posters by Mucha, where the message becomes a part of the aesthetic. The lettering would be art on its own but teamed with the graphic element they form a poetic rhyme. They belong together.

It's sad that this kind of aesthetic doesn't exist today. Advertizing is totally throwaway any more – 6o second sound and video bites that titillate or amuse can't really last. Nobody will be paging through the 22nd Century version of the Internet, listening to commercials for Walmart or Survivor because those commercials are so bland, banal, and empty of style their nearly forgotten while they're still on the air. The Signal from Mars march may not have stood the test of time or the Billboard charts, but the graphics and the genius that went into the creation are eternal.

Indy Dancer's Halloween Bash

Last night we attended the Indy Dancer's annual Halloween Costume Party. It's a small affair - maybe fifty people at the East Side Moose Club for a Tuesday night dance. The atmosphere was an excellent warm up for this weekend's big trip to St. Louis. I'll have pictures up later in the day.

I'm sure Kelly's touched on this before, but even though we didn't go in 'full costume' I was struck by how much the act of dancing dictates what you wear. Last night I wore a Misfits tee shirt, long sleeve with a glow-in-the-dark skeleton torso printed on it. In spite of the fact we didn't dance as often as we usually do, I nearly sweated to death! Mental note, plastic tee shirt graphics and dancing don't go together! Kelly and I already are debating what we're going to wear as costumes next year and we're making sure they're dance-capable. Nobody needs to have a stroke and wind up taking an ambulance ride while dressed as the Riddler!

Ghost Dance

I went shopping the web for a Halloween-like sheet music cover and I came up with the Ghost Dance – which, apparently, is a "dance descriptive". What, exactly, would a "dance descriptive" be? I can't seem to find a resource that describes, dance descriptive. Maybe the whole dance descriptive genre is indescribable – which seems to make an oxymoron of this whole piece of sheet music. Then again, I dig oxymorons so it just attracted me more. The appropriateness of having a piece of sheet music titled ghost-anything just sealed the deal! Get it - ghost...sheet...is this thing on?

Cora Salisbury's sheet music might be fairly easy to find on the web but you have to dig deep to find much information about the composer's life. That seems odd considering there aren't too many female ragtime composers that I'm aware of - seems to me that Cora isn't getting her due. Professor Bill Edwards' amazing site provided this snippet:


"It was potentially around 1907 that Cora created a vaudeville act and started to travel, most likely with a small troupe of performers. One of her first published compositions was Poodles Parade in 1907, which was printed by Thiebes Stierlin in St. Louis, further suggesting that she was traveling in that time frame. The following year saw another piece in print, My Light Guitar under the logo of Will Rossiter in Chicago, extremely hard to locate today so likely in a small run. In 1909 her most famous piece found its way into print, Lemons and Limes: A Sour Rag, also published by Rossiter. It mentions a piece she had composed called Love's Embrace, but the existence of this waltz in print is difficult to verify. In the 1910 Census it is difficult to pinpoint either Cora or Eliza, so one or both may have simply missed the local Census takers while on the road. One more composition would come from Cora during these years of travel, albeit still based in Wisconsin. This was Ghost Dance, a novelette published by Rossiter, That would be the end of published compositions by Cora Salisbury, but one of her best acts was yet to come."

There is a lot more – her divorce, re-marriage, being widowed, and eventually becoming part of a vaudeville troupe. Mostly there's the real evidence that Cora wasn't going to be beaten down by the trials and travails of life. She was no Polly Purebred tied to the railroad tracks waiting for her Dudley Doright. Regardless of what you might think about ragtime music or even her ragtime music, you've got to respect her. Or, if you don't respect her for her musicality, you should know that she tutored one Ben Benny who'd later change his name to Jack Benny and go on to a lauded career in comedy. Benny credited Cora for teaching him stagecraft and I get the feeling it's credit she deserved.

As for the cover art, pretty basic monotone work. Our gypsy-esque ghostie is cavorting in some pine grove. Knowing that Cora haled from Wisconsin's lumber-belt, maybe the artist was a local or maybe she had some input into the design. I like to think that this little grove represents some memory she had of the days when her dad sharpened saws for the lumber mill. Otherwise, it's nondescript to the point of being dull. Many ragtime pieces have fantastic, fanciful cover art but this isn't one of them. The art work didn't catch me – it was Cora's story and I thought she deserved a little remembrance – even if it's in a smallish blog like ours.

Kelly Gets Her Own Shoe!

Okay, so maybe that's hyperbole. In reality, Argentine Tango Shoes has a new line of dance sneakers named 'Indiana' and since Kelly's purchased (and has a great love of) Argentine Tango's shoes, I'm not opposed to thinking the credit falls to her. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! So, cruise over to Argentine Tango Shoes, and search for the Indiana model and think of Kelly, why don't cha?

Casa Loma, Haloween 2009

Four days until Halloween and our departure for St. Louis, MO and the Casa Loma Ballroom. It's been a year since our last trip and I'm anxious to hit St. Louis' hallowed hardwood again. The thought brings me back to imagining all the dancers who've preceded me and all the nights they spent at the Casa Loma. My mind jumps back to 1927 when the ballroom first opened. The first band playing the Loma was The Bobby Greer Orchestra directed by Ernie Harzy with vocalist Miss Lee Hale. I did a brief Google and it appears the years have nearly erased all evidence of the Greer Orchestra. I'll try to look more, but there's something appealing about the mystery remaining. Maybe the Greer Orchestra was just one of a thousand bands playing one of a thousand venues back in '27. The market was riding high, thoughts of another world war were far away, and on a Saturday in September the musicians warmed up and set the place in motion. Love was found, lost, remembered, forgotten, and dreamed of that evening – and eighty two years later not a soul survives to tell the tale. Nobody can tell you if the dance floor still had the stickiness of fresh wax on sueded shoe souls. Nobody can tell you if the bathrooms smelled like fresh paint. Nobody can even say if the band was on key. All those memories and moments, the ephemera that make up life, have vanished into the ether.

I'll try to remember the past when I get out on the Loma's storied floor. I'll try to be just reverent enough – to appreciate, in spite of all the little irritations that often come with any dance, just how special it is to be able to share a dance floor with over eight decades of history. I'll try to show good courtesy to the ghosts of dancers past and to love the place as they might have when they were young and hopeful. I think the best way to honor all those people who've danced before me would be to do as they did: put on my shoes, take my best girl's hand, and dance until fatigue and time compel us to depart into the chill of an October night.

Here's to you, Greer Orchestra. Time may have forgotten the tune and tempo but the beat goes on in a hundred thousand hearts.

Study in Contrasts

This time both experiences will be good, as opposed to the one fab, one bad, in DC a few months ago. The first: rockabilly night at Mike's Dance Barn in Nashville, In. Wow. I don’t really have the words to describe how wonderful it was…great music, energetic crowd, creative and skilled dancers. Perfect, sigh.

I’ve said before that the rockabilly culture, for the most part, is music first, dancing second. The good part about that is the musicianship is spot on; it’s rare to find a bad rockabilly band. Most times you will hear some of the best played music anywhere. These folks know their instruments, know how to play with each other, know how to interpret the music, and know how to entertain.

The downside to music first is that rockabilly bands are not always concerned with dancers… sometimes the music is just too fast to dance to, other times tempos are switched mid song. Fun to listen to, hard to get your feet to obey. Two of the bands last night were like that. They were very good, but sometimes difficult to dance to.

There are, of course, exceptions, and Terry Lee and his Rockaboogie band is one of those. He and his band are expert musicians and they play with skill and rockabilly abandon. They put on a show that is hard to beat…Terry playing the keyboard is a treat for the eyes as well as the ears. But they ALSO are considerate of people who dance. They play varied paces: slow to fast, country to hard core ‘billy. Gary and I did WCS, ECS (triple and single), and of course our newly learned rockabilly swing. People that knew two step were doing that, and I also spotted a few couples doing night club. That’s pretty rare for a rockabilly band. What Terry Lee and his band receive in return is a very diverse crowd…young and old, listeners and dancers, skilled dancers and free form expression. Gary and I had a wonderful, magical evening. Hat’s off to them. I wish they played closer to Indy more often.

Tonight we’re off for our beloved Starlight ballroom with our favorite club, the Indy Boogie Dancers. The evening will be fun. It’s exciting to attend a wild rambunctious dance like last night, but also nice to go where you know what the first song will be. The same one. Every time. :-) The Boogie dances are at a slower, quieter, pace. We rarely get to dance rockabilly swing there but that’s OK…we need the rest after banging our bodies into submission last night. And, it’s also fun to concentrate on other dances.

And that’s why Gary and I love going to varied venues. You simply can’t get everything in one package. To be really really good at something you have to concentrate on a few things. Not that you can't have a wide variety, but I think you must have only a few specialties if you want to shine. When I go to a rockabilly night I know what I will hear, and I know it will be excellent. I don’t want or need them to play funk! But…neither do I want to only dance to one kind of music all the time. Gary and I love to swing to this kind of music, but we also love Latin, funk, and big band.

But I have to say, I never have as much fun as I do dancing to rockabilly.

Oh you sweet thing…
Do I what?
Will I what?
Oh baby you know what I like.

A Week without Dancing…

Over the past week I've been travelling. I've been on a business trip out East, mucking about airports, stirring around in a hotel room, and generally feeling like a hermit. I enjoy travelling but when I do it along I always start to feel like an antisocial monk: when I'm out and about I want to be left alone and when I'm back in my room I just want to contemplate a little television or read a book. The upshot has been, for the last week I haven’t danced a step, not even practiced. When I got home (about 1AM this past Friday) I would have worried about being ready for a demanding dance event like the Rockin' the Barn if I hadn't been too tired to think about it!

Well, when I started dressing for yesterday evening the sneaking suspicion I'd be in trouble came over me. Rockabilly swing is demanding stuff and we don't even do the Psychobilly genre. I had visions of my knees giving out, breaking out in a flop-sweat, and spending the greatest part of the night sitting on the sidelines making excuses. I'm one of those doomsayers - you know the half empty glass and all that. When we pulled up in front of Mike's Dance Barn my fears grew - we were looking at the biggest crowed I've ever seen at the barn, the lot was full and we had to pull around behind the building just to find a spot to park on the grass.

The Makeshifts were on stage, tearing it up, when we walked in. They definitely had it going on! Anthony Ray Wright and Chris Girton were in great voice and their tunes weren't too country for those of us with rock n' roll sensibilities. Kell and I found our seats and then found the dance floor almost immediately.

You've heard that old saw about riding a bike? Once you learn you never forget? I'm not so sure about bicycles but dance fits the cliché - at least when the once upon a time involved is the span of a week. I think yesterday was our best night of rockabilly since we learned the dance. We pulled off every trick and move we tried and most went over passably. It's my contention you're never perfect but you can be good enough that nobody notices the flaws and last night nobody noticed any of our minor goofs.

Terry Lee and the Rockaboogie Band followed the Makeshifts performance. Terry and his band of geniuses are, for my money, the hardest working band in Indiana. They rocked the house, of course - nailing Jerry Lee Lewis' tunes in sound and energy. Kell and I danced until we were out of breath and when Terry finished his set we wanted more.

After a break, Art Adams has been laying down hot wax since the 50's and he's the genuine article. If you want to know if you like Rockabilly or not, check out Adams' work, its classic country driven, moonshine fueled rockabilly goodness. Interestingly, of the three bands that played the Barn last night, Art Adams' band played the fastest and the hardest ones to dance rockabilly swing to. Goes to show that your dance skill-set needs to be broad for you to get as much floor time as possible!

If you're in the mood for a hot time, see ANY of these bands. Kelly and I love Terry Lee and (as you know if you've read our blog) we'll see Terry every chance we get. The Makeshifts are young, hot, and real rockabilly with plenty of tunes you can triple or single swing. And Art Adams is one of those unsung national treasures you ought to take advantage of - not because some brainiac tells you to, because it'll do your soul good. We walked out of Mike's Dance Barn last night, beat to the souls of our feet, sweaty, and feeling like we ran a half marathon - and happy as hell for all of it!

Girl Bling

I know, I know, the term is out of date. But to me that expression accurately describes the extra flourishes we women can add to our dancing; those glittery, fancy, sensuous moves that can only be described as bling. There can be guy bling too, but this post is for girls.

The first thing to mention is the concept of lead and follow; for those of you who don’t dance, the man is the leader, the women is the follower. I’ve also heard this described as the man is the choreographer and the woman interprets that creation. Some women may think this means no freedom; that we have no say in what goes on.

No way no how. You did note I said “interpret”?

There are some female official ballroom dance steps that enable women to balk or refuse a step, such as in the tango. This post is not about those. What I’m talking about are free-form steps you can incorporate that are not led by the man.

Of course, you must do this carefully. As one rockabilly instructor said, if you don’t like being led then do line dances. Funny. But he has a point; during dancing we women cannot go off willy-nilly. Well, you could, but then what you are doing would not look like social dancing. So where to place your girl bling? Anytime you can do it without breaking the rhythm of the dance, or mess up the man’s lead.

Let’s take a few dances and explore. In the WCS the obvious place for bling is on the last half of the basic after the man pushes you back; after the “three-ah” you are free! There are all kinds of moves you can do here instead of the back triple or coaster…you can do a jazz front hip roll (called the worm, you can look it up on you tube), you can do a belly dance 360 hip roll, you can do a ronde (you tube), you can flick your feet out and in, or you can simply stand still, put your hand or your hip or behind your head and look sassy. These are just some ideas… play around and make up your own. You can also incorporate bling after a whip; some of the same things work.

The other place I love doing bling in the WCS is during a right side pass. To do this most effectively I had to ask Gary to relinquish control; usually the man leads the woman during this move into spins, arm bars, etc. But…if you can get your partner to allow for this freedom, there are any number of things you can do; skip, moonwalk, cha cha steps, samba steps, hip hop slides, the possibilities are endless.

Another dance example is the salsa. The salsa is often danced separately, which allows you to bling it up. Do a hip roll instead of the basic. Try a sailor step (you tube). You don’t have to exactly match when you are separate. But that doesn’t mean you can't embellish during together moves. For example, try hesitating a bit before you do a turn. As long as you get to where you need to be at the end of a move, you’re good.

“Street” dances such as the salsa and swings are admittedly easier to incorporate girl bling, but even in the smooth and more “fancy” Latin dances such as the rumba you can add your own flourishes.

Of course, the most important part of girl bling is attitude. If you’re going to bling, BLING; toss your head, smile, wiggle your fingers, shake those shoulders. Bling is not shy, hesitant, or half way. Think of Tinkerbell. Can’t you just see her blinging it up? Or Amy Brown’s fairies. Here’s one if you don’t know the artist:

Try some bling. It’s fun! And it can be a sexy little wink at your partner. As long as you don’t get in their way men like it.

Trust me. :-)

Cool Cat Vintage Postcard

In honor of seeing Terry Lee this Friday...woooHOOOOOOOOOO!!

More Dance Pictures From Vintage Postcards