How I spend my day in Taipei can be unfailingly broken down into these: waking up before 7, eating an overwhelming breakfast and a huge lunch, practicing dancing in the afternoon, and running for about an hour at night. I pretty much lose the concept of weekday and weekend because I repeat the same routine of life 7 days a week. The only warning sign is that recently I slack off from running because the temptation of staying at the quiet home with A/C, TV and couch is too great compared to panting and sweating for an hour straight outdoors.
I took Stacy to check out my studio on Wednesday, and I was so glad to see a Michigan Ballroom person here in the swelteringly hot Taipei. The lecture was on Latin Rumba, with a special focus on spin and high spiral. I tumbled a lot in the first few trials. The image of Oksana doing 2 double spirals in a row hovered in my mind as if to question me whether I could "possibly tumble more if it was the national tumbling-after-a-single-spin day". With the great care from my teacher and Stacy, I gradually grasped the idea of spinning with a straight back and with the right force.
A father who is also learning Latin there if I had any other activity or leisure besides dancing. I guess under a scorching sun and with a humidity of 70, anyone who spends her money all on two new pairs of dancing shoes will feel the warmth of home and refuse to go out anywhere.
Or it is really the time to explore more fun here in Taipei...
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
1, 2, 3. Cheese!
I thought I lost my camera charger during moving to East Quadrangle but found it yesterday in my room in Taipei. It made my day, and from now on I can post some pictures on the blog.
I am now addicted to 恋愛サプリ, a Japanese TV drama starred by 伊東 美咲（Ito Misaki) and 龜梨和也 (Kamenashi Kazuya). It is not a great drama, but it is amusingly absurd as all the other office romance TV dramas that people always make things so complicated and say some so smart lines that make the whole drama seems so staged. I guess that's why I like Japanese drama: you just laugh and forget because it is so fake.
When I was doing a little research about that actress, I found out that she, a professional model, is 171 cm tall and only 47 Kg! Holy Christ, that's about my height, but she is so skinny to a degree that it is yucky to even just imagine.
I am now addicted to 恋愛サプリ, a Japanese TV drama starred by 伊東 美咲（Ito Misaki) and 龜梨和也 (Kamenashi Kazuya). It is not a great drama, but it is amusingly absurd as all the other office romance TV dramas that people always make things so complicated and say some so smart lines that make the whole drama seems so staged. I guess that's why I like Japanese drama: you just laugh and forget because it is so fake.
When I was doing a little research about that actress, I found out that she, a professional model, is 171 cm tall and only 47 Kg! Holy Christ, that's about my height, but she is so skinny to a degree that it is yucky to even just imagine.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Second class of standard
For ladies:
1) move, 2) construction, 3) softness and 4) performance
For men:
1) span (step), 2) direction, 3) timing and 4) power
My teacher recounted the jobs for each sex in modern dance in my second modern lesson, in which I learned tango and waltz. My standard teachers, Angel and Darren, also have classes with Glenn Weiss' former partner, Maya Sewald. They are great.
In the studio, I can see young professional couples drill on their steps. They are all about 22-28 years old, and their performance and dance are very beyond the couples dancing in championship level in OSB. That amazes me, and sometimes I wonder how far I can achieve by the time I am at their age.
The weather is extremely tedious in Taipei. My parents do not nag me as much as I expected-- I guess because I have been being very quiet since I came back. I just read a novel "Bomjours Tristesse" written by Sagan when she was only 19 years old in a cafe near Paris. I will talk about the book in a post later...
1) move, 2) construction, 3) softness and 4) performance
For men:
1) span (step), 2) direction, 3) timing and 4) power
My teacher recounted the jobs for each sex in modern dance in my second modern lesson, in which I learned tango and waltz. My standard teachers, Angel and Darren, also have classes with Glenn Weiss' former partner, Maya Sewald. They are great.
In the studio, I can see young professional couples drill on their steps. They are all about 22-28 years old, and their performance and dance are very beyond the couples dancing in championship level in OSB. That amazes me, and sometimes I wonder how far I can achieve by the time I am at their age.
The weather is extremely tedious in Taipei. My parents do not nag me as much as I expected-- I guess because I have been being very quiet since I came back. I just read a novel "Bomjours Tristesse" written by Sagan when she was only 19 years old in a cafe near Paris. I will talk about the book in a post later...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Resume dancing
Third day back in Taipei, I found a studio and coaches for both standard and latin and started my first standard class. The class will be based on silver syllubus moves, and I am required to learn both guy's and lady's steps.
The routine I learned today for waltz is:
starting from the long side
natural turn 123 facing DW-> back to LOD
natural spin turn back to LOD(4) -> LOD(5)->wall(6)
reverse turn wall->DC
open telemark wall(4)-> back to LOD(5)->DW(6)
chasse after pp
natural turn
open impetus
weave after pp
I was excited and was able to dance to the routine, but I still need to work harder on my heel turn.
The weather in Taipei is NOTORIOUSLY steaming: the temperature is always 87 above from 5:30 in the morning and a humidity of 70%. One thing bothers me is that when my sisters walk into my room, they always turn the temperature of the A/C up to over 73 degrees.
The routine I learned today for waltz is:
starting from the long side
natural turn 123 facing DW-> back to LOD
natural spin turn back to LOD(4) -> LOD(5)->wall(6)
reverse turn wall->DC
open telemark wall(4)-> back to LOD(5)->DW(6)
chasse after pp
natural turn
open impetus
weave after pp
I was excited and was able to dance to the routine, but I still need to work harder on my heel turn.
The weather in Taipei is NOTORIOUSLY steaming: the temperature is always 87 above from 5:30 in the morning and a humidity of 70%. One thing bothers me is that when my sisters walk into my room, they always turn the temperature of the A/C up to over 73 degrees.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I shrugged my shoulders and said...
"I don't know what I suppose to say," after my sister complained about that I did not seem to be excited about going home soon (in fact, tomorrow.)
Well, I guess now I am a bit excited about going home, but after learning some many things at the IDB, I just want to practice them at DTS all day long. Moreover, I miss the art fair, which is another reason that bring me down a bit about going home tomorrow.
Every time going back home in Taipei symbolizes an end of a semester or a year, and every time seems to be too in a haste-- never have I felt I went back at the right time. I have friends, dance, good weather and fun here; on the other hand, I can stay with my family and take dance lessons in Taipei but also have to bear with highly humid weather, mosquito, house chores, and mom's nagging.
Hmm. I feel mixed feeling about going back home. Probably I am not old enough to be homesick.
Well, I guess now I am a bit excited about going home, but after learning some many things at the IDB, I just want to practice them at DTS all day long. Moreover, I miss the art fair, which is another reason that bring me down a bit about going home tomorrow.
Every time going back home in Taipei symbolizes an end of a semester or a year, and every time seems to be too in a haste-- never have I felt I went back at the right time. I have friends, dance, good weather and fun here; on the other hand, I can stay with my family and take dance lessons in Taipei but also have to bear with highly humid weather, mosquito, house chores, and mom's nagging.
Hmm. I feel mixed feeling about going back home. Probably I am not old enough to be homesick.
| Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Day 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:45 - 9:35am | Ballroom A | DanceSport Endurance | Todd Borzych |
| Ballroom C | Yoga - morning warm-up | Stanley Kuo | |
| 10:00 - 10:50am | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Creating sway the right way" | Polina Pilipenchuk |
| Ballroom B | "My lady smiles...I did something right! Similarities and differences in figures of Waltz" | Garry Gekhman | |
| Ballroom C | "Turn, spiral and rotate like Professionals!" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Jive - "Rise and shine" | Andrew Phillips | |
| 11:00 - 11:50am | Ballroom A | "Top 20 faults of Standard syllabus dancers" | Dan Calloway |
| Ballroom B | "Mysteries of Viennese Waltz: Why even best of the best have a problem with it" (Advanced) | Garry Gekhman | |
| Ballroom C | "Arms as an extension of your back" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| Ballroom D | Paso Doble - "Body actions and shapes" | Andrew Phillips | |
| 12:00 - 12:50pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "To shape or not to shape?" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | Tango - "Power of focus" | Polina Pilipenchuk | |
| Ballroom C | Jive - "Feeling the rhythm" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| Ballroom D | Rumba - "Walks" | Dan Calloway | |
| 1:00 - 1:50pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "Jumps, skips, runs" (Advanced) | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | "Rotation and CBMP" | Dan Calloway | |
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Chasses: How many types are there?" | Polina Pilipenchuk | |
| Ballroom D | "Acting in dancing - Is it only for open choreography or should we do it when we dance syllabus steps too" | Andrew Phillips | |
| 2:00 - 2:50pm | Ballroom A | "Exercises and drills for Standard dancers" | Dan Calloway |
| Ballroom B | Foxtrot - "Proper footwork" | Polina Pilipenchuk | |
| Ballroom C | Samba - "Hips, legs, knees, ankles" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| Ballroom D | "Creating intensity and dynamic movement in the latin dances" (Advanced) | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| 3:00 - 3:50pm | Ballroom A | Tango - "Developing the impression of speed" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | "Every man's dream (Part II): Easing the pain of the leader's responsibilities" | Garry Gekhman | |
| Ballroom C | "Developing speed in Latin dances" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | "Creating finished actions" (Advanced) | Andrew Phillips | |
| 5:30 - 10:00pm | Fireworks start at around 9pm on the National Mall in downtown Washington, DC. Group for the Mall will depart at 5:30pm sharp. | ||
Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 7/3 quick note
| Friday, July 3, 2009 - Day 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:45 - 9:35am | Ballroom A | DanceSport Endurance | Todd Borzych |
| Ballroom C | Yoga - morning warm-up | Stanley Kuo | |
| 10:00 - 10:50am | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Using head weight" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | Viennese Waltz - "Tango legs & Waltz feet" | Victor Fung | |
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "Using weight & foot pressure" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| Ballroom D | Samba - "Creative basics" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| 11:00 - 11:50am | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Timing: Beyond 1, 2, 3" | Victor Fung |
| Ballroom B | Quickstep - "Open choreography" (Advanced) | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom C | Samba - "Creative open choreography" (Advanced) | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | Cha Cha - "Locks and chasses, the finer points" | Dan Calloway | |
| 12:00 - 12:50pm | Ballroom A | "Sharing the moment together: Contact, connection, communication, relationship" | Taliat Tarsinov |
| Ballroom B | "Principles of effective competitive open choreography in standard" (Advanced) | Glenn Weiss | |
| Ballroom C | Samba - "Hot body action" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Paso Doble - "An introduction" | Dan Calloway | |
| LUNCH | Wendy Johnson | ||
| 1:00 - 1:50pm | Ballroom A | "Every man's dream (Part I): Technique of creating sway...better believe it works!" | Garry Gekhman |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | "Developing rhythm in Latin dances" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 2:00 - 2:50pm | Ballroom A | Tango - "Picture lines" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | Jive - "Energy and stamina training" | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 3:00 - 3:50pm | Ballroom A | Foxtrot - "Art of feathers and three steps" | Victor Fung |
| Ballroom B | "Artistic use of the head - taking it to the level of Champions" (Advanced) | Anna Mikhed | |
| Ballroom C | Samba - "Rolls" | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | "Vertical axis is the first key" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| 4:00 - 4:50pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "How to make it slow" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | "Tango - "Good old basic" | Garry Gekhman | |
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Creating speed and dynamic" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom D | Rumba - "Balance and connection" (Advanced) | Wendy Johnson | |
| 4:50 - 5:15pm | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 5:15 - 6:05pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "Being light on your feet" | Garry Gekhman |
| Ballroom B | Viennese Waltz - " Fleckerls: Breaking them down" | Glenn Weiss | |
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "How to fill the extra time" (Advanced) | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Performance (Part III) | Wendy Johnson | |
| 6:15 - 7:05pm | Ballroom A | Foxtrot - "Good old basic" | Garry Gekhman |
| Ballroom B | Tango - "Open choreography" (Advanced) | Glenn Weiss | |
| Ballroom C | Paso Doble - "Character" | Victor Kanevsky | |
| Ballroom D | Performance (Rehearsal) | Wendy Johnson | |
| 8:00 - 11:30pm | Independence Day Ball Social. Semi-formal attire. If you are not attending the camp, you are welcome to attend the social. COST:
| ||
I was too tired and thus slept over the dance endurance training session in the morning, and that was a total mistake because I was not warmed up for the samba class teaching moves including the samba shadow roll.
The samba creative basics taught by Taliat Tarsinov was a great class. From Day 3, most of us 6 decided to choose classes by instructors rather by the title because the title could be somehow deceiving. Taliat was one of my favorite instructors at the camp, and he was truly a maestro: he did not teach much nor analyze into details, and he only taught one or two concepts in a class and the concepts would totally transform the way you dance.
In his samba class he gave a very interesting routine constructed by few basic syllubus moves:
girl: circular volta for 1, 2, 3, 4, counterclockwise, approaching to the guy
guy: hip action L R for 1, 2, 3, 4
both:
3 whisk: in the first two whisks, parallel and face your partner(5,6,7,8) , the third whisk, guy goes beside the girl and both put their hands on each other's shoulders (1,2)
foot change(3,4), shadow roll (5,6,7,8), promenade run, finish
He explained that every step has a meaning. The circulart volta for 1,2,3,4 is saying the girl is flirting the the guy, as if telling him,"Hey, come with me!" The whisks are the guy aggressively and very masculinely chasing after the girl, and at the third whisk he finally catches up the girl. The samba roll expresses softer emotion in this chereography, less masculinity, but more romantic and harmonic between the two sexes.
The samba roll: the trick is to separate the body into the torso and the part below the waist (the hip), you have to change between the two to initiate the momentum of the roll. When the body bends forward, it is the upper body initiate the roll; when bending backward, you swing your hip hard and bend the knee to create the speed and liquidity of the rolling motion.
The footwork: I merge the concept learned from Andrew Philips class as well. Put the arms forward; when you bend forward, your arms point to the direction of 6 o'clock(to the line of dance) ; so when you bend backward, the arms are at the 12 o'clock direction(opposite to the line of dance), and your left foot should tap out with no weight on it. When the arms come to 9 o'clock direction, you transfer the weight to the left foot and then start to pivot on the left foot. Pivoting on the left foot until the arm again pointing to 12 o'clock direction (against the line of dance), you tap out your right foot to the side and split weight, and then left foot cross in front of the right foot. The lesson is, you pivot on the left and only transfer weight and cross in the very end of this semi-circular roll. Bend your body as parallel as possible to the floor.
The left foot can be eiher bent or straight, depending on the heights of the couple: if the girl is tall or about the same height as the guy, bending her knee can first ease the burden of the guy and second create more dynamics in the roll action. If the girl is short, then she can choose to do it on a straight leg.
In another Taliat's class of cha cha "creating speed", we learned a routine: 1 open right side frontcheckon the right, 2 open side hip twists, plus something linking to back lock step (lady; gentleman: forward lock step), lady one forward lock step and goes into mambo box.
The trick to create speed is to use ONE JOINT AT A TIME. For example, you only think of
knee when you do hip twist; do not be confused by the name and think of hip or try to squeeze your side of torso. Of course you have to squeeze your side torso and twist your hip, but those are the results come after a correct knee movement. "Results are very different from the fact." Taliat said. When you do the first step that goes into mambo box, what makes those pros move in a super human speed is that they use the shoulder to place their foot but not foot to place their body then their shoulder. So when you finish the front lock step and ready to place your left foot into the mambo box, while your correct position to the leader should be almost in one line, facing opposite direction, the leader's primary job is to place the girl's shoulder on the line, and the girl should let her shoulder goes forward first, and then her foot will immediately place in the correct place because of the work of gravity.
I didn't know the steps and footwork of mambo box, which was a pity. Nevertheless, it's a step of gold level; I will learn it someday.
I feel that I need to remember the correct names of the figures because that will ease the burden of communication.
I didn't stay long in the open dance at night. I simply do not enjoy sitting off stage and hoping people to ask me dance. Such self-pity or consciousness comes to me sometimes during the open dance as well; I realize, again, that I need to work on my dance; I need to learn more steps for social dance, and I need to be unaffected by the leaders' leading skill. I do not want to feel such feeling of being deserted. But is it a good thing that to work harder on dance because of being driven by such nearly awareness of humiliation? To me, dance brings me happiness and loneliness: I am happy that I can dance and communicate with others in a new language free from, but often I feel I am not talented enough to achieve anything in this field. And the pressure of partner search makes me bitter quite often.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 7/2 quick note
| Thursday, July 2, 2009 - Day 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:45 - 9:35am | Ballroom A | DanceSport Endurance | Todd Borzych |
| Ballroom C | Yoga - morning warm-up | Stanley Kuo | |
| 10:00 - 10:50am | Ballroom A | Tango - "Power with grace" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | Waltz - "Open choreography" (Advanced) | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "Principals of movement " | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Samba - "Whisks, voltas and botafogos" | Marcus Johnson | |
| 11:00 - 11:50am | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Creating movement" | Victor Fung |
| Ballroom B | Quickstep - "The art of scatter chasses" (Advanced) | Anna Mikhed | |
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Developing speed" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Rumba - "Creative basics" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| 12:00 - 12:50pm | Ballroom A | "Tango character" | Victor Fung |
| Ballroom B | "Creating controlled flight - balancing movement and control" (Advanced) | Glenn Weiss | |
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "Using energy to create power" | Karina Smirnoff | |
| Ballroom D | "How to add the spark to your routines to make them fun to watch" | Wendy Johnson | |
| 1:00 - 1:50pm | Ballroom A | "Spin like a Pro" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | "Three Tangos: Argentine, American and International" | Wendy Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 2:00 - 2:50pm | Ballroom A | "Heart of the soul - Energy" | Taliat Tarsinov |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Principles of effective and fun competitive choreography" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| LUNCH | Wendy Johnson | ||
| 3:00 - 3:50pm | Ballroom A | Viennese Waltz - "How to fly" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | Waltz - "Creative syllabus patterns" | Dan Calloway | |
| Ballroom C | Jive - "Flicks and kicks" (Advanced) | Karina Smirnoff | |
| Ballroom D | Latin - "Posture and poise" | Marcus Johnson | |
| 4:00 - 4:50pm | Ballroom A | "How low can you go? Rise and fall in Waltz" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | "Lines and Poses in Standard" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom C | Jive - "The bounce" | Oksana Zolotarevskaya | |
| Ballroom D | Cha Cha - "Legs, ankles, and feet" | Wendy Johnson | |
| 4:50 - 5:15pm | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 5:15 - 6:05pm | Ballroom A | "Lead / Follow with weight and pressure" | Dan Calloway |
| Ballroom B | "Using body action in Standard" (Advanced) | Victor Fung | |
| Ballroom C | "Connection: Dancing through your partner" | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | Jive - "Influence of swing and Rock n' Roll" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| 6:15 - 7:05pm | Ballroom A | Foxtrot - "Horizontal movement" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | Waltz - "Hip action" | Dan Calloway | |
| Ballroom C | Samba - "Hot hip action" | Karina Smirnoff | |
| Ballroom D | Performance (Part II) | Wendy Johnson | |
| 7:30 - 9:30pm | Ballroom A | "Pizza with the Pros" - Q&A / dinner session with the instructors. Pizza will be provided. | |
In day two my feet started to hurt, and now it's day 3 and my feet hurt like a bitch, so do my calves, thighs, shoulder blades, neck and eyes.
It's hard to decide which class to go because every class was great and full of useful information.
The samba class of Marcus Johnson was interesting because the way he taught about the basic was quite different from what Steve taught us. But I think Marcus' class is only good after learning the solid technique from Steve. Steve and Susan always emphasized on the importance of using hamstring and sway the hips to create the action in samba, and Marcus, Taliat, and Karina moved my focus to other part of the body and explain the joint effect of those other parts of body. It's like a tree that S&S point out the root and trunk, and those pros tell us with branches and leaves can a tree be like a tree.
I nearly gave up in Oksana's cha-cha class because I couldn't remember the hard routine she gave us:
front check, rounde, back check, a sliding door figure (well i think it's not the correct name, but the move is that you have your right feet ball nail to the ground in front in a side position), a side step of left foot and going into two hip thrusts (arrhh i don't know the name; the move is you are in the side position, bending both knees, and your hip almost like sit on your right foot, and then you thrust your hip to the left twice. In Bryan Watson and Carmen's chachacha teaching video by Dance Universe, Carmen did that move in the very beginning), left foot back, right foot to the side, front check, two side cuban break to the left, a slow one, move your weight to the left foot in the front then whoooosh turn on the and between 3 and 4 (that's the trick to creat speed!) and then use your left foot to push your body to the right to have a macho present posture. There are still 5 figures after these, but I cannot recall and I don't know there proper names. The class challenged me a lot. I spent almost my attention on grasping the steps, and I didn't have spare energy for the technique. Since this class, I avoided going to Oksana's class except for her samba basic action ("Hot body action"). She was an amazing teacher, but the material was to advance for me. Even Matt D. has problem learning the steps.
In her "Spin like a Pro" class, she gave us:
Alemana to the right, spin, Alemana to the left, back check, spiral or double spiral (left turn), and then three rumba walks.
Freak, I can never do double spiral; even single spiral challenges my balance.
Victor's tango choreography:
Natural pivot (1, 2) into Ronde (3) (lady, right feet inside the gentleman and turn 180 and then land in a check position with right foot in the back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-St7DoJBnAY for natural pivot, and gentleman's right thigh has to be connected to lady's right thigh, so he can push with his thigh to notify the lady's timing for the rounde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ut92V-ijs for Ronde into PP), gentleman does a pivot on the ball of his right foot (on 4; or you can choose to do a ronde as well), lady does twister on 5 'n' 6 (left-right-left), 7 'n' 8 be into promenade position. Fallaway whisk and slip pivot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Hpf1slOXw the asshole step that always confuses me), reverse turn on heel, contra check.
muhahahha, I think I was so distracted by learning the steps rather than technique.
In Taliat Tarsimov's "Heart of Energy", he introduced 7 knots of energy of human body:
1. butt connects to earth;
2. energy gathering in lower abdomen expresses creativity, and
3. in below the chest expresses confidence;
4. the knot in the upper rib cage connects to "life and emotion": if your chest is open, it shows positive emotions; if closed, it show negative feelings like sadness.
5. the knot on the throat is the "expression" knot, which makes sense because you talk with air vibration that channels through the neck.
6. the forehead is "focus and attention."
7. the top of the head connects to the universe
So if you gathers energy or use the muscle around the specific knot, you express different feelings, which is the philosophical interpretation of body language on top of the common physical movement. He made an example with spin turn in standard dance: i n the moment when the guy has to push forward and be on the ball or both feet, he opens up his rib cage area, and that expresses confidence and positive energy (life); the lady has to show and extends her body, and that move opens up her upper chest and expresses "life" and happiness.
In Anna Mikhed's "VW: How to Fly" class, she mentions the relative sway motion and wave altitude in natural turn and reverse turn: natural turn requires stronger swaying motion, and lady's head initiates her part of swaying. Reverse turn is almost flat in altitude, or it contains little swaying because the lady is on the right side of the gentleman, so it's a physical and mechanical obstacle that causes reverse turn to have less swaying.
In Taliat's jive class, he first introduced 4 dances in the jive dance family, from the slowest to the fastest in musicality: west coast, east coast, jive, and rock 'n' roll, which is kicking motion. He mentioned that there is no need to create new moves or to learn high level moves in jive; we can borrow moves from other dances (or "get inspiration" as he put it) to enrich jive, the relative young dance in Latin that was added into Latin dance in the 1950s. He gave a very interesting choreography that merges west coast swing, jive basic, and rock 'n' roll: (on lady's perspective)
sugar step right(1)-left(2) forward and right behind the left foot like a backward lock(3), right back(4), left back, right, left foot tap out (5 and 6, or "triple step") and split weight on both feet ('n'); sugar step right(7)- left(8), turn with a right foot rounde, left, right (1 'n' 2), swivel (left foot, right foot, 180 degrees in total) (3, 4), jive chasse basic (5 and 6) rock step (7, 8), chasse R to L, under arm turn, turn back, American spin, and then another chasse R to L, the lady and gentleman should face the same side because now he lets her go... (maybe it's called Whip throwaway. I don't know the figure name, but it looks like on 7 and 8 both guy and girl slowly collect their left feet to the right feet; the whole weight is on the right), then it's a figure looks like side cuban break, but with kicks (left front check, right foot kick once, right foot back, left side, right front, left kicks twice, left back, right side, left front, right taps on the back of the left, and then kicks backwards, taps; 3 times) left on toe crosses in the back of the right, halt for 2 beats, turn and partners face each other, back to jive basic.
I like the choreography, and I practice several times after that day.
Karina's hip is God's masterpiece; I never see human body can move like that. We did (I think) corte jaca, whisk, and cruzados. She told us to squeeze one side and prolong the other, and how you open the hip to the side and collect the foot in the back to the standing foot by squeezing your abdomen, and shoulder placement. The most important thing was that she reminded us, so did her teacher Victor Kanevsky, that there is no need to dance too hard when doing samba. Everything, every movement comes naturally if you use one joint at a time, and the joint will bring up the motion of the other joints. (Here I merge some concepts learnt in Taliat ("creating speed") and Kanevsky's ("arm as an extension of your back") classes.)
In fact, I cannot really describe how good her lesson was because a big part was based on her demonstration. Her demonstration was very clear and amazing because her moves were precise and huge.)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Independence Day Ball in Washington DC 6/30& 7/1 quick note
After coming back from Mackinac Island in north Michigan, about 5 hours of driving and half hour on ferry, and my last general lesson this summer and a sweet birthday celebration for me held by Mon, I hopped onto the car to a 5-day ballroom dance camp in DC, with a hope to become much better at dancing.
We drove nearly 9 hours from Ann Arbor to the camp at Hilton Hotel, which is 7 stations from downtown DC.
(And Glenn Weiss, the champion of champion, just walked by and greeted my with a nod.)
At the first night we went out to the downtown, but unfortunately it was pouring for a whole evening. But we still got a chance to take pictures of the National Memorial for the Vietnam War and have some Chinese food in a famous but sketchy-looking restaurant Fu-Kee the Chinatown.
The first day of class:
All the classes are amazing. The classes in bold and italic font are the one I participated in.
My first impression of the camp was that there was always things to learn, even though Steve and Susan had already taught a lot. It's always nice to have a third opinion, just as Wendy Johnson says that whatever we hear from her is her opinion for dancing. In the camp, the dance level of the class is wide and there are not too many champ or pre-champ couples. But we are all practicing and learning hard.
I went to many classes teaching basics to see more technique, rather then getting confused and frantic about learning steps in higher level classes. The technique classes were absolutely fantastic-- the instructors broke down the moves and talked about which specific part of body muscle to use. They teach us how to play with timing and make the basic steps sharp and competitive.
The first dance endurance session was truly impressive because they used ballroom dance mixed up with taebo to work out. After the 50-minute class, everyone was sweaty and panting, but for sure we were all waken up for the first day of class.
Anna Mikhed, Victor Fung's partner was adorable. She looked very shy and scholarly without the ballroom dress. After her heel turn class, I felt I could do heel turn with no problem. See, the good part of the camp classes is that the masters can always give you just a little key point and totally transform your dance.
Glenn Weiss gave us a pretty challenging choreography in the class of introduction to quickstep, which Alex said that the steps were taught in B-team lesson, defintely not an introduction. I danced with Jehangar in that class and almost all the other standard classes since that. He is a physician from DC and he dances in gold level, and he is absolutely a gentleman and a comfortable person to dance with.
The quickstep choreography is (if i remember the figure names right):
natural turn, spin turn, (I think there are some figures but I don't know their names) a syncopated chasse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTKejqx3kU) , two slow hop with turning, 2 slow hops and 2 quick hops, and a backward lock step finish.
I was happy to learn some new steps just as happy as to learn the techniques. I still consider the latter and basic are more important, but sometimes new steps just add more fun to dance, which is "mundane and tedious, and requires a high disciplined dancer" commented by Marcus Johnson and Karina Smirnoff.
In Victor Fung's tango class we did:
spin, rounde (lady first then the gentleman), twist turn into promenade, fallaway, snip turn, reverse turn on heel, and counter check into finish.
I always messed up the snip turn. Victor Fung is one of my favorite dancers, and it's awesome to know him personally. He is young, has great sense of humor, hearts Transformers 2, and has awesome partnership with Anna. All these seems so reversed to my impression of him performing elegantly on TV. In fact, the pros that we meet in the camp are all friendly and humorous.
In Marcus Johnson's "How to practice alone and with a partner class", he gave us a routine for practice sessions to follow: practice 1 dance in one practice day; always practice to music; not always practice to the mirror (to avoid shiness); break down your focus into six sessions and conjugate the focus with your partner: posture, rotation, feet, timing, connection, and free expression (which is basically don't think anything BUT IT'S NOT THAT YOU FORGET WHAT YOU FOCUS ON PREVIOUSLY). Each focus needs to go over 5 times, so it's 30 times in total. If you practice to a routine, then finish the routine everytime. After you finish, have a present posture as in a competition, and don't talk to your partner. The reason of no talking is because once you start talking, under the high stress of practice it's natural that people start blaming on partners and quarrelling. So no talking helps you to focus on your own dance efficiently. The practice can be very mundane, but it is very effective for progress. I think whether it is mundane or not really depends on how one think of dance. Dancing is not always fun; in fact, it is mostly hardworking, frustrating and stressful. But if one considers it as only a social activity, then it is fun, but the quality of one's dance is expectably not impressive. And he recommended us to read Walter Lairds' technique book.
We drove nearly 9 hours from Ann Arbor to the camp at Hilton Hotel, which is 7 stations from downtown DC.
(And Glenn Weiss, the champion of champion, just walked by and greeted my with a nod.)
At the first night we went out to the downtown, but unfortunately it was pouring for a whole evening. But we still got a chance to take pictures of the National Memorial for the Vietnam War and have some Chinese food in a famous but sketchy-looking restaurant Fu-Kee the Chinatown.
The first day of class:
| 10:00 - 10:20am | Ballroom A | Information and Welcome Session | |
| 10:30 - 11:20am | Ballroom A | DanceSport Endurance | Todd Borzych |
| Ballroom C | Yoga - morning warm-up | Stanley Kuo | |
| 11:30 - 12:20pm | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Basic action" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | Foxtrot - "Open choreography" (Advanced) | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Basic action" | Karina Smirnoff | |
| Ballroom D | Jive - "Basic actions" | Marcus Johnson | |
| 12:30 - 1:20pm | Ballroom A | Foxtrot - "Heel turn basics" (Beginner) | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | Tango - "Basic action" | Victor Fung | |
| Ballroom C | Cha Cha - "Making the connection work" | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | Paso Doble - "Open choreography" (Advanced) | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| 1:30 - 2:20pm | Ballroom A | "Dance as body language" | Taliat Tarsinov |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "Basic action" | Wendy Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 2:30 - 3:20pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "An introduction" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| Ballroom C | "Exuding confidence on the dance floor" | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | LUNCH BREAK | ||
| 3:30 - 4:20pm | Ballroom A | "Frame: Strong yet flexible" | Glenn Weiss |
| Ballroom B | Foxtrot - "The secret of timing" (Advanced) | Victor Fung | |
| Ballroom C | "Biggest faults in Latin dancers that slow progress" | Karina Smirnoff | |
| Ballroom D | Samba - "Basic actions" | Marcus Johnson | |
| 4:20 - 4:45pm | COFFEE BREAK | ||
| 4:45 - 5:35pm | Ballroom A | Quickstep - "A Beginner's guide to chasses and locks" (Beginner) | Dan Calloway |
| Ballroom B | Tango - "Sit back or not?" | Victor Fung | |
| Ballroom C | "Improving your skills in Latin: 3 types of weight transfer" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom D | Samba - "Isolation: Controlling upper and lower body" (Advanced) | Karina Smirnoff | |
| 5:45 - 6:35pm | Ballroom A | Waltz - "Connection: Moving together" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | "Closed and Promenade positions" | Taliat Tarsinov | |
| Ballroom C | Rumba - "Using your back" (Advanced) | Marcus Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | Jive - "The finer points" | Wendy Johnson | |
| 6:45 - 7:35pm | Ballroom A | Viennese Waltz - "An introduction" | Anna Mikhed |
| Ballroom B | Tango - "Articulate feet" | Dan Calloway | |
| Ballroom C | Performance (Part I) | Wendy Johnson | |
| Ballroom D | "How to practice alone and with a partner" | Marcus Johnson |
All the classes are amazing. The classes in bold and italic font are the one I participated in.
My first impression of the camp was that there was always things to learn, even though Steve and Susan had already taught a lot. It's always nice to have a third opinion, just as Wendy Johnson says that whatever we hear from her is her opinion for dancing. In the camp, the dance level of the class is wide and there are not too many champ or pre-champ couples. But we are all practicing and learning hard.
I went to many classes teaching basics to see more technique, rather then getting confused and frantic about learning steps in higher level classes. The technique classes were absolutely fantastic-- the instructors broke down the moves and talked about which specific part of body muscle to use. They teach us how to play with timing and make the basic steps sharp and competitive.
The first dance endurance session was truly impressive because they used ballroom dance mixed up with taebo to work out. After the 50-minute class, everyone was sweaty and panting, but for sure we were all waken up for the first day of class.
Anna Mikhed, Victor Fung's partner was adorable. She looked very shy and scholarly without the ballroom dress. After her heel turn class, I felt I could do heel turn with no problem. See, the good part of the camp classes is that the masters can always give you just a little key point and totally transform your dance.
Glenn Weiss gave us a pretty challenging choreography in the class of introduction to quickstep, which Alex said that the steps were taught in B-team lesson, defintely not an introduction. I danced with Jehangar in that class and almost all the other standard classes since that. He is a physician from DC and he dances in gold level, and he is absolutely a gentleman and a comfortable person to dance with.
The quickstep choreography is (if i remember the figure names right):
natural turn, spin turn, (I think there are some figures but I don't know their names) a syncopated chasse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVTKejqx3kU) , two slow hop with turning, 2 slow hops and 2 quick hops, and a backward lock step finish.
I was happy to learn some new steps just as happy as to learn the techniques. I still consider the latter and basic are more important, but sometimes new steps just add more fun to dance, which is "mundane and tedious, and requires a high disciplined dancer" commented by Marcus Johnson and Karina Smirnoff.
In Victor Fung's tango class we did:
spin, rounde (lady first then the gentleman), twist turn into promenade, fallaway, snip turn, reverse turn on heel, and counter check into finish.
I always messed up the snip turn. Victor Fung is one of my favorite dancers, and it's awesome to know him personally. He is young, has great sense of humor, hearts Transformers 2, and has awesome partnership with Anna. All these seems so reversed to my impression of him performing elegantly on TV. In fact, the pros that we meet in the camp are all friendly and humorous.
In Marcus Johnson's "How to practice alone and with a partner class", he gave us a routine for practice sessions to follow: practice 1 dance in one practice day; always practice to music; not always practice to the mirror (to avoid shiness); break down your focus into six sessions and conjugate the focus with your partner: posture, rotation, feet, timing, connection, and free expression (which is basically don't think anything BUT IT'S NOT THAT YOU FORGET WHAT YOU FOCUS ON PREVIOUSLY). Each focus needs to go over 5 times, so it's 30 times in total. If you practice to a routine, then finish the routine everytime. After you finish, have a present posture as in a competition, and don't talk to your partner. The reason of no talking is because once you start talking, under the high stress of practice it's natural that people start blaming on partners and quarrelling. So no talking helps you to focus on your own dance efficiently. The practice can be very mundane, but it is very effective for progress. I think whether it is mundane or not really depends on how one think of dance. Dancing is not always fun; in fact, it is mostly hardworking, frustrating and stressful. But if one considers it as only a social activity, then it is fun, but the quality of one's dance is expectably not impressive. And he recommended us to read Walter Lairds' technique book.
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