dancing in the golden years , social dancing
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City recently completed a 21 year study of seniors, to measure the effects of various activities on brain activity. It was funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. They studied a lot of different physical activities […]
Continue readingabout LaurieAnn , Connecting Socially , cutting in , dance videos , inspirational dancing , leading and following , Lindy Hop , performance dance , same sex dancing , social dancing , teaching dance , west coast swing
The wonderful video at the end of this post from 1995 inspired me to write about these dancers because they were both a huge influence in my early dancing years. Sylvia Sykes was my teacher for the first six years I studied Lindy Hop and she, along with her partner Jonathan Bixby, also introduced […]
Continue readingdance videos , Lindy Hop , social dancing , west coast swing
Swing is a broad category that includes many different dances. If you’re a novice, it’s hard enough telling completely different genres apart let alone the variations in one category. And as if that wasn’t confusing enough, there are different styles within the same dance! I’m going to keep it relatively simple in this post, […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , dance videos , fusion , leading and following , social dancing , west coast swing
In my first article about fusion dance I wrote about hip hop and swing. In the second, I wrote about Lindy and Tap. This one is about Tango and Swing. Unlike Tap and Hip Hop, which can be used to embellish or change the style of Swing, Swango is literally a combination on […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , dancing in the golden years , dancing with physical challenges , inspirational dancing , social dancing , teaching dance
Now that you’ve read about Jean Veloz and other inspirational dancers who are still dancing in the final years of their lives, I’d like to take a look at how most dancers deal with the aging process. I addressed this earlier in Nov 12 post about the great tap dancer Fayard Nicolas When Aging […]
Continue readingcutting in , Dance History , dance videos , dancing in the golden years , inspirational dancing , Lindy Hop , social dancing
Back to my theme of older dancers who inspire us with their perpetual youth (I know they’re not the norm, but they sure are fun to read about!) I have to talk about one of my personal favorites, Jean Veloz. Jean was a popular example of the smooth lindy style popularized by dancers like Dean […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , Dance History , dance videos , leading and following , Lindy Hop , performance dance , social dancing , tap dance
In my last post about fusion dance I wrote about hip hop and swing. A friend of mine just posted a video of a fusion between Swing and Tap, so I wanted to comment on that as well as on the Swango phenomenon that I’ll address in another post. Lindy Hop has its roots in […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , dancing in the streets , Lindy Hop , music for dance , performance dance , social dancing , teaching dance
Dance and music are intrinsically linked. My favorite dances are the ones that arise organically from the music, street dances like Lindy Hop and Hip Hop. There is something special about a dance that makes a dancer out of someone who fell in love with the music, as opposed to a dance with rigid rules […]
Continue readingabout LaurieAnn , Connecting Socially , social dancing , teaching dance
I specialize in working with people for whom learning to dance is a huge challenge. We all have things we do easily and things that are particularly difficult. Especially when we are challenged by that which we see others do with ease, it’s tempting to focus on what we have yet to master and fail […]
Continue readingdance videos , inspirational dancing , leading and following , performance dance , social dancing
Well, if it’s a good dancer we’re talking about, almost everyone. For many people the obvious answer is well, duh, what does weight have to do with dance skill? But for a lot of people there is a huge prejudice against even a few extra pounds on a dancer. Even today where fat people are hardly […]
Continue readingleading and following , social dancing
I know a dance teacher who feels strongly that the whole concept of leading and following is sexist. She is trying to teach Lindy Hop as an equal partnership where no one is in charge of the dance. It’s an interesting subject, and I have very strong feelings on the subject as well. It is […]
Continue readingDance History , dance videos , social dancing
British dancers not doubt get a kick out of the fact that what is slang for a four letter activity to them is the name of a dance to us. Three dances to be specific: Collegiate Shag, St Louis Shag, and Carolina Shag. The first two are more closely related to each other but […]
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