Happy Memorial Day from Blue Suede Souls!
Monday, May 27, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Daleks and Terry Lee
Terry Lee knocked it ought of the park as usual last Friday...he and the band just get better and better if that's possible. They have a few more CDs out so we bought another, plan on getting them all.
Oh, and you never know just who you might run into at Mike's Dance Barn....exterminate!!!!!
Oh, and you never know just who you might run into at Mike's Dance Barn....exterminate!!!!!
Friday, May 24, 2013
Schoolhouse Rock
Went to a fun dance last weekend around the Racine, WI. area. I had thought it would be in the gym but instead it was in what appeared to be the old library...much smaller. Still, the floor was lovely, the people very nice, albeit not many of them...maybe 19.
It's fun to try new venues, even if they aren't exactly what you thought. :-)
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Dancing at the Knights of Columbus
Note: Somehow this one wound up in the draft bin instead of getting posted...so much belated, it hits the presses!
Yesterday we had an opportunity to dance at a new venue, the North Side Knights of Columbus. The K of C (at least the one we visited) probably isn’t known for dancing. They had no proper dance floor, just a public school-grade linoleum on concrete deal with a stage fit for Easter pageants at the front of the room and a window into the bar fit for making those pageants tolerable at the back. The K of C is a social club with Catholic connections – the pope’s answer to the Elks, Masons, and other popular fraternal orders of the early twentieth century. Every time I dance at a place like the Moose Lodge I’m reminded that there was a day when insurance didn’t exist and these organizations through their membership fees provided a means to paying for disability, medical care, unemployment, and even burial expenses. It’s odd to think that, in a lot of ways, the 2000’s could use a resurgence of the fraternal orders. This is a blog about dancing, though, so I’ll stay away from musing on reconstructing society! As our favorite DJ often says, well…let’s dance.
So, as I mentioned, the floor was hard and slick and not well suited for anything involving athletic movement in suede-bottomed shoes. It seems to be that a place that’s not set up with a proper dance floor will necessarily lack sufficient space for dancing and the K of proved no exception. Somehow, in spite of the size of the room, adding tables and people equated to a jammed floor with many near collisions. I fall back on an early plea from the blog: if you’re dancing realize you’re not the ONLY person dancing.
Sure, there are accidents. Last night a very good dancer practically started off his EC swing between Kelly and me. I know he’s good and I know he’s very polite, so I chalk that one to a simple error. However, when six or seven couples do the same thing there’s something wrong. Not everyone on the dance floor is a clod so there must be some mystical energy, some occult phenomenon akin to the Bermuda Triangle that comes into play when dances are held in a space not intended for dance. Compasses spin, radios go haywire, and even the deftest of dance mavens find themselves left-footed and stumbling out of control. Their sense of propriety abandons them. Their knowledge of floor-craft becomes a fuzzy memory. Soon they’re tripping the light not-so-fantastic right across your big toe and putting their prodigious butt in your partner’s face.
I’m becoming enamored of bringing an exorcist to these cursed venues. A little holy water and incense, a few mumbled prayers, and out damned dance demons! Maybe we’d all be better dancers for the ceremony. The only problem is I would have figured the K of C would have some kind of stored up resistance, a Vatican vaccination handed down through organizational lineage. Eh, so much for that theory.
Yesterday we had an opportunity to dance at a new venue, the North Side Knights of Columbus. The K of C (at least the one we visited) probably isn’t known for dancing. They had no proper dance floor, just a public school-grade linoleum on concrete deal with a stage fit for Easter pageants at the front of the room and a window into the bar fit for making those pageants tolerable at the back. The K of C is a social club with Catholic connections – the pope’s answer to the Elks, Masons, and other popular fraternal orders of the early twentieth century. Every time I dance at a place like the Moose Lodge I’m reminded that there was a day when insurance didn’t exist and these organizations through their membership fees provided a means to paying for disability, medical care, unemployment, and even burial expenses. It’s odd to think that, in a lot of ways, the 2000’s could use a resurgence of the fraternal orders. This is a blog about dancing, though, so I’ll stay away from musing on reconstructing society! As our favorite DJ often says, well…let’s dance.
So, as I mentioned, the floor was hard and slick and not well suited for anything involving athletic movement in suede-bottomed shoes. It seems to be that a place that’s not set up with a proper dance floor will necessarily lack sufficient space for dancing and the K of proved no exception. Somehow, in spite of the size of the room, adding tables and people equated to a jammed floor with many near collisions. I fall back on an early plea from the blog: if you’re dancing realize you’re not the ONLY person dancing.
Sure, there are accidents. Last night a very good dancer practically started off his EC swing between Kelly and me. I know he’s good and I know he’s very polite, so I chalk that one to a simple error. However, when six or seven couples do the same thing there’s something wrong. Not everyone on the dance floor is a clod so there must be some mystical energy, some occult phenomenon akin to the Bermuda Triangle that comes into play when dances are held in a space not intended for dance. Compasses spin, radios go haywire, and even the deftest of dance mavens find themselves left-footed and stumbling out of control. Their sense of propriety abandons them. Their knowledge of floor-craft becomes a fuzzy memory. Soon they’re tripping the light not-so-fantastic right across your big toe and putting their prodigious butt in your partner’s face.
I’m becoming enamored of bringing an exorcist to these cursed venues. A little holy water and incense, a few mumbled prayers, and out damned dance demons! Maybe we’d all be better dancers for the ceremony. The only problem is I would have figured the K of C would have some kind of stored up resistance, a Vatican vaccination handed down through organizational lineage. Eh, so much for that theory.
Versitility
I've never been a Liberace fan, in fact I only stumbled across this clip parasitically by listening to an episode of Fresh Air which featured a story about an upcoming Liberace docu-drama (Behind the Candelabra, I believe). During the show they played a piece of this clip along with a similar scene from the television program, which got me thinking. What Liberace is doing with Mack the Knife, is improvisation - re-imagining a standard in a new and inventive way. The same can be done with dance.
So, the next time a samba is played, think about it in terms of a cha-cha or a rumba. When a salsa tune is played, ask yourself how you'd do a west coast swing to that tune. It's an exercise in creativity and it can help you transform your dancing into something that's truly your own!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Mother's Little Helper - Happy Mother's Day
Friday, May 10, 2013
Happy Birthday Fred Astaire
Today would have been Fred’s 114th birthday, but
I think he did about 500 years worth of dancing in the time he had.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Happy Cinco de Mayo from Blue Suede Souls! If you tango, make sure to spike your tea!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Happy Birthday Godfather of Soul!
We lost James Brown way too early, if he were still with us he'd be 70 today.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
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