9:20pm I'm halfway through my choreography for tomorrow's Atomic Rhythm tryouts. I have given myself another hour to work on it. All I have left are a few remaining steps to piece into place with or against the music. The only problem is that the longer I listen to this song, the more sounds I hear and the more things I want to try. So exciting! /jump, jump!

11:00pm update. Okay. All the way done. I dunno if it's cool enough to get me into Atomic, but it's cool enough for me!! Now for some sleep (hopefully without dancing) and then a few hours of practice, tomorrow. Night night!

Tonight, I will be paired up with an athlete from University of Denver. He will be learning a choreography that I have designed to a minute and a half of a song that I have chosen. Folks, I have 45 seconds of a routine, barely a skeleton of a choreography, and an hour and a half before I leave my house to go downtown! Ack! We will perform this as-yet-incomplete routine at a benefit dinner for the Kempe Foundation on Friday. Yep. Three nights from now. This will be a Dancing With the Stars-type competition, against 9 other couples. 9 other DU athlete "stars" with 9 of my Charleston Chasers buddies. Should be interesting, and I'm beyond excited!! More details, later, including if I end up with a hockey player.

Go, Pioneers.

And so, tonight, there was no "star" for me. Sadly, we ran out of male athletes, so I didn't even get to try out my half-a-routine on some newbie stranger, hockey player or not. I'm really bummed about that, actually, and I know Josephine is disappointed, too. We were the extra two Chaser girls, just kind of hanging out, 'til she went to pick up her mom at the airport. 

While the event coordinator called and called around for willing heroes to step up, I occupied myself by taking pictures, offering choreography ideas and practicing other guy's routines. I enjoyed the freedom to walk around wherever I wanted and help out. I even got to show Joe a little bit of my routine, and he gave me some ideas. He also chopped my song at exactly the right point, so if I do get matched up with a lead on Thursday, I'll have my song all prepared. At one point, a possible substitute lead was found, and then he "had an errand" and never came back. I was feeling satisfactory and loving everybody's work, but then I looked at myself in the full-length mirror and felt very fat. People, you know how that can ruin an evening. /sigh

I think we Chasers will perform Al & Leon's routine as a group, so I'm still hoping to be able to attend the dinner, even if I go solo. Maybe I'll get to showcase my Atomic Rhythm choreography*. I'd better get to work on that, and possibly eat something, this evening.

Oh, hey! If any of you want to attend the dance on Friday, and watch the terrific Swing Dancing With the Stars competition, the dance starts at 7:30 and costs only $5!! Our performances should start around 8:40ish. All of you are welcome to attend!! Please do!!

Beloved is happy to see me, tonight, and hopes I will take it easy, so I get well. He doesn't like the sound of my cough.

Sunny Jami will return, soon. 

***** Please bring a 2-phrase (eight 8-counts) solo or duet with another dancer that is trying out. ****
We'll use "Firecrackers Explode In a Minor Mode" by the Firecracker Jazz Band

Dance Quote of the Moment: "Remember that dance has a dimension beyond the physical.  The body-as imperfect as it always is-is only part of the picture.  Your energy, the quality of your movement, your feeling about the world, your dance spirit-that is what we see under the lights" - Dance Magazine 3/05

This is Al & Leon's Shim Sham, performed by some of the Charleston Chasers to Glenn Miller's "Tuxedo Junction."

I'm the one squashing her full womanly figure into the capri pants. I flub the last bit, but, hey! I'm cheerful! Also, those are NOT moon boots, though that's what my white legs look like.

Al and Leon, performing their shim sham.

Time for more pictures from my phone.

Chunk, asking for a spanking.

Beloved, from our Texas trip a few years ago.

Katja. Territastic has a new hypoallergenic kitten. She's so small and fuzzy.

Katja and the lamp.


Who couldn't love that little kitty face?


Katja fell asleep on Erin.

Gold. Just an intersection. I thought that the Gold was appropriate, given the rundown appearance of the general area. That's actually a hotel being built, but it looks like it's just kind of falling apart.

Snow outside the Turnverein a couple of months ago, for the Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout. There were painters working on the exterior that weekend. They looked very cold out there.

My new haircut.

Some of my notes from my dance journal, so far.

"The chick got off her rusty dusty."

"Rhythm *is* repetition" - Niki Amundsen

Insurance policy number, from the night I got pulled over.

"body lead legflinger"

leapy thing stomp

arms up for snake hips

Practice bounce

"Dark Eyes" - Andrew Bird?

*limp left arm -- need to raise it and set in on the lead's arm*

follows, be even more relaxed than the lead.

*Be grateful for job* 2/10/08

Keep the bounce. When in doubt, dance/bounce

view core, steal moves

train your muscles to do 2 weird things at once

apple jacks - "Danger, Will Robinson" (The Egyptian)

keep in time w/the pulse (chest)

hips are free to wiggle how I please

Walking is controlled falling, contrabody motion reduces falling. Then the walking becomes dancing.

can connect emotionally to the music, but that doesn't mean you'll be emotionally connected to your partner.

fancy up the spins

be stepping on my forward foot

use floor w/hands

"this is just to bring the flavor of the meat, so when you fry it, it smells soooo good" - Filipino beefsteak recipe, as told and demonstrated by my mother-in-law.

"I've got to report back to work before they report me AWOL!"

*be a conduit for the music*

follows - keep absorbing "wait" backwards/sense "gravitational pull"

"Green Onions" - Booker T & MGs

arm of DOOM

*Shim Sham is a rhythm & move (tap)*

LET THE LEAD SET THE PULSE

*get your "hug" on!*

connection - axis to axis

"Hold on, pray & follow...that's not the lady's reason for being on this earth!!" - Sylvia Sykes

lilt! finger out, making flat infinity

"Look pretty, first. Then follow" - Denise Whelan

"Feet are there to keep your butt off the ground. Be more conscious of your hips than your feet." and "Leads, don't DO anything to your follow, do it to yourself. Protect her. Do what's best for the partnership." - Sylvia Sykes

<Bal></Bal> Geekswing.com

3/6 Big Apple "angry Viking on skates" - Dan

3/27/08 - The WHOLE Big Apple!

bago = new

4/5 Uncle Sammy "We're not asking anything painful, just for your rejects."

go wild from there

Your body is an instrument.

*keep feet more precise*

*When it feels like crud, you've gotten better. Good enough to realize how it should be, not that I've gotten worse*

pulse of bounce & pulse of kicks

Big Apple w/Purpose

Dallas Arboretum 9-5

2nd house end blue two-story

Matthew 3:13-17 - Baptism of Jesus

Still feels like the pastor is looking directly at me, when I look at the big screen.

Our judgment will be replaced all the way back to Adam

"Whole Thing" - Peter Gabriel

"Alfalfa's" - Leftover Salmon

You've been monkey bread mugged!

"It's a little rough, and could use practice. No matter how smart you are, dancing always takes practice." Dan

NEW SHOES

Judging other people's dancing while I'm having a stupid follow night, is not very nice. But sometimes it does make me feel better.

Chasers 4/10 - We waltzed, today.

Chips & guac, Pepsi

Miss V - I went to war and all I got was this lousy baby. (Yes, the Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story was quite craptacular)

Beloved - You nibbled my strudel, you Sun Chip Killer!

Aerials 4/10 - A-Frame, wrap legs behind lead
lean forward when lead has my hips, "bounce" back up. fall back.