Categories
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.

Categories
lessons social dancing USA Dance

What we’re up to this week

The Royal Palm Dancesport Winter Frolic is getting closer and we are getting ready! Had a great lesson on Sunday drilling waltz technique with an emphasis on rotation. I learned that the root word of “waltz” is a word that means “revolve,” so dancers should never forget that a good-looking waltz relies on rotation. It doesn’t have to be dizzying–just enough motion and changes of direction to keep the momentum consistent. We still need to work on this emphasis but it’s already adding a lot of dynamism and energy to our dancing.

Last weekend was USA Dance Greater Macon’s monthly social, which was lots of fun as usual. Paula East did a great job with the music after our usual DJ, Chester Gibbs, had to drop out at the last minute due to an emergency. Thanks, Paula!

Our next dance (our first of 2016!) is coming right up on the 22nd. Mark your calendars and we hope to see you there. Stay tuned to this website for our February group class schedule and don’t forget we are available for private lessons too.

Categories
competitions dance events social dancing teaching

What we’re up to this week

Hello dancers! Just updated the Dance Events page with the dates for our casual/practice dance in 2016.

AND we are counting the days to our next competition: the Royal Palm Dancesport Winter Frolic in Florida. We had so much fun at this comp last year and we are excited to dance there again!

Finally, we are scheduling our 2016 group classes and will put out an email soon with dates and times for January.

Categories
exhibitions & performances friends & family social dancing USA Dance

A new partner???

On Saturday, September 13 I’ll be dancing a little tango exhibition with Stephen Coshatt at USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter #6059’s monthly dance. It is National Ballroom Dance Month so the chapter is presenting some exhibition dances instead of teaching a lesson. Carl Candiano and his partner Natalie Greene are dancing a rumba. Daniel and I were asked to dance but Daniel already had another commitment. I asked Stephen, who has been coming to our classes for a while now, to dance with me and he agreed! I am more excited for him than I am for myself. It’ll be his first time performing! I started choreographing our routine today and he has already learned most of it. On a quick turnaround like this we can’t do anything too elaborate, but simpler steps done well tend to look better anyway. Come see us dance next Saturday at Howard Community Club. Open dancing will start at 8:00 and the exhibitions will start at 8:30.

Categories
Linktastic social dancing

Why we like to waltz

At every ballroom dance I’ve been to, the waltzes are the most popular. Everyone gets up to dance when a waltz is played. I’ve never known why, but this piece from NPR gives a nice explanation–and a bunch of good music links. And NPR.org is one of the few websites where it’s safe to read the comments without despairing for the future of humanity. You might even learn something from the comments that will help your dancing!

As an 18th-century specialist/ballroom dancer I love knowing that the waltz originated in the 18C and that it was considered scandalous because of the close body contact. Good fact to share with teenagers or anyone who can’t shake the mindset that ballroom dancing is stodgy and old-fashioned.

Categories
Mercer Ballroom social dancing

Mercer Ballroom Club Winter Formal

Daniel and I had the dubious but real pleasure of being the oldest people at Mercer University Ballroom Club’s Winter Formal last night. To clarify: being an Old is a dubious pleasure but the dance was genuine fun! The club has really grown in just a few months and the students are already demonstrating everything that’s positive about ballroom dancing as a social activity. We saw them switching partners so everyone got to dance, showing each other steps, joining in all the line dances, and generally being excellent to each other. Plus, everybody looked really nice! I wore a simple black halter dress kindly given to me by CeCe (I want to be her when I grow up) and I was hardly even visible next to the young ladies in bright colors and curled hair. I love it when people love to dress up.

This is obviously a great group that is achieving the elusive goal of every dancer over 35, viz. Getting More Young People Involved. Ballroom dancing was only re-popularized within the last decade so there is still a big age gap. We need more young dancers and these folks are well on their way. Hooray!

Here is a link to some photos on Facebook. I’m not sure if they are publicly visible but hopefully the link will work even for non-FB users. Check it out. We hope to see the Mercer dancers again soon

Update! Mercer Ballroom Club now has its own website! Check it out!

Categories
Friday Night Dance Parties social dancing USA Dance

USA Dance last weekend, our dance this weekend!

In case you missed it (did you know that’s become an abbreviation? ICYMI.), here’s a great video clip of Minwoo & Anna dancing the cha-cha step that Jim Riley taught us at USA Dance #6059’s monthly chapter dance this past Saturday. Gotta admit, that step was challenging. But it’s very cool once you put it all together. We had a great time that night.

Keeping the fun going, we are hosting our dance this coming weekend, Friday, Jan. 17. It’ll be at the Howard Community Club from 8-10:30 p.m. Casual dress, $5 admission, bring your song requests. We will be continuing our friendly dance competition, so if you would like to take home a Sparkly Trophy for the month, this could be your chance!  Hope to see you then!

Categories
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?

Categories
Friday Night Dance Parties lessons social dancing teaching

2014 Scheduling Update

For those who are still drafting their New Year’s resolutions, we are delaying our waltz lessons until February. The dates will be Feb. 16 and Feb. 23–two Sundays–4:00 to 5:30. Total cost for this “mini session” of classes is $45 per person.  Meanwhile, we will be hosting our monthly dance at the Howard Community Club on Friday, January 17 and then Friday, February 28 as scheduled.

I’ve got some more interesting dance news for this year but I’m waiting to make sure everything is finalized before I make it public. (teaser teaser teaser!)

By the way, do you like this new layout?

Categories
exhibitions & performances Friday Night Dance Parties social dancing teaching

What’s up in 2014?

Well, DLDancers fans, we are hoping to make 2014 a BIG year that will see us back into competition after a hiatus that has gone on for too long!  Along the way, we will be

  • teaching the waltz January 5 and January 19 4:00-5:30 at Madison Studio, 1575 Forest Hill Road in Macon. The cost is $45 per person. Beginners are welcome and partners are not required.
  • continuing to teach the rumba each month at Shadows Dinner Theatre in downtown Macon starting in February. We are anticipating further collaborations with Shadows in 2014 as well and will keep you posted.
  • performing in an exhibition on February 13 at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, presented by Paula East.
  • continuing to host our monthly dances at Howard Community Club. Here are the dates; mark your calendars!
Jan. 17
Feb. 28
March 7
April 25
May 23
June 27
July 25
Aug. 22
Sept. 26
Oct. 24
Nov. 28
Dec. 19

These dates are all Fridays but not all fourth Fridays. The time (8:00-10:30) and admission price ($5) will stay the same. We plan to keep up our friendly dance competition as well, so if you’ve ever wanted to take home a sparkly trophy, 2014 could be your year.

See you on the dancefloor!