Sacred Space – Dancing Alone

What about dancing on our own, in private, without an audience or even with a particular goal is so refreshing?  So invigorating?  When we’re not practicing and just letting it go.

Terrence featured an interesting thought about this and I’ll see if I can keep the discussion going (perhaps tangentially).

When we are practicing, training, performing or even just dancing with or in front of our peers we are less likely to envision our space – our art – as sacred.  When we dance on our own after our classes are finished, our training over, our performances finished and our peers retired from judging, what do we evoke?

Avalon – NYC Traditional Jazz Blog

My friend Eve Polich has just started a blog about the New York City traditional jazz scene with weekly event listings, venue reviews and more.

It’ll be very interesting to follow if you live in the NYC area or are visiting the city and want to see some of the best bands and hole-in-the-wall venues that no one really knows about.

Check it out at http://avalonjazz.blogspot.com/

ULHS Around the Bend

ULHS starts tomorrow night with the Riverboat and will most likely run until the wee hours of Monday morning before people ship off to the airport.

Last year I wrote a quite extensive review of ULHS 07 in a series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which gathered quite a bit of traffic.  This year I hope to bring that traffic to Lindybloggers.com with a more pointed review, but also stay tuned for key footage from the event and perhaps an interview with one of the organizers.

I think this will be an interesting event for me since last year I approached it as just a dancer and competitor and this year I have the angle of a journalist/blogger in addition to those roles. To come back to an event the following year after having reviewed it once, I look forward to seeing what changes are in store (there are definitely some large ones relating to some of the competitions) and how they’ll affect the event.

If you’re going to ULHS this year and see me walking around with a camera, a notepad and a ridiculous hat (okay maybe not the hat) say “Hi”, introduce yourself, get a snapshot, give me a comment, and let me know what you think about Lindybloggers, this blog, and/or ULHS.

Stay tuned for the ULHS review and if you’ve got something to add, post it up in our comments on Lindybloggers.

Making Changes

This is probably one of the most personal posts I have ever put up here.  Take it as you will.

Recently I have had some interesting twists added into my life.  My regular work week fell from five days a week, working more than 45 hours, to three days a week, averaging 24-30 hours.  At first it hit pretty hard.  I was taking about a 40% paycut on really short notice.  I cut back on expenditures that I could and stressed over it.  So much so that I was in physical pain for almost three days.

Then as the time has rolled by, I have realized it is a sort of blessing in disguise.  It has given me the space in my life to reevaluate what is important, how I want to live, and what I really take as valuable.  I am not made for the office life or the desk job.  I am an artist and that takes commitment; to no longer being afraid of freeing oneself from normal expectations.

I have added a tap class to my weekly schedule on Mondays at Steps alongside practicing tap with Maggie twice a week.  I am commiting more time and energy into my collaborative news project with Alain Wong, Lindybloggers.  I spent eleven days in a row either going out dancing or working on dancing, my body was tired but it felt great.

I have projects planned to choreograph with other dancers.  I am checking in on gigs for the new year and building prospects for the future which enable my artistic side to be sustainable.

I am building the life I want to live.

Tapping In

Last night I commited to two tap classes back to back at Steps on Broadway.  Again I got to work with Derick Grant who I had written about in this post.

I had been away all weekend; flown in midday, dropped my things at home and tossed my taps into my bag and headed back out.

The first class was a basic tap class.  Really for the flat beginner, which I would describe myself as most of the time.  The first five minutes of any tap class I feel like I can’t get my feet to do anything; however, about halfway through the class I felt really in the groove.  By the end I felt like I definitely had my feet in step.

With the basic class to warm-up and get the steps back in my feet, the beginner class progressed quite a bit easier than my first time to the class.  Sequences and steps that I had trouble with a month ago came easily and I could concentrate on the quality of my sounds, the movement of my leg versus just troubling out the rhythm and more.

Thanks to the basic class before hand, the listening section of Derick’s beginner class was easier as I could distinguish between the various sounds a pair of taps can make.  Getting my feet to do them wasn’t always so easy and this is definitely the most challenging part of class for me still.

We finished up with a nice little routine that I enjoyed.  I found that when progressing down the floor, or working the routine, it helped for me to close my eyes occasionally and focus on the sounds and the rhythm that I was trying to make rather than focus on the physical movements.  More like an instrument than a dance.

I can’t wait to go back, although I probably won’t be able to keep up two classes a week because of funds but I am going to try to go half an hour early to warm-up on my own.