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I have a pretty standard routine for how I go each direction. For example when going to Europe I usually take a red-eye and try to sleep on the plane a bit, then when landing I might let myself nap for an hour or two that day max but force myself to stay up until at least 10 pm, finally crashing and hoping to sleep until at least 6/7 am. I also try to do this a day early so I might leave Wed night, lay low and adjust Thurs, and have to get up and teach Fri morning through the weekend.
One big tip I can give is when you get up in the morning, go outside in the open air and stand facing the sun with your eyes closed for a good 5-10 minutes. I'd been told that doing this helps adjust your internal clock, and I think it really does help in my experience.
Finally, I do now keep some basic over-the-counter sleeping pills on backup and use them on occasion. I didn't at all for the first 5 years, but sometimes the same routine will work maybe 5 trips in a row and suddenly not on the 6th (for no apparent reason) and you simply can't adjust. It's nice to have the option, and I haven't found them to be the source of any major side effects (super grogginess or anything)--I've been able to take them, sleep, wake up and shower and be fine. -
I use the expression 'quality of movement' (alternatively, 'quality of motion') to mean the essential, overall character of the way a dancer or dancers move. In this way it is akin to expressions such as 'quality of life' or 'quality of sound' in referring to "the essential, overall.. quality, nature or fundamental characteristic(s) of X".
Using the expression this way, your second question doesn't quite make sense (if taken literally), just as it would not to ask how to "achieve" things like 'quality of life' or 'quality of sound'. You could ask how a dancer can *improve* their quality of movement, but then the question is impossible to answer apart from the particular context of the person asking. In broadest essentials: first you'd have to identify the key aspects of their current quality of motion, then evaluate those and determine what or how you would like to change which would be considered an improvement, and only then could you begin to determine what concrete steps to take towards that end (whether focusing on specific mechanical changes, or practicing certain exercises, or altering one's mindset/approach, etc). -
I started with a simple, 6-count swing sometime in the late 90s, then moved onto Lindy as soon as I could (sometime in the first year) and Balboa a few years later.
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[If you don't know what The Experiment is, see: http://thebalboaexperiment.com .]
I actually have another name already picked out, but haven't decided whether to make the change or when. As it stands, the 'Experiment' name has great recognition and is completely unique in our scene. And it could potentially be used at least a few more years, since any good scientist knows a proper experiment requires multiple data points.
Conversely, a new name could better reflect our success and confidence in the format, as well as at least hinting at what that format is in the name itself. (While the original name was chosen to convey only that we were doing something different and a sense of mystery about what it was, motivating people to look further for answers.) Also the process of relaunching under a new name would offer us the opportunity to revise some general perceptions, including a better explanation of just what exactly The Experiment is and what it's like to attend, and re-emphasizing the increased accessibility with the expansion to multiple separate weeks.
Ultimately I think I will end up renaming the event, but whether it's done this coming year or further down the line has yet to be decided. -
I'm a long-time PC FPS gamer, although I just started getting into the latest generation of consoles. On the PC side, I'm currently a big Valve guy with my two favorites being Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2--hit me up on Steam and we'll play: http://steamcommunity.com/id/atlaspwn3d --while my first love for multi-player was actually DM/FFA games such as Quake 1/2, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life DM 1/2, etc. For single-player I prefer cinematic action adventures like Half-Life 2 and Portal.
Notably absent from that list is any kind of RPG including MMORPG's which I simply don't play, so no WoW or anything fantasy with dragons or elves--I'm not quite /that/ kind of geek. (Although if you are we'd probably still get along just fine. =)
On the console side, I got a PS3 (PSN ID: Atlas_Pwn3d) to use mainly as a blu-ray player and ended up really enjoying some of the big-name action adventure and platforming games on there, things like Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2, and LittleBigPlanet. And just recently I caved into playing some Rock Band. (You'll notice no shooters on the console side, because they still can't compare to the PC.) I also own a Wii which I received as a gift and use mainly just for Nintendo's own titles (Mario and Zelda), including playing an utterly vicious game of Mario Kart. =) -
In my case, I never had the option of having a regular partner for any length of time (there were a few follows I tried practicing/working with at various points but it never lasted). Therefore I did practice a lot on my own especially in the beginning, but there was more to it than that which I think is worth mentioning. (All of this is before and without going into my current partner situation with Marie & Laura, which in a word is: awesome.)
For starters, I would have favorite follows who I was sometimes fortunate to be able to dance with semi-regularly, and who were very patient in letting me practice and try things with them on the social floor or on the sidelines. They weren't partners in any sense, and yet they're certainly relevant to the present discussion and I am very grateful to them. I was also incredibly fortunate to form a few close friendships with fellow leads (people like Nick Williams, and a few others before that) that in many ways served as the equivalent of having a regular partner--someone to discuss and work on things with; to inspire, challenge and push one another; and to say that something's crap when the other needs to hear it.
I do think that these kinds of interactions are incredibly beneficial and worth pursuing, whether with a dedicated practice partner or from a range of sources as I had to. If doing so with a dedicated practice partner, I would just warn that you make sure it is an accessory to social dancing with a wider range of people so you don't get stuck calibrating to each other's quirks and bad habits, and because on a wider level I think practicing should never replace social dancing. -
I get asked a lot of questions, particularly by my students and event promoters.
Sometimes I get asked a great question while teaching but I can't take the time to answer it in class (because it's not contextually appropriate, or would be too lengthy, etc).
Sometimes I get asked great questions outside of class--in the hallway/street/restaurant/hotel at an event, or during a private lesson, or by email/Facebook/etc--and I think my answer might be useful and interesting to a larger audience. (This is reinforced by the fact that I often get the same questions repeatedly.)
Dance questions range from technical to thematic to semantics to the 'big picture'. And on another level, event promoters and the scene in general are wrestling with a whole host of questions pertaining to how to structure and run events from things like workshop schedules to music to contests.
Another category of questions I get often is biographical--how I got started dancing or teaching, what I think of all the travel, etc. While I don't think most of these questions are as interesting or important, if answering them here cuts down on the number of times I have to repeat myself in the future I think that's a fair trade.
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One final, completely unrelated category of questions I get asked a lot as a geek are of the: "what do you think of X?/what X should I buy?" variety, where X is a laptop/phone/GPS/video-card/etc. I actually really enjoy these questions as well.
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So go ahead, ask me anything! -
If I had to pick a single thing, I'd have to say the keynote by Wil Wheaton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSLDfAgbOh4 .
..or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A1Xs20xi7o ... O_o
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David Rehm
David Rehm’s Bio
Particularly interested in questions regarding dance, technology and gaming.
