I've been bingeing on videos featuring Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quiñones. Most well known as "Ozone" from the films "Breakin" (1984) and "Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo" (1984), Shabba-Doo already had an impressive dance career since the early 1970s as an original member of the Soul Train Gang and the Lockers, a foundational hip-hop dance crew before that…
Category: Dancing / Music
Google Celebrates Frankie Manning with a Doodle on His 102nd Birthday!
Happy World Lindy Hop Day, aka the birthday of Frankie "Musclehead" Manning, the ambassador of lindy hop! Google.com (after YEARS of us asking for this) has decided to honor Frankie with a Google Doodle on the front page of their site all day today! It's kind of the best thing ever. We're celebrating in San…
52 year old ballerina dancing with her 19-year old self
Cool advert for skin cream features Alessandra Ferri, a 52 year old ballerina dancing with a hologram of herself as a teenager! My Takeaway: What matters in dance is not just the flexibility, strength or technical skill, but also the passion, the intention and the emotion. These are the things that come with age and experience….
What is “Waacking”?
“Waacking” is a dance style that emerged from the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles in the 1970s. It historically was danced to disco, while today it is often danced to house, and can be done to many genres of music. Waacking at first glance might remind the viewer of locking or vogue, but it has unique roots…
City Dance Spring 2016 Showcase Performers: King Charles, Doc Lock, Ian Eastwood, and More!
I had great time at the City Dance Spring 2016 Showcase last night at the Palace of Fine Arts. I saw some of my favorites dancers on stage, live for the first time, and got turned on to some new dancers I had never seen before. So of course, I fell into a YouTube hole…
Health Tips: My Five Don’ts for Healthier Living
A lot of diet and health tips focus on the things you should be doing to lose weight or be in better shape. Join a gym. Drink this breakfast shake every morning. Follow this G75-Z regime for 9 weeks. There's certainly good sense in a lot of that advice. But I also think it's possible…
Solo Jazz Routine: Angelique Larque at Savoy Cup 2016
I'm loving this solo jazz choreo by Angelique Larque, performed at Savoy Cup 2016 recently in Montpellier, France. Angelique's musicality, variety of movement, tonal changes, body control, and character are outstanding. And she perfectly embodies the song with her dance. I'm curious to know her dance background now!
Andy Warhol’s “Dance Diagram [3] [‘The Lindy Tuck-In Turn-Man’]” (1962)
Here’s a weird piece of art that I didn’t expect to encounter this weekend. I was visiting the new “Broad” contemporary art museum in Los Angeles when I came across this Andy Warhol piece on the third floor. Entitled Dance Diagram [3] [‘The Lindy Tuck-In Turn-Man’] (1962) this was part of a series of paintings Andy Warhol…
Daniil Nikulin does next level solo jazz at Jazz Roots 2016
I have no idea who Daniil Nikulin is, but I’m already a huge fan. In this video Daniil performs some ridiculously creative, eccentric and breathtaking solo jazz at the Jazz Roots festival in Paris last weekend. Apparently he’s a dancer living in Moscow. I can’t even wrap my brain around all the different kinds of…
Jazz Splits Practice
I'm starting to feel stronger doing the jazz splits, a foundational move both for vernacular jazz / tap and street dance. I've been able to do the drop part for awhile. But getting the mechanics of pulling myself up after the drop has bedeviled me until fairly recently. Here's a recent video of me practicing…