Musicality Is Not Monotony; Further Discussions On Call and Response.

A while back I wrote about how I view musicality. While watching the following video from Lone Star Championships it reminded me of that post, so I’m expanding on an idea briefly discussed in that post.

I <3 The YouTubes: Andrew and Karen

For today's love of the YouTubes, I picked one of my favorite recent routines, which debuted at Lindy Focus just a little over a month ago. Andrew and Karen are fabulous dancers, and their choreography is just as good--full of great energy, great dancing, and great humor. I don't know if I know any other dancers that use their face to the extent that these two do. Plus, have you SEEN Karen's hair?!

The Cheerful Little Earful

If you're interested in Fats Waller (and if you read this blog then you probably are) I recommend my latest read, Alyn Shipton's book: Fats Waller: The Cheerful Little Earful

Tales From The Depth Of Lindy Focus

I had a glorious experience at Lindy Focus but when I returned home I was in pain. My legs were in pain (which is good) but my soul also ached.

Audio 101 for Musicians, Dancers, DJ’s, and Venue Promoters

When you go to a dance, whether the music is live or DJed, I think we can all agree that you enjoy the music a lot more when it sounds...

Lone Star Championships 2010

Inspiration at 320 BPM

Inspiration is not easy to find, especially for a dancer. There are not many opportunities to see dance performances within our daily lives; harder still to find one that is inspiring. What about the most inspiring? No, it cannot be found on an expensive Broadway stage or at a pretensions dance company.

Top 5 Balboa Songs For Beginners

Learning Balboa can be a challenging task. Trying to learn Balboa while dancing to a complicated song can make things even more difficult. And it’s more than just the tempo of a song. Easy rhythms, simple song structure, and repetition can all make dancing that much simpler. It doesn’t mean that the music is completely void of interest, rather the song assists you in your learning process, rather than confuse you.  Below are 5 of my favorite beginner balboa tunes.

Mmmusic! Spike Hughes

The Denton and Haskins influence in a new variation of SJI

I was looking through the Mudcat Cafe site the other day. Mudcat is devoted to the exploration and preservation of traditional songs, and is a valuable resource. One correspondent, Dorothy, recently wrote, "My brother used to sing me a song. The lyrics seem similar to ones I have read in your listings. I used to love him singing it . . . I am still confused as to where my brother would have heard it. I miss him so much, he died of a brain hemorrhage aged 42. This was 31 years ago. I still miss him so much, but my memory of his singing is so vivid I can still hear him." Dorothy included the lyrics to the song, which can be found here.

Use Your Noggin

I don’t think anyone uses their head when they dance quite like Naomi Uyama. She really dances with it. And here’s the proof!

Red Hot Syncopators….?

To my surprise I'm apparently not the first to have a band called the Red Hot Syncopators in Seattle (we've shortened the name to just Syncopators now, but interesting none the less).