Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
As an older dancer, the loss of flexibility, strength, and stamina compared to my younger years looms larger and larger. It’s not fun to feel your own limits. BUT… there’s a lot I can still do to bring energy to the scene. I ‘ve been thinking this morning about the role of the hype man…
So yesterday I was visiting with some family in another city. I borrowed a car since it was pretty far away. As I was getting ready to go back home, I told my phone to give me directions. At least that’s what I thought I did. First thing my phone tells me to do is…
Yesterday was International Dance Day! And it’s been about 10 months since I started quad skating! I decided to try and capture some of the stuff I’ve been working on with my jam skating— that niche sub-genre of dance skating, often confused for rhythm skating. Jam skating is basically breaking / b-boying but on skates….
Yesterday at the amazing “Rollin Deep” event put on by the Bay Area Roller Group, I got to experience all those life-giving feelings that dancing gives to me that I had almost forgotten: Seeing another dancer going off, locking eyes, and just vibing with them for a moment, a phrase, or whole song. Seeing your…
I was pleased I got to share on KQED’s Bay Curious blog in March a bit of how the pandemic has changed my life: getting back to my Quaker roots. Here’s what I shared: My name is Rik Panganiban and I work for KQED education. Like a lot of people, everything changed in the pandemic,…
Excited to unlock this move last week!
I’ve been attending a virtual Quaker Meeting for Worship (what we call our services) for about a year. For those interested in experiencing this unique form of religious gathering, there is no better time, with hundreds of them happening each week. My home church, the Brooklyn Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, holds…
As a newbie quad skater, I love capturing video of my progress as I learn new moves and tricks. And I’m not alone. A lot of the resurgence of interest in quad skating has come from the thousands of skaters posting videos of themselves on Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. So one big issue with…
I’ve eaten my share of bugs in my life. I’ve had mopane worm in South Africa (do not recommend), fried grasshoppers in Southern Mexico (so delicious), and roasted mealworm (like cheetos!). I’ve been around enough to know that insects are a part of many local diets, even if Western culture considers them “gross.” But overall…
I’ve started casually teaching folks how to do some basic dance moves on skates. It just happened organically. I spend so much time on my own working on different tricks and steps, and then talking to other people about what they are working on. Soon two or three us are practicing Crazy Legs or spins…