In partner dancing we commit to gathering our senses around the music and moving together. This is the beauty of our art. But with the goal of a shared dance, the ability to groove solo is often overlooked in favor of partnering skills and movement technique. Of course these are essential, but to find a […] Read more…
Most of us remember the first dancer who inspired us to want to express ourselves through the form of dance, who awakened us to the possibilities for communication and expression that dancing promises. When I started learning salsa, my first partner dance, I remember very vividly the first salsera I looked up to. Her name was Katya. Every dance form […] Read more…
Tango Immigrant’s recent post, Musicality: Description or Empathy?, reminded me of some thoughts I’ve been wanting to share in the ongoing debate about Mickey Mousing and musicality. Mickey Mousing, Tango Immigrant reminds us, means “mimicking the music while dancing, but in a superficial and automatised way.” In Simba Tango’s 2010 post on the topic, she describes how the term Mickey Mousing […] Read more…
“When you lead this move, my weight goes into my heel. It’s subtle, not too uncomfortable, but it’s consistent every time. Can you feel yourself coming into my space?” “I can’t tell.” He leads the move again, watching himself in the mirror. “I think maybe I’m leaning, but I can’t feel it. What do you […] Read more…
In my recent article, Groovology 201: Groove as the Life Force of Music and Dance, I wrote that “Just as playing a groove – a repeating set of rhythms – doesn’t guarantee that the music will groove, executing a particular set of steps does not guarantee that a dance will emerge.” It is groove – the […] Read more…