(no subject)

Avi Perez was visiting and teaching in Boston this Monday night. He taught two dances, once a circles dance which was unabashedly mediocre- and in which he said the title (B'Atzvut Shketa, apparently) so quickly and slurredly that I thought it was one word, and caught the 'b' at the beginning and the 'eta' at the end, except that it sounded like 'etchka', and so I figured it was a Slavic place name (and therefore one of those "back in the Old Country" sorts of songs)- and then was rather puzzled when the music wasn't Slavic sounding at all.

His other selection was a couples dance- Hakol Dvash, for anyone paying attention to that. It was decent- don't know if I think it's any good or not yet. Not horrid though, at least. It ends with a sort of lunge-into-your-partner thing for the women, which I expect I'd find at least a bit uncomfortable if I were dancing with someone I didn't know well. I suppose that's part of me that isn't quite a dancer-ly as some might be. On the other hand, it raises the question of what audience does one choreograph for- how do you determine the boundaries of the populace. I mean, there is this whole body of dances which get done, which are fairly popular even, but which many, many people refer to as being a bit too explicit, that make them a little uncomfortable- but then they still do them. It's a strange phenomenon, a little.

(no subject)

Avi Perez was visiting and teaching in Boston this Monday night. He taught two dances, once a circles dance which was unabashedly mediocre- and in which he said the title (B'Atzvut Shketa, apparently) so quickly and slurredly that I thought it was one word, and caught the 'b' at the beginning and the 'eta' at the end, except that it sounded like 'etchka', and so I figured it was a Slavic place name (and therefore one of those "back in the Old Country" sorts of songs)- and then was rather puzzled when the music wasn't Slavic sounding at all.

His other selection was a couples dance- Hakol Dvash, for anyone paying attention to that. It was decent- don't know if I think it's any good or not yet. Not horrid though, at least. It ends with a sort of lunge-into-your-partner thing for the women, which I expect I'd find at least a bit uncomfortable if I were dancing with someone I didn't know well. I suppose that's part of me that isn't quite a dancer-ly as some might be. On the other hand, it raises the question of what audience does one choreograph for- how do you determine the boundaries of the populace. I mean, there is this whole body of dances which get done, which are fairly popular even, but which many, many people refer to as being a bit too explicit, that make them a little uncomfortable- but then they still do them. It's a strange phenomenon, a little.

Swing Rehearsal and other sundry thoughts

Swing rehearsal went much better today than last time, once we got started: we actually made some reasonably significant progress, and most of us were there. At the beginning I was frustrated since people were late and other people didn't show. I'd thought that Wednesday nights were rehearsal nights, and that was it. Apparently they're also rehearsing Monday nights, but know that zodiacmg and I dance in Brookline then, so we don't need to come. THis seems like a questionable practice, since we never all seem to be at one rehearsal. I mean, I guess it gives people who come to both double time to practice- but I'd imagine that that would get boring, since we worked at a pretty reasonable pace this time, including breaks to teach assorted tricks/steps that people didn't know/remember.

On the brighter side, we picked up a few of the standard tricks that are awfully handy for performances. They still make me a touch nervous and/or sore, but in the long run they should do us well. And I trust my partner(s) to keep them off the social dance floor, minus the standard dip sorts of things. FUnny how much easier these are than IFD lifts (well, the ones stuck in certain repetoire pieces, e.g. Kama Ahavah, Susati Va'Ani): they seem to use the body more efficiently. I'm rather surprised that we both finally overcame (at least somewhat) our general anxiety about such things. We also managed to swap roles for a fan-kick successfully, which rather wowed the rest of the group. 'Twasn't so hard at all. And a lovely quote (possibly slightly paraphrased) from tovah623, in response to why we didn't do a fan-kick on the floor: "We're not Adagio." (Adagio is the campus Modern/Jazz/Ballet dance group. They do a lot of fankicks on the floor, and floor stuff in general. It's one of their trademarks, it seems. That and generally skimpy costumes.)

Tomorrow morning I have a phone interview for an internship. I am very glad they were ok with a phone interview, rather than making me come all the way to NYC just for an interview, which would have wrecked havoc on my already overly busy schedule. (Tomorrow is also the day to do a significant amount of work on my Kimelman paper. At least my other paper, for Studying Sacred Texts, was postponed (again) until Friday.) Wish me luck!

This morning, SHlomiya and I took our usual walk and searched for sticks for use for BORG play props. It was really lovely out: such a nice change. And we found some nice sticks. Walking back to campus with what was effectively a small tree as a walking stick was awfully fun. Luckily my professor drove by before we got the sticks, not after...

Swing Rehearsal and other sundry thoughts

Swing rehearsal went much better today than last time, once we got started: we actually made some reasonably significant progress, and most of us were there. At the beginning I was frustrated since people were late and other people didn't show. I'd thought that Wednesday nights were rehearsal nights, and that was it. Apparently they're also rehearsing Monday nights, but know that zodiacmg and I dance in Brookline then, so we don't need to come. THis seems like a questionable practice, since we never all seem to be at one rehearsal. I mean, I guess it gives people who come to both double time to practice- but I'd imagine that that would get boring, since we worked at a pretty reasonable pace this time, including breaks to teach assorted tricks/steps that people didn't know/remember.

On the brighter side, we picked up a few of the standard tricks that are awfully handy for performances. They still make me a touch nervous and/or sore, but in the long run they should do us well. And I trust my partner(s) to keep them off the social dance floor, minus the standard dip sorts of things. FUnny how much easier these are than IFD lifts (well, the ones stuck in certain repetoire pieces, e.g. Kama Ahavah, Susati Va'Ani): they seem to use the body more efficiently. I'm rather surprised that we both finally overcame (at least somewhat) our general anxiety about such things. We also managed to swap roles for a fan-kick successfully, which rather wowed the rest of the group. 'Twasn't so hard at all. And a lovely quote (possibly slightly paraphrased) from tovah623, in response to why we didn't do a fan-kick on the floor: "We're not Adagio." (Adagio is the campus Modern/Jazz/Ballet dance group. They do a lot of fankicks on the floor, and floor stuff in general. It's one of their trademarks, it seems. That and generally skimpy costumes.)

Tomorrow morning I have a phone interview for an internship. I am very glad they were ok with a phone interview, rather than making me come all the way to NYC just for an interview, which would have wrecked havoc on my already overly busy schedule. (Tomorrow is also the day to do a significant amount of work on my Kimelman paper. At least my other paper, for Studying Sacred Texts, was postponed (again) until Friday.) Wish me luck!

This morning, SHlomiya and I took our usual walk and searched for sticks for use for BORG play props. It was really lovely out: such a nice change. And we found some nice sticks. Walking back to campus with what was effectively a small tree as a walking stick was awfully fun. Luckily my professor drove by before we got the sticks, not after...