“Don’t Tap It… Whack It!”
September 30, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Too many things to talk about and too little time. What follows is a condensed summary of of a month in a life of a dancing beast. You can feel free to ignore the next five paragraphs and start...
bailarina de papel / paper doll dancer
September 28, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Esta actividad la hice con mis alumnas hace unos meses y les encantó. Consiste en hacer una muñeca de papel que tiene un vestido para de más para ponerse. La muñeca es nada menos que Annna Pavlova, una de las bailarinas clásicas más importantes en la historia del ballet.
Hay que hacerlas en un papel fuerte para que duren algo, yo las hice en cartón cartulina, y las dibujé a mano ya que este cartón no es apropiado para la impresora...
I made this activity with my students some months ago and they love it. It is a paper doll with a dress for change. The doll is a draw of Anna Pavlova, one of the most important classical ballerinas in the history of ballet.
Is important to make it in a heavy paper, I made it in cardboard, and I draw them because the paper is not apropiatted for the printer.
Hay que hacerlas en un papel fuerte para que duren algo, yo las hice en cartón cartulina, y las dibujé a mano ya que este cartón no es apropiado para la impresora...
I made this activity with my students some months ago and they love it. It is a paper doll with a dress for change. The doll is a draw of Anna Pavlova, one of the most important classical ballerinas in the history of ballet.
Is important to make it in a heavy paper, I made it in cardboard, and I draw them because the paper is not apropiatted for the printer.
algunos cascanueces para colorear / some nutcrackers coloring pages
September 27, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Estoy buscando páginas para colorear de cascanueces, para mis estudiantes. Van a bailarlo a final de año, así que esta actividad es genial para motivarlas... les encanta!!Well, I´m looking for nice coloring sheets of nutcracker for my students. They going to dance it in december, so this activity is a great for motivation... they love it!!
1. color sheet from funschool
2. nutcracker coloring page here
3. Barbie in the nutcracker here
Issue 3 Intro Video
September 27, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Hi friends! While we work on the next issue, Michael and I wanted to show you this intro video about issue 3. Enjoy!
Where can I learn Street Dance?
September 25, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Where can I learn Street Dance?Learning to dance can be a lifelong ambition, but often we're shy to try new things and worry that we'll make ourselves look foolish, or won't like the reality of learning a new skill and the effort we have to put in.
A negative experience can put you off learning a new skill like dance for life, so that's why when choosing a particular studio or method of learning to dance you must first evaluate the studio and classes, and decide whether it is a fit for you.
Why dance?
If your answer is to learn to dance for fun stay with the inexpensive ways of learning to dance and steer clear of the larger dance specialist dance schools, which offer great range of choice, but are often geared towards professional dancers. You may also find that classes which teach you a lot of technique don't give you casual approach you are looking for.
However, if your answer to this question involves elements of learning to be the best, learning the proper technique, or even competing -- your best decision would be to choose a studio in which you are pushed to train and learn more in depth aspects of dance. Perhaps going to a specialist 'popping' class, or taking private lessons in a Latin style may be more appropriate, and you'll probably want to invest some money into your new hobby as well.
How much will it cost?
Before making any decisions as to which class, you must decide for yourself what your yearly or monthly budget can afford. All classes have different price plans, and it's not always clear which is the cheapest. Joining a gym to take classes can cost you a whopping £500 per year, based on only 1 class per week, because you're paying for other services you won't use. Dance companies like Creation charge on a term basis, and offer large discounts for signing up for 12 weeks. This should encourage you to commit, but make sure that any course you sign up for can be flexible about attendance so that you don't miss out. Creation, for example, allows you to make up missed classes for free throughout the term and offers a money back guarantee, something you don't get at the regular dance schools. Then there are drop-in classes, which often appear cheaper, but if you add the cost of 'daily membership' often charged by these schools you can end up paying more in the long run, and getting less. So make sure you investigate carefully before you decide.
What about the age of the class?
If you wanting to learn something like street dance you need to think about what kind of atmosphere you want and the other people likely to be in the class. If you a bit older, you won't want to be surrounded by teenagers, and if you're only 15, you don't want to be in the kids section. Make sure that the class caters for people like you by asking the school about who comes along. You can always ask to watch a class if possible, or take a look at the video to see if it's full of super-cool street kids, or mums busting a move.
Your motivation
Ensure that you understand why you enjoy dancing or at least why you want to dance.
For example, some people dance because it gives them a "workout", some dance because they love music, some dance because they gain self-confidence, others dance to meet people, etc. These are just a few reasons -- determine yours, and enjoy it!
Creation Dance runs adult beginners street dance classes in London and the Southwest. For more information check out http://www.creationdance.co.uk or call 0870 140 3234
Elle Kealy is the founder of Creation Dance, a specialist beginners dance school in London and the South West. You can contact Elle on elle.kealy@creationdance.co.uk
On Ivana Muller’s “While We Were Holding It Together” at the FIAF: Crossing the Line Festival
September 24, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
I was scheduled to begin a sitting meditation retreat tonight; I went instead to Ivana Muller’s performance, While We Were Holding It Together, co-presented by DTW and FIAF as part of the Crossing the Line Festival.Instead of practicing letting go within a monastery, I sat in a theater and watched five performers hold it together.
The five performers sustain the same positions for Muller’s entire 67 minute piece. Their eyes move. They quiver out of muscle fatigue. But it is primarily the movement of their voices and minds that we follow.
(Ivana Muller's While We Were Holding It Together)
(Sitting Meditation Retreat -Sesshin- at Zen Mountain Monastery)From their frozen tableau, Muller’s performers talk: “I imagine we are all beggars asking for money.” “I imagine we are the last creatures on earth. We’d like to touch each other.” “I imagine I’m an oak tree, and winter is coming.”
Each time the performers make a statement, I see their shapes, their stillness, as something different. My perception of the very same picture shifts enormously. What was a hand becomes a branch or a bus pole or a microphone stand.
The performers imagine things funny, raunchy, tedious. And also big: “I imagine this body doesn’t belong to me.” “I imagine not being able to imagine anymore.”
In a blackout they leave the stage. From offstage we continue to hear them, “ Are we now only thoughts?” “No, we’re still an image…”
Muller looks at the existential questions I grappled with in an apricot tree hideaway as a kid, those same questions that bring me to Zen practice and art practice as an adult. She looks at nothing less than the nature of experience.
The last words we hear, in the black, from offstage, are these: “I imagine we are in this all together.”
And that is why I go to theater.
And that is why I will go to my meditation retreat tomorrow.
At the monastery, I’ll sit still, among other people, and watch the movement of my thoughts and emotions and fantasies. I’ll be asked to question what my body is, what death is, who there is to die.
At least that’s what I imagine I’ll do.
Link here to see a video excerpt
Each time the performers make a statement, I see their shapes, their stillness, as something different. My perception of the very same picture shifts enormously. What was a hand becomes a branch or a bus pole or a microphone stand.
The performers imagine things funny, raunchy, tedious. And also big: “I imagine this body doesn’t belong to me.” “I imagine not being able to imagine anymore.”
In a blackout they leave the stage. From offstage we continue to hear them, “ Are we now only thoughts?” “No, we’re still an image…”
Muller looks at the existential questions I grappled with in an apricot tree hideaway as a kid, those same questions that bring me to Zen practice and art practice as an adult. She looks at nothing less than the nature of experience.
The last words we hear, in the black, from offstage, are these: “I imagine we are in this all together.”
And that is why I go to theater.
And that is why I will go to my meditation retreat tomorrow.
At the monastery, I’ll sit still, among other people, and watch the movement of my thoughts and emotions and fantasies. I’ll be asked to question what my body is, what death is, who there is to die.
At least that’s what I imagine I’ll do.
Link here to see a video excerpt
ballerina birthday ideas part I
September 24, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Este es el primer paso: las invitaciones... He estado buscando, y es muy fácil encontrar linda invitaciones para pequeñas bailarinas...
Solo les mostraré una de tantas que encontré en este sitio, me encanta!
This is the first step: the invitations... I´ve been looking, and is so easy to find really nice invitations for tiny ballerinas.
I only show us one of them thata I found in this page, I heart for this one!!
Otro sitio recomendado
September 24, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Mother Groose Caboose: es otro sitio increíble donde puedes encontrar actividades para pequeñas bailarinas. Encontré un pequeño poema y un portaretratos, realmente lindos en esta página!Mother Goose Caboose: Another great place to find ballet activities. I found a little poem and a frame, really beautiful in this page!
Little Dancers
Little dancers on satin toes,
Tulle and tinsel adorned with a rose.
Telling a story without a sound,
Little dancers turn around and 'round
With arabesques and lofty leaps,
The Swan enchants,
The Beauty sleeps.
Little dancers on satin toes,
Show us the way the ballet goes.
- Barbara Hamburger.
Adapted in places by Ellen Baumwoll.
Really gorgeous!!!! don´t you think??
Money and Art #2
September 24, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
From The New York Times, "In Bailout Furor, Wall Street Pay Becomes a Target" By Steve Lohr:
But Wall Street, its lobbyists and trade groups are waging a feverish lobbying campaign to try to fight compensation curbs. Pay restrictions, they say, would sap incentives to hard work and innovation, and hurt the financial sector and the American economy.Interesting. I know plenty of people who work very hard, with enormous innovation (their lives are dedicated to innovation) under considerable pay restrictions.
Update: Check out Counter Critic's fabulous Economic Perspective on Money and Art.
Money and Art #1
September 24, 2008 · Posted in dance bloggers · Comment
Executives (read choreographers) of many small American dance companies pay their dancers while making very little and often no money themselves.Compensation for executives of large (Wall Street) American companies:
