We saw Eddie again last weekend and spent most of our lesson learning a tango routine. Now we have 2 routines to practice while he is traveling for the next few weeks–we won’t get another lesson till early March. So far I have elbowed Daniel in the face twice (once each in waltz and tango) and gotten a hockey-style two-minute holding penalty for leaning on him too much in one section of the tango. I would characterize our routines at this juncture as “not ready for prime time” but we are having a lot of laughs learning them.
In other news, I am branching out my dance experience by going back to ballet classes after several years away. After a couple of weeks of “Teen/Adult Ballet” at the Madison Studio, I was asked to take a small role in the studio’s upcoming production, “Swan Lake Selections.” I am the Queen, which is a pantomime role rather than a dance role–in some of the traditional story ballets there are pantomime parts that serve to advance the plot, using pantomime as a kind of sign language. I went to my first rehearsal today to learn my part in Scene 1. I get to “greet” everyone at my son’s birthday party by walking around in a big circle while they bow to me, then have a conversation in pantomime with my son. My son is turning 21, which means that if you go by my real age, I had him at age 16. The Queen is a teenage mother! You can see the Queen in this video of an American Ballet Theatre production of Swan Lake:
Much like our waltz & tango performances, my Queen performance is not too polished yet. But at least I did not elbow anyone in the face.
Yesterday we had our first private lesson in months–Daniel’s surgery and then the holidays shot the wheels off November and December but we are getting the ball rolling now. We talked to Eddie about moving up from Bronze to Silver level at competition and discussed the possibility of skipping the syllabus levels altogether and starting to compete at Novice, which is the first open level. Neither of us felt quite ready to make that jump but Eddie wanted to start teaching us open choreography anyway. He says it will make us “more rounded dancers.” So we learned a new waltz routine that is so much fun! It is much more complex and strenuous than what we’re used to, but we can already see that once we learn it and polish our technique, it will look fantastic.
Daniel bought a video camera last week so we took it to our lesson. Eddie danced through the routine with me and by himself so that we could review the steps if we needed to when practicing. And boy, did we need to! We practiced a little this afternoon and had to look at the video several times to remember the steps correctly. I am hoping we’ll know them by our next lesson next Saturday.
We are excited. I am not yet sure what level we’ll end up in this year but since we know we want to move up, we are not planning to compete for a while anyway. We want to make sure we go to Gumbo this year and that might be our first competition of the year. If this waltz routine is any indication, we will need every minute of practice between now and then to be ready!
If you are looking to move beyond the basic waltz, tango, & foxtrot (or cha-cha, rumba, and swing), check out this workshop coming up:
This is a workshop for those wanting to learn the basics of West Coast Swing and Hustle. Step patterns will be given.
Instructor: Philip Jones. Philip started dancing in high school as a favor to his sister. She needed a dance partner. He says he didn’t want to but when he danced the waltz he was hooked. Since then he has studied under professionals such as Ashly DelGrosso (Dancing With the Stars) and Min Suyoung and currently studies with Olga Kormanovskaya in Atlanta. He has competed in American Smooth, Rhythm, Standard, and currently competes in International Open Latin.
Assisted by JoyDawn Perry
When: January 16, 2010
Where: Macon Health Club
Time:West Coast Swing1-2:30pm and Hustle 2:45-4pm (15 minute practice following last session)
Cost: $15 per person each class or $25 per person for both classes
To sign up please contact: Paula East at paulaeastdance@yahoo.com or 478-750-0802. Registration begins now and will end on January 10, 2010.
I have met and danced with Philip and can vouch that he is a very nice person as well as an excellent dancer. This is a great opportunity to learn some less common but really fun dances!
Saturday, November 7 was the second annual Stars over Macon Ball. This event is co-sponsored by the Medcen Foundation and USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter #6059 and it benefits Hospice of Central Georgia. For the second year in a row we had a great turnout, fantastic music by the Celebration Band, beautiful décor (put together by volunteers including yours truly!), and some amazing dance exhibitions. The unstoppable Eddie Ares brought two couples to Macon to show us how it’s done: Joe Locurto and his amateur partner Lynne Riddle; and a young professional couple, Jeremy Norris and Emily Loyless. Eddie also agreed–swayed by raucous audience participation–to return to Macon and give us a workshop in 2010. Exciting!
As fantastic as the whole event was, for me the highlight was seeing Fran Kirsh recognized for her hard work on Stars over Macon and her dedication to ballroom dancing. Since her back surgery in August she has not made it onto the dancefloor, but she was at the ball in a well-deserved blaze of glory. Her hard work in 2008 made the first Stars over Macon possible. Now it is on its way to being a gorgeous tradition, and the Hospice House is on its way to completion.
I have to update my WordPress version before I can upload any more photos or videos to the site. Since photos and videos are clearly the best part, I’d better get on it! Stay tuned.
Last weekend, we celebrated Halloween at the Macon Mall with the opening of the mall’s new ArtSpace. Along with dancers from Philips Performing Arts’ studio, USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter 6059 presented a dance exhibition for shoppers and trick-or-treaters at the mall. An enthusiastic crowd was on hand to watch and participate in the dancing. Jim & JoyDawn danced a swing and a tango; Daniel and I danced a cha-cha and a foxtrot; Charles & Leneta danced a samba; and Paula’s entire Thursday night class danced a rumba formation. Chester, our DJ-in-residence, announced the dancers and played the music. Jorge took a video, which I will post here as soon as I get it uploaded. The night was great fun and generated lots of interest in ballroom dancing. Hooray!
[Will "Soviet Russia" in post title attract Russian spambots? We'll see.]
We returned Sunday night from the High Point Classic Dancesport Championships. There are no pictures from this competition, for good reason: we danced very badly! Out of 6 events entered we placed in only one. Sigh.
As Daniel and I discussed on the way home yesterday, everyone is bound to have a bad competition sometimes. We were due: all our experiences so far had been excellent. And, really, even though we didn’t place well, we had a good time and met some great new people. But our heads were not quite in the game. Up until Friday morning we were undecided about whether we’d even attend the competition and that affected our performance. Also, we’ve been dancing a lot of the same steps and routines for about a year and a half now and we think we need some new material. It’s too easy to zone out during a round if you are just auto-piloting through your steps.
So now we have some ideas about what to work on for the rest of this year and early next year. No more competitions in 2009; the calendar for 2010 is to be decided but likely to include the Triangle Open (Raleigh, NC in February) and possibly the Royal Palm Dancesport Extravaganza in Coconut Creek, FL in January. Who doesn’t love Florida in January?
Weekend Excitement, part 1: Paula East’s dancers, including yours truly, will be performing at the opening of Macon Mall’s new Art Space on Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 at 7:00 p.m. Paula’s Thursday night advanced class is presenting a rumba formation (group dance), then individual couples will be dancing some exhibitions. A salsa lesson will follow the exhibition performances. Come check it out!
Weekend Excitement, part 2: Saturday, November 7 is the second annual Stars over Macon Ball at the Wellness Center, 3797 Northside Drive in Macon. Doors open at 7:00 with music starting at 8:00; dress is black tie optional. This event is a fundraiser for Hospice of Central Georgia, co-sponsored by the USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter and the Medical Center of Central Georgia. The ball will feature music by the Celebration Band and performances by Eddie Ares Productions. Call 478-633-7396 for tickets, but don’t wait. October 29 is the deadline for reservations.
Daniel and I will be at the High Point Classic Dancesport Championships this weekend, so we are leaving the Sunday Night Dance Party in the capable hands of Joyce Newman (local tanguera and owner of many a fabulous shoe) and John Herren (USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter 6059 president). The dance will proceed as usual; you just won’t be seeing our smiling faces. So come on out Sunday, Oct. 25, from 6:30 to 9:00. Dress casually; bring $5 and your song requests. Behave nicely while we’re gone. Don’t make me come over there!
We are back from the Hotlanta Dance Challenge/Rising Star Newcomers’ Ball after dancing 18 heats on Friday, 18 on Saturday, and 28 today–by far the most we have danced at any competition we’ve participated in. I expected to have fun but it was even MORE fun than I imagined. So much positive energy and excitement. And it was great to see Carson, Elaine, John, Jorge, and Suzanne, who all came up from Macon at various times and stopped in to see us. Props also to Bill & Grace for letting us stay at their condo. All in all it was an amazing weekend.
We danced well (most of the time!) and placed pretty well–a lot of 1st places thanks to being uncontested in our category, but some “real” 1sts too. The great thing about dancing so many events is that you have room to make some mistakes without feeling like you’ve blown all your chances. Eddie said he just wanted us to get comfortable on the floor and by the end of today, we definitely were. I knew we’d get better at managing our nerves and cooperating on the floor, and we did. What I didn’t expect was to also learn how to keep our energy up when the dances just keep coming. It’s one thing to go all-out in practice but having to be “on” and give a performance multiple times over a period of hours. . . well, we found reserves of charisma we didn’t know we had!
I will post results in a couple of days when I’ve had a chance to compare our heat list with the program. We did not get any videos, unfortunately: personal video was not allowed and the “official” video service was just too expensive. Elaine took some pictures for us that I need to look at and get posted, and DecaDance Photography was there taking professional pictures, so I should be able to link to their gallery. Stay tuned!