Rice Social Dance Society

In nature the circle often occurs in moments of transformation- the wave curls and breaks, the pebble dropped in a pool spreads a concentric pattern, the tree adds another ring. Such is life. Very similar to tango. In tango couples are turning all the time: in a big circle around the room in the line of dance, woman around the man, man around the woman.

Come and learn the Tango through turning. Learn 5 basic turns for social dance floor. 5 Mondays in a row.

Starting June 29 till July 27, Every Monday
At Continental Club 3700 Main @ Alabama

7pm- 8pm (Stay longer for glass of wine and dance tango to Glover Gill)

$40 for 5 classes, $10 drop-in, 50% discount for students.

To register, ask questions contact Indre at indrerapal (at) gmail (dot) com.

transform your life with tango

http://www.tangohous.com

http://www.glovertango.com/home.html
http://www.continentalclub.com/Houston.html

check out what the NewsBot turned up:

http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=3245&SnID=4

(RSDS Faculty Sponsor Dan Wallach, featured in a Rice News article from 2004)

The Melody Club and United Salsa Student Salsa Social Is Always The Third Thursday of The Month. The Next Will Tomorrow May 21, 2009.

The Houston Salsa Congress has new dates. The next congress will be January 14-17, 2010. Check out our newly confirmed performers who will come to Houston in 2010… May 31, 2009 is the last day to purchase discounted full passes for only $120…

Salsa socials at Sonia’s dance studio will continue as always the last Sunday of the month on Sunday May 31, 2009.

(as reported to the Student Activities office)

The Rice Social Dance Society holds three weekly dance classes - Ballroom, Swing, and Tango - taught by volunteer teachers from the Houston community. In the fall, RSDS hosted our second annual ballroom dancing competition, Dances with Owls. This competition invites dancers from nearby universities and community members to participate alongside our own members. RSDS also co-sponsored (with the Houston Swing Dance Society) the Harvest Moon Ball during Parent’s Weekend. The Harvest Moon Ball is a swing social with live music. In the early spring, RSDS hosted the four-day Houston Tango Festival, which provides a variety of Argentine tango workshops and evening dances. Finally, at the end of the spring semester, RSDS organized the Jazz Soiree, a social event for Rice students and other community members with live music provided by the Rice Jazz Ensemble. Check out the website — rsds.rice.edu — for information about past and future RSDS events.

Congratulations to the elected RSDS officers for the 2009-2010 school year!

We are excited to announce that Michael Rog will serve as President for next year. He is excited to hear your ideas and suggestions: rsds(at)rice.edu

The full roster of new officers is as follows:

President
Michael Rog

Treasurers
Yang Hu

Ballroom Events Coordinator
Emilia Stepinski and Autumn Allen

Swing Events Coordinator
Tal Einav and Emily Watkins

Tango Events Coordinator
Sriram Eleswarapu

Harvest Moon Ball Event Co-Chairs
Emily Watkins and Tal Einav

Dances With Owls Event Co-Chairs
Emilia Stepinski and Autumn Allen

We also extend gratitude to everyone who served as an officer this year. It has been an amazingly successful year for us — lots of new members and new interest in the program, several awesome workshops, a new demo team, and lots of competition wins. Thank you to…

Emilia Stepinski (2008-2009 President), Robbie Fraleigh, Michael Dirk, Joe Chang, Becky Saunders, and Natalie Webber

The Rice Social Dance Society is gearing up for their annual swing dance, the Jazz Soiree. This is an (optionally) classy affair, so feel free to ritz it up, or come as casual as you wish. We’ll provide the snacks and water, the Rice Jazz Band will provide some live grooves, and you provide the steps. There will be an intro lesson before the night gets in to full swing, so be sure to bring your friends. And the best part? It’s completely FREE!

A call for performers:

The trouble with running a club on campus is that the officers and students turn over too fast to really continue any one legacy. However, persons older (and wiser) than us have informed us that there used to be performances at RSDS’ Jazz Soiree. We’re pretty tickled by the idea and are looking for groups, couples, and individuals who want to perform at the Jazz Soiree this year. We welcome swing dancers (of course!) but are also glad to see any other sort of social dance.

If interested, please email Natalie (nweber@rice.edu) ASAP, and no later than Wednesday, April 8th

The down-low:
Friday April 10th, 2009
Rice Jazz Band playing 9pm - midnight
Intro lesson 7:45-9:00pm
FREE!

Martel Commons, Rice University campus

• You can find Martel here (http://www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html), or it is #42 on the printable map on the same page. There is construction around campus, so it is a little confusing to get to, but we will try to have signage around the campus.
• Parking: The nearest visitors’ parking on campus is at Founder’s Court (http://parking.rice.edu/visitors.cfm). However, it is generally easier to park north of campus on a residential street that allows parking and walk on to campus.

Questions? Contact Natalie Weber (nweber@rice.edu)

Please note that although we met for the Sampler class at 7:00 while Terry and Van were teaching, Richard can come earlier so we are reverting to our original schedule!

6:30-7:30 Sampler class (Richard)
7:30-8:00 open dance time
8:00-9:00 Beginner Lindy Hop

Swing Sampler

The next three weeks of the Swing Sampler class (ie. up till our four day weekend) will be taught by Richard Lyders. Richard came to our swing class last semester quite a bit, so you might know him — he’s got spikey hair and he’s a really great dancer. Richard has been dancing with the Hepcats (the Houston Swing Dance Society’s performance team) for several years now.

Plus, Chloe, who will be teaching for two weeks after the break, will also be there, so we really get two for the price of one this round.

Beginner Lindy

Lindy Hop is the “grandfather” of all swing styles. This is the original dance from the 20s. It’s an 8-count dance and is traditionally danced to big band music (swing and jazz) but is extremely versatile and can be danced to anything from R&B to Matchbox 20 to 80s pop to… Well, you get my point.

What’s the difference from the class we’ve been teaching? Jitterbug is a six-count dance, and basically a somewhat simplified version of the Lindy Hop. The basic move is not the same, though you can mix Jitterbug steps into Lindy and vice versa (unless you’re at a competition, where they care about these things). More importantly, they both use the same lead-follow. In our Lindy class we will still spend time working on lead and follow, but in the context of learning the new dance style, techniques, moves, and footwork.

It’s almost time to elect new officers for the 2009-2010 schoolyear!

The Officer Election Petition is available for download. If you’re going to run for an officer position, you need to fill out a petition and return it to us!

Elections will be held in late March.

We’ll publish the Constitution online before elections. In the meantime, you can read about the officer positions here:

The PRESIDENT shall…

• set a schedule for RSDS events
• have final responsibility for the organization of events
• along with the Vice-Presidents, act as a liaison to the Rice Administration and the US-ABDA
• convene and preside over meetings of RSDS
• have the power to appoint committees and determine their membership

The VICE-PRESIDENT shall…

• along with the President, act as a liaison to the Rice Administration and the US-ABDA
• perform other duties as determined by the President

The TREASURER shall…

• keep up-to-date and accurate records of RSDS finances
• act as a liaison to the Rice Administration on matters concerning RSDS finances
• be responsible for developing a budget
• administer fund-raising activities

The SECRETARY shall…

• be responsible for maintaining membership records
• handle all other recordkeeping necessary for the operation of the RSDS
• be responsible for RSDS publicity

The EVENTS COORDINATOR shall…

• be responsible for organizing all events, such as practice dances, cotillions, competitions, milongas, and socials
• perform other duties as determined by the Presdient
• NOTE: We allow up to three (3) Events Coordinators, to serve the Ballroom, Swing, and Tango programs. However, all the events coordinators will be responsible for contributing cooperatively to support the entire RSDS community.

If you have any questions, talk to Michael or Emilia (rsds@).

Last week in the beginners’ swing class we went over some of the most important things we think help your lead/follow, technique, and all-around skillz, plus said a few things specifically for the follows. These are things just to keep in the back of your head and sometimes think about consciously, until you can really get it into your muscle memory and do them naturally. Here is the list in full:

Muscle-Memory Minders:

• Footpatterns — you won’t have time to be distracted by trying to make your feet do the right thing.
• Frame fundamentals — keep your arm in front of you with a slight bend (i.e. do not let your elbows push back behind you nor let your arms outstretch).
• Follows, let your Energy Flow — that is the life blood of this dance!
• Create and Respond to changes in Energy with Counterbalance (not muscle).
• Lead with your hips as you move… letting your shoulders ride above them, moving as one piece — If we are moving “away” then with our counterbalance we would ease into a “sit” (keeping shoulders above the hips, not leading/preceding the hips) as energy is arrested.
• Follows, Return (compression, tension, counterbalance from the Lead) In Kind.
• And it’s corollary, to Respond to Energy from the Lead, not just to the tension or compression inherent in your position (i.e. don’t bounce).

Follows’ Skills & Secrets:

• RELAXING does Wonders! — If you MUST think while dancing, try to focus on your own technique (e.g. sit back in his arm, frame, flow, etc.), not anticipating his leads or moves.
• Be on top of your foot wherever you step to — try to step and move all your weight to that foot as you follow the guy’s lead. There will be a temptation to transfer your weight to the trailing foot as it comes up; but be patient, leave your weight on the foot you were led to and leave your trailing foot free as the dance continues. This means that you’ll always be on one foot with the other free, never resting on both feet with your balance split (unless your lead actually takes you there).
• Keep your shoulders back (as opposed to letting them slump forward) — doing this helps with connection, frame, and grace.
• Always look at (or at least, be able to look at) your hand when you’re being led in a turn.
• Do not release the connection with your partner. You certainly don’t want to grasp but neither do you ever want to pull your hand away.
• We start by asking you to follow a little “heavy” to be sure you don’t anticipate and that you’re letting your leads move you — but as you get more comfortable you’ll find that you can still be patient in your follow and you’ll never-the-less be able to respond and follow much more lightly.
• There are lots of places where the Follow can play in Swing. Let’s look at where/when you can find those opportunities.

Meeting Minutes
2009-02-09 RSDS Officer Meeting

agenda:
- Houston Tango Festival
- upcoming officer elections
- drop-in rates for dance classes
- the performance team
- schedule changes
- Jazz Soiree

meeting convened:
5:36pm

in attendance:
Emilski “el Presidente” Stepinski, Michael, Natalie Weber, Paul Anzel, Hannah Thalenberg, Heather Elliott, Vica Papp, Lez Tang, Emily Watkins, Tal E., Sriram Eleswarapu, Yang Hu, Autumn Allen, ZZ-pops, Joe, Becky

introductions:
Thank you Betty Crock– er, Becky Saunders, for the delicious cookies. Tal is taking over Swing unless somebody else wants to. Straw poll: nobody else wants to. OK, Tal, it’s all yours. Lots of people from tango and swing. W00t! Paul inserts shameless plug: Oil for Jazz is good stuff. Laura Liem is Emily Watkins’ sister. Pam == Super Awesome Team Mom.

officer elections:
We need more people involved with the club, contributing to planning, and sharing officer workload. Several officers are leaving next year, so people should start shadowing officers, especially Natalie. Tal, shadow Natalie. Everybody else, shadow Natalie. The rest of you can shadow me. You don’t have to be the super awesomeest dancer to be an officer. You just have to be interested and not a murderous pedophile. Talk to Michael or Emilia if you’re interested in being more involved with RSDS. Alternatively, just start doing stuff. (oh, and Emilia needs help organizing the UT Competition trip.)

jazz soiree:
Live band. Good times. Except we cant find a space yet. Martel is the new object of our desire. Autumn and Tal should bug Maria (Martel coordinator) about our space request.

Harvest Moon Ball:
Space has been requested. Natalie is going to a meeting. Take Tal and whoever else is interested in helping.

Houston Tango Festival:
We had good success communicating with HTF folks this year and getting some good perks for RSDS folks. Next year: performance team at HTF? “That could be cool.” Let’s ask for more beginner classes. Also, an “intensive workshop for just RSDS people” is in the works, tentatively slated to be given in the week preceding the festival. Anzel: “RSDS shoulds how up en masse at Milongas!” Send other ideas to Natalie.

LindyFest:
Coming up, March 21-23. Natalie will research prices. Michael Dirk is “international.” Heh.

drop-in rates for classes:
Difficult to keep track of prorated classes and individual payments. Conclusion: not for individual classes, but perhaps for special groups of classes. Straw poll says: Cool.

new swing schedule:
Free dancing, sampler class, semester-long Jitterbug class. Triple your options, triple your fun.

ballroom schedule:
Next semester might be on Tuesdays, due to Continuing Studies programs taking over the Grand Hall on Monday. Stay tuned for updates. Straw poll confirms: Tuesday isn’t quite as nice, but it’s not super terrible, either. Michael’s advice: Just keep your evenings free on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and all will be well.

wannabe music directors:
Talk to Michael if you (A) want to DJ for RSDS free dance on Monday, or (B) need ballroom dance music.

other business:
Silence from the crowd. Conclusion: no other business.

meeting adjourned:
6:14, just in time to squeeze a couple good quicksteps in before lessons.

archival:
posted online - http://rsds.rice.edu

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Rog
RSDS Not-Secretary / Music Director