Hi, I'm Paul.

“Asian” is as much of a blanket/umbrella descriptor as “white” is. I don’t know if there’s Asian pride. There’s Japanese Pride. Expressing Asian pride is just saying that you’re proud of looking like an Asian person (i.e. being proud of having black hair, less arm hair, narrow eyes, etc.). To say that white pride is racist (while Irish pride is not) and that Asian pride is not racist is saying that Asia doesn’t have the same cultural diversity that exists in Europe. “Asian” doesn’t describe any particular heritage. “Vietnamese” describes a culture and heritage. To say that Asian pride isn’t racist and that white pride is racist denies the existence of the cultural diversity that exists in Asia, which is denying that many cultural identities exist in Asia. It implies very strongly that white people are more culturally diverse than Asian people and that all Asian people have one homogeneous culture. It’s almost like saying that “all Asians look the same” except you’re applying it to culture and saying “all Asians have the same culture.” It says this while also saying that “not all white people have the same culture.” The ideas shared in this image reek of ignorance and has some (maybe not so) subtle implications of white supremacy. I’m sure sharing racist ideas about white supremacy wasn’t your intention, but it’s hard to ignore the impact of your choice to share this post. Posting this normalizes simplistic, incomplete, and racist understandings of race issues and encourages ignorance through that. Sharing this denies of the existence of cultures of several groups in Asian countries. Showing this to people is telling them that Irish people deserve to have their identities be recognized as significant and unique while Japanese people don’t deserve the same. Your impact outweighs your intention here, and right now your impact is that you’re saying it’s okay to say “Chinese people and Japanese people are the same.”

Values
Effectiveness
Intelligence
Independent Thinking
Pragmatism
Passions
Honesty with self
Love for others without caretaking

Where are you from?

Well, I am originally from New Orleans, but I went to college and grad school in Virginia. I went to school in places that were vastly different from New Orleans since they were mostly tiny towns. I didn’t really like those types of places though. The people who lived there are quite a bit different in how they act and grow up. I moved to Richmond because it offered something a bit different.

what’s different about Richmond?

Have you ever lived in a small town? Or a big city? What do you like or dislike about them? [They respond; play off of it if able] Well, I lived in both extremes. There are lots of stereotypes about big cities and small towns that fit very well. You know what I mean? [they respond; we react] There are also big stereotypes about both that are wrong, right? You lived in a big city/small town, so you know what I’m saying. Like, for a big city, you’re always expected to go out and do something big bc if you’re not, you’re wasting opportunity! There’s a big oppportunity cost. What we don’t realize is that living that way isn’t effective and isn’t what’s best for us. Sometimes in big cities, we have to do some dumb work that no one cares about. Sometimes we have to do the same things we could do if we weren’t in a big city. For example, meditate. We can mditate everywhere, but we shouldn’t cut out our need to meditate if we need it, right? Do you meditate? [they respond]. That’s not to say that people in small towns don’t have similar issues. Have you ever spent time in a small town? What did you think? What did you like about it? I can say there are a good number of things I do like about it. It gives me a lot of time for myself. It gives me time to work on myself. There are often some things about small towns that people don’t appreciate, e.g. nature. There’s no nature in Richmond, and that’s honestly something I miss. But! The biggest thing that I miss about small towns is the lack of options. I know, it can sound dumb. But! The lack of options lets me really learn what I apprecaite about a particular thing bc it lets me focus in on it. For example, in Lexington, VA, there’s really only one pizza place (Frank’s doesn’t count, it’s too far out). Salerno’s. I’m no pasta expert. Growing up with an Asian family, I didn’t get all that much exposure to restaurants. As an adult, there are so many types of cuisine and restaurants that trying to learn about all places and all the nuances and small details of each individual restaurant can be overwhelming. We end up being like that guy who owns 100 instruments but only knows how to play 10 of them (all of them badly). I like focusing in on just htat one thing. Just this one restaurant and learning what I like about it and what I don’t. It can get old after a while, but I’ll come out with deeper understandings, and some experiences and stories to add to the current chapter of my life. It’ll certainly make a good story to tell. You got any?

School of Hard Knox 2016: LA Style Lindy Hop with Jenna Applegarth and Jon Tigert

Also, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umgMWAGSt6Y

Dean Collins
Jewel McGowan
Jean Veloz
Irene Thomas
Jack Arkin
Kerry?
Maxie Dorf

Our feet will appear to be in front of us, but only slightly.

For the first triple step, at the instantaneous moment 4 comes, the hips are still moving forward to catch up, but the shoulders have already started moving backwards to prep for the next triple step.

This in-feeling is the sort of foundation we all reset to. Very similar to how we kind of reset to the Rock Step in modern Lindy Hop.

Notice how the Out & In feeling is led by the arms as the trajectory of the hips show little noise.

We should keep our bodies close to our elbows. We should think of moving our bodies to wherever our elbows may be.
There’s some sitting back.
The posture that these dancers used (which is a choice, and that has consequences in the aesthetics) was one with a puffed our chest with our shoulders going a little bit backwards (as opposed to the down low posture that is often taught).
Always keep the posture with the chest up, especially for counterbalancing.

Assertion Check: If your partner is moving at the same time as your chest, then there is no lag and you’re leading it differently than what is described here.

His feet and shoulders are always at the same spot in their trajectory, i.e. the feet are not behind or ahead of the shoulders in their paths.
Assertion check: The hands should go so low that you can wiggle your pinky into your pockets.

However, there is some forward and backward feeling while we stay in place.
The shoulders and feet are still going some backwards and forwards while the hips lag behind.

Since that vertical support is there, the follow may be more inclined to do it.

We’re going to instead wait for our partner to choose to push against us to get out. We only help out with that. We only help out once we feel the push back against us.

Their weight is mostly on their back foot.
They bring out an emergency kick stand foot just in case.

As soon as we feel the weight come in, we provide support as needed.
The move ends when our partner pops back up. Then we stomp off.

It’s just a Ball-Change Rhythm Low Down in place. The second step is a stomp, so it’s an unweighted step, i.e. no weight transfer.
Since our left foot is out and forward, it’s already in the right position for a Kick-Ball-Change.

Rock Step
Step - Toe Tap
Ball - Kick (5) - Kick (6)
Down Prep (1) - Butt Pop (2)

It has kind of a Tabby the Cat feeling.

However, I think it’s more aesthetically pleasing if we’re able to move forward and backward with it also.

Step Tap on 5-6
Back(with a back kick)-Ball-Change or Hold-Ball-Change on 1-2

Step Tap on 5-6
Toe Tap-Ball-Change on 1-2

We’re jumping a little bit backwards to create distance on the Ball.
Our shoulders will be forward and our hips behind us in such a way that that makes us lean forward a little bit.
The kicks are kicking behind us.

Simultaneously we’re bringing our hips forward.
Then we kick forward on 1.

We should use the leftward residual motion to swing our free left foot to the side and then in front of us to then land on 4 to be crossed in front of our right.

patrick-daniel:

Dear dance friends, do you like making new friends/eating tacos? I like making new friends/eating tacos. Wanna know how you can make new friends/eat tacos? You can help us host our favorite out-of-town dance friends for The Process 2016. It’s an easy and great way to meet awesome people and awesome dancers.

We’ve got a HUGE wait list of dancers that need your help in being able to come visit our awesome city. You don’t have to provide much, pretty much some space on the floor and access to a bathroom is all they’ll need. They’re super fun! They’re courteous! And they’ll even dance with you! Woo!

Message me or fill out the form here if you’d like to host people:)

One final thing for those who are wondering about tacos: If you sign up to host, I will make you tacos. They’re pretty good tacos.

https://jdecrichmond.formstack.com/forms/the_process_2016_housing_form

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vnloved:

makemestfu:
RIP never forget.
This is my favorite picture on the Internet

night mare

harassment roasting thing

dwayen fontenette

emily simmonds

paula pekic

mr king was there ; he was chaperoning the harassment

I had to escape

different dream

I was at a thing with the bros from sigma nu

there was a building burning outside

then it colappsed

felt like a movie

different part of the deam

then we were in this hotel

i felt like I had a HUD from some n64 game

I was with amanda maready

we were running around this obstacle course. there were broken elevators in this golden and carpet filled hotel

dan repsch was there too.

Questions

Song

Does it have to be socially danceable?

Does it have to be slow or fast?

For a fast tune, do we want to hit the musically interesting parts of the melody or just do a bunch of really cool moves at fast tempos, which can look cool.

Shapes

Circle Rotating Clockwise or CCW

Circle Expanding and contracting

Circle, but each semicircle moves towards the center in the horizontal direction until two lines are formed.

V: everyone is staggered and travels to the other wing of the V

Inner circle, outer circle

A bunch of transitions

Combine into one circle or have the inner and outer circle create different shapes

Parallelogram shape:

Rotating circle, whoever’s in front is taking and commanding all the attention, maybe a solo?

Everyone’s lined up facing the audience so that people can only see one person, people behind expose themselves at points of interest.

Any shape: expand inward or outward

In any shape, which directions do we have to face? All the same way? Follows one way and leads another way? All outward/inward of the shape’s center?

Do we all need to do the same stuff?

Have one half of the room do the moves starting on their right legs while others do it on their left legs.

Focus on One Person? Or whole group? Two people?

For two people (or more, but still finite), they don’t have to be taking away attention from each other, but they can do similar moves that are still different but similar (and thus don’t take too much attention away from each other).

For the focus on one person, do the people in the back need to be in a horizontal line? Do they need to be doing the same things? Do they need to be doing solo things? They could all just be frozen and switching positions on the 1 of every 8-count.

They could do something somewhat complicated, like a routine as easy as the shim sham. Most ideas are good as long as they don’t steal attention away.

People could take solos that correspond to instruments.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soSOmKL3DBo

Or they could just be frozen. Switch between many ideas.

Some people could do half time while the other does full time.

Does the one person being focused on need to be one person? It could be a couple.

If two people are doing the same move, do they have to be moving the same direction or even facing the same direction?

He Goes/She Goes applied to various scales

Leads do stuff, then follows do stuff.

Let’s it look if there’s a rhythmic regular delay between two sets of people doing the same move out of phase.

Some couples/solo dancers do stuff then the rest do something.

Solo or partnered? Does everyone need to be partnered? Does everyone need to be solo?

Do we need to stick with the same partner? Let’s add some partner passing.

If a bunch of solo dancers, does everyone need to be doing the same thing? Can one person just be in the background not doing anything? And can have some sort of hidden purpose? E.g. later jumping in front to do a solo.

Or the person is just frozen for a little bit for effect and hops back in later.

Does it have to be Lindy Hop? Collegiate Shag? Balboa? St. Louis Shag? Tap Dance?

Does everyone have to do the same dance?

Which direction is the audience? All on one side/end stage? On both sides of us? We’re in the center/arena style? Roman amphitheater/thrust?

How does this affect the dance’s shape and geography?

Telephone game of dance moves in the actual routine

When all solo dancers are travelling or turning or doing a particular move, do we all have to do the same one? Or just ones that look similar?

Call & Response

Does there need to be only one caller? Only one responder?

Mix different ideas from the above.

Some dance in normal time, some dance in half time.

Eventually, the two groups can switch which is doing what time.

Short spot lights: split group into 4 entities, each entity has one 8-count to do something fancy and then freeze, next entity goes, we keep going until every entity goes and comes back together for the next phrase

Australia Routine chaos idea

Few solo dances, each dancing to a different instrument

Classic moves, e.g. Jump Charleston, Scare Crow, Shim Shams, big apple stomp offs, with a twist?

Move ideas

Half Time

Triplets

Aerials

Arm-in-Arm

Cool uncommon breaks, e.g. the Al & Leon breaks