Reading The Tea

When I saw the announcement that Daniel Trenner was teaching a fundamentals class at Friday Night Blues, I was excited and a bit confused. Isn’t he an argentine tango dancer? Why is he teaching at blues? As it turns out, he taught an excellent introduction to partner dance. As a teacher he is charismatic and memorable.
My notes from the class (geared to people new to dance):
1.) Everyone started in a circle, facing in. He had us pick out someone (at random) from the circle to remember. Our task was then to walk around the room, cutting through space without letting “your” person get behind you. Back in the circle, we picked a second person, and this time didn’t let either of them get behind. “Staying to the outside of the room is cheating,” we were admonished. “If you make a mistake, pretend you didn’t.”
Great ice-breaker, everyone milled around the room and took up space. Conversation followed about eye contact with other drivers.
2.) Try to press your front against the back of the first person you picked. Next, the second person. This resulted in everyone running, milling about the room. Lots of giggles. I think this exercise is especially good for breaking the “I don’t want to touch another human” barrier.
3.) Circle again. Pick a point across the room and traverse the space. Now do it by walking forward and backward (still towards a point). Again, awareness of others. If you bump someone, make it soft. adjust the length of your line if the middle is getting too clogged. Traversing again, this time picking a point to turn. (I kept thinking… Improv score!)
4.) His approach to the introduction of leading and following was quite different from others I’ve encountered. We circled up again, and he asked for a volunteer. Any volunteer. A teen-age girl bounced into the center. He made her the lead in much of the demonstration. They stood side-by-side and he demonstrated two ways to go along with her — pulling her behind him or the “gentlemanly” way, offering her the space ahead of them for her to step into. “Which is easier?” Several people guessed the gentlemanly way — he said it’s actually harder, but better. He showed how when she is leading him, she has to keep leading as he steps, then step with him. (The were still standing side-by-side.) We all tried it with partners. Because of the circle before this exercise, genders were mixed up and people weren’t self-conscious about it. (Mental note: remember this…) We then switched to facing each other and leading side steps. (Both partners took turns leading and following.) With music, we did it again, listening to the music. There was discussion of riding horses. When you have a beginning rider, what kind of horse does he ride? An older, plodding, gentle one. As you’re more advanced, what kind of horse do you want to ride? A more spirited one. Plodding through a dance is not great following. However, it is good to do with beginners. Also: if a beginning lead says “You’re not doing this right,” it’s a desperate cry for help. In discussion after, several new follows said that they felt freed by this concept, since that gave them permission to not self-judge so harshly.

The reactions of the people to this are awesome…

I’ve been contemplating taking a pole dance class. It’s great for strength training…

This second one for you has the funniest kid doin’ some moves.

This time the move is much more localized: Goodbye Palo Alto, Hello San Francisco! On April 4th D & I will be moving into a lovely apartment with wood floors, thick walls and a gas stove. You know what that means? Dancing at home while cooking good food! It also means a longer commute to work, but reading on the Caltrain is not such a bad use of time. Biking is good for me! I think I need to get some better rain gear…

One of these days more real posts, for those of you who actually still read.

last night I had a really weird dream

Soon, back to (semi) regular posts. For now, enjoy (Go vote if you haven’t yet!):

I seem to be posting a bunch of videos recently, rather than writing. Apologies to anyone (both of you) who is visiting wishing to read more writing. More soon!

Last night was full of dreams I remembered. I had a variation on my usual Running Away from Bad People Who Want to Get Me dream. I came to a place where the only way forward was along the narrow, narrow ledge of a cliff, with nothing to hold onto and a gravel surface. As I edged my way along, I lost my balance and fell. I managed to grab the face and find a good hand hold, but there were no others I could see or feel. I realized that eventually my grip would fail, and I would fall. After an excruciating amount of time, it did, and I went falling, falling, falling. Somewhere in the falling, the dream became lucid and I realized that it was a dream, but I was still afraid of what would happen when I died in a dream — I usually wake up right before. This time I eventually hit the ground.
Later I dreamed that I was making dinner with my friend Christina (who I’ve known since I was 8 ) and that Joey (my other best friend from then) knocked on the door. We all hugged, then continued making dinner.

I think a lot of dancers forget that the head is a part of the body, especially in partner dance. I see people at milongas, and even in performances with their heads held stiffly, heavy spheres tacked onto the beautifully moving body. Often amazing (even “famous”) leaders make my neck hurt just looking at their necks craning forward. The skull is heavy, but should seem to float above, like a helium balloon. Your neck (the string) is the only thing that keeps it attached. To me one of the most interesting things about the helium balloon imagery is that a balloon is never stiff. (Tango dancers!) The head can “float” high, without collecting tension. At the same time, it is a continuation of the spine, the vertebra. If doing a stomach contraction (using the spine) or body ripples, consider continuing the line through your skull (Blues dancers!).
Thinking about how the head relates to the rest of the body is interesting when watching these robots dancing. A lot of early non-human dance looked so “robotic” precisely because the body parts performed in isolation from each other. This one is pretty amazing.