It’s the dance parade in NYC tomorrow! I am very excited. Last year I danced in the parade with Broadway Bodies. This photo is a photo of me and my friend Ryan waiting for the parade to start. It was such a hot day but we struggled through the heat to dance all afternoon, first in the parade and then in Tompkins Square park afterwards, where all the dance groups end up and continue to dance into the evening. I was exhausted that night!
This year I have decided not to dance in the parade as I want to watch all the other dance groups which I didn’t get the chance to see last year. I’m looking forward to spending some time in the park after the parade hopefully meeting other dancers and finding out about some more classes I can try out.
Last weekend I was meant to go to an Afro-Indian dance class like I told you but unfortunately I ended up in the wrong place and managed to crash a weekend long belly dancing workshop! Fortunately I did realize pretty quickly that I was in the wrong place but then I had an embarrassing exit to make and by the time I got out I had missed my proper class. I have plans to go try go again soon, fingers crossed I end up in the right class next time!
What are you up to this weekend? If you’re going to see the dance parade, enjoy!
Here’s some bits and bobs for you to check out this weekend. Happy Friday!
Imagine dancing in space with zero gravity. You could use this revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station to dance to.
Avatar director James Cameron is set to broadcast 3D ‘Swan Lake’live from Russia on June 6th. Will you be watching?
Want to dance in the rain without getting wet? Check out the ‘Rain Room’ exhibition at the MoMA in NYC.
Before you continue reading this, please go and read the article above and make sure you watch and listen to the videos. Beautiful.
When I came across this article last week it really struck a chord with me (please excuse the pun). It got me thinking about how I use my time and how I feel like I wasted all those years when I wasn’t dancing regularly. James Rhodes didn’t play the piano for 10 years and now he’s a concert pianist. So what could I now achieve?
Without even reading this article I had made my own decision to pursue once again my dream of dancing, even if it’s just for fun. But of course, the little girl inside me still has aspirations of dancing on the stage of the Royal Opera House, or on Broadway. Is that now too ambitious?
Maybe, who knows, but I do know from now on in that six hours I have in the day, in the time when I’m not doing my day job, I’m going to make damm sure I am not wasting any moment. I’m going to do what I love and never give up again.
James Rhodes said he took up piano again ’when the pain of not doing it got greater than the imagined pain of doing it’. And on that note, I am off to find a tap dancing class to join.
I admit it, I spoke too soon, the nice weather we had last weekend didn’t last all week unfortunately. Did you get caught in the rain?
I love the feeling of dancing in the rain. I remember a few years ago me and my friend Katy got caught in a huge storm as we were walking home and we ended up having to walk through Times Square. When we got there we decided to dance around in the rain, we looked a little crazy but no one else seemed to notice us. We did however get soaking wet despite the umbrella!
Check out my Pintrest board ‘Dancing in the Rain‘ to see other people also enjoying dancing in the rain.
Last weekend I celebrated Cinco de Mayo by eating lots of tasty Mexican food and drinking Margaritas in the sun. I was also lucky enough to go to the Rihanna concert at the Barclays Center. She kept us waiting for a while before she came out onto the stage but she put on a great performance once she did. She played all her biggest hits including some of the old stuff (including Umbrella, my personal favourite). Her dancers were amazing, full of energy!
This weekend I am going to try an Afro-Indian Fusion class, can’t wait to try this class! Don’t forget it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday. Hope all the mum’s out there have a fabulous day!
Here’s some bits and bobs for you to check out this weekend. Happy Friday!
My mum used to play this song from Pulp Fiction so loud and dance around our living room early on a Saturday morning when I was a kid. Thanks mum for teaching me some moves!
For one night only last week former Mets player Mike Piazza played a gangster in “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” for the Miami Ballet.
Check out Passinho: The dance craze coming out of Rio’s favelas.
Read all about the tutu project,’Bringing hope and awareness to the Breast Cancer community’.
Will Arnett Explains the Origins of His Arrested DevelopmentChicken Dance.
Bored of the old gym routine, why not try this out next time you’re on the treadmill.
I hope I’m not speaking too soon but it finally feels like spring is here to stay in NYC. I took full advantage of the nice weather last weekend by going on a long walk up to Central Park, stopping at the Lincoln center on my way to see what was going on. As always it was buzzing full of people. I managed to snap the photo to the right capturing both a beautiful ballet pose and the beautiful blue skies.
This week I got to go and support one of my very good friends who helped her school put on a performance of Alice in Wonderland. It was a fantastic production and the kids blew me away at how good they were. My favourite thing was seeing how happy the kids were up there on the stage. It took me back to when I was at school and we put on productions, some of my best memories from school.
This weekend I have a Cinco de Mayo party to go to and I’m going to see Rhianna at the Barlcays Center. I’m looking forward to seeing the show she puts on. What are you up to?
Here’s some bits and bobs for you to check out. Happy Friday!
I hope Rhianna performs Umbrella at the concert this weekend. Great use of a prop in a dance.
This week NYC saw dancers compete to appear with the Rockettes at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
Over the pond in London there was a Secret Cinema screening of Footloose. Check out photos of the event here.
Check out this story in the news this week about Dame Margot Fonteyn and the Panama sanitary towel coup.
To people who love dance, which is hopefully everyone reading this blog, watch this.
Last weekend I went to see the Broadway show Once. I definitely recommend seeing this show. The cast are amazing, I was so impressed by their musical abilities. The story is simple yet the show is an emotional journey, a fun way to spend a couple of hours in NYC.
In my pole dancing class this week I decided to mix it up and dance in my pointe shoes. This was something I had never tried before but I was inspired by all the pole/ballet fusion photos I’ve been seeing on Pintrest lately. It was challenging to stay on my tippy toes and flow smoothly into some of the pole moves but I had a lot of fun trying.
This weekend I shall be taking advantage of the spring weather that’s finally arrived in NYC! What are you up to this weekend?
Here’s some bits and bobs for you to check out. Happy Friday!
As I mentioned last week, I recently travelled back to the UK for a friend’s wedding which was very exciting! Weddings are one of my favourite places to dance and watch others dancing.
There are the cute kids who hit the dance floor as soon as the music starts, often breaking up their dances by racing around between the guests. Then there’s the anticipation of the first dance, ‘What song are they going to dance to?’ and ‘Will they or won’t they do some sort of routine?’. Then after a few drinks the older generation hits the dance floor, always pulling out a few of the classic moves from their younger days. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been embarrassed by my mum and dad doing the ‘funky chicken’ over the years. Personally my favourite part of the night is towards the end, when all the different generations and guests, some whom may have only known each other for a few hours, are spinning and dancing around the dance floor, the happy couple weaving in and out trying to spend time with all of their loved ones.
My friend’s wedding had a Scottish bride and a Polish groom so I knew it was going to fun! It was up in Glasgow in Scotland, so of course they put on a Céilidh. For those of you who may not know what a céilidh is, it’s a social gathering usually at weddings and other social events where they play lively Scottish music and everyone joins in for traditional Scottish dancing, which can be easily learned.
On the Friday night before the wedding we had a céilidh practice, which was a good excuse to get all the guests together and for us to prepare our dance moves before the big day. We learnt how to do the ‘Gay Gordon’ and the ‘Strip the Willow’ and other dances with equally interesting names. The practice was chaotic at times with no one really knowing what they were doing at first, but everyone began to pick up the steps by following their neighbours and listening to instructions being called out. There were a lot of laughs.
On the actual day the céilidh kicked off after the first dance (which wasn’t a planned routine) and thanks to all the practicing the night before it actually looked like we knew what we were doing. Thankfully there were also plenty of locals to keep us all going vaguely in the right direction. The dancing at the wedding continued until the wee hours of the morning (at the Scottish would say) and I had a brilliant time.
I want to share with you a video of probably the best dancing I’ve ever personally had the pleasure of seeing at a wedding. A few years ago when my two of my University friends got married the groom and a group of his lad friends he’d pulled together surprised not just the bride but all the repective girlfriends and the other guests at the wedding with a dance routine. It was after weeks of secret dance classes that the boys were able to entertain us with this amazing performance! Check it out below.
Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I’ve been doing a bit of travelling up in New Hampshire and over in the UK where I am originally from. I was back there for a wedding which I will be talking about in next weeks Midweek Muse.
What are you up to this weekend?
I’m going to see the Broadway show Once. I saw the movie a few years ago and have been a fan of the Swell Season ever since. I went to see the band live when they performed at Radio City a couple of years back and have been desperate to see the show since it’s arrival on Broadway so I am very excited! I will let you know how it is.
Here’s some bits and bobs for you to check out over the weekend. Happy Friday!
I’ve been listening to this and this on repeat all week after seeing Muse play at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
This week has been busy, I’ve been trying to find some swag at Hip Hop class and hanging in all sorts of positions at aerial dance class.
However, I have also had time to join Pintrest! My new obsession. Still trying to figure it out but I’ve been having fun creating boards and pinning away! You can follow mehere or click on the Pintrest button in the sidebar menu.
I’m also excited to announce that the Classes page is now ready to view. This is where you can find all the information on the classes I have been taking. It’s sorted by the type of dance classes and then by the places i’ve tried out.
The blog post on Pole Dancing @ Sheila Kelley’s S Factor was an example on what you will be able to find for each class I take. I will be providing useful class information such as dance type, class location and cost and then also adding a bit about my experience. Every time I create a new class page I will send a note out to let you know it’s there!
Check out the Classes page here or by using the Classes link at the top of the home page.
With all that information it’s now time to sit back and check this video out. After my post about pole dancing last week I thought I’d show you how the experts look when they are doing it. Now this is inspiration to work on those abs and flexibility. Enjoy!
For more information on this class please click here
Experience – Being an S Factor girl
Have you ever watched a pole dancer and throught to yourself really how easy it is to swing around a pole and make it look good?
Well, a couple of years ago my friend Carla invited me along to a pole dancing class with her and as I’d always secretly wanted to see if I would be any good I agreed to keep her company.
Carla had two vouchers for the Sheila Kelley S factor studio in her New York Yoga PassBook, a voucher book that for $85 contains hundreds of passes for admission to the best Yoga, Dance, and Pilates Studios in New York. For more details on this please follow this link
http://health-fitness.org/newyork_yoga
The introduction
I’m not going to lie, I was nervous and really glad I was going to try the class with a friend. I had a ton of questions beforehand; will I have to be sexy, do we have to dance in tiny clothes, do we have to be flexible, does it matter that I get sweaty hands, is everyone going to watch me on the pole. Carla had no more insight than I did so we both turned up in our sweat pants ready for action!
The introduction class at S factor is approx two hours long. You wear normal gym attire but you are advised to keep your arms and legs bare and no lotion to enable you to grip the pole, very good advice. Luckily, I had worn some hot pants underneath my sweat pants just in case I got brave enough to take them off. The studios are dimly lit and without mirrors and I was pleasantly surprised to find out when I arrived that they are all woman studios. So, after getting warmed up the S Factor way (pilates and yoga based with S Factor twists) I was feeling ready to expose my pale legs to the world.
In that first class we learnt the “Firefly” spinning trick and the S Factor walk, which in a nut shell is how to walk slowly and sexily and feel the music through your body. I am sure I just looked like I had drunk one too many beers that morning when I first tried it.
I admit that first class didn’t make me scream ‘yes, I want to be an S Factor girl‘ until at the end where one of the instructors (all of whom are qualified S teachers) shared a demo dance of S factor movement. I was wowed at what she could do, strong but sensual, she climbed flipped and span enchanting everyone in the room. I was sold there and then and I signed up for Level 1, even though the cost dented my credit card a bit.
The Journey
There are 6 Levels of classes, each class two hours long, and each level takes 8 weeks. You have to progress level by level (until level 4) so you can build up the basics and be in a position to advance onto a harder class. The first few levels do seem slow, especially if you are used to more intense dance or exercise classes but as you progress you understand why they build you up slowly. You are not encouraged to flip yourself upside down and throw yourself around without building up the strength and learning the correct moves to do so. This is to prevent you from injuring yourself.
You are however encouraged at the end of each class to do a free dance, to your chosen piece of music. For the first few levels you loosely follow a routine you have learnt however as you progress and gain confidence you are completely free in your dance, although guided by biweekly suggested assignments.
What has S Factor done for me?
Strength. I have always had puny little arms that could barely do one push up, now I can actually do quite a few.
Flexibility. Ok so I’m still not massively flexible but I’ve seriously improved.
Freedom. It’s taught me to learn how to dance feely to music without having to conform to routines, yes it’s scary at first but you build the confidence and there is no judgement from the other girls in the class.
Me Time. 2 hours week where I am encouraged to forget everything outside the S factor studio. Whatever is going on outside that room really does get forgotten when the lights get dimmed and the music starts playing.
Upside down. I finally learned to be comfortable upside down. When I was a kid I couldn’t even do a handstand and was terrified of being upside down so going upside down and hanging off a pole was so scary for me but now I love it!
Badges of honour. It’s given me a lot of bruises, or pole kisses as they are commonly referred to as. These do take some explaining away at my day job, I am sure all the guys I work with think I’m seriously clumsy!
Music. It has dramatically increased my music collection. As everyone dances to their own song at the end of class and each teacher uses a different playlist every week it’s opened my ears to music I didn’t even know existed! Who knew I liked to dance to a bit of dubstep!
Friends. It introduced me to some of my best friends. Friends who come from all different backgrounds and have all differing day jobs, from accountants to writers to doctors and singers.
Confidence. Above everything it’s given me confidence, in my body, with my dancing and with who I am.
The music video
As a child I spent a lot of time watching music videos, over and over until I wore the tapes out, copying the moves and pretending I was up on stage being the back-up dancers for the likes of Janet Jackson and the Backstreet boys. Yes I was that kid. Anyway, it’s always been a dream of mine to star in a music video and S Factor gave me that opportunity. I met my good friend Stella at S Factor who recently embarked on a music career. You can read all about her journey on her blog here
http://stellasantana.com/category/blog/ .
Last summer Stella decided to make a music video for one of her songs and asked me and a couple of the other girls in our class to appear in her music video. How could I possibly turn that opportunity down!!
See if you can spot which one is me.
Class verdict
Would I recommend this class to a friend: Yes!
Who to: Someone looking for routine, a regular class with the same group of women and the same teacher week on week. Someone who dislikes the normal gym and is looking for a non judgemental safe environment to work out in. Someone looking to learn a few pole tricks but who also wants to stay for the journey.
Who would I not recommend this class to: Someone looking to get to a competitive level of pole dancing in a short amount of time.
Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!
It’s the dance parade in NYC tomorrow! I am very excited. Last year I danced in the parade with Broadway Bodies. This photo is a photo of me and my friend Ryan waiting for the parade to start. It was such a hot day but we struggled through the heat to dance all afternoon, first in the parade and then in Tompkins Square park afterwards, where all the dance groups end up and continue to dance into the evening. I was exhausted that night!
