Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
In a little under two weeks, I will be heading off on my next adventure: to Shanghai and Singapore! Singapore is one of my favorite cities in the world. It’s like stepping into the future, full of pan-Asian awesomeness. I had a fantastic time when I was there in 2011. I’m looking forward to lots…
I love this video of a few of the amazing waackers in the Bay Area, shot around Lake Merritt, Oakland. Lots of my dance heroes in this video, including Alice, G-Funk, Karlita, MadGlad, Mikachu, Sabine, Shinobi Jaxx, and Tsunami the Soul Shifter. That's a dope track too — "I Can’t Give You More" by Suzy Q! …
Here’s a long take of my friend Brian and I dancing lindy hop together, where we switch roles several times during the dance. Learning how to follow in lindy hop and experiencing both roles has been a shot in the arm to my dancing over the past year. I had no idea how fun it…
Photo credit: Rahul Doraiswami This weekend, I got to participate in a very dope dance contest in the Bay Area: “Waack, Crackle, Lock.” This unique dance battle brought together two styles with very different histories but that go perfectly together: locking and waacking. The brainchild of locker LilC and waacker Alice Hur, “Waack, Crackle, Lock” exemplified my…
My friend Latasha Barnes is a beast of a dancer. Nice to see that the New York Times recognizes that as well. Check out this dope article about a neat dancer / musician collaboration in New York City, featuring quotes and a video of Tasha. So great!
Hanging with swing friends back in the day. The “Khakis Swing” Gap Ad is twenty years old. Woah. I’ve been reminiscing about what it was like to dance in the midst of the “neo-swing” era. I started lindy hopping around 1997 in New York City. I remember taking my first class with my friend Denise…
The inimitable, ever-debonaire Fred Astaire.
An older figure I know has devoted his entire life to his profession. He’s excellent at it. It’s also the only thing he has practiced with any kind of dedication or passion for the last 40 or so years of his life. So now that he is in retirement age, he doesn’t have much else…
Finally got around to doing another freestyle dance session at Ocean Beach. This time the track was "Keep Up" by Slakah the Beat Child, suggested by my friend Morgan. Such a dope song! It was a beautiful sunny morning to be dancing by the sea.
Finally got around to watching all of "Everything Remains Raw" Moncell Durden's ambitious documentary on the Black roots of urban dance. Like the title, the film is very raw and unfinished, at times painfully so. There are parts of the work that have issues with. It diminishes the important role of Latinx dancers and culture…