Small things

I had a good Saturday night dancing. My confidence wasn't high when I got there, but after a while I managed to relax and tune in better than I have in a few weeks - because all my dances were good, but most of all because of a long session with a favourite partner who really likes and values the way I dance (the feeling's mutual). An evening when I felt better at the end than at the beginning. I'm getting better at knowing when this will be true and when I should just stay in.

I've almost got rid of the annoying little quirk I developed at least a year ago, in which my trailing foot would turn over sometimes at the ankle when coming out from behind the standing foot, especially at certain angles, or when in a hurry. It's a strange little thing, like an ornament gone wrong. I think it started in a canyengue class, when I struggled at first with the different embrace and the pivotless crosswise progression. I quickly stopped doing it in the original context, but then it hid somewhere in my nervous system and kept coming up at odd moments. A few weeks ago I moved it to the top of my hit-list. Stopping it seemed like a small, achievable goal that would give me a boost. It's inefficient and ugly and there's no reason at all why I would ever want to do it on purpose. And on Saturday night I kept feeling it wanting to happen and just not happening.

It's a small thing, but it's good.

Then today I met up with Puddock and some other knitters at the Knit Roast. We sat in the sun on a lovely Autumn day, knitting, chatting, and admiring her baby. He gurgled and squeaked and responded when I pulled faces at him, and generally seemed delighted to be in such a wonderful world.

Father and Daughter dance

This is a lovely video from Oscar Casas, who teaches Canadians to dance tango, and does the rest of the world a favour by posting great little summaries on YouTube. It's several fathers and (adult) daughters dancing together, including him and his daughter Sheila. They are in the far left corner at the start - she has a backless black top on. It has a a message from Oscar in the subtitles, which speaks for itself.



I posted this in a conversation on Dance Forums about something else, and someone (AngelHi) pointed out something I hadn't noticed:

“there are 4 couples and 3 different embraces/styles&rdquo

Angel went on to remark that some people “get all caught up in closed vs open vs VU style vs ???” and base their argument on “Well, in BsAs....”. I think Angel's point is worth passing around, although I don't hear that kind of argument much here in London. I think it happens less here than where Angel is, for cultural reasons. There is less incentive for people in Britain to assign almost mystical signficance to trivial and frequently-imaginary details of other people's cultural practices. In the USA there are all sorts of reasons why you might want to do that and create carefully-catalogued cabinets of curiosities out of them. There just are.

I only dance with my Dad at weddings. He's quite musical, but doesn't think so himself because some of his siblings are even more so. We do a sort of Random Rock to his brother's big band.

The Free Leg - as in Speech, or Beer?

Here's another one that came out of an interesting conversation with a dance partner.

I would like you to have a look at something. At 02:35 in this video, there is curious move. The leader grabs the follower's free leg with his own and forcibly moves it to a new position. In this case it's a long way from where it started, because he's also moving himself and taking her with him. Because these two dancers are very skilled, and it's all about balance and timing, there's probably a lot less force in this than it looks like; but as far as I can tell he's really lifting her leg and putting it down somewhere new.

What I would like you to do is watch this as much as you need to, to decide on your personal aesthetic response to this move. It's probably fairer to watch the whole thing, to see it in context. Do you like the way it looks, and if so, in what way? Can you execute anything that works like this? Would you consider attempting any version in social dancing? How would you, as a follower (men, please imagine) feel, supposing it was used on you in a social context? 02:35.



After you've watched it and decided on your responses as much as it suits you to do so, scroll down and I'll tell you mine, and we can see whether they're the same.

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I say it looks awkward, tyrannical, and ugly. It makes the woman look like a servant and a toy. The way I feel about it is, I hope she got well paid.

What's happening here is that he grabs her free leg and pulls it somewhere. She is standing on the other one, therefore, while it happens, she is trapped. I've had people try this on me quite a few times, with varying degrees of skill and success, and it is a deeply unpleasant experience. The kind that makes me ask myself why on earth I would want to dance well if the result is being expected to put up with this sort of thing. It is like saying out loud, so everyone present can hear, “I can violate your dignity and throw you around as much as I want, and it's entirely your fault for dancing with me. You've already said yes, so don't you dare turn round and start saying there are limits. What do you think you are, an equal? You're just here to help me look powerful and clever.” When people try any kind of leg-trap on me, it irritates me in rather the same way as the bus-stop advert outside my office with a police badge on it, informing the women of London that if they get in unlicensed minicabs they should expect to get raped. It's logically defensible, but it doesn't enhance my lunch.

I don't mind what consenting adults do if it floats their boats. But in social dancing, the leader gets to do what floats his boat, and he has to make assumptions about what floats hers. I think that any interference with the freedom of her free leg (I am not talking ganchos or boleos here, they use the freedom and don't interfere with it), is well beyond the reasonable scope of any such assumption. It is disrespectful, and should be kept for performances and people who disagree with me. Doubtless they exist, and probably in London, as do a surprising variety of things.

I think that the woman's free leg should always belong to her. It is free as in “free speech”, not free as in “free beer”. I avoid leaders who wrap their legs around me in social dancing. Instinctively, I'd quite like to knee them in the balls; but that would be violence, so I refrain. I can think of maybe one or two who dance so extremely well, and do some mild variation so very quickly and gently, with such perfect timing and balance, that I'll dance with them anyway. But I still far prefer it when they leave it out.

If you teach a move like this, and have any respect for your students whatsoever, I think it is your professional duty to at least give an explicit opinion on its suitability, or not, for social dancing. And you probably ought to follow more.

My apologies to the innocent, skilled, and professional dancers in this video (I think the leader is Pablo Veron, don't know who the woman is) and my thanks for their assistance in illustrating this rant. My thanks also to Ghost for the video tip, and to one who shall remain nameless for promising not to do it again.

Something more positive in the works, I promise.

More from the Giant Pool of Money guys

Another outstanding radio programme from the same reporters who brought you The Giant Pool of Money (blogged here, and you can still get the streamed programme and a free transcript here if you didn't download the mp3 when it was free.)

In effect, this is Episode 2. It's just as perfectly put together as the first one, and just as informative, but slightly less funny.

Another Frightening Show About The Economy.

Via Calculated Risk.

Among other things, they explain what commercial paper is, how you swap credit defaults, and why it matters. They're serious about understanding it, entertainig about presenting it, and generally excellent.

Pointed Goth Rib Pullover

I reverse-engineered this design from something I saw in Jane Waller's display at the iKnit London 'Stitch n Bitch' day, 2007. The original was a very ingenious, very flattering Forties pattern with sleeves, but I decided to make this as a pullover. I think it's a bit too long, the proportions make me look too thin and the lower edge will probably get damaged. You can see in the lower picture that folds appear where my belt is. So I may unravel from the bottom, lose 8cm or so, and cast off, but I like the shape and pattern and the armholes worked out well.

The pattern is nothing more than a k2 p2 rib, and there's no shaping. The whole shape is created by increasing one stitch at each side of each side line, and decreasing one stitch at each side of each centre line. You do this on alternate rows. Everything else is k2 p2.

There's no shaping around the neck, either. The pattern takes care of it. I'm calling it Goth-Rib because of the way it automatically creates this close-fitting, pointed-bodice shape.

At the armholes (front and back alike), I cast off 6, then left out the side increases for a few rows, using the slope of the pattern, then started them again. At the shoulders I just cast off 12 at each side, I think, and sewed them together, leaving the middle stitches live. Then I knitted a few rows of reverse stocking stitch around the neck and cast off. I've never designed armholes or a shoulder-and-neckline before so I was completely winging it.

The effect of that cast-off mimics the bottom edge, where I used TechKnitting's elegant tubular edging.

I had to restart this project at least four times. First because I twisted the cast-on, then because I wasn't happy with the way I'd done the increases at the sides, then because I still wasn't happy with the sides, then because I had dye-lot problems. But I got there in the end. The answer about the sides was that it's important to leave two vertical knits there. It would have been even better if I'd done the same at centre front and back. It's also important to use the right kind of increases - make-one-left and make-one-right (demonstrated there by KnitWitch).

The Debbie Bliss cashmerino splices well and is pleasant to work with. It's also deliciously warm. I got one mid-ball knot, and a rather severe problem of non-matching dye lots.

I might make more woollen sleeveless pullovers. Worn over a sleeved blouse, or a cotton or thermal vest, they're cosy without being sweaty, good in an office building with the usual random alternation of heating and aircon.

Sorry about the poor quality photos, taken on my phone at work.

Aches and pains

I think I danced for more hours last night than I usually would, and in a slightly different style to what most of my regular partners do, and some of the time I was thinking about aspects of my own technique I haven't thought about specifically for a while.

Twenty-four hours later I have a strange ache in my left hip - or not so much at the hip as deep inside the thigh joint.

I hope my body is planning to do something useful with this information.

Negracha @ Wild Court

Negracha has changed quite noticeably since my original review, so here's an update. It's central, it's open late, and it's still to some degree where the hotshots go to be seen, though I noticed fewer teachers I knew than I have when I've been there before. It has two good-sized dance floors and a choice of music styles, and lots of very good dancers go there, and quite a few people go there to watch them.

The Class: I missed the class, but heard very good things about the beginners' class taught by Eleonora Simoes. I've generally heard good things about her, and here it was on the important point of telling people how to follow, often neglected.

Layout and Atmosphere: Improved. In the upstairs room, they have removed the bar along the far wall and installed a smaller, square one in the left hand corner. The annoying white-lit mirrors along that back wall have gone, and a black-and-white photograph of a street was projected there, to pleasing effect. The layout change means there is more room for tables and seating and it is not quite so mixed up with the dance floor. It's helped with the problem of bar staff walking through the dancers, and with the problems of sitting down and getting dances. On this occasion the platform at the window end was reserved for the band, so there were no reserved tables up there, but I think they still do that generally.

It was still crowded, which is fine if everyone or nearly everyone behaves well and understands the notion of floorcraft - as was the case at tango al fresco this year, for example. It is not so fine where most people are trying to dance in seven-league boots. Unless you are dancing late in the evening and with a very good lead, expect a lot of bumps and disturbance in the flow. I was dead impressed with my last one. No bumps at all. It's better than it has been, but it's still not the place to wear anything expensive on your legs.

Downstairs, a good sized square room with comfortable sofas, is also much improved. They now have a proper human DJ there playing new-tango music, and quite a few people - in particular some modern-jivers who I knew and had arranged to meet - have started going regularly as groups of friends. It's no longer six people, crap music, and a computer, and the sleazy feeling has gone. Of course people do un-social moves down there, and there's no real notion of the line of dance, but it's also not crowded so there aren't too many bumps. You can sit downstairs in comfort and dance or chat with friendly people. The instructional DVD playing silently on the projector is incongruous and bizarre, but sort of charming, and gives you something good to watch while you're resting.

Hospitality: Still dire. I was refused a glass of tap water at the bar, on the grounds that the tap was not working. Presumably they do not wash the glasses, then. I politely declined to buy bottled water at twice the usual price. I was charged £4.50 for a single gin and tonic with ice and lime, and £2.50 for a glass of orange juice, having already paid £12 to get in. Pleasant barman, though. There are still notices reminding you that bringing your own food or drink is strictly forbidden. The floor in the ladies' is thoroughly dirty, one of the cubicles has no lock, and the sanitary appliance apparently is so useless it requires an A4 notice of instructions. The paper is not installed, the hand dryer is disgustingly dirty and does not work, and there is no means of drying your hands except toilet paper which soon generates little soggy shreds all over the place. On this occasion I did not test the cold taps to see if, unlike last time, they worked; the hot ones were barely tepid. The (free) cloakroom behind the desk is a convenient place to leave your coat and kitbag, and to change your shoes, but on my return I found my coat lying on the floor, with its hanger still inside, covered in dust, along with a pile of other people's. [Update April 09: Someone seems to have given the place a bit of a wipe in the last couple of months - it all feels a lot cleaner than it was. This made a real difference to me, and even more to a friend who suffers from asthma. There's still no clean way of drying your hands, but the floor appears to have been scrubbed and then dried before being walked on. The taps all work properly now, with cold and hot water. Big improvement. Repairs still required.]

Anyone or anything interesting that turned up or happened: There was a band, who played some merengue, great if you know how to dance merengue, which some did, and a kind of jazz-tango fusion. I don't know what they were called and the website is offline so I can't look it up right now, but I felt they were a concert band rather than a dance band. Making Milonga Sentimental that difficult to dance to takes real dedication to your musical ideals.

What I thought of the DJing: Upstairs played quite a lot of things I like. Downstairs, which filled up while the band were on upstairs, is much nicer now that it has a real human DJ with actual discrimination.

Getting in: £12, the most expensive regular milonga as far as I know.

Getting there and getting home: Five minutes walk from Holborn. Come out of the left-hand exit at Holborn tube and cross the road in front of you to Sainsbury's. Walk past Boots and carry on, crossing a couple of minor roads, till you get to Wild Court on the same side. The entrance is on the right and you know when you're there because you can peer through the low square windows into the cloakroom. Last trains from Holborn are after midnight, at about the same time that upstairs gets good; however, there are lots of night buses from stops nearby every fifteen minutes or so. Check TFL for details, and it's on my Milonga Map.

The website: Is currently offline. Its river-on-black style - oh yes, I remember 1997 - mostly includes the information you require.

How it went: Better than it has before in terms of dances, perhaps mainly because I've been around longer and know more people, and they know me. I had a good evening, mostly downstairs, dancing and chatting with some people I knew via email, this blog, and some dance message boards, but hadn't met in person before. A bonus experience. I also got one dance upstairs, late, with a leader I looove dancing with (he does almost only the kind of stuff being taught in this vid*) but with whom I really feel my own faults. Not that he tells me - he seems quite satisfied as far as I can tell - but because I know the sort of connection I can get with him when I've had recent practice with the right people, and I know when my receiver is poorly tuned. I haven't had enough practice at that lately. Anyway, I noticed some things I should work on, and that I was making progress in getting rid of a little quirk that had been annoying me. Another bonus to take home.

* But with a lot less of the annoying Flying Teapot.