Dancing

The past several months I have been focusing on getting the tomhartung.com site up and have been taking dance classes only somewhat sporadically.

The latest dancing news

The good news is, my knee feels much better, so I deleted all the stuff about that from this page. I don't even think about it anymore! The moral is, if you enjoy dancing and have chronic pain someplace (e.g., knees, shoulders, etc.), I highly recommend going to see a chiropractor as soon as possible.

As mentioned elsewhere, this site is now pretty much obsolete. For the latest information, please see my new site, tomhartung.com.

Despite the fact that I wrote the following section about Musicality back in 2004, it's really not so out-of-date. Although I've made some progress in overcoming my shyness, and can dance freestyle in public to a certain extent, I still have a ways to go. Because it's still relevant, I see no reason to delete what's already here, so if you don't mind reading something written a few years ago, by all means, continue!

Also further down on this page, is my saga of dancing, written in 2002.

Musicality

Recently I've been reading about the history of dance, and have been buying some videos of modern dance in particular. I like modern dance the best, and I believe it's for the same reason I like jazz, the blues, bluegrass, hip-hop, and film noir: because all of these are uniquely American art forms.

Isadora Duncan 101

So far the dancer who impresses me the most is Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). Over the years, a few of my teachers have mentioned musicality, but I had no clue what that term meant until I saw a video of one of Isadora's dances.

During Isadora's time, someone who wanted to dance would have to study ballet. Although she loved classical music, she didn't care for ballet's affected grace and toe-walking, so she had to invent her own movements.

She would stand for hours, with her hands over her solar plexus, seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement.

To quote further:

From My Life,
by Isadora Duncan, 1927.

Ok, so you can take computer graphics classes in the Math department of most any college, and learn how to put colored pixels on the screen. But if, on the other hand, you take a computer graphics class in the Art department, and the teacher makes you read Kandinsky's Point and Line to Plane, you might learn how to apply that knowledge.

Similarly, you can take social and performance dance classes in untold numbers of studios accross the land, and learn some movements that will have some built-in musicality for a given genre of music. But you will have to learn about and study someone like Isadora Duncan to learn how to apply that knowledge.

Applying Isadora's principles

Before learning about Isadora, I had basically been learning movements. Not having an interest in classical music, and not really wanting to learn Isadora's movements, my path is clear.

What I need to do is apply Isadora's principles to my situation.

What's easy

Because I've been listening to rock and roll for many decades, and don't have to worry about leading a partner, this is incredibly easy for me to do at rock 'n' roll shows.

For example, for the post-Isadora-tomh, going to shows that feature free-flowing, jazzy rock, like The Dead, will never be the same. It's like I can feel a direct connection from the music to my body. Another example is punk rock, a genre that expresses ample amounts of emotion and, in some cases at least (e.g., Sonic Youth and Tomahawk more so than The Melvins), plenty of synchopation.

It's also fairly easy for me to do this in the privacy of my own home, where in addition to not having to worry about leading, there is no one watching and making me feel self-conscious.

What's not so easy

Because I've been taking social dance classes for many years, and have the obligation to lead a partner, this is extremely difficult for me to do while dancing swing and salsa.

Obviously, my work is cut out for me. I can feel the emotions, and can express them in movements in some cases, but not all. A little pain in a leg might keep me from learning other people's movements, but it is not going to stop me from expressing what's in my soul.

When doing something, it's important to have a goal....

So that's the current state of things, here and now in 2004. What follows is the "saga of dancing" I originally put up on this site in 2002.

Tomh's saga of dancing in Denver

When I was young, growing up in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, people just didn't dance. At least, no one I knew did. It was the age of The Beatles, CSNY, The Dead, Who, Byrds, Kinks, Doors, Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Everyone wanted to be a Rock 'n' Roll star.

Learning about music and learning about learning

I played trumpet from sixth grade through high school, and in my senior year was in a rock band with some classmates. We had a full ensemble, but couldn't find a reliable bass player.

Also in my senior year I took a class in music theory and solfeggio (ear and voice training). Prior to this I'd learned only specific songs, this was like learning all of music. Maybe it was the private lessons or maybe it was having the discipline to do the scales and arpeggios more than knowing the theory (undoubtedly it was all of the above) but about this time I began to improvise on the horn, and jam along with Freddy Hubbard and Miles Davis records.

Back in those days, if you wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star, trumpet was obviously the wrong way to go. So after graduation from Hell School, err, High School, I bought a used Framus hollow-body electric bass for $50. Thanks I am sure to working with solfeggio, it was surprisingly easy to learn and play Paul McCartney's simple yet incredibly beautiful bass lines. Soon ex-trumpeter Phil Lesh (bass player for the Dead) became my main source of inspiration. Later I used what I learned in that same music theory class to teach myself guitar.

Using the knowledge and always learning more

Some years later I got a gig playing stand-up bass in a bluegrass band. I was still young and had a bit of an attitude. The deal was, the money didn't matter much, what was important was that sometime during each set I'd get to play guitar and sing one of my "hippie songs," like Me and My Uncle, Sweet Virginia, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, and Friend of the Devil.

The bluegrass band was fine for a few years until I started getting into Punk Rock. Somehow it seemed that doing a Clash song, even one from the laid-back album Sandinista, in a bluegrass style just wouldn't work....

That music theory class also wound up having a profound effect on how I learned photography and dancing. Pursuing an interest in photography, I wound up taking a lot of art history and even a drawing class. Eventually I found the "music theory of visual arts" in writings by Mondrian and Kandinsky. I remember specifically finding Kandinsky's book Point and Line to Plane to be fascinating.

Soon after this, in Graduate School, I studied Artificial Intelligence. At this time I became consciously aware of the difference between being smart vs. being intelligent, and why training is cheaper and easier than education. Like, duh! Obviously in these changing times, education is the way to go!

Please don't hate me because I get bored easily! I write about doing all this stuff, but I don't do any of it very well. I just get bored with everything. Lately it's become obvious that I enjoy the learning part the most.... To do something well, you need to stick with it, and actually that is something I have been doing recently, which is why you should come to the CPRD Student Showcases!

How I got interested in dancing

It all started one day in February, 1997, when I got a coupon in the mail for 20% off on dance lessons at a local ballroom dancing studio named The World of Dance. It sounded like something different, possibly fun, and, according to conventional wisdom, a good way to meet women. I cogitated on the coupon for a week or two and, being bored with my life at that time (did I mention it was in February?), finally used the coupon a few days before it expired.

Over the next four years I took private lessons and all sorts of classes at The World of Dance, and learned swing (jitterbug and lindy hop), salsa, cha-cha, rumba, waltz, samba, merengue, fox-trot, tango, and even a little polka. When the teachers I had there retired, I started taking lessons and classes at Karen Lee Dance International (KLDI).

Looking for the music theory of dancing

By 2001, I had a solid background in the basics of partner dancing, but still had difficulty in the more advanced classes. It was frustrating to spend $100 in a weekend to take classes from a visiting instructor like Frankie Manning, and be able to remember only maybe about 10-25% of what I learned.

It was about this time I was wondering, "what is the music theory of dancing? What can I learn that will be like learning all of dancing?" What movements are the alphabet and vocabulary of dancing? Where can I get education instead of training?

From dancing with beginners, I learned that women who have taken ballet were much easier to lead than those who hadn't. Also, the teachers I had for private lessons had taken jazz, ballet, tap, and other performance dance classes. After hearing me complain about my lack of memory ("my brain is full!") when trying to recall recently-learned moves, some of my dance partners suggested I take some classes at a place like Cleo Parker Robinson's Dance School (CPRD) (CPRD).

A mini-Juilliard right in my back yard!

As it happens, CPRD is about two blocks from where I live. And in June of 2001, I found myself unemployed, with enough savings to get by on, but definitely not enough to continue with the private lessons and classes in partner dancing. So in July, 2001 I mustered up the courage to take a Beginning Jazz dance class at CPRD. It was huge fun and a great work-out, and I felt totally liberated, finally for once being able to dance without having to worry about leading!

As the summer of 2001 came to an end, Hip-hop and Salsa classes came next, and as the economy and World Trade Center Towers went their way, so did my hopes of finding employment that fall anyway, and for who knows how long after that.

Just as I was in the bluegrass band, (or just about anyone else in any bluegrass, jazz, punk rock, etc. band for that matter) Cleo's definitely not in it for the money. Her mission is for everyone to dance as much as possible. You can take unlimited classes for only $110/month (the private lessons I was taking cost $50/hour). I took full advantage of her generosity, and by 2002 I was taking ten classes per week (for a cost of around $2/hour).

Taking classes at Cleo's not only helped me keep off the sauce (during a previous spat of unemployment I definitely started drinking too much alcohol), the exercise also proved invaluable in helping me to quit smoking.

The alphabet and vocabulary of dance

That's what they teach at CPRD: the alphabet and vocabulary of dance. Occasionally a teacher will come out and say this, but for the most part it's understood, it's why we're there. Well that, and the endorphins, and the ethnic rhythms, and.... Taking classes there, I am constantly remembering how powerful the lessons I learned in music theory were, and how much fun it was taking Art and Art History classes at VCU.

The parallel now is, instead of learning specific dances, I am learning all of dancing. Since it came first, Ballet got dibs on naming some of the most basic of these movements: tendu, plie, degage, etc. Many of the other dances, especially Jazz and Modern, add their own character to these basic movements. An exception of course is West African, which started an entirely different, less formal, branch. It has its own vocabulary, but without the terms, ya just gotta watch it and try it. How Hip-Hop fits into this scheme is left as an exercise for the reader....

Despite Osama and various CEOs, in May of 2002 I had a job interview that led to an actual job in September. Whoo-hoo! Time off is nice but enough is enough, the starving artist lifestyle (lots of MacCheese) definitely gets old after awhile. I tried going back to partner dancing, but felt I needed more time before going back to the old places -- the smoky Salsa bars in particular -- without the ciggies. So in I decided keep my momentum going at CPRD at least through the showcase, to continue my "basic training" and laying this foundation for partner dancing.

Watching dance performances

Taking classes from members of her company is one thing. When learning dance, it's just as important to go see their performances. It should go without saying that all of them are awesome. You should check out Cleo's Dance Ensemble whenever possible!

The past several months I've been checking out the fliers people leave at the school and have been going to dance performances in the auditorium there by smaller, less well-known local dance companies. These are almost always fun:

• When one of the drummers for the West African classes died, they had a benefit to raise money to return his body to his home in Africa. Denver has three different African dance troupes; all three performed that night.
• We've seen the Hannah Kahn Dance Company perform there.
• When a musician from the Middle East came to visit the Denver area, he shared his talents by performing in a concert with local musicians. The performance included belly dancing and a dance inspired by the whirling dervish (some of us have seen something similar at Dead shows, but nothing quite like this). It was interesting to see that Denver has people who are huge fans of that type of delicate, intricate Middle Eastern music, which actually kind of reminds me of bluegrass, in a way....
• One night we saw a variety of acts in a program put on by Ballet Arts. The acts included works in Ballet, Hip-Hop, and some sort of warlike Modern Dance that was a bit unsettling. The most memorable performances of the evening were by Teri Westerman, who won fourth place in an international ballroom dancing competition featuring 150 couples from various countries in Europe. What made her performances so memorable is the fact that she dances in a wheelchair.
• More recently I saw a performance by the Dirty Laundry Dance Company. The evening featured many skit-like performances, one of which was what can only be described as a spank-fest. Another piece featured a too-happy housewife and a pile of laundry writhing and coming alive. Things got messy in that one. In another piece one of the dancers was wrapped up by the others in a make-shift structure of mostly duct tape and plastic.

All of these have been very cool.

How dancing inspired a new type of jazz

Currently I'm reading Miles: The Autobiography, and it is extremely cool to learn that he was married to a dancer named Francis Taylor. In the quote below, "the modal thing" refers to the type of jazz he pioneered on the album Kind of Blue.

From Miles: The Autobiography,
by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, 1989.

My favorite places to dance in Denver, Colorado

Dancing in Denver is great fun, and there are some wonderful people here to enjoy this activity with. My favorite dance is the cha-cha, but swing is much more popular here, so I do plenty of that, too.

• I learned to dance at World of Dance, at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Evans. If you know nothing about ballroom dancing, and are interested in learning, this is a great place to start.
• My favorite place for swing dancing is The Mercury Cafe. Visit the site to see their schedule of events and to sign up on their mailing list.
• There are some groovy groups of people here in Denver who promote swing dancing, specifically the Lindy Hop. To see what I mean, visit the Colorado Swing Dance Network's website. You can sign up on their mailing list to keep up on all the swing dancing events here in Denver.
• Another group of hep cats and kittens is the 23 Skidoo Dance Troupe. Visit their site to learn about their workshops, see film clips, learn about fashion, etc.
• I have also taken some dance classes and lessons at Karen Lee Dance International (KLDI), another great ballroom dancing studio here in Denver.
• In the summer of 2001, after several dance partners recommended the place, my curiosity got the best of me and I started taking performance dance classes at The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance School. I initially started taking Jazz there, to help with my swing dancing, but lately learning these dances has become an end in itself. Now I am taking Jazz, Hip-Hop, Salsa, Ballet, and Modern there. This place is wonderful, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I feel we are truly fortunate to have a place like this in Denver.

If you want to see the people whom I think are "Denver's Finest," take a class at CPRD sometime.