Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
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…
I’ve seen articles that have said roller skating was irrelevant since the ’70s. OK, so what have I been doing for the last 20 years? No, it hasn’t been irrelevant. Roller skating has continued to survive because of the African-American community and our ability to open up the culture to others who want to learn…
This weekend I got together with a few friends to see if we could skate at the new Chase Center in Mission Bay, San Francisco. Turns out its the most incredible space, and totally empty due to the lockdown. So we basically had the run of the plaza for a couple of glorious hours. Here’s…
Happy 2021! On the last day of the year, I did a little video exploring the connections I’ve found between rhythm skating and house dance. As a dancer who has dabbled in many different forms, I’ve been interested in how to incorporate my other styles into skating. House dance, which I’ve been practicing for the…
What I love about rhythm skating is that I can pour into it all of my past dancing — solo jazz, house, breaking, waacking — and find new ways of expressing that on 8 tiny wheels! It’s seriously the best.
A little over two weeks ago I switched over from my Riedell R3 derby-style skates to a pair of Chicago 805s. I haven’t seen many people write about the Chicago 800/805, so I thought I would share my experience. The Chicago 800/805 originates from one of the oldest skate manufacturers in the US, the Chicago…
One of the nicest things that has happened during the pandemic is that I started roller skating. Soon after, my friend Jess joined me, followed by Iris. Today, several months later, I’ve got a little posse of 30+ lindy hop friends from all over the Bay who have taken up skating, from Marin to Oakland to San Jose….
“It’s not possible to be unhappy skating,” my friend Kristin said to me on her second outing to the Skating Place in Golden Gate Park. I understand the sentiment. We’re rollerskating in a beautiful park in the city by the bay. There’s disco and funk pumping out of a boombox. People of all ages are…
One of the things that I miss about my communities is the feeling of being cared for and expressing care for others. It’s just so much harder to experience care and kindness when you aren’t physically together. Skating has reminded me of that though. Nearly every time I go out skating in the park, there…
So this October I had this crazy idea that I wanted to be TRON on skates for Halloween. More specifically, the character Sam Flynn from TRON: Legacy (2010). (Yes, the movie was a hot mess, but it looked and sounded amazing.) There were really two options for TRON costumes I found in my research: Buy…