Ohio Star Ball

The PBS Championship Ballroom Dancing show is filmed at the Ohio Star Ball. Ron Montez, the judges, and I all agreed that Jose Descamps and his partner came in first. He has an authentic Latin look, and that is still available in the American style, while the International has gone too far into their own interpretation.
It was a surprise to see Julia Gorchakova with someone other than Bob Powers, but I never really liked him.
My prediction for the America's Top Dancing Couple when they get to the final week - Standard, the International Waltz etc.

Hopelessly Out of It

The other night the show I watched was called "Top 25 Dancers of all Time." I missed 25 to 13, but 12 was Alvin Ailey. Then there were some I hadn't heard of. Savion Glover got #7, below Beyonce and Janet Jackson. They went back to Vaudeville for the Nicolas Brothers. Number 2 was Michael Jackson. Number 1 was James Brown. Needless to say, it was Black Entertainment Television, but I think Alvin Ailey and Savion Glover, serious professional dancers, deserve to be higher up than the entertainers. Talented though they are, their dances consist of some good tricks and a limited repertoire optimized by good choreography. Plus, don't forget the annoying jumpy camera work that would cover up and cut out any missteps.

Honky Tonk, Parts 1 and 2

I was very pleased last night when my musician student asked me about a piece I had played. It was just the same mood and tempo as a song he's working on. Not "Honky Tonk" by Bill Doggett, he said, but he didn't realize I had recorded the flipside of the 45. Honky Tonk without the saxophone is Part 1.

Foot pressure

I typed in that title and thought the program would have remembered it. It seems like I always talk about foot pressure for ballroom dancers. Yesterday, a slide step mimicked the Waltz side step that produces sway through foot pressure. There must be another phrase for it since I'm not getting the results I want from students - how about - "weight in the ball of the foot as you push off, and then hold onto it." Clunky.
An exercise in front of the mirror that is internalized for part of your body language. A picture that you can see with your eyes closed. When your eyes are closed you can feel your body.

Youth in Falmouth

Recently the newspaper had an article about the Upper Cape chosen as a good place for youth. (Where was that article?) The young adults, twenty-somethings, flee our peninsula. While we have them, we can do our best for them, so I have a number of ways to reach for them.
At MCAS tutoring, we find the lowest level and coax them into their best performance.
My fifth graders are realizing, with the help of our talented young Jamaican, that dance can be treated seriously.
The easiest and most fun for me was seeing the beautiful young people at the casual dance last night.

Dance filmed

As I edit the yearly Cape Cod dancing show for local access TV, I try not to interfere with our view of the dancers, especially the showcases.
Editors go wild so much, probably because of the influence of MTV, that I don't even comment anymore when they cut up and down and slow or speed up the film, but it does interfere with my enjoyment.
It seems the new movie, "How She Move", does a nice job allowing Step dancers to express emotions too powerful for words. Step dancing, according to David Denby in the New Yorker this week, is "an assertive style of talking through the body - stomping with boots, slapping one's chest, thighs, and legs, whirling and spinning. It's not social dancing; it's a way of saying, 'This is who I am. This is what I can do.'"
One of my fifth graders is from Jamaica where he had step dance groups.

Social dancers

I met a maverick last night in night school, the man from a couple who only dance on their own, and only with each other. I tried to dance with him, but I was not willing to be pulled around, especially when I had to teach a class of people who take directions very well. He will bring his wife next week, and they will go on with observation, using our patterns to supplement what they picked up from videos.
They are missing out on one of the great ways to enjoy dancing with music as a unifying force. By moving together in time to the music, we can build group feelings as well as understanding our partners better.