The big employer I found out is the prison. That’s the big dream, to get a job working for the prison.

Julia, “prison” is such a harsh word. Think of it as a hotel and spa for Democrats.

Now isn’t that nicer?

There are many ways to do this IF you can get them away from what they think life is on their hamster wheels. (and if you can get enough capital so you have some time yourself)

Anyway, her dress was a beautiful traditional type dress, and so, 3/4 was perfect. With literally almost no teaching I can do a ball room waltz step. All she has to do is keep hand position and be bold enough to take the larger steps, which once you do, actually becomes easy as you twirl and cover a huge area of the dance floor.

Everyone thought she could dance and thought we took lessons. but it was easy compared to almost everything else you can do. and while i do respect a goog shimmy, there just is something wonderfully storybook and romantic of low lights, candles, and a man in black, a woman in white, and a dance floor open.

🙂

Jon, there are a lot of wonderful dances that do not require the kind of effort, practice, and ability to hold your lunch that fast step, Charleston, Lindy hop, jitter bug, swing, and those do (when aerials are done which is not common. ambulances are not fun)

the Tango is wonderful (and easier than it seems if your not trying to be an expert), as is some of the Spanish dances.

And there is absolutely no way you can say that you cant do Square Dancing… EVERYONE can do square dancing.. “the secret to square dancing is that there is no other secret than doing it” 🙂

and while it seems corny as heck, when with people who like to do it, rather than made to do it (like in high school), its a whole lot of fun…

you learn what each call means, listen carefully, and then do the call on the beat. that’s why the songs are the way they are. swing your partner is an arm in arm move, its all fun and easy, and if you mess up, its even MORE fun…

want to cure a liberal from the city? Take em on a meet America tour, and one place you have to take them is a Friday or Saturday night in fly over country at a huge hall with square dancing.

just ask them how they can think that jumping around a camp fire is any more legitimate than this? or that any Indian weather dance in strange clothes is any stranger than this.

the point is to get a few beers in them, a whole bunch of ribs, and then have them discover they can dance…

wish i could write a book about my best experiences floating from place to place. from biker bars, to street fairs, and pretty much anything that people do as an expression of self determination and freedom.

i go where others imagine things to be, and then find out they are usually wrong… or that the view is always more complicated than any fantasy they come up with….

Truly wonderful…
Wonderful in a way that progressive sterility and clinical force just does not get is the essence of lifes purpose.

As we must always sniff and taste the strawberries of life, dance is a strawberry, do it between the tigers, and ignore them for a while.

The scenery is beautiful, really gorgeous and breathtaking, which is why I go there, but I always feel like culturally I’m on the moon.

I also think that constant source of cheap illegal labor is not helping. They drive the labor wages down and less citizens are willing to do those jobs then.

I think overall men are somewhat better shape than the women- at least in the blue collar socio-economic areas- as some of these males, even among citizens- still have physical jobs. Though even many of them are overweight.

his job was to choreograph it on the fly, and her job was to complete the deal.

All one has to do is look how we dance
and how popular dance by people has moved through the eras

Today you don’t really have it. If you do, it’s like a giant mush pit. When not, it’s more of some odd bump and grind, and sexual show… (There is also country western which is still as active as it was in the 1800s).

But how physical is it, and how many do it?
(In rural areas they still do, and city folk would be surprised to see huge dance halls all new and running weekly outside their little worlds).

now lets turn back the dial, as i did above.
what was dance to us then? .
how many people danced several times a week?

what kinds of dance were the most popular?
how complicated was it? how in shape did you have to be?

here is an example of the entertainment difference

Mosh pit and concert.. Note that during the punk era of my youth that was/is dancing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7w7m4lb2ok

And here is line dancing..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpZ9bchCJw
[sorry its achy breaky]

And disco was also physical, I will spare you the hustle
Then there is the twist, and the mashed potato…

Though I should show the youngins the frug,
the aloof (rich mans frug) (shirley mclean)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnFQvlb2OA&feature=related
[always reminds me of pippin and of course the originator, fosse]

But turn it back to before the war era, and during and right after.
What kind of dances?

Well, when the twin towers were up still, I would be there Wednesday nights to dance with my partner. What kind of dance?

Well, I would always like Lindy hop, but mostly we danced swing…
Lindy hop came before the war, and swing came during and after.
Other than the few who get into it after its revival in the 80s (us kids came of age, and our parents danced swing, as their parents danced lindy hop)

It can never catch on again because the people were and are WAY too out of shape..
the people who revived it spend a lot of time trying to learn from old timers
and the old timers came and they were still in shape to a degree.

just watching them can make you tired…

Lindy Hop Showdown (fast swing dancing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAAV7BB1HU

oh… and don’t forget the jitter bug… way before it was a phone.

Swing Dancing from the Movie Twiced Blessed (1945)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc5D5lWQQ0

dancing swing or lindy or jitterbug all night (several hours) is very hard
(and so is fencing)