Karen Sandler

Tag: folk dance

  • Dance Camp – Sore Feet

    It’s only halfway through Tuesday and my feet are already sore! And my back, and my hips. But I’ve learned some fun, fun dances just since Sunday. Great Portuguese, cool vintage, the completely confusing Israeli dance Debka Medabeket (I swear, just give me another 20 times or so and I’ll get it!), and some cool English set dances.

    My husband and I have been asked to be the demo dancers for the DVD taping of the English dances. Which means we have to learn the whole week’s worth of English dances by tomorrow. We’ve learned half of them, so the rest shouldn’t be too bad. It’ll be kind of strange knowing we’ll be on the DVD for “eternity,” teaching other dancers the proper way to do Cockle Shells or Chocolate for Breakfast.

    At Monday night’s party, I was allowed to take photos of some of the dancers and the band while we did warm up dances (pictures below). After the warmup came Once Over Lightly (OOL) which is review of all of Monday’s dances, with the addition of a few square dance rounds. OOL ended about 11:10pm. I went to bed around midnight, but the after party went on until 2pm.

    That's my son on the far left and my daughter-in-law is in red.

     

    The band, Miamon Miller & Friends. Great band.

    Good friends enjoying a line dance.

     

  • Dance Camp!

    I’m heading off to a week-long dance camp today in Stockton, CA. This is an annual pilgrimage for my husband and me (and a 100+ other dancers from around the world). On the schedule this week are classes in Portuguese, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Israeli, Vintage, English Country, What’s Hot in Europe and Square dance. We stay in the dorms of the University of the Pacific and eat yummy (not so much) dorm food.

    Here’s what my piles o’ packing look like:

    You’ll notice the kitties are a little apprehensive of all the disarray. We have a great housesitter lined up to stay with them, but they don’t know that. They don’t like it when we leave.

    In the third picture, those big black bags are clothes on hangers. Since we’re at dance camp for a solid week and because we’re dancing our little footsies off for several hours a day, we need lots of changes. Plus there are parties every night, some of them that involve costumes. So hubby and I need lots of changes of clothes.

    I like to make sure each outfit–skirt, blouse socks (yes, socks with a skirt. You can’t wear dance shoes barefoot, and it’s mighty hot for hose)–to be color coordinated. So I put them together on hangers so when I go to the closet for an outfit, I don’t have to think about where everything is.

    Even still, in my don’t rock the boat/rock the boat fashion, I’ll probably end up mixing everything up. And there are also the bargain finds at the rummage sale which I might end up wearing.

    Here’s one of my coordinated outfits:

    On Wednesday of the camp, we all have pictures taken. It’s nice to wear a costume that night. Last year I got a screaming good deal at the silent auction on a German dirndl costume. At the live auction, I bought a complete lederhosen costume for my husband, so we’ll both be well outfitted for picture night. I am part German although I don’t know that my German Jewish great-grandmother would have ever worn a dirndl.

    I’m hoping I’ll have enough spare energy this week to post to my blog about the camp. My goal is every day, but it may end up being just a few times during the week. One limitation is exhaustion (have you ever danced 8-10 hours a day?). The other is that my grandbaby will be at camp this year for the first time and I hope to help babysit her. But with luck you’ll see posts from me complete with cool pictures.