Back at the beginning of the year I did an email interview with Rachel Holland, a freelance writer who regularly contributes to the UK’s Dance Today magazine as well as a dozen or so other publications. I had kind of forgotten about the interview until she emailed me the PDF from the May 2011 issue. Whee! Now we are renowned far and wide–and renowned far and wide for being nice people, no less. Hooray!
Well, sports fans, it’s been a long, hot summer. Not much to report…or is there?
At the end of July I went to Austria for an academic conference and also found out about the Vienna ball season. The Viennese waltz is called that for a reason, y’know! My dream is to attend the New Year’s Eve Kaiserball at Hofburg Palace, but I would also settle for a lesser ball such as the Coffeehouse Owners’ Ball. The challenges are considerable (airfare, ball ticket prices, transcontinental ballgown transport), but wouldn’t it be an amazing experience?
A week after my return from Austria, we performed our rumba exhibition at the third annual Dancing for our Heroes charity ball at the Museum of Aviation. It went REALLY well, probably the best we’ve ever danced it even though we had to put water on our shoes because the floor was so slick. Somehow (absent-mindedness) we did not get any video of our routine, but I think I have video of Jim and JoyDawn’s gorgeous waltz as well as Derrek and Wendy’s très avant-garde cha-cha to Rammstein’s “Du Hast” on my phone. It was a great night for everybody!
That was the last time Daniel and I danced before he went to Canada for two weeks to see his family. He returns early next week and we are going to jump into preparation for Carolina Fall Classic, Atlanta Dance Classic, and maybe Christmas in Dixie if we have any money left.
We are also starting to work with a new wedding couple (Hi Tiffany & Tyler!), looking forward to seeing Stacey & JT dance at their wedding over Labor Day weekend (thanks for the invite, guys!), and getting excited about jumping back into ballroom class on Wednesday nights. I am practically counting the HOURS until my first ballet class–either Tuesday night or Thursday night depending on exactly when Daniel rolls back into town (relevant because he went to Canada in MY car).
Meanwhile, I went to Academy Ballroom last weekend with JoyDawn and Beth for their monthly party and the next installment of the Jack & Jill competition (read up on the J&J here and here). This month’s dance was the cha-cha. My standard line re: the cha-cha is that I love it, but it doesn’t love me back. I am slowly getting better at it, but doing that characteristic Latin hip motion at cha-cha tempo continues to be a challenge. Plus, I am really out of shape right now and the cha-cha requires some stamina. I had NO expectations whatsoever. Well, check that: I expected to make it through the first round and into the final, which I duly did, dancing with a cool gentleman named Phil. For the final I drew another cool gentleman, Martin, who seemed (unlike me) not to be wheezing even though the song went on for a while (it’s possible that I’ve been spoiled by 90-second competition rounds). When Rachel announced the placements and I was not 5th, 4th, 3rd, or 2nd, I thought “Oh, I didn’t place, minor bummer.” Then she said that the first-place couple was “possibly the oddest pairing ever in the Jack and Jill” and it turned out that Martin and I had won! We were an “odd couple” because with dance shoes on, I am a good bit taller than he is. So now I am tied for the top of the J&J leaderboard. Can you believe it?
I’ve now ended the majority of the paragraphs in this post with questions. Can I keep it up?
As soon as I hit “post” I’m going over to the Local Dance Opportunities page to post some updates. Will you please look at them?
“Coordinated covert offensives involving two teams are a lot like ballroom dancing: you have to synchronize your steps, time your moves, and always put your partner first.”
–Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) of USA Network’s Burn Notice
Scene: We are once again watching So You Think You Can Dance. Mary Murphy is shrilly bleating singing the praises of Sasha & Alexander’s paso doble.
Mary Murphy to audience: Can I get an “Olé”?
Daniel to MM: No.
(Here’s the paso doble, and here’s DLDancers in-house favorite Melanie dancing a great tango with Marco.)
I’ve just updated the “Local Dance Opportunities” page with
Seriously, if you’re not finding enough times and places to dance around town, maybe you are not trying hard enough. Or not spending enough time on this website?
We went up to Atlanta last night to attend a dance at Academy Ballroom (home of our instructor Eddie and many of his talented brethren & sistren). At the dance, the hosts were putting on a Jack & Jill competition as part of their ongoing project to crown “Atlanta’s Best Social Dancer.” Jack & Jills are well known to West Coast Swing dancers but little practiced in the ballroom world. In a Jack & Jill, you dance with a randomly chosen partner rather than with your regular partner. There’s no choreography and no preparation time. The pair of you rely on your shared vocabulary of steps, musicality, and respective ability to lead and follow. The instructors are doing a Jack & Jill at each monthly dance between now and October. Those who place in the top five accumulate points toward being the overall winner, who gets a mini mirror-ball trophy à la Dancing with the Star. Cue Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction: “I want to dance. I want to win. I want that trophy.” The top three each month also get prizes: last night’s prizes were a free dance admission (3rd), a shoe bag (2nd), and a free private lesson (1st).
Last month, in the first installment of the J&J, the chosen dance was East Coast Swing. Our friend JoyDawn won the competition! Not surprising, because she is awesome. This month, the dance was the foxtrot—our nemesis. I did not have high hopes for Daniel or myself, especially when I noticed that nearly twice as many women as men had entered. In the first round, some of the men, including Daniel, danced twice so that all the ladies would have a chance to dance. Of course, I did not dance with Daniel since he is my regular partner. I was in the second group to dance and my partner knew a lot of steps that I didn’t know. I felt like I wasn’t following very well, but I tried to keep up while keeping my posture strong and my frame in position. Daniel danced with a couple of beginners and said later that he hadn’t felt very confident either. This is the challenge of Jack & Jill: unless you both happen to know a lot of the same steps, you have to rely on lead and follow.
I knew Daniel would get through to the final but I was surprised when I did, too. JoyDawn also made the cut and so did her partner Jim. Ten leads and ten follows were chosen and then randomly assigned to NEW partners. No one danced with the same person in both rounds. There were 2 or 3 husband-and-wife pairs in the final, which required some maneuvering so that no one got to dance with his or her spouse. Finally we were all paired up and off we went. Daniel was with Ann Yearian, an all-around superstar. She runs the consignment boutique at Academy, dances pro-am with Eddie, and regularly lays beat-downs on Daniel and me when dancing with her husband Thomas. My partner (whom I didn’t know at all—Hi, “Chad,” if that is your real name…) was really good. He asked me about what steps I knew and I just said I could fake a lot. Everyone knows steps by different names, and the truth is that I can follow steps I don’t technically know if I have a strong leader. He started out just doing basic Bronze steps for a couple of walls but then went into some Silver basics. We didn’t dance perfectly but we didn’t trip over each other’s feet, either. I just stayed left, stretched away, and smiled like a maniac till the song was over. It was fun!
After a few general dances they announced the top 5. Unlike in the semifinal, where they called back individuals, for the placements they placed couples. Daniel and Ann came in 5th, hooray! Jim and his partner came in first, which surprised me not at all because he is such a great technician. And Chad somehow led me into 2nd, at which I was surprised and quite pleased. So now I have 5 points toward this mini mirror-ball trophy, and I have a new shoe bag with the Bama Ballroom Classic logo on it. A triumphant night for team DLDancers. Next month is the cha-cha. Can’t wait!
[Scene: We are watching SYTYCD. A routine by Tabitha & Napoleon D’umo is introduced.]
Daniel: I love NappyTabs!
Laura: Me too! They are the second greatest husband-and-wife team in the dance world.
Daniel: Who’s the first?
Laura: . . . .
I know, I know: I am a fascinating writer, but you really come here for the videos, right? You can admit it. My feelings won’t be hurt.
(*snif*)
We seem to have taken video of all of our Rhythm heats and no Smooth heats, but considering our inevitable mistakes in Smooth (I’m looking at you, foxtrot), that may be for the best. Click through to watch!
We got back to the ballroom way too early on Saturday for the Open American 6-Dance. This is becoming a pattern: I am paranoid and I like to be early, plus I tend to round our scheduled time down to the hour in my mind, so if our heat is at 1:40, I remember 1:00. And then, as the competition program reminds us with its caps-lock on, we are supposed to be in the ballroom 30 minutes before our event. Thus, 1:00 becomes 12:30 and we are an hour ahead of our scheduled time. BUT! Comp organizers have a pathological fear of Running Late (a not-unreasonable fear if you assume you have to build in time for the ambulance to come) and, as a result, comps often run early. I was still gluing on my eyelashes when Daniel came to the dressing room door to ask if I was ready because our heat was coming up. Mild panic ensued but we were ready in good time, unlike one couple whose number the announcer was calling when we were already on deck. The lady rushed in holding the gentleman’s number and shouting “We’re here! We’re here!” Her partner was still changing his clothes. (Note to prospective competitors: DON’T BE THAT GUY.)
The idea that “May you lead an interesting life” is a “Chinese curse” is probably apocryphal, but one can see the relevance of the connection between “interesting” and “curse.” Our weekend in Baton Rouge, although enjoyable and successful, was…interesting.
We got away Thursday afternoon around 1 p.m. after settling a GPS rivalry in favor of the directions given by Daniel’s phone, which wanted to lead us southward on state & U.S. highways as opposed to my car’s GPS which was determined to lead us north to Atlanta to catch I-85. Even taking into account the higher speed limits on the interstate, that seemed silly. Off we went to the south. No sooner had we crossed the state line into Alabama than we got into an accident: rear-ended, fortunately at very low speed, by a semi. Argh! Dealing with that ate up at least an hour, but at least the car was drivable and no one was hurt. After calling my insurance company, calling the other guy’s insurance company, and calling my parents (so my mom wouldn’t worry when I mentioned the accident on Facebook), we went on our way and finally got to Baton Rouge around 10 p.m.
Friday afternoon around 1:00 we danced our first heat, Adult Silver Rhythm, and Senior I Silver Rhythm immediately after that. It was nice, after the long and stressful drive, not to have to get up and dance the first heats of the day. It was also nice to start with Rhythm instead of Smooth. In most cases, we end up dancing Smooth for our first heat of the day. It’s hard to dance a slow waltz with all that adrenaline in your system but for the cha-cha, the extra energy helps! Surprisingly, we came 3rd out of 6 in the Adult event but 6th out of 8 in Senior I. Usually it’s the other way around because the younger competitors in the Adult category (ages 18-34) manage to out-dance us. In any case I am going to have to stop saying that I don’t like the first heat of the day, because we almost always get a good result out of it, no matter what the event is. Maybe the nerves make us extra sharp. As it turned out later, we’d need to be sharp.