-- Transformed By A Christmas Dance and a Christmas Goose
This Thursday's choreography, "Your Christmas Goose Is Cooked" is Inspired by the popular Christmas book by Charles Dickens (my favorite author) A Christmas Carol, ( Click HERE to read the original and see my previous post below) celebrating the transformation of an archetypical heartless soul Ebenezer Scrooge, into a generous man. At THAT time the traditional Christmas dinner was a GOOSE... but if you read to the end, Mr. Scrooge is so overcome with Generosity, that he instead substitutes . . . well you’ll just have to read to the end to find out! In my kitchen, I stand with my back to my zoom webcam so my dance student John can copy my moves, as I demonstrate the finer points of the Goose Waddle. “Crouch down. Your bottom big and heavy. Step slow web-footed steps to the beat. Now waggle your tail to finish.” I can’t see John on the screen behind me. But when I pause and look, his glowing giggles show he caught my silly goose spirit of the dance — success! Dancing makes our hearts merry. As we move like a silly goose, it can’t help but overflow our cheer to others. A merry heart does good like a medicine” Proverbs 17:22 Back in our Christmas Goose Dance lesson, we share a laugh, good medicine indeed, for our Covid-weary souls. Then continue to waddle and polka our way through the rest of the choreography, more or less together. ========= One of our most beloved Christmas stories (besides the completely illogical Nutcracker dance!) is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Dickens shows the spiritual transformation of modern literature’s most iconic cold-hearted cheapskate -- Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge was a wealthy man who had lost love for anything but money. He could not comprehend the value of merriment in his own, or anyone else’s life. Until . . . until an evening of Christmas dancing and a Christmas goose dinner sparked a transformation of his spirit to be filled with love and generosity. In an evening of jolly dancing at Scrooge’s employer Mr. Fezziwig’s Christmas party, young Scrooge capered the night away, enjoying his happy fellowship. But in his following years, his heart forgot that innocent joy and hardened instead into a cold obsession for money. Human love and happiness was a waste of time, only taking people away from their urgent purpose of earning more money Scrooge believed. I too, was a young Ebenezer Scrooge, it seems, before I discovered the bliss of social dancing, I had seen people happily dancing in movies and TV shows. But this phenomena of sharing joy in social dance made no sense to me, just did not compute to my brain, and seemed completely illogical to my pre-dancing sensibilities. Until I tried it. BOOM! My life was transformed So illogical, yet so rewarding! Back to Ebenezer Scrooge’s tale. Visiting ghosts lit the flame of love in his spirit, with the help of social dancing and a goose, by leading him to feel the sharp contrast, of the happiness of such loving experiences with the pain of his preferred cold empty life, and the results of his miserable indifference to others. Seeing the stark results, Scrooge chose to reform, and immediately found his new purpose in life -- using his previously hoarded wealth to generously shower other people with happy gifts. Dance rebirthed his dead soul with the joy of life. Don't be a Scrooge! Come dance with us.
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EXCERPTS from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, depicting the delightful Merriment of Christmas dancing and Christmas Goose dinners,
which precipitate the spiritual transformation of one Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge. ( Click HERE to read the original ) So in this classic tale, the soul transformed is inspired by both the wonderous holiday bird at Bob Cratchitt's family, and by the joy and merriment from a great night of dancing led by his own warm-hearted employer Mr. Fezziwig. Indeed the first Ghost of Christmas Past uses the dancing to re-awaken his lost joy of his youth. AT MR. FEZZIWIG’S CHRISTMAS DANCE PARTY "There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told it him!) struck up “Sir Roger de Coverley.” Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no notion of walking. "But if they had been twice as many—ah, four times—old Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that’s not high praise, tell me higher, and I’ll use it. A positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwig’s calves. They shone in every part of the dance like moons. You couldn’t have predicted, at any given time, what would have become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place; Fezziwig “cut”—cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger. "When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. . . . AT BOB CRATCHIT’S FAMILY . . . YOUR CHRISTMAS GOOSE IS COOKED! "And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker’s they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, . . . the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course—and in truth it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah! There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! . Dec 27, 2020 Had a blessed Christmas celebration!
In Chronological order, MY BEST 12 GIFTS received: 12 -- Getting my other job's newsletters & gifts shipped out (3-week job) 11 -- Negative covid tests for Bob & me, just in time for an even better gift 10 -- our sons visiting home for the week! 9 -- news of my nephew Terence & Amy expecting their first baby (after many years of hoping) due in July 2021! 8 -- Family Zoom celebrations 7 --Inspired by watching "My Octopus Teacher" movie ... 6 -- . . . so on Christmas Day swim in the ocean, didn't feel as painfully cold as I feared, so swam next 2 days too! 5 -- Receiving Holiday greetings from friends around the world on WeChat/WhatsApp/ text/emails 4 --Living through another year 3 -- God's Peace on Earth and in my soul 2 -- JOY in my heart 1 -- Love in our home A SUSTAINABLE regular weekly dance schedule is what I'm dreaming of (along with a SUSTAINABLE Global Ecosystem).
Since with my age requires me to be more careful with my physical energy capacity. Whaaaaat!!!! So I'm still experimenting with the optimal weekly schedule for our classes Now that I've shifted to earlier circadian rhythm, I'm REALLY enjoying the orange-heavy glorious sunrise walks on West Cliff with husband Bob. EARLY IS GOOD! I'm finding my energy is much better, and I'm sleeping MUCH more solidly when I synch my daily energy arc WITH the sun, instead of my glorious over-the-hill ballroom dance nights until midnight, thus 2 am sleepy-bye ...zzzzz waking 10 am, missing half the daylight....:-( But I'm also trying to balance my preference for early daytime, with other dancers' schedule needs. No fun for me to dance together alone. So if we can together get into a regular weekly dance groove, I'll be able to plan ahead more, and have a ton of great dancing moves and styles I will love to teach you, and simple yet, dramatic choreography that will look GREAT on our Zoom meetings. That's why, despite many MANY obstacles, I'm still working MADLY to set up my other Waltz Tribe website. (in between my other work responsibilities) I'm making BIG, but excruciating progress. (read about it HERE) Why? Because I have a glorious dream of both sunrises and great dancing together every week! What a wonderful life that will be for all of us. So I just want you dancers to know how much I'm SUFFERING for YOU to get this going . . .Yeahhh I could blow this all off, give up and just attend existing online dances . . . but I believe that if I did, many of you would give up too, (because you've told me so) So youneed ME to prod and inspire you into MOVING with me to our favorite music, not sinking into a covid winter of hibernation and lethargy. So that's why I keep wrestling through the slippery HTML code, believing that once I get this digital ballroom setup, it will be a wonderful room full of friendship and great dancing happiness. So let's keep going! It's gonna be GREAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!! Big dancing hugs through the struggles, Teacher Peggy |
FOOT Notes from Teacher PeggyAuthorPeggy Pollard has been teaching social/ballroom dance in Santa Cruz since 2010. Archives
September 2022
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