Jazz Soiree
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)
Swing class tonight
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.
2009-2010 Officer Elections
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@).
Muscle Memory Minders
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.
Officer Meeting minutes
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
Swing Sampler class, February 5th
Starting this Thursday, the Swing Sampler class will sample a four-week Balboa course taught by Terry and Van. Balboa (or just “bal”) is great for fast songs and is quite different than the other types of swing dance we offer, so check it out.
IMPORTANT: For these four weeks, the Sampler class will start at 7:00. This means the open dance time will begin before either class starts. However, if you can’t come that early but wanted to go over something before the Jitterbug class, you can still come 30 minutes before Jitterbug starts — Hank and I will both be at Bal and can easily step to the side with you to work on something. We’ll revert to schedule-as-usual after Spring Break.
6:30-7:00 Open Dance time (bring music or requests if you got ‘em!)
7:00-8:00 Swing Sampler: Balboa with Terry and Van
8:00-9:15 Beginners Swing: Jitterbug
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Bio:
Terry and Van are alums with three Rice degrees and many years of social dance experience between them. They are active contributors to the local swing dance community. They organize dance events, teach classes for non-profit dance studios, and have performed in shows as part of the Houston Swing Dance Society’s Hep Cats dance team. They are looking foward to their fourth year of teaching Balboa at their alma mater.
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What is Balboa?
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balboa_(dance)
“Balboa is a form of swing dance that started as early as 1915 and gained in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. It is danced primarily in close embrace, and is led with a full body connection. The art of Balboa is the subtle communication between the lead and follow, like weight shifts, that most viewers cannot see. As a result, Balboa is considered more of a ‘dancer’s dance’ than a ’spectator’s dance’.
Balboa is danced to a wide variety of tempos. Because the basic step takes up such a small space, Balboa can be danced to fast music (over 300 beats per minute). Balboa is also danced to slow music (under 100 beats per minute), which allows more time for intricate footwork and variations.”
Examples of Couples Dancing Balboa:
All Balboa Weekend 2008 – Jack & Jill Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZvunWjOCk0
All Balboa Weekend 2004 – Randy and Kara
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9h_1qQJPJs
Seattle Balboa Swing Championships 2008 – Group Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAqlnSWDIVY
What We’ll Teach at Rice:
We can’t promise that you’ll look just like those dancers in the videos but we can promise that you’ll have fun. During our four one-hour sessions we will focus on the core Balboa steps that emphasize clear weight shifts, groundedness, and body leads. You can think of this class as teaching you the basics of a popular jazz-era dance while at the same time you are practicing fundamental dance principles that you can take back to your jitterbug, Lindy Hop, west coast swing, blues, Charleston, etc.
Swing Sampler class begins this Thursday
Thanks once more to everyone who came out last Thursday for our dance! Swing lessons are starting up proper this Thursday in Willy’s Pub:
- 6:30-7:30 Swing Sampler
- 7:30-8:00 Free Dance
- 8:00-9:15 Beginners Jitterbug
Every few weeks our Sampler class will bring in a new instructor, who will teach what they are most passionate about in dance, what they feel is most important to learn, their favorite moves, or more — anything is fair game. The first instructor of the semester will be Aramis Martinez, who many will recognize from late-night Ballroom and for his unique blend of styles. In his class we will be exploring unusual leads and different methods of finding connections with your partner. In his words:
Description
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One of the best metaphors for social dance is conversation — conversation whose tools are body and soul in addition to sound and word. Since there are as many ways of communicating as there are dances and dancers, learning more ways to communicate allows our conversations to become more playful, more intriguing. Melding different modes of communication also makes one a better dancer, which ultimately leads to more and more fun:
Tango displays passion through an upper torso connection and subtle technique. Whether open or closed position, blues relies on pulse and musicality and moves stolen from anywhere and everywhere to pour out one’s soul. Lindy hop relies on tension links to bounce energy and momentum between partners, while ballroom styles can rely so much on compression you could incorrectly guess that tension isn’t fun in ballroom. Salsa and cha cha can look as if tension does all the talking, yet just as often they utilize soft, highly visual leads as an invitation to play. With improv styles the limit is set only by your imagination.
During these classes we will talk about what we are saying in our conversations with our partners and how we say it: connection, frame, musicality, technique. We’ll play games, we’ll build a open and supporting environment, we’ll work on the advanced technique of listening to each other and responding as we dance. We experiment with different ways of talking to each other and explore the common threads that underly all of them. Any point of contact, or even no point of contact, is fair game if the conversation engrosses your partner.
Bio
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Aramis Martinez is an alumnus of Rice’s Physics and Astronomy department and is a former co-president of RSDS. He began taking lessons during the era of “Can you lindy to this?” and considers RSDS his home scene. Upon his first visit to the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club, his funky, distinctive style attracted notice, and he was promptly integrated into Houston’s unique intersection of blues/lindy/westie/tango dancers. He now cross-trains in multiple dances, travels for exchanges and workshops, and has most recently been learning Texas two-step and West Coast swing. When a blues moon is out, beware.
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RSDS discounts for the Houston Tango Festival!
(2) 20 Free Spectator Passes for the Friday night milonga.
(3) 50% discount on a-la-carte prices for milongas and individual classes.
(4) Free Milonga passes to RSDS members who volunteer 3 hours of their time at the festival. Those interested in volunteering should email Diana at dianacan@earthlink.net by noon on Thursday.
Beginning Swing Syllabus
A syllabus for the beginner swing class (Jitterbug) is up! We think it sums up pretty well the concepts and moves we will cover for each week, and gives you a good idea of the feel of the class:
Swing Dance Kick-off
Thursday night Swing begins this week, and we want to start the new semester with a bang. Join us for a free dance in Willy’s Pub with music provided by the wonderful Hailey Hinson. All are welcome, from beginners to advanced dancers from the community. If you’ve never been out with us dancing, this is a great opportunity to see some social dancing in action.
Hank Hauffe and Natalie Weber, the Beginners Swing instructors, will be there and will be happy to show you some moves. We’ll end the night with a short beginners’ introductory lesson, and encourage all seasoned dancers and RSDSers to stay to help out any beginners.
Please pass the word on to any dancers you know!
WHAT: Welcome-Back Swing Dance
WHERE: Willy’s Pub, basement of the RMC
WHEN: Thursday, January 15th. 7:00-8:30. Intro lesson follows.
Stay tuned for a syllabus of the beginners’ class this semester, and of a list of the advanced outside teachers we will be bringing in. See you Thursday!