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What we’re up to this week

Happy New Year, dancers and soon-to-be dancers! (see what I did there?) We are counting the days to the Royal Palm Dancesport Winter Frolic. Later this month we’ll be taking a couple of private lessons to brush everything up before we hit the competition floor. Our next group class is also starting soon–Wednesdays at 8 p.m. at Madison Studio beginning January 6. Please email me (laura at dldancers dot com) ASAP if you plan to participate.

Neil deGrasse Tyson says January 1 is “astronomically insignificant” but I still love the prospect of new beginnings and the anticipation of improvement that comes with starting a new year. Daniel and I are both motivated to work on our dancing this year, especially since he has already scoped out a competition in Montréal in 2017 for us to attend in celebration of his 60th birthday. In 2015 we started the process of getting back into competitive dance. 2016 will be the year that we really rededicate ourselves to becoming better dancers and sharing our love of dance with those around us. Let’s get started!

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competitions dance events exhibitions & performances lessons Mercer Ballroom teaching Uncategorized USA Dance

What we’re up to this week

Oh MAN, October is flying by. It’s already been 2 weeks since we got back from the Carolina Fall Classic (I’m about to update our Competitive Highlights page; stand by) and a week since I got to take a workshop and private lesson with a new instructor for us, James. Can’t wait to work with him again tomorrow. We’re also rehearsing with Denise Froemeke for the Kay Center’s Dancing for the Stars event in November. She and Daniel have come up with a really cute routine and I have the perfect dress for her to wear! Oh–AND–we are teaching for Mercer University’s ballroom club this coming Monday as well. Busy Busy Dancers and we love it!

Okay–going to post this update now and get some other photos, videos, and posts up later today and tomorrow. Stay tuned and check back soon. Thanks!

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competitions dance events exhibitions & performances Friday Night Dance Parties Uncategorized USA Dance

What we’re up to this week

The schedule for next weekend’s Carolina Fall Classic was posted last night and I have printed out our heat lists. SO EXCITED. It’s the first time in a few years that we’ve been able to attend this competition. It has gone from fairly humble beginnings to a record number of entries this year largely through the good offices of the organizers, Wayne and Marie Crowder (who also founded the awesome Triangle Open where we got to dance several years ago–college students now run that comp themselves, which gladdens this dancing professor’s heart!). We are going to be dancing a lot next weekend, especially if we make it into some semi-finals and finals. Cross your fingers for us and watch @dldancers on Twitter for updates. Special thanks to USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter 6059 for their generous support of our entries and hotel for this competition.

We’ve also been practicing with the lovely Denise Froemke for the Kay Community Service Center’s “Dancing for the Stars” event in Fort Valley on November 15. Daniel will be Denise’s partner for this event and they are getting ready to dance a cha-cha that you will not want to miss! Lots of the performers are contemporary/urban style ballroom dancers–if you don’t know this style of dance, it is definitely worth checking out. You could be seeing the next evolution of ballroom!

Finally, we are hosting our 4th Friday dance tonight and expecting a great turnout. Daniel has been scoping out new music again. Have you ever danced a cha-cha to a song in Turkish? Tonight, you will get your chance. Join us at the Howard Community Club at 8 p.m. for just $5 per person.

See you on the dance floor!

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exhibitions & performances Uncategorized

International Taste of Soul 2015

We had a great time dancing yesterday at the Tubman African-American Museum’s International Taste of Soul alongside Azmi & Isabel Kabbani, Hayiya Dance Theatre, Khicks Contemporary Ballroom, and a LOT of delicious food. The biggest challenge was waiting till after we performed to eat our way through the venue! Paul Karpinecz took video for us (thanks, Paul!). Check 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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in other news Uncategorized

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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MSDE 2012 Recital: “Ballet, Boogie, & Broadway”

Well, dear readers, I’ve been thinking about it for almost a week and I’ve come to the conclusion that a recital is not as exciting to recap as a competition or the Dancing Stars show.  Maybe because nobody wins anything?  You show up with all your stuff, you warm up and get dressed, you dance, you change outfits, you dance some more, there’s a huge curtain call at the end, and then the little kids head home and go to bed, the high school girls repair to LaBerry, and the over-30s indulge in one of the perks of age and have a much-deserved adult beverage.  Hey, maybe it’s more correct to say that EVERYBODY wins.  The recital was an excellent show–lots of good dancing and everyone on both sides of the stage had a good time.  I got through my part in La Fille Mal Gardée without disaster and even managed 99% of the pointe work.  Our modern number went extremely well although I’m not entirely sure the audience knew what to make of it.  All the graduating seniors danced splendidly in their solos.  Daniel and his substitute partner Kathryn killed it with their disco routine, and he and I danced pretty well in our rumba.  I’ll never know why I got a giant charley horse in my calf during the rumba but I survived it without breaking stride.  The show must go on, etc.  All in all, success!

Who’s ready for  photos and video?  Click through . . . 

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Ballerina Corner behind the curtain exhibitions & performances Uncategorized

Madison Studio recital day!

MSDE’s annual recital, “Ballet, Boogie, & Broadway,” kicks off in just under 5 hours. We had an excellent dress rehearsal last night, I got to leave my costumes on the premises so I don’t have to carry them over there again today, I have all the correct shoes in my bag, and (hopefully) the things I wore and then washed last night are dry now. Daniel’s stuff is packed and ready to go and the video camera is charging.  Here is what I learned at dress rehearsal:

  • It’s great to NOT be in 12 different numbers (as one of my young fellow dancers is) because that’s exhausting and you sweat a lot.  But being in only 3, widely spaced apart, as I am, is slightly too few.  You get all cold and stiff in between.  I’m going to feel silly carrying in legwarmers and a shrug when it’s 90 degrees out, but I’ll be doing it and wearing them anyway!
  • If you have my haircut (razor-cut pixie, no 2 strands the same length) and have to slick it back to look like a ballerina, the secret is to wet it and then slather on gel like there’s no tomorrow.  When your ballet number is over and you have to unslick to look like a modern or ballroom dancer, re-wet it from another dancer’s spray bottle (bless you, E. J.) and rearrange with a comb.  Be prepared for Horror Hair when you brush it all out later.  Shampoo twice the next morning (buy one of these in advance to use when it’s all over).
  • Draw your eyeliner wings on carefully lest your husband/dance partner point out to you–after it’s too late, of course–that they are incongruent.
  • Something’s wrong when you regret things that haven’t happened yet.
  • If you are planning to wear a wig, bring it with you!
  • There’s no crying at recital.  Mostly.
  • He may not agree, but it was worth it for our Widow Simone to shave his goatee.
  • The big kids are so talented, the little kids are so adorable, and we’re just lucky to be up there with ’em.

Recap/photos/video coming soon!

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dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia faaaaaaaame! Uncategorized

I R FAMUS BALLROOM DANCER

Not really. (Do you see a pattern developing here?)  But it turns out that Team LaJack is prominently (albeit facelessly) featured in the TV ad for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia!  Finally I understand why the DWTS pros go to the trouble of dressing cute and putting makeup on for rehearsals.  Our friend Sheree’ saw the ad Sunday afternoon on Fox during the NASCAR race; then I saw it last night while watching Castle on the DVR.  Then in class today one of my students said “Dr. Thomason, I think I saw you on TV!”  I definitely feel famous . . .

 

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Arthur Murray Explains It All For You

This weekend in conjunction with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, the Macon Friends of the Library held their annual Old Book Sale.  They sell donated books and library books that have been taken out of circulation at fantastic prices.  I never have any luck going to the sale with a specific agenda, but it is one of the world’s great opportunities to cruise around, see what you can see, and then feel good about buying it because it’s only $1.  Last time I went, I stacked up so many books that I required a box to haul them to my car.  This time, I only bought 3 things.  Two are irrelevant to the present topic but the third one is a total gem.  You see, I was inspired by Adult Beginner‘s recent forays into ballet-book-buying and ballet-book-borrowing to ransack the “Dance and Theatre” section.  Of course, the section was 95% theatre stuff–mostly plays, a few books on set design, lighting, the inevitable 100 Best Monologues for Teens or similar, and one volume titled Now Hiring: Theatre.  I didn’t open that one but I imagine that all the pages simply said “BWAH hahahahahahaha just kidding!”

However, mixed in with the odd No Fear Shakespeare and Four Plays by Ibsen and so on, I found this gem:

How to Become a Good Dancer
How to Become a Good Dancer

Yes, that’s How to Become a Good Dancer by Arthur Murray, with Dance Secrets by Kathryn Murray (Mrs. Arthur), and delicious midcentury illustrations by Lealand Gustavson, may his name be praised. Click through for more photos!