By Peggy Pollard, Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing
Trying to feel thankful today? I’ll help you with that. First, today, Thanksgiving Day, is our is our one-year Anniversary of our Sentinel’s Young At Heart” section! To celebrate and warm up your Thanksgiving spirit, here’s my free Turkey Trot Dance video lesson I posted one year ago: www.youtu.be/R-3df05X4AM You’re welcome. Next, here’s my simple way to help you and any Thanksgiving companions focus on thankfulness. Take a large sheet of paper. With a marking pen, draw a bare tree trunk and branches. Write at top: “In 2021 We are Thankful For:” Then take a few sheets of autumn-esque colored paper-- red, brown, yellow, orange, green. Cut small spear-shaped leaves about 3” long. Give each person a few leaves to write what they are thankful for on. Scotch tape the leaves onto the tree. Voila! You have a Thanksgiving Tree to decorate your wall and save for your historical records. Now here’s what to write on those little leaves: Start BIG. What happened this year in the news, worldwide or local? If the first answers popping into your mind are negative things, which admittedly, there were plenty of this year, then you are especially in need of counting your blessings today. This is exactly why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all. We all need it to lift our spirits to a higher level. From the big global scale down to micro-level, we need this day to refocus our hearts and minds away from our endless daily problems, into thankfulness for all the goodness in our lives. Being thankful helps us walk in the reality of the love that truly surrounds us. And being thankful together really helps. So, I ask people I know what they are thankful for. My husband the doctor instantly volunteers his thanks for the miraculous COVID vaccines appearing this year, and for this week’s new pill for COVID, the first pill effective against a common cold virus, which COVID is one of. Other common answers: family, friends, work, school, food, world peace – good, sincere answers. Though not creative, they fit the ancient wisdom of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Surmising that “everything is meaningless,” the sage also advised that in life, “there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work.” For myself, after another year of national turmoil I’m especially thankful for the hard-working hero's of our legal system and free press, lawyers and journalists bringing truth and justice to our troubled land. I’m also thankful for my small part in making the world better, in small ways, from our little corner of it. I’m thankful for my nice dance partners, especially awesome dance assistant Mike. I’m also thankful I am helping others discover dancing joy at our Wednesday and Sunday dances. Because for dancers, to have strength to dance, whether solo or with partners, gracefully or not, to dance at all is a lot to be thankful for. To dance is also a beautiful way to give thanks. It might even be contagious. (and thus TikTok happened) Just try it today. Turn on music, stand up and start to moving to it. Then offer someone your hand and see what happens. If they join in, you have doubled the amount of joy in the room. Then write this down on your paper leaves: “I’m thankful I can dance” Dancing is more powerful together. After my absence of almost two years, I returned this week to my beloved ballet class. Stepping into the studio doorway I was enveloped in a big warm hug by my, normally aloof, teacher Rebecca. “Peggy made it back,” she declared to the room full of mask-and-leotard-clad dancers at barres around the walls. The class burst into a round of applause, beaming smiles toward me before refocusing on the lesson. It felt good to be back together with this elite band of dancers. “Most of my dancers have found their way back,” Rebecca told me. “Except a few who have not yet returned,” she added with a worried look. From this enthusiastic welcome I felt like I’d re-joined a covert military team in a clandestine battleground bunker. Because I did. Together under command of teacher Rebecca, we dancers are waging a battle against enemy disease with our military regimen of plies and pirouettes to strengthen body and soul against the evil germs. I’m thankful for my warm welcome back into this special dance community. I’ll write that on my Thanksgiving leaf. I’m also thankful for my own students still finding their way to our dances these past months, thankful I can teach them able to dance. More leaves of thanks. What are yours? What are the most important things this year? Write them down. Post them on your wall. Read them daily. Optimize your happiness. There is no better way to celebrate the goodness you’ve been given this year than to be thankful, and to dance. Join our Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing dances www.PeggyDance.weebly.com
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By Peggy Pollard , www.PeggyDance.weebly.com
I’m feeling it. Are you? The annual downward migration I call ABFOF: AUTUMNAL BELLY FAT OVER FLOW Don’t worry, it’s a normal process -- our annual human winterizing of our bodies. Just as we winterize our homes, shuttering windows, wrapping water pipes, hauling winter clothes down from the attic, our bodies too, need an annual powering-down time. We humans, like most mammals, need to hunker down into winter hibernation mode, both physical and emotional low energy phase. This week I really felt it. Right at its usual time. It does not feel great. Our summer of cool fog at last dissipated into our golden annual October bliss. The balmy air felt so glorious. Until, last Wednesday, it didn’t. The temperature dropped into that joy-killing chill. Even the sun couldn’t summon up enough enthusiasm to arc so high above the clouds. The trees lacking sufficient moisture into their roots this drought year, failed to push their sap up, up, way up into those high branches. So their leaves glowed a last glorious blaze of yellow orange, crimson red, before withering into crumpled flakes. Along with the leaves and daylight, down, down falls all my physical energy too. I felt it drop wayyyyy down into my gut. Then with a dastardly turn, balloons out into overflowing belly fat. ABFOF strikes again! I feel the extra weight in front of me at all times, I try jiggling it, massaging it, squeezing the bulges into spandex. But no good. The extra fat remains. I’ve just learned from Howard LeWine, M.D. Editor in Chief, of Harvard Men's Health Watch that ABFOF has another name: “Visceral Fat.” That does not make me feel any better about it. But identifying any problem is 50% of solving it, I believe. And he does motivate me, since Dr. LeWine warns that that it’s important to get rid of it because “excess belly fat creates serious health risks, even if you are only mildly overweight.” Plus I’m encouraged that his advised solution works great with social dancing. LeWine recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity stress-reducing aerobic exercise, five days per week. Perfect for social dancing! Because, right about now, end of October, just as the sunlight and thermometer drops lower, so does our energy for physical activity. Thus, our schedule, even our DANCE schedule needs to be winterized. I’ve seen the pattern every year. A burst of September ambition. A new school year! A new dance class! But oh how quickly it becomes too much. My usually very manageable schedule suddenly feels overwhelming, requiring far more effort than I now can muster. What reports can I now avoid? Will anyone notice if I ghost that meeting, skip doing that project? So, what is our wise thing to do, in this predictable slowing down time of year? We have three choices in this annual battle of seasonal energy change: 1. SURRENDER to your depression -- a shocking number of people choose this… and stop exercising completely, soooo easy to do, but at a big cost to your health-- not very rewarding. 2. MAINTAIN an unrealistic schedule -- force yourself to keep up your high-energy summertime pace, and feel like a failure when you, most likely can’t keep doing all the things that only a month ago felt so easy. Thus feeling like a failure if you don’t live up to your normal goals. OR 3. ADJUST -- your exercise routine to a gentler standard, acknowledge that your “Winterized” energy now, but not give up entirely. Instead set SMALLER SURVIVAL GOALS to get through the minimizing months of Autumn, Holidays and then winter. Be gentle with yourself. Don’t stress about maintaining a constant high performance level year round. Don’t drive yourself to exhaustion. Annual resting is important too. Adjust your expectation of “success” in exercising. Aiming for a survival maintenance schedule is OK. I Give You PERMISSION! Perhaps instead of daily, every other day, or every other week is OK. A half hour of dancing instead of a full hour is still highly beneficial. In fact the key secret to successful health is . . . -- Lower Your Expectations -- Appreciate what you already have; respect your limits. How do we Winterize our Dancing? In little bits, that’s how. Keep dancing but do it in little bits. And you will feel good about it. Over Flow Bellyfat beGONE! To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to plan, and a time to uproot, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Winterize your social dancing with us in Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing ==================================== By Peggy Pollard, www.peggydance.weebly.com
I realized why I NEED to dance yesterday morning. Walking along West Cliff Drive, in a magnificent moment viewing a golden sunrise, it came to me. My weekend, packed with an overload of responsibilities, required heavy communication tasks. As usual, I had prepped all summer for this annual re-launch week of our campus program at the start of the university school year. But this time, not only was I also (reluctantly) elected President of a network of 24 campus groups, an urgent family responsibility popped up this month, requiring a blitz of advertising and interviewing, and other tasks. All this was in addition to our long-scheduled Waltz & Swing Dance Workshop Series this past week. (pssst . . . our Grand Finale Dance workshop is TODAY , so JUMP ON IN!) But, whooowheee baby … that old dread feeling of doom started growing in me. However could I handle all this? So naturally, just as I felt most on the tippy-top verge of overwhelm, my precious little workhorse, my powerhouse, customized-to-perfection cell phone, suddenly started blinking, ever-so-slowly, a greyed- out Apple logo sign. It’s logic-board had completely failed. Kaput. Dead. My heart sank. I stared at the pulsing screen in the palm of my hand. It was the most desperate and alone moment I’ve felt in years. My beloved device, with its silky electronic fingertip responsiveness, was frozen. Its tap-sensitive doorways into my vital chat group communities were now slammed closed in an instant. In that instant, my oh-so-deft handling of this week’s work was freezeframed in mid-air. My slate of impending victories started slipping, sliding into embarrassing failures. (why, oh, why did I ever agree to all this?) The weight of overwhelm descended upon me. And this is why I NEED to dance. Does your life in our ultra-connected fast lane ever feel that it’s teetering between your great opportunities and abysmal failures. Have you been working hard to take care of your family, your friends and your community to make their world a better place? But still have moments of discouragement and despair? So when is your moment that your life into perfect balance? When do you feel your deep peace, telling you, “This is what I’m meant to do, and it’s all working out perfectly.” You and I certainly need those moments, those hard-won, glorious moments, along the way for our mental health. We all need them too. That is why my dancers dance. “Dance, with some practice, brings synchronicity. Dance helps me feel unified and happy. Once I feel that in my dance, it flows to the rest of my life,” says “Joaquin.” Some discovered it early in life. “As a kid, every time I heard music with rhythm I would jump around. At age 11 I started learning dance steps and have been dancing ever since. Whenever I’m feeling low, I put on music and dance. Also, when I am very happy I dance,” says Kristin. “Every time I dance, I turn into a better version of me.” says Mike. “Dancing is not only a state of mind, but it helps with memory, physical fitness, and is also good for my heart. Besides it is fun.” Partner dancing in particular has a special goodness, that’s hard to find anywhere else. “Several years ago, I lost my wife of nearly a half century,” says “Clive,” returning to dance after a few decades away. “I tried yoga, but dance gives me the opportunity to put my arms around a woman again (and increase my heart rate!)” After our summer of grey foggy days, my golden sunrise walk on West Cliff, surrounded by the infinite calm of the Pacific Ocean, happy joggers and Dawn Patrol surfers, felt like just such a moment. A few other such moments give my life that kiss of bliss too: when I see my work is accomplished well, when I see other people’s lives are better because of my efforts. Supremely satisfying, that is. Now, some may call me crazy for trying to add an extra gig of teaching dance to my other responsibilities. Yes, this week I definitely wondered that myself. But as I strolled in the golden sunrise yesterday, it struck me. The reason I am launching this social dance community is . . . because dancing together makes all the other parts of my life become perfect. To share our dance moments in a positive presence of happy people, in a dance room, holding hands with a partner, moving synchronized to beautiful music, and to each other, as we revolve around the room as we bounce and sway. However awkwardly or skillfully, we express our inner artistry to the music, arms and legs bouncing, swaying, whirling. Suddenly it all comes together. Suddenly the myriad of disjointed pieces of our daily experience all feels unified into one beautiful whole. Suddenly, I realized, my life feels perfect. And yours will too. Join us today for our final day of Waltz Tribe Dance Community launch. View info www.peggydance.weebly.com by Peggy Pollard
Our emergence from pandemic isolation to rediscover face-to-face society, . . . actually holding hands waltzing! . . . wow! delighted us in June. But now our long August vacation days are shortening into crisper schedules of Autumn. Memories of far-away travels, or indolent stay-cations are permanently engraved into history, in the memories on our phones and in our brains. Any ambitious plans for a lazy beach day of novel reading, and special gardening project are either accomplished, or forwarded to future to-do lists. Schools are convening. Families hunker into revised weekly rhythms. The end of Summer 2021 draws nigh. Time is UP! So get ready! Next week calendars turn to the “-ember” months of fall. (For those of us who made it this far) we must now settle into good newly polished schedules for our new school year. Whether we are in a classroom, or far outside of one, this last week of August is the PERFECT time to re-evaluate our exercise schedule to make this year our healthiest ever in body, mind and soul. Are you, like me in your third, golden trimester, of life? After decades of goosing your engine a little too hard, handling a little too much stress than is good for you, are you, like me, pushing harder on your gas pedal but your engine isn’t going any faster? Then let’s minimize the stress , and maximize the happiness by developing the best weekly habits for our health. Doctors say that the #1 most important thing most Americans can do to improve their health is regular exercise. Here are the seven BEST Exercise Habits you need to do for optimal health and energy To make this next year of your life your happiest ever. 1.Find Enjoyable Exercise – Because, we all know, if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t keep doing it. (pssst… machines are boring!) No matter how many $$ you invest in an exercise or cycling, machine or gym membership though it may get you STARTED exercising. As the extremely high annual dropout rate of gym membership every October and February shows, just the amount of $$ is not what will KEEP you going in a regular exercise. But the amount of enjoyment you get from the exercise WILL. Whether it’s Ballroom/social dancing…or being on a sports game team, or long beautiful bike rides through the countryside, or mountain climbing, or JiuJitsu competition, or… The ideal exercise is one where you get beyond thinking “I need to exercise” to… “I love doing this activity and don’t want to stop.” When it no longer feels like “exercise,” but feels like passion, then you’ve got it. Finding the kind of exercise you enjoy, whether it is solo, indoors, outdoors, what gives you good feeling, what feels strengthening for your body mind and soul, not damaging. (not using machines, a game, a social activity) 2. Exercise with symmetrical large body movement---anaerobic and aerobic, long distance and muscle toning. That has been shown to have the biggest benefit for your body. Move your WHOLE body the way it was designed. Start with walking for the most primary level of fitness, then add in other big muscle movements such as running, cycling, swimming and SOCIAL DANCING 3.Exercise to music you love -- I know, I know, it sounds a little goofy, and probably no one has thought of this before… Dance to music you love – any activity you do to music, studies have found you will do it more, and put more energy into it. Music exercises your soul along with your body and mind. but doing a series of patterns of exercises, various kinds of moves, perhaps with a partner, counterbalancing against each other… in synchronized movements, wouldn’t that be wild! And timed to inspiring and catchy music, then allowing for creative kinds of movement… somebody should try doing that sometime… but what to call it…hmmm… how about “prancing” “or stancing,” “bancing,” “cancing,” “fancying” “grancing”…. Let’s keep trying, it will come to us. 4.Schedule your Exercise weekly. Don’t rely on your willpower, since soooo many things in life do come up. And however strong your “will”power is, rest assured you have just as strong a “won’t”power when you change your mind. So setup for yourself a structured weekly framework, then trust in the wisdom of that weekly schedule, follow it, tweak it as needed, but trust in it that you will be most effective when you have a balanced weekly groove to alleviate your decision-making stress. “what you schedule, gets done” says efficiency guru Michael Hyatt, New York Times Bestselling author. Do it weekly, regularly, Get into a weekly rhythm of Rest, Exercise Healthy Eating Regular Exercise that you enjoy most—Dance of course. Schedule your Exercise—if its is solo, mark it in your calendar. What you schedule, gets done, don’t leave it to doing it when you feel like it, these days our energy and attention gets stolen by a thousand different things daily that fights for our attention. And not only write it in your schedule, but check it off when you do it… a daily little ritual of celebrating that you accomplished something. Get into a weekly rhythm of Rest, Exercise Healthy Eating. There are 7 days a week for a good reason, it’s a controllable amount of time for you to work hard, rest well, play enough to feel satisfied, then do it all again. 5.Balance your Exercise with solo & group activities. Some of us are extroverts who feel need to do everything in a group. Some of us are introverts who feel the need to do everything alone. Most of us are somewhere in between… so find the right balance of exercise with other people, and alone, on a weekly basis, that feels right for you. Social dancing is… social of course, so YES that counts as group, but there are many skills in social dancing that can also be learned and practiced alone. And the joy of partner, lead-and-follow dancing is that it is shared with one person at a time, in a close, semi-intimate communication mode that is very satisfying to both partners when done well. Dance with other people—one of the most stimulating things we can do with any activity is to do it with other people. When we know people are expecting us, that is highly motivational to actually doing it, not skipping it. We are social creatures, after all. 6.Exercise your mind along with your body – Along with the group/solo balance, find exercises that have room to grow, where you are learning satisfying skills. Your mind is hungry to learn skills, so feed that hunger with good things. Social dancing is a Grrrreeeat example of that, there are so many styles an basically an infinite number of patterns to be learned, with new dance choreographies being invented very day worldwide, just as there are new songs being written, it’s a delightful fount of creative energy. Exercise your mind along with your body, while working out in mindless repetitive movements can have some value, giving spot strength to particular muscles and body moves, it’s important to develop your coordinational skills as well, putting sequences of moves together can feel more satisfying than one simple move, x 1000 where you don’t learn anything new. Our minds are thirsty to learn new things. And grow intellectually. 7.And finally, Learn skills in an organized systematic program—memories of the visiting a Tango class where I was warmly welcomed, and found a friendly partner, then got not one, but two or three more experienced dancers give advice, random advice, too much advice. I could feel my partner getting more nervous and overwhelmed … scattered information, is no good, only leads to frustration. Get one skill at a time, practice it until you feel confident, then move on. A good teacher (me) will teach you what you need to learn first Well friends, those are 7 of the most important things you need to include in your weekly habits, try to incorporate at least something from each area in your week for a well-balanced life you can repeat for the next 52 weeks, that will add up to a fabulous new year for you. (pssssttttt…. If you think of any exercise that fits ALL of these criteria Beeeauuuuuutifully, First, tell me about it…. then please DO it…. in fact, do it with us at our next dance. Check www.PeggyDance.weebly.com for schedule. Yesterday's Olympics Opening Ceremony was so beautiful.
As Naomi lit the cauldron from the very same flame passed from generation to generation of athletes, it lit the flame in my soul for athletic glory for sure! Let's channel that inspiration for excellence into our humble dancing community, not for competition, but for maximum excellent happiness in enjoyable dancing, right? Since you might not have done much dancing this past 16 months, we will ease into it with easygoing basics of Waltz & Swing for both partner and solo, plus some easy line dances. Come dance with us for Olympic-quality joy together. July 17, 2021
Woahhh, how does this work again? Getting the rust off our legs, like newborn babies (which I've had a couple this week) we re-learned the basics of Swing and Waltz at last week's Wednesday dance. That old feeling of nervous weirdness hung over us as we turned on the boom box, legs feeling like spineless sea slugs. "Does this dance thing really work, or have I lost it all in the covid fog last year?" I wondered. Answer: Yes & No. Pretty soon, after a few rounds of suitably catchy music, the feeling of grooviness started to grow from our feet up, transforming us from lethargic jellyfish to bouncy swingers. Just the basic in place, with an UnderArm half-turn and rewind, began to feel like a happening pattern, to the heavy Elvis beat. The bouncy feeling stayed with me all day. I stopped at Trader Joes after our dance. Hearing the store's piped music of Fleetwood Mac and Creedence Clearwater Revival as I hunted for dolmas, my legs yearned to bust out dancing down the canned beans aisle. Yes, that great feeling is still in there, sleeping in our feel. All the great songs come alive in our souls again when we dance to them with real humans. It's all coming back. to be published in SENTINEL newspapaer: Young At Heart July 29, 2021
By Peggy Pollard July 19, 2021 I sauntered up to his table, bouncing my step to the twangy music from the band on stage. I offered my right hand to the hefty, grizzled man, sitting under his big cowboy hat, arms crossed. I flashed him a friendly smile and nodded toward the small group of dancers. “Care to dance with me?” He glared at my hand, stone faced, pointedly NOT moving a muscle. I moved on. Next to him sat a lady in a plaid shirt. She giggled at my extended my hand. “No, but ask her,” she pointed at a woman across the table. “She loves to dance.” The confidence in my smile dimmed after these two rejections. But I continued around the table, my white-fringed cowboy boots clicking on the cement floor. The stocky lady in tight jeans stared blankly at my proffered hand. She blinked. Indecision swirled inside her. She looked up at the band, the dancers, then back down at my hand. She blinked again. The anxiety on her face melted into a smile. She stood up and placed her hand in my open palm. We stepped across the big, scary threshold of fear into the wonderful world of partner dancing. This was my first time in 17 months to do in-person social dancing. It felt glorious. The country western band at our “Hoe-Down” event belted out rockin’ songs of American freedom on electric guitars. A hundred attendees chowed down on lunch plates heaped with barbecue chicken and baked beans. A dozen dancers bounced to the music in front of the stage. This is as gloriously American as we can be. I led my skittery partner up to the dancing, turned and faced her. Wide-eyed, she smiled with nervous exhilaration. After 18-months of pent-up COVID stress, our faces glowed with relief at being back in actual human society. I swiftly evaluated our situation. She didn’t know me, I didn’t know her. By her timid hand grip, I instantly surmised that, like most of the people in this big white tent, she had no partner dancing skills. No matter. I quickly calculated, adjusted my lead temperature down to “Safe and Cool.” I offered my left hand to connect in a safe, distant double-handhold. I initiated our dance launch -- big, gentle, generous arm motions and a slow triple-step Swing Basic. As good leaders do, I gave such super-obvious lead gestures that she couldn’t help but either —follow it intuitively —or completely ignore my lead to do whatever she wanted -- in which case, I readjust myself to go with that flow smoothly, thus making it near impossible for her to mess up. Happily, I’m able to turn whatever renegade dancing she gives me into a harmonious partnership. To turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. A good lead knows how to do that. (because my goal after all, is for my partner to enjoy the dance not be freaked out by a flashy stranger In white fringe cowboy boots) All this decision making happened in a half-second flash. Then, with very loose hand pressure, and kindergarten grade moves I commenced bouncing my hands to the rockin’ rhythm . easing us into a synchronized partnership. I swayed and launched into sideways triple-step Swing. She swayed thusly with me for a few phrases of music. Feeling good, I lifted one hand to initiate her Under Arm Turn to the LEFT. She turned RIGHT. I quickly recalculate switched my hand direction to match her turn. She slowly stepped around. We rejoined hands A big grin lit up her face. We repeated this pattern for the rest of the song. At the end, we thanked each other politely, both of us satisfied to have partnered so well. Phew. I was glad to see my 18-months-dormant lead skills had sprung back to life again so quickly. Anyhoooooo . . .I turned to the remaining audience smiling in their seats, watching us. . . . I found another partner who was eager to jump up and dance, ready for some fun. But I could instantly tell by her non-responsive handhold that she likewise had no clue how to lead or follow. No Problem. I can jump into lead role, without her even knowing what she, or I, are doing. I simply, subtly, give gentle confident guidance for each step. My next partner, an easygoing young man, gratefully let me guide him through a couple of moves as well. A trusting smile lit his face. A few partners later, the crowd now dissipating, the band began winding down from Country Western, segueing into more of a Power Rock vibe. I beckoned with my hand to first one, then another of a lingering group sitting at a table. One woman nudged the big man next to her in a blue checkered shirt. “HE really wants to dance,” she prompted He smiled sheepishly, arose and took my hand. He was a big bear of a man, with a grip to match. As he took my other hand in rough strong hand, and began leading I could feel he did have a sense of basic rhythm. A good sign. But, typical of many beginning leads, he also had a too-tight hand squeeze. Begining dancers trying so SO hard to get their feet moving right, sometimes don’t even realize what their hands are doing. I sensed his nervousness, but knew that his willingness to dance, with his friends looking on, was quite fragile at that raw moment. I knew what he needed was lots of encouragement, not any criticism ( like most beginner dancers.) Men, especially, often have a great fear of being embarrassed in such social dance situations. They feel a responsibility to take initiative, in the spotlight to show off their expertise, but unless they are VERY confident in their skills, most instead just refuse to step onto the dance floor for fear of embarrassing public failure. So weighing the great opportunity to encourage, vs. the chance my hand would be crushed, I chose the first. The importance of that critical moment, to encourage this tiny spark, blow a little oxygen on it, to let our public successful dance experience could fan that fragile spark into a bigger flame, instead of snuffing it out by dampening his tender happy vibes with with an ill-timed wet blanket comment. We ended the dance, with sweaty smiles and happy “Thank You’s” for getting each other back in action. . . . A few partners later, my last dance ended with another new dance friend. We exchanged sweaty smiles and thanks for sharing the musical joy together. Likely I will never see those dancers again. But all of us that day shared an important moment—stepping across that lovely threshold back into the wonderful world of human hand-to-hand dancing together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ July 12, 2021
Our First in Person Dance Last Wednesday. That rather awkward feeling . . . a fog of shyness, like in high school dances, . . After my year of dancing with my wonderful mop and broom partners at home, who are marvelously available and infitely loyal to me.. I need to re-learn how to connect with a less-controllable human partner IN-PERSON... how do we do that again? Mike and I had a slow-rolling marvelous time getting our feet back into waltz rhythm. Choreographing a simple waltz pattern, Just holding both hands and facing each other -- a lovely thrill, Feeling the weight of his arms in my hands, Reawakening my instincts for leading and following -- how does that work again? So we took it slowly, getting synchronized on the basics. No hurry, just enjoying getting back into the swing of it. Come join us weekly Wednesdays, and monthly Sundays. Don't worry if you are not "good enough." None of us are at this point, so nice to ease into it, safely distanced both for germs and for wayward feet that don't remember the 1-2-3 4-5-6 or side-side-rock-step swing rhythms. Your dancing spirit is ready to revive July 8, 2021
Jumping for VACCINATION JOY! The Master Plan is working... COVID restrictions are being lifted, it is TIME to get our legs dancing again. for all of us who survived the very real, dread disease. (with tears and prayers for those who did not) So let's start dancing again, since they would definitely WANT us to dance if we can, In-person dances starting NOW FOR VACCINATED DANCERS (so go get your free jab already We NEED you to dance with us --safely !) We will start slowly, with more solo/line dances to get back into the rhythm of things then work our way up to partnering skills. So if you have NOT danced in a year, this is the perfect place to get those legs jiving again. Start moving your feet to those vintage and nouveau tunes, then let the happy feeling rise up to the rest of you. Dance with you soon! __ Teacher Peggy By Peggy Pollard, Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing www.PeggyDance.weebly.comIt’s the viral dancing nuns who sucked me in.
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FOOT Notes from Teacher PeggyAuthorPeggy Pollard has been teaching social/ballroom dance in Santa Cruz since 2010. Archives
September 2022
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