Tag Archives for " choreography "

Learning to Dance on Youtube

connection in dance , dance videos , dancing for joy , leading and following , Learning dance , social dancing , teaching dance

My friend Stu Sweetow, videographer extraordinaire, sent me the picture at the right with the excellent phrase, “Real men take dance lessons, because you can’t learn connection on youtube!”  This inspired me to once again take up my blog, which my many fans have no doubt noticed I have let slip for several months due […]

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Fusion in Performance Dance

Classical Dance , Dance History , dance videos , fusion , Hip Hop , inspirational dancing , Lindy Hop , performance dance

I’ve written before about partner dancers combining styles, but performance dancers do it too.  Some years ago I spent 8 Julys  in Sweden studying the European partner jazz dance Boogie Woogie   My favorite teacher, Christer Isberg, was the best all around dancer I’d ever seen.  It seemed he could do anything.  His background included classical […]

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Dancing blind

about LaurieAnn , dance videos , dancing with physical challenges , inspirational dancing , leading and following , performance dance , social dancing , teaching dance , west coast swing

When my dance students are learning the skill of following, I often suggest they close their eyes.  Closing your eyes takes away a lot of the urge to back lead, and it brings forward the senses you use to feel the lead. Even when social dancing, I often close my eyes because it’s relaxing and […]

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Favorite Dance Teachers From My Past

about 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 […]

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Deaf Dancers: Can You Dance if You Can’t Hear the Music?

about LaurieAnn , competitive dance , dance videos , dancing with physical challenges , inspirational dancing , music for dance , performance dance , rhythm

Before I was a dance teacher, I taufht self-defense to people with physical disabilities.   I was inspired to study American Sign Language when I had a deaf student in one of my classes and a deaf friend in my Jujitsu dojo.  I hung out with the deaf community (who thought I had recently lost […]

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