A year on inactivity...oh dear...

Oh dear, I can't believe that it's almost a year since I wrote on this blog.  Really lousy of me.

I did really a lot of Zumba last year, and even made an instructor training in November ;p  I am actually a certified Basic 1 Zumba Instructor, LOL...

With dancing, we're not that much advanced.  We did an intermediate weekend salsa course once, and we have been trying to go to a weekly salsa course at Husband's office.

I found some interesting dance classes for a bargain, we'll see how far that will take me, lazy butts and all that.

Keep dancing!

Frankfurt, May 2, 2012.

First try at Zumba ;)

Last Monday I finally kicked my own butt and dragged myself to Sportfabrik, a fitness/health club some 200 meters from the flat (yeah...I am THAT lazy...).  The long delayed moment of actually using one of my 10-card non member entry.


I came for the Zumba class at 8 - 9 P.M.  It was FUN!  Will try to make time for it again next Monday.  It's a pity they scaled down the frequency from 2 times a week for the first half of the year to once a week from July 'till December.  But then again, most probably I also won't be going to Zumba classes at 8 P.M. on Friday evening, will I?


I still haven't managed to attend the Hip Hop or the European Aerobic classes.  But I am also curious about Bodystyling exercise, under the aerobics schedule.  Anyone has any idea what Bodystyling means in this respect?


Stay fit!

PINA: tanzt, tanzt, sonst sind wir verloren...the movie

I have no knowledge of German culture and history. I have no knowledge of classical culture.  I have no knowledge of the ballet world.  I speak only very little German.

PINA the movie blew my mind away.  Probably it had something to do with the fact that it's a 3D movie, but it's a seriously cool movie. First time I've heard of her was when my in-laws talked about the movie, so I don't know that much about her, more info here and here. But her choreography was very powerful, to say the least.  

What I really want to look up is the story and background of each piece featured in the movie.  I am wondering whether what I 'felt' and 'saw' was really what she wanted to convey.  But then again, probably the effect of art itself on people is as important as the intention behind it :)  My experiencing the pieces can have something to do, or nothing to do at all, with the intention and motivation, but it doesn't mean it's less meaningful or 'correct'.

I would say that there were not even 40 people in the theater last night, and the English speaking girl sitting next to me (who had her phone ringing within the first minute of the movie...) almost fell asleep at one point, but I think most people enjoyed it (though most people came 30 minutes too early, including us... because we all thought the movie would start at 8, when it's actually 8.30....).

Thank you, Mom in law, for taking me to the movie :)

Darmstadt, 15 April 2011.

Our first class in Sana'a...

Last Thursday was out first class in Sana'a.  That was interesting, LOL.

I ended up with muscle sore, I think partly because I had spent the whole afternoon trying out exercises for the warm-up section, hahaha....  I must have repeated the work-out part like 5 times, before settling on the routine and songs I wanted to use for the actual workshop.

The turn up was rather surprisingly many.  We know we had 18 people on the list, and I think around 20 people actually turned up.  Wow... I've seen around the same number of people dancing in our front room, but to look at them looking at me all at the same time, geez.... it kind of only hit me then, how many people we were about to lead astray.  I haven't been teaching (anything) in a large group for almost a year now, so that was an interesting refresher, stage fright, voice projection and all that stuff.

As I was working up the time division, I started to realize that the original lesson plan was kind of ambitious.  I was relying on the fact that most people would have known the basic already.  But from the sign-up list, I knew that there would be also some real beginners.  And as I had expected, we barely made it to the 'inside turn for lead', when the time ran out.

We managed to squeeze in the combination of the follow-lead consecutive turns, but that was already pushing it.  That only means, there is more stuff to learn/review next time around.

Der Herr and I were just hoping that people had fun, and learned something in the process.  It at least seemed that they had fun ;p  And the absolute beginners did seem to learn somethings.

Happy New Year 2011!!

Yohoooo! We get to start 2011 with our first ever basic salsa workshop.

The plan is to give a 2-hour session of basic salsa, including warm-up.  We are thinking of covering the basic footwork (basic, side basic, backrock and open break/guapea), exhibela/outside turn for follows, inside turn for leads, dile que no/cross body lead and enchufle.  And....some basic combinations of the previously mentioned stuffs.

I am pretty nervous, LOL. Tomorrow is the 'big' day, and I still have to work on the playlist for the session.  Cross your fingers for us!  I will let you know how that turns out.

Dancing is a funny thing....

Just posted an article on my other blog:

Dancing is a funny thing.  

Enjoy!

Salsa night, July 1, 2010.

Thursday, July 1, 2010, 8 p.m. onwards. Our place.
Bring some chips, comfortable shoes, chewing gum and you best dancing mood ;)