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Friday Night Dance Parties in other news social dancing

What we’re up to this week

(you can see I’m trying to make “What we’re up to this week” a Regular Feature of this here Internet Website.)

Our monthly dance is tomorrow! Don’t forget the time change: 8:30 to 11:00. Come and give us a good send-off to our competition next weekend. Sunday we have a lesson; one last chance to polish up with our instructor and then we’ll get some practice in next week.

For those of you who played along with “Pick My Dress” on Facebook, we are now in the “on tenterhooks awaiting its arrival” phase. Tune in after the competition for pics and video to see what the final choice was.

Finally, if you haven’t already seen this video, I recommend watching it immediately. It’s not recent, but BOY is it good.

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Ballroom dance shoe information!

We are often asked about shoes for dancing. It’s kind of a big subject, and everyone has their own preferences. But for those interested in being appropriately shod for dance occasions, here are some Shoe Basics:

Dancing in street shoes: You can do perfectly well attending lessons and dances in street shoes for a good long time; don’t feel pressured to buy dance shoes right away. For best results:

  • Wear a shoe with a hard (not rubber) sole; your shoe should stay securely on the foot.  The dance floor is a “No Flip-Flops” zone!
  • Ladies, avoid backless shoes since we spend a lot of time backing up.
  • Gentlemen, the more slim and trim your shoes, the easier you will find it to dance with your lady–no fear of accidentally bumping her with your shoe.

Most people who get interested in ballroom dancing end up buying some ballroom shoes. They are lighter, more flexible, and more comfortable to dance in than regular dress shoes. They have a suede sole that gives you just the right amount of grip on the dance floor. The suede means that you can’t wear them on the street, but it’s okay at dance events to come in wearing street shoes and then change to dance shoes.

Dancing in ballroom shoes:

  • Brands: The best “entry level” brands that I’m aware of are Go Go Dance Shoes and Very Fine.  Very Fine is a wholesaler and lots of stores and studios carry their shoes.  It could be worthwhile to shop around a bit and compare prices.  If you are ready to spend a little more, take a look at Supadance or International.  I wear Supadance and have found that ordering directly from the company will get you the lowest price, even taking shipping and exchange rate into account.
  • Styles: Competitive dancers wear different shoes for different dances.  Ladies wear open-toed shoes for Rhythm/Latin dances and closed toes for Smooth/Standard.  It’s easier to waltz in a sandal than to cha-cha in a pump, so if in doubt, get open toes.  (I have these.) Men wear regular heels for Smooth/Standard and a higher “Cuban” heel for Rhythm/Latin–no need for a Cuban heel unless you are competing.  Get plain black leather instead of shiny patent leather. (Daniel wears something like this.)
  • Fit and heel height:  Dance shoes will fit closer than street shoes–you want a snug enough fit that your foot doesn’t shift around inside the shoe.  Ladies often wear their Latin sandals with their toes hanging a little bit over the front edge of the sole.  If you absolutely can’t tolerate a high heel, don’t worry.  Almost every maker has at least a couple of low-heel styles; Very Fine has several. (I wear these when teaching lessons.)

Where to buy: This is where things get a little more challenging here in Macon, GA!

  • Bobo’s Dance Supply (2352 Ingleside) sometimes carries some ballroom shoes and they always carry dance sneakers (which are GREAT if you need/want maximum comfort). They also do special orders.
  • Showtime Dance Shoes in Duluth only carries the more expensive brands (Supadance, International, Freed) but they have tons of inventory and they’re very nice. Once or twice a year they have a big clearance sale; get on their email list to receive notification and plan to carpool with your friends.
  • If you are comfortable with online shopping, Discount Dance Supply has an extensive ballroom selection and their prices are good.

How to put on your shoes: Ladies, you are likely to find that the straps and buckles on your shoes are different from what you’re used to. Never fear; I have made a video to help you sort it out:

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Get your snarky t-shirts here!

If you’ve ever wanted to tell your partner to pipe down and get on with the business of dancing, we’ve got the t-shirts for you. Order your shirt before September 3; Teespring requires a minimum order of 10 shirts (for each design) but if the minimum isn’t reached, you won’t be charged. What do you have to lose? Order one for yourself and one for your partner–or one for the partner you wish you had!

Ladies’ version (“Shut Up and Lead”)–white tee, magenta script lettering

Gents’ version (“Shut Up and Follow”)– white tee, black “magic marker” style lettering

Both shirts feature our URL (dldancers.com) below the main message so you can easily answer the question “Where did you get that t-shirt?”

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What does a professor look like?

Emily Friedman, a graduate student in English at University of Missouri, has started this great Tumblr called “What a Professor Looks Like.” It examines public perceptions of the professorial image and contrasts them with photos of actual professors, mostly in our after-hours clothing. Let’s just say that most of the professoriate is NOT walking around in tweed jackets with elbow patches, smoking pipes!

Recognize anybody?

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dancing in the media in other news social dancing

Bishops have shuddered!

Stumbled across this great piece from 100 years ago in the International Herald Tribune (until recently the international version of the New York Times). Seeing the scandalous reputation of the tango in its early days of popularity is always fun, especially since the tango dancers I know are some of the most morally upright people you’ll ever meet! We have a great Argentine tango group here in Macon that offers lessons at the Howard Community Club and milongas (practice dances) at a local hotel. I’d recommend joining I Heart Dancing Macon on Facebook if you are interested in checking out this group. We love to dance American-style ballroom tango but haven’t had a chance to immerse ourselves in Argentine tango yet. 

Here is a cool recent news story about American tango competitors if you’d like to see what Argentine tango looks like today. Would it cause your bishop to shudder?

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My mom has great taste in videos

On the rare occasion that my mother sends me a forward or a link, you know it’s gonna be good. Check it:

Click through to the “About” to see a rundown of all the dancers/movie clips.  So cool!  And I’ll just be over here buying that song from iTunes.

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behind the curtain in other news Linktastic

Dresses in; dresses out

“Laura,” I hear readers asking, “how can I be more like you?  I’ve already signed up for dance lessons and gotten a rockin’ haircut, but how do I take it to the next level?”

Well, young padawan, for the next 7 days you have a rare opportunity to own a piece of DLDancers history.  I am selling two of my performance/competition dresses on Ye Olde Ebay.  Check ’em out!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that you have to sell the old dresses before buying new ones.  (Circle of life?)  So please take a look and enable my shopping habits as well as your own!

 

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What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Greetings from DLDancers HQ where I have returned after 5 weeks in Columbia, Missouri at the National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar “Jane Austen and her Contemporaries.” I went expecting a dance-free summer: I did not even take any dance shoes or dance clothes, planning to focus on fitness and conditioning (read “go running and do crunches”) instead. But it turns out that there’s no escaping the dance world! One of the seminar participants, Cheryl Wilson, is the author of Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-Century Britain and is an expert on English country dancing–the kind of social dancing that preceded partner dancing as we know it today and that is featured in any remotely accurate Jane Austen adaptation. She regularly teaches dances to her students and at conferences. Of course, once we found that out, only one course of action was possible.  I don’t think Srs Hystoricall Dancerz have anything to worry about from our group, but we had SO much fun! Makes me want to start going to JASNA conferences just for the dancing!



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The effect of a dance studio on a Regular Person

Since working on Dancing Stars I’ve started to notice something interesting about the way “regular people” (non-dancers or non-habitual dancers) react to being in a dance studio space.  For as long as I can remember, I have regarded a dance studio as one tiny step–at most–below a sacred space.  In fact, in the Afro-Haitian dance classes I took in college we actually had a little ritual to do with a bowl of water when entering and leaving the studio.  But until just recently I thought I was the only one who slightly fetishized the studio experience: all that open space, all that potential, all that blankness somehow serving as a  frame for the concentration and repetition and work and progress of dance.

Then I noticed that Daniel’s partner Kathryn (substituting in recital for Ashley, who is on injured reserve) stuck around for an extra 20 minutes or so after she was finished rehearsing.  She didn’t really need to be there; in fact, she had a date with her husband.  But she stayed to watch us run through La Fille Mal Gardée.  And then I remembered the time when Jack just randomly started doing cartwheels in the studio.  He said that ever since the first time he’d been there, he had wanted to do cartwheels.

Dance studios are special.  It’s pretty cool.

ETA: What if there are no non-dancers?  Just former dancers, dancers, and future dancers?

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dancing in the media in other news MSDC

“Translocal”?

Jonathan Marion, whom I can pretend to know because he is a frequent flyer on Dance Forums, published this interesting article about “the translocal culture of competitive ballroom dance” in Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement.  The article does a nice job explaining that competitive dancers not only take the extensive travel associated with training and competition in stride but actually expect it and rely on it as part of the overall dance experience.  Travel, Marion argues, is a sign of belonging to the competitive dance culture for dancers, instructors, judges, and the retailers who serve all of them.  The article is easy to follow, not too long, usefully illustrated with graphs and diagrams, and includes a great picture of Iveta Lukosiute with a huge pile of suitcases.  Good stuff.

While you’re up, this is also a fun read.  Makes me wonder if the Macon State dance club knows what they’d be getting into by entering the world of collegiate competitions!