about LaurieAnn , competitive dance , Dance History , leading and following , same sex dancing
I’m not a fan of competitive dance, particularly Ballroom, but I have no objection to it’s existence. Many people love it and more power to them. When I write about it, it’s because something in that world has captured my attention. Same sex dancers still strike fear into some I’m having a hard time […]
Continue readingcompetitive dance , Connecting Socially , dance videos , inspirational dancing , leading and following , social dancing , west coast swing
A great dancer to watch I’ve written before on the topic of fat dancers, but I realized I left out a glaring omission, especially since I talked about partner dance but used video examples of performance dance. Anyone in the west coast swing community knows the glaring omission is John Lindo. One of the best Swing dancers ever […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , Learning dance , performance dance , social dancing , sport dancing , teaching dance
I remember teaching a group of teenaged Lindy dancers who were sent to me from another dance teacher. They were advanced dancers who had outgrown their first teacher. When I asked for a follower with whom to demonstrate a new move, one of the boys volunteered. They had all learned to dance both parts and […]
Continue readingcompetitive dance , dance videos , leading and following , Lindy Hop , social dancing
I’ve never been much of a fan of competitive dance, but even I was intrigued by two categories I recently heard about in the Lindy Hop competition scene. Jill and Jack Dance Contest The first is a Jill and Jack, in which, like a Jack and Jill, partners are selected at random. The twist is […]
Continue readingabout LaurieAnn , Connecting Socially , inspirational dancing , leading and following , social dancing , teaching dance
Intimacy without dance I was at a conference a few weeks ago run by Bill Baron in which I participated in a very interesting process. We split into groups of 5. We each commented on whatever our intuitive hits were about each other. We learned a lot by what we heard each other say as […]
Continue readingabout LaurieAnn , children dancing , dance videos , Lindy Hop , music for dance , rhythm , teaching dance
I’ve shown this video in a previous blog, but It so perfectly illustrates my point that just have to show it again: [embedplusvideo height=”388″ width=”640″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/Ibg9gM” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/to7uIG8KYhg?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=to7uIG8KYhg&width=640&height=388&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep5172″ /] Rhythm and Dance are our Birthright I believe that human beings are born with an innate sense of rhythm. I believe that as we […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , Dance History , dance videos , inspirational dancing , Lindy Hop , performance dance , same sex dancing , social dancing
I’ve often heard it said that in their dance routines Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did except she did it backwards and in heels. It’s a popular comment, except of course she didn’t lead and she didn’t choreograph the dance. She did, however, dance in heels and had the bleeding feet to […]
Continue readingabout LaurieAnn , Dance History , dancing with physical challenges
Continued from previous post: We closed the collective because it was too hard to be politically correct and survive financially at the same time. I started offering workshops to other martial artists on how to teach physically disabled people. I didn’t really think at the time that I could make it as a dance teacher, […]
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Continued from previous post: People started asking us if we were doing some new state of the art disco partner dance and if we were teachers. That was the seed of an idea to start teaching dance. This was the time of a wonderful bay area phenomenon called the free university. Anyone could teach any […]
Continue readingdancing with physical challenges , inspirational dancing , leading and following , performance dance , social dancing
Last week I wrote a post about dancing blind, but it really was about dancing temporarily blind. This one is about dancers who are always blind. I’ve written in the past about deaf dancers, dancers in wheel chairs, and dancers with other physical limitations. I’ve never written about blind dancers but they’re out there! […]
Continue readingConnecting Socially , Dance History , dance videos , fusion , Lindy Hop , Miscellaneous , music for dance , social dancing
Of all the fusion dances, Bal/Lindy is probably the most natural. Almost everyone who knows both dances has done them together on occasion if not regularly. Pure balboa is done in a close hold that never breaks, but almost everyone does Bal-swing and calls it Balboa. This isn’t fusion, but rather a street dance that […]
Continue readingabout 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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