I had a fairly conservative New Years’ Eve, knowing that I would hit the ground running at the start of 2013. Today I pack up my house, hand over the keys to a new tenant and embark on a five month dance tour that will take me to Las Vegas, Portland, Hawaii and multiple cities in Europe. Fortunately, I got a good start early this morning with some hot tea… Continue reading
On Dance Culture: Separate and Unequal
Bourbon Street, New Orleans
We approached Bourbon Street in a circumspect manner, like pioneers skirting the edge of an overflowing river. The “drunken-steins” as my companion called them, spilled down the adjoining streets like bubbling tributaries, sometimes gurgling straight into us. We side-stepped and dodged, re-directing our own flow, forging across the stream… Continue reading
Categories: Dance, Travel
2 Comments
How to Dance Every Day
Every so often I reach a point where I feel it’s time to make a new agreement with myself, a commitment to change something in my daily life in hopes that it will somehow positively impact my life. One of the agreements I find myself trying to keep often (and failing) is to dance every day. I have this idea in my mind that if I dance daily, I’ll not only… Continue reading
On Winning, and Losing
I didn’t win the solo blues competition at Rose City Blues and that’s eating at me. But it shouldn’t because I’m used to not winning. Winning has only been a recent development in my life. In the past, when I didn’t win, but wanted to, I asked the judges for feedback. This time I didn’t. Because how can you get feedback from other people on your… Continue reading
The Top Four Dance Clips Every Man Should Watch
Teaching American men how to dance is a different ball of wax than teaching American women to dance. Dance seems to be a natural part of a girl’s early childhood development. Aside from social encouragement to take dance classes, even if you grow up poor (like I did), dancing around in your underwear to Cyndi Lauper can be as valuable and valid for your development and physical awareness as a… Continue reading
Listening and Leading
Last night we had our weekly practice session. Because this weekend is CUBE, the Chicago Underground Blues Experience (an annual social dance event focused around the Chicago Blues Festival), the dancers in our practice session decided they wanted to focus on dancing that makes you go “oooh yeah!” Three hundred dancers from around Chicago, around the country and even from across the pond are going to descend on us this… Continue reading
Flashdance Moments
Screencap of some studio time.
It’s Thursday morning. That means it’s a studio morning. In order to prove to myself that I’m serious about the solo blues competition in June, I booked studio time for myself every Thursday from 10-noon. I’ve never actually done this before, but it does have a certain “Flashdance” feeling. Time… Continue reading
Dance Tour = Done
American Sky
I’m home finally. I’ve had a week to unpack, clean-up and catch up and now it’s my first Monday morning in my kitchen, writing and getting back to the thing I was craving: my rhythm.
Travelers are neophiles. They’re obsessed with newness and new activity. They’re addicted to the endorphin… Continue reading
Categories: Travel
Leave a comment
Going on an Adventure Helps You Focus
It’s true, I’ve hardly written on this trip. December was amazing because I had minimal distractions. I got up in the morning, made breakfast, grabbed my laptop and walked down the hill into town, sat in a café for a few hours, downloaded podcasts, walked back up the hill, went jogging, made a snack and then spent the evening with my family, either going to holiday parties, making dinner or… Continue reading
Categories: Change, Food, Travel
Leave a comment
Train Musings
When I was 15, I came to Europe with my Grandmother. Only now do I really appreciate the effort it took her to arrange this trip. I find myself shuddering over the confusion and hassle of booking train and plane tickets and back then we didn’t have the internet. Hear that kids? There was no world wide web to log onto to compare flights, google map routes, find out where… Continue reading
