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dance events teaching USA Dance

Back to School, 2013 edition

Je dois commencer par dire un bonjour à nos amis français qui ont reçu une carte de visite de moi ou de Daniel pendant notre séjour à Paris. Merci de visiter notre site web!

After a big summer–lots of work, a little dancing, and a big trip to Paris–we are looking forward to getting back to dance in the next few weeks. We will be continuing our group classes at Madison Studio of Dance Education in Macon on Sunday afternoons starting September 8. Please contact us ASAP if you’d like to join the class! Meanwhile we are working with some new wedding couples and have been asked to perform at a wedding reception for one of Daniel’s co-workers. Bible Belt Burlesque celebrated their first birthday the day we came back from Paris so we missed dancing in that show, but hopefully we’ll be invited for the next one.

Next weekend we’ll be attending the Summer’s Night Picnic and Dance benefiting Pine Pointe Hospice. USA Dance Greater Macon has been a long-time supporter of Pine Pointe via the Stars Over Macon Ball. It’s not too late to get a ticket and join the party.

More updates coming soon as this school year/dance year gets rolling. Thanks for all your support!

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in other news teaching

D and L, Dancers

Monday night we learned that one of our dancers is fluent in American Sign Language, a topic in which Daniel and I share a real but largely hypothetical interest.  After comparing notes on some signs (the ones we’ve picked up from watching ABC Family’s Switched at Birth are correct, but utterly random–“Ferris wheel”?) and learning that ASL does indeed have its own etymologies (of course the sign for “mother” is meant to evoke a woman tying on her bonnet), we somehow fell onto the topic of name signs.

A name sign is a shortcut way of saying someone’s name so that you don’t have to fingerspell it e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e. t.i.m.e.  How tedious would that be if you were talking about someone named “Persephone” or something?  So you cut it down to the first letter of the person’s name, combined with a sign that illustrates something about that person.  Like on Switched at Birth, one of the main characters is named Bay and her name sign is the letter B waved next to the head to indicate her curly hair.  There are other nuances (Deaf culture is, well, an entire culture!) but that’s the basic idea.

So our dancer showed us the sign for “dance.”  To make our name signs we use the respective first letters of our names (here is D and here is L) in place of the fingers pointing downward/moving back and forth.  How awesome is that?  I also think it is sweet that we have matching name signs.  Perfect for dance partners, right?

Our dancer says further that Marlee Matlin’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars was her inspiration to learn to dance.  I’m a big Marlee Matlin fan too!

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teaching

It’s not about the steps

Posture and frame, and their influence on lead/follow, are among the biggest challenges for ballroom dancers. Your average 21st-century American just doesn’t absorb a dancer’s upright carriage without years of practice and many, many corrections, and the nuances of communicating movement to another person through the body are even harder to talk about than they are to get right. Nevertheless, posture and frame are so important that for the past 2 weeks I’ve been on a personal crusade titled “It’s Not About The Steps.”

People associate dancing first and foremost with moving the feet. This association is not wrong, of course. Last week I tried out my It’s Not About The Steps theory on one of our wedding couples and the groom said, “But if I don’t know any steps, I can’t dance.”  He’s right, and he has identified the reductio ad absurdam point at which my theory ceases to operate.  I would suggest, though, that a person can’t get very far with learning steps before posture and frame become essential to successfully executing the steps.  If you can do the step by yourself but can’t do it with a partner, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE STEPS.

The theory works in this way: dancers really only need to know a small number of steps to have a good time getting around the floor.  You could manage to dance a basic waltz, for instance, with only 2 steps: traveling half-boxes down the walls and a twinkle to get you around the corners.  But a twinkle requires a change of body position, from closed hold to promenade and back again.  Turning into promenade isn’t difficult, but in order for both partners to get into it and out of it, they have to pay attention to their posture, frame, and head position.  Keep the frame consistent in promenade (that elbow stays perpendicular) and clearly turn your head to match your direction of travel: nose follows toes.  If the frame was consistent on the way into promenade, getting out of promenade should just be a matter of keeping the frame up while bringing the torso back into closed position and adjusting the head to match.

Holding a good frame also alleviates a lot of personal-space-invasion problems and stepped-on toes.  New dancers tend to want to gaze into each other’s eyes as they dance, which is totally romantic but, at least in the smooth dances (waltz, tango, foxtrot), problematic.  I fear looking like a cold-hearted cynic when I say this, but when Daniel and I dance smooth in competition, I’m deliberately conscious of NOT looking at him unless we do a step like the “butterfly” in foxtrot where we are supposed to look at each other.  It seems a lot less lovey-dovey but it actually looks more impressive and more like we are in tune with one another if we can move in and out of positions without ever making eye contact: like I just know where he’s going to be, and vice versa.

We all want to focus on getting the steps right, and it’s true that the steps are an important basic starting point.  But as soon as you have a step memorized, start improving everything that’s needed to make it successful but isn’t about moving your feet.  Like the steps themselves, posture and frame will become more and more automatic with more and more practice.  Good posture and a big, elegant frame also help a dancer look confident even if he/she is only a beginner.

One of my Tweeps posted this video today of an International Standard tango by Arunas & Katusha.  Standard style is different from what Daniel and I dance because you have to stay in closed hold all the time–promenade is allowed but there’s no shadow position, no side-by-side work, no open positions of any kind.  In this choreography you can REALLY see that it’s not about the steps.  The body positions and head weight communicate the lead/follow and give the dance its characteristic, dramatic look:

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Ballerina Corner exhibitions & performances teaching

Madison Studio Recital 2011–Videotastic!

We had an amazing time at the Madison Studio’s annual recital yesterday.  Nobody threw up or passed out, everyone remembered to throw away their gum before going onstage, and we all danced GREAT.  (Okay, I may have kicked someone in the contemporary ballet number, but we don’t need to talk about that.)

We had not really told our dancers what to expect from the recital experience.  I’m still second-guessing that choice.  Not that one can explain what it’s like to be onstage, but given another opportunity, I will be more explicit about the logistics of the whole affair: there will be parents and dancers scurrying everywhere; come already dressed unless you are willing to strip down to your skivvies in front of 10 other girls*; apply your makeup “in triplicate”**; be ready to hurry up and wait, probably multiple times; yield to exiting dancers; yield faster to dancers exiting faster; watch your sight lines when you stand backstage; and it’s true that you can’t see the audience when you’re performing.

Oh, and: after it’s over, not remembering anything about your performance is normal.  So is being exhausted and starving once the adrenaline wears off.

And: SMILE.

And: BREATHE.

And: HAVE FUN.

*This willingness develops with repeated exposure–I am obsessively modest in my professional life but practically exhibitionist around other dancers.

**A member of our group came out with this slightly cock-eyed yet very accurate description of stage makeup.

No matter what, it was a huge success and I’m sure the dancers learned much more by doing it than they ever would have from listening to us talk. Click through for rundown and videos…

Continue reading “Madison Studio Recital 2011–Videotastic!”
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Ballerina Corner dance events exhibitions & performances teaching

Dress Rehearsal

This afternoon is dress rehearsal for the Madison Studio recital.  Daniel and I are dancing 3 times: once on our own, once with our class, and once in the production finale.  I am dancing 2 additional times: in my contemporary ballet class’s number (to Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose”) and then in that class’s part of the finale.  You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff I have to lug along with me today.  It’s making a competition look like Casual Friday.

  • Costume for “Kiss”, including hair decoration that I swore I’d lost until I discovered it was pinned to the inside of the costume.
  • Costume for our class number, i.e. sequin camisole top and ballroom practice skirt.
  • Costume for Daniel’s and my solo, which is the rumba we did as a solo exhibition at Garden City Challenge.
  • Costume for the finale, i.e., black leotard and black ballet skirt.
  • 2 pairs of tights (1x ballet pink, 1x fishnet).
  • Body liner, which is like underwear in leotard form.
  • 3 pairs of shoes.  Well, 2 pairs of shoes and one pair of “FootUndeez” (speaking of underwear).
  • Makeup, hair spray, bobby pins.

And I have it easy compared to some of the girls who are in the Performance Ensemble as well as 2-3 regular classes.  They might need to employ pack animals!  But as far as I’m concerned, it’s all worthwhile.  Given my introverted tendencies in general, the fact that I love to perform doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but there it is.  I am especially excited for our ballroom dancers who are having their first taste of performance.  They have lots of family members coming to watch and cheer them on.  Hooray!

The recital is tomorrow (Saturday, June 4) at 2 p.m. at Zuver Auditorium on the campus of Mount De Sales here in Macon.  Tickets are available at the door for $10.

Wish us merde!*

*Being superstitious like all theatre people, dancers do not say “good luck.”  For obvious reasons, they also do not say “Break a leg.”  Instead, they–we–say “merde.” Which is a bad word in French, which is why it’s so much fun to hear 8-year-olds say it.

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Ballerina Corner competitions exhibitions & performances in other news lessons teaching

Conservation of Dance Momentum

A body that is dancing tends to continue dancing unless acted on by an outside force.  In the absence of outside forces (spring semester ended on May 6;  congratulations, Class of 2011!), we have been dancing a lot and doing a lot of dance-related stuff in the last several days.  Since I haven’t had to teach I’ve been going to four ballet classes a week at Madison Studio: my usual twice-a-week “Pearls” class (average age: 11, focused on beginning pointe work and trying to remember which is croisé and which is effacé) plus two adult classes which, despite being ostensibly for beginners, serve to demonstrate that one can never spend too much time working on the basics.  All this ballet is having several salubrious effects, including finally loosening up the hamstring I pulled a few months ago and keeping me from going insane as I work on revisions to my book manuscript.

We are still working on our paso doble; on Monday we went over the videos we recorded in our last lesson with Eddie and just repeated, repeated, repeated the steps without even trying to get up to tempo.  This video that a friend sent me earlier today demonstrates just how far up “up to tempo” actually is.

No lesson this past weekend, but on Sunday we had an all-studio blocking rehearsal at Madison Studio for the recital on June 4.  Having the entire population of the studio in one place at one time was an impressive exercise!  It was our dancers’ first time doing their recital piece for any kind of audience and they did great.  We also managed to remember our rumba routine despite not having done it for a while.  The real high point was running the “production finale” in which every class appears, one after the other, and dances a short additional routine.  Lots of us are in more than one class, so there was a lot of dashing from one side of the studio to the other, hurried changing of shoes, and general crowd control.  The ballroom dancers also had a good laugh at the “FootUndeez” I wear for the contemporary ballet number I’m dancing in.  Yes, they look like panties for your feet.  Hence the name.  Can we all just move on now?  (Okay, they are pretty funny, especially the ones I’ve seen that have a little pink net tutu ruffle around the elastic part.)

After regular classes on Monday (Pearls class, paso practice with Daniel, ballroom class) and adult class Tuesday at noon, the ballroom group reconvened at the studio on Tuesday evening to get pictures taken.  The marvelous Keiko Guest (check out the “Fine Art” side of her site for sure, but a couple of those may not be SFW) comes to the studio once a year to take individual pictures of everyone in their recital costumes.  She brings along a staff of 3 or 4 people, a small photography-studio setup (lights, background, even one of those fans to make your hair blow around and look glamorous), and more computer equipment than I ever thought possible.  In less than an hour we had lined up to wait, had a jolly time getting our photos taken, and looked at our proofs to order prints.  The pictures were amazingly good and I can’t wait to get the prints.  Ms. Guest is a former dancer herself, so she understands what good lines look like and how to adjust people’s positions so that on film, we look like better dancers than we probably really are!  Daniel and I had a lot of fun coming up with poses for ourselves and then inflicting them on our other two couples.  The best part was taking some shots of all 6 of us together.  She somehow made us all look attractive and dancerly while crammed into about 4 square feet of space on her backdrop.

So it’s been a great couple of weeks, and the beat goes on.  This evening we’re dancing at Pinegate with the performance ensemble from Madison, then on Saturday we have a lesson from Eddie.  And today we got a call from another retirement community here in town, wanting us to schedule a performance.  AND…according to the counter on their website, Gumbo is just 5 days away.  I’m pleased to report that the counter is not accurate!

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teaching

Move aside and let the man go through

I’ve seen this phenomenon time and again with adult learners, regardless of what they are learning.  But I never thought it would happen to me.

See, I’m in this contemporary dance class at my studio.  It’s pretty advanced and very choreography-focused.  Physically, I can keep up.  But I’ve never had contemporary before and it’s been a while since I’ve had to remember choreo that wasn’t also being filtered through my partner.  Our routine for the annual recital involves a lot of changes of formation and direction and other spatial stuff that, in combination with the intricate steps, causes my brain to emit a continuous high-pitched whine of anxiety.  “EEEEEEEEEEEE I CAN’T REMEMBER WHAT TO DO NEXT AND I AM GETTING IT ALL WRONG AND EEEEEEEEEEEE.”  I’ve been trying to keep all that on the inside, figure it out as we go, and not take up too much time asking our teacher to review.  I thought if I could just do it enough times and inobtrusively watch the others, I would pick it up.  That worked, mostly, but in a couple of places we are moving in circles, turning around, or transitioning in groups so that I’m not even sure who to watch and follow.  And recital is now just a couple of weeks away.  “EEEEEEEEEEEEE IMPENDING DOOM EEEEEEEEEEEE.”

Last night, I was saved. Our teacher had to reset part of the routine because one dancer had to drop out at the last minute.  The reworked part happened to be one of the parts I was having the most trouble with.  Teacher also asked me if I wanted her to review my other problem area.  I somehow went into this anxiety-driven monologue about bursting into flames on the stage, and the class picked it up and constructed a hilarious narrative in which I turned into a phoenix.  Then we went over Hard Part #1 and I felt better about it.  Later I confessed that I was still having to watch people during Hard Part #2 to know what to do, and Teacher said that was fine, I could watch someone till I got it.

And then, at the end of the class, we ran the routine one more time, and something weird happened: EVERYTHING WAS FINE.  I did Hard Part #1, no problem, and although I think I was standing in the wrong place at one point during Hard Part #2, I did not, in fact, burst into flames.  By the time we get through next week’s class, blocking rehearsal next Sunday, and dress rehearsal before recital, I will definitely be in good shape.

After class I told Teacher that venting all my anxiety about not understanding the routine seemed to have helped.  As I told her, “I think I was concentrating so hard on not knowing the routine that I drowned out the fact that I actually know the routine.”  She, God bless her, did not shake her head sadly at my insanity but in fact said she’d had the same experience in the past.  I was getting in my own way. I see it with people learning to dance all the time.  They are doing a step perfectly well, but they think they are making a mistake, so they stop.

As adults, we have a hard time doing things badly.  We want to stop and make sure before we forge ahead and potentially look foolish.  But constantly playing defense against mistakes means not finding out how much we’re actually capable of when we commit fully to trying something new.  The brain is so focused on self-monitoring that it can’t fully concentrate on the main task: dancing!  It’s understandable that in partner dancing, a person would be particularly concerned about doing everything correctly–that person is not the only one at risk if something goes wrong.  Still, which is worse: always holding back for fear of stepping on someone’s foot, or stepping on them once and getting it over with?  When the mistake is made, you know you have found the boundary.  You can go right up to that edge the next time, without going over it.

I don’t get this right all the time either.  But last night was a powerful reminder.  Get out of your own way and you’ll find out that you know more/can do more/can dance better than you think.

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competitions friends & family teaching

Break it down and sleaze it up!

Our ballroom class is learning a rumba routine for performance in the Madison Studio’s recital at the beginning of June.  These four dancers are superstars: all adults with little or no dance or performing experience but they have agreed to get on stage just a few months from now.  So we’ve gone from learning basic steps to mixing in a few more showy, exhibition-type moves.  Nothing complex, but stuff that requires commitment on the dancer’s part: arm styling, hip motion, flared fingers–in short, all the gateway drugs that lead straight to shimmying and butt-drumming.  Last night they learned a few new moves (breaking it down) and then we did some work on making those moves look good (sleazing it up!). We came up with some useful mnemonics including “hot steering wheel” (for flared fingers),  “I’m a bird!” (for raising arms elbows-first), and “My hair is pretty! My dress is pretty!” (arm motion that sweeps around head and down one side).  Ridonkulous, but it makes it fun and (I hope) less scary.

When you’re used to moseying through life in khakis and a sweater, trying not to make waves, it’s challenging to suddenly be asked to show off.  But showing off is part of what makes ballroom dancing look exciting for other people to watch.  I mentioned offhandedly (and partly in jest) to the two ladies in the class that we’d all be putting on false eyelashes for the recital.  They reacted with a mixture of amusement, amazement, and shock.  Of course, nobody has to wear any eyelashes, but for me, putting on the costumes and shoes and makeup and spray tan and all that stuff that I don’t touch in my day-to-day life makes it more exciting and makes it easier to do the showing off.  Your “ballroom self” is related to your “real self,” of course, but they don’t have to be exactly the same person.  Just don’t be surprised when you start standing up straighter, dressing brighter, and putting on a little more eyeshadow for an average Tuesday at the office.  Ballroom Self is tenacious and contagious.

In other news, our ballroom selves will be put to the test again soon.  We are planning on competing at the Garden City Dance Challenge at the end of March and my parents are coming out to watch us compete!  How exciting is that?  They have seen us dance, of course, but never in competition.  I’m looking forward to having them there and showing them the ropes.  It’s always such a fun atmosphere.  Here’s hoping we get at least one first place so they will be really impressed.  A scholarship would be even better… Hmm…

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teaching

How NOT to succeed on the dancefloor

Facebook message from the female half of our wedding couple, whose marriage–and dance début–will take place a week from tomorrow:

“Just want you to know, [Groom] has not been practicing this week because he can’t stop playing Angry Birds!!!!”

If you don’t know what Angry Birds is, you may be better off not knowing.  But if you have a smartphone and a lot of free time, click here at your own risk.  Groom did not know about Angry Birds till we mentioned it (for reasons that must have made sense at the time) during the couple’s lesson this past Monday.  So now it is really our fault if he makes any mistakes next Saturday.  Bad Teachers! Bad Teachers!

Categories
behind the curtain teaching

Er, who?

As you all know, Daniel has numerous outstanding qualities: twinkly blue eyes, charming accent, uncanny ability to fix anything–and that’s not even to mention his dance skills.  However, he is terrible with names.  We have a grand total of TWO couples in our group class right now and he can never remember anyone’s name other than mine.  Better yet, he has actually renamed one of the men.  The gentleman’s name is (let’s say) Alan but Daniel called him “Andy” every time.  The first time, I corrected him.  The second time, I corrected him.  The third time, Alan’s wife and I corrected him in unison:

Him: “That was much better, Andy.”

Wife and me: “ALAN.”

We all cracked up.  Dancing is fun but the relationships among the dancers are at least as much fun as the dancing itself.  It is, after all, called social dancing.  And maybe next week, Daniel will get Alan’s name right.