Dancing in Jaffa

with Pierre Dulaine (stage name) who was born there and still speaks some Arabic through his mother.
He is such a good teacher, he managed to get Jews and Arabs to dance together doing merengue, tango, rumba and swing. At the competition, he said, "If I weren't the emcee, I'd be crying."
The movies at the Falmouth Jewish congregation are very well attended, and we stayed for the discussion, though my daughter-in-law and I didn't say anything. I got introduced.
People naturally wanted to talk about the political situation.
My thoughts would have been about the problems to overcome in presenting such a program in Falmouth.
The Ick Factor is there around the world. At age 10, boys and girls don't want to touch.  Pierre had more to overcome with the religious injunctions..
In Falmouth, kids have too much to do, not a problem in the poor sections of Israel.

Igor and Mei

The young Russian traveled from China to partner a Danish girl, and got a documentary made about it that was just shown on WGBH, "Dance For Me". It's mostly in English, their common language, with subtitles for the Russian and Danish and for the English as well. As is so often in dance documentaries, you get to see how hard they work to become champions, which they do. Both are beautiful people as well, which helps. We wish the conventions called for less make up for her. Spray tan is another convention I have not had to experience. The main problem seemed to be the Russian drive versus the Danish politeness, but they made it work. Charming.

Summer Wind Centennial August 8

The centennial is of the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce.
Solon Z and the Sapphires will play.
Our dance floor on the lawn in a tent at the Museums on the Green in front of the beautiful Education Center.
Stations maintained for appetizers by a variety of local chefs. Open bar.
$50 Wow
www.museumsonthegreen.org

The Towers in Narragnasett

Road Trip! Hour and a half to see the seaside resort town and what is left of its casino, an intricate building with circular corners and turrets. Inside, on the third level, the circles widen the dance floor which is sort of skinny, especially when it has chairs lining the long sides. The floor was clean and charmingly patterned with a herringbone design. On the end, a fabulous balcony looks over the ocean and a nearby restaurant.
Thanks to a local connection, we found Trio's and ate an excellent meal on a patio with the ocean breeze. Good service meant we were not late for the band, Reminisce, specializing in Doo-wop with a nod to the recent movie, "Jersey Boys". For the best ballroom dancing, other bands play a more varied assortment of tempos, but the beautiful summer day included a trip to the Newport Hall of Fame Tennis Tournament for some of us.

All for the best?

Decisions about where to go and what to do -
Well, if a tropical storm moves the fireworks in Falmouth, you have an unnatural force - traffic to deal with, and the best thing to do is not hold a dance downtown.
Dawn's birthday was the event to attend, held at the Beach House with George Gritzbach. Great band. New keyboard guy. We could miss the fireworks for once.
And I did get the Conservatory for Sunday. Love that venue - can be small or large, easy going.

Tropical Storm for the 4th of July

Bristol RI is having its parade in torrential rain. Falmouth has postponed fireworks to Sunday night, setting up a traffic gridlock at 10 PM that I would not put people through. It's one thing to put up with traffic for the 4th of July fireworks and the lovely tramp to Falmouth Heights beach. Another to be stuck as part of a dance evening.
Probably July 13 will be a nice dance evening. I need more time to figure that one out - get permission for the hall. So far this summer has been full of making sure everything works.
Meanwhile, SYTYCD has some terrific young men dancing - the young women have not been as striking. My choreographer/dance teacher daughter-in-law is taking notes for presentation to her college students in the fall. Gotta keep up with the trends. We were not impressed with Louis Van Amstel's Samba moves - touted as "dangerous". Using the DVR, we did not listen to the judges at all.