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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsserver.pixel.kodak.com!news.kodak.com!news.thenet.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!nnrp.info.ucla.edu!news.ucla.edu!eijkhout From: eijkhout@jacobi.math.ucla.edu (Victor Eijkhout) Newsgroups: rec.arts.dance,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: rec.arts.dance FAQ (part 2/3) Followup-To: rec.arts.dance Date: 05 Oct 1996 20:03:41 GMT Organization: University of California, Los Angeles Lines: 675 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: <EIJKHOUT.96Oct5130341@jacobi.math.ucla.edu> Reply-To: Victor Eijkhout <eijkhout@math.ucla.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: jacobi.math.ucla.edu Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about practically all dance forms and issues, in particular pertaining to their discussion on the net. This should be read be anyone wishing to post on rec.arts.dance. Keywords: FAQ, Dance, Ballroom, Latin, Nightclub, Country, Western, Social, Competitive, Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive, East Coast Swing, Samba, Mambo, Salsa, West Coast Swing, Hustle, Two-Step, Merengue, Paso Doble, Bolero, Polka, Jazz, Ballet, Folk Dancing Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.dance:35645 rec.answers:24422 news.answers:83615 Archive-name: dance/faq/part2 Version: 2.0 Posting-Frequency: monthly Maintainer: Victor Eijkhout <eijkhout@math.ucla.edu> Last-modified: September, 1996 GENERAL DANCE QUESTIONS (4.0) ----------------------------- Questions about dancing in general, but not about any specific dance. In this section and the next, authors of the various pieces are identified by initials; look them up in the Acknowledgments section (7.1) . I'll soon be in XYZ. How do I find where to go dancing? (4.1) -------------------------------------------------------------- Try looking in the Dancers' Archive (2.8) . Or just post here, and see what suggestions you get. Where do I find dance music? (4.2) ---------------------------------- In the Dancers' Archive, subdirectory `music': ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/music . Additionally, there are lists of swing songs in http://catalog.com/meyer/music.html and http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/People/aswin//SwingDancing/Music/cds.html and ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/malak/wcssongs . Where can I buy dance supplies? (4.3) ------------------------------------- Check out the following files in the Dancers' Archive: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/shoes.txt ; information about cheap dance shoes: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/ballroom/cheap-dance-shoe-FAQ.txt ; mail order companies: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/mailorder.txt . Henry Neeman's hotlist has a section about supplies too: http://zeus.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8080/~hneeman/dance_hotlist.html#supplies . Geared more towards ballet is Tom Parsons twp@panix.com Dance Wear FAQ list ftp://math.ucla.edu/pub/eijkhout/dance/ballet/wear.txt . Another very good source is going to competitions. There are often stands of shoe / boots / apparel / hat / jewelry manufacturers. This is an easy way to see and try on lots of stuff. For more information about competitions, see http://www.math.ucla.edu/~eijkhout/comp/faq.html . How can I learn more about dance? Books? Videos? (4.4) ------------------------------------------------------ **Videos** Look in the Dancers' Archive in the `books' and `videos' subdirectories: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/books and ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/nonprofits/dance/videos . You can find reviews of instructions videos for swing, country, and shag on http://www.math.ucla.edu/~eijkhout/videos/faq.html . **Books** See for ballroom related material ftp://ftp.std.com/nonprofits/dance/books/ballroom.txt , and for Craig Hutchinson's Swing Dancer: ftp://ftp.std.com/nonprofits/dance/books/hutch-swing.txt . Information about country dances in 19th century England and about formal balls can be found in What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens knew by: Daniel Pool Simon and Schuster, New York 1993 More about 19th century dance can be found in From the ballroom to hell grace and folly in nineteenth-century dance by: Elizabeth Aldrich Northwestern University Press Evanston, Illinois 1991 I want to put a dance floor in my house! Any tips? (4.5) -------------------------------------------------------- Go to the Dancers' Archive, and look in subdirectory `topics': ftp://ftp.std.com/customers/nonprofits/dance/topics/dance-floor-FAQ.txt . Also, there was an excellent three-page article on finishing floors in the March 1994 issue of "The Dance Corral," which is a monthly magazine for country western dancers. The article, entitled "Floor Lore," was written by Dan Downing. He cites several resources for further information, including an article in "Dance Magazine," Feb. 1989, 63:72, and the addresses and phone numbers of three wood floor associations. If you want to order a back issue of The Dance Corral (you'd want vol. 5, num. 3), their phone number is (616) 473-3261. Dance notation and software (4.6) --------------------------------- **Notation** Here are some links to notation information and software, courtesy of Christian Griesbeck griesbec@stud.uni-frankfurt.de http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/ Shawn E. Koppenhoefer is colecting links on dancenatation: http://litmac17.epfl.ch/labanotation.html The Ohio State University Department of Dance has on its LabanWriter page some links on dancenatation: http://www.dance.ohio-state.edu/ (OSU Department of Dance) http://www.dance.ohio-state.edu/files/LabanWriter/index.html (LabanWriter) I am writing a introduction to Labanotation (as part of my computer choreography/Choreology Project): http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML (english in construction) http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABAN.HTML (german finshed) **Craig Hutchinson's notation** in Swing Dancer. It is pretty much geared to swing dancing, so there is no concept of line-of-dance. It involves a good 300 terms for movements, holds, foot positions. **Labanotation** is very good for showing steps, directions, duration of steps, how to use the foot, shifting weight, etc. Read the following file in the Dancers' Archive: ftp://ftp.std.com/customers/nonprofits/dance/topics/labanotation-dialog-FAQ.txt . Labanotation now has two "dialects" which arose starting during the Second World War. They are Labanotation as used in the Western Hemisphere and Great Britain, and Kinetography-Laban, as used in the rest of Europe. ICKL, the International Council on Kinetography Laban, has regular meetings to deal with new developments and also to attempt to re-merge the two forms. (No success so far, but a great spectator sport!) This is all OTTOMH and probably none too accurate... kerr@cobra.uni.edu The Language of Dance Centre 17 Holland Park London W11 3TD England Dance Notation Bureau 31-33 W. 21st St., 3rd floor New York, NY 10010 USA **ICKL** Toni' Intravaia, Treasurer, USA 201 Hewitt Carbondale, IL 62901 USA Ann Kipling Brown, Chairman 705 Galbraith House Mitchener Park Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6H 4M5 **Benesh Movement Notation** The Institute of Choreology 4 Margravine Gardens Barons Court London W6 8RH England **Eshkol-Wachmann System** The Movement Notation Society 75 Arlozorov Street Holon, Israel For more information, and some interesting reading, try to find: Guest, Ann Hutchinson (1984). _Dance Notation: The Process of Recording Movement on Paper_. Dance Books: London. ISBN 0 903102 75 7 This gives historical background, plus an overview of notation systems, and discusses what works (and what doesn't) with the various systems covered. **Software** **Lifeforms** is not really a notation; it is a program for designing choregraphy http://fas.sfu.ca/css/groups/lifeforms.html . From: Message-Id: <199608230407.OAA26350@linus.socs.uts.EDU.AU> Re: labanotation Content-Type: text Apparently-To: <eijkhout@math.ucla.edu> **Laban software** I have got an X-Window laban editor working quite nicely and its available as freeware from http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/led/led.c and an example of its use is in http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/swing/swing.html [Don Herbison-Evans don@socs.uts.EDU.AU ] **Studio software** Mark J. Zetler writes: My wife (& I) have a dance studio in San Diego. I've been using COMPUDANCE by a company in Texas called Theatrical Administration Consultants (210) 497-4327 for about 7 years. It seems to do the job, and the author seems to be responsive to the people who use the program. There are some quirky things that that are annoying but all in all the program works. I think the price is around $300 (????). I have only run into 3 other programs. The first one was about $100 and didn't do anything. I don't think the company exists any more. The High Priced Spread is called DANCE MANAGER. Last I heard (I could be wrong) the price was about $1,200. The demo of the program implied this program could do everything. I just could not justify the cost. The last program I've run into is called IN MOTION: THE STUDIO MANAGER from Full Spectrum in Anaheim Hills, CA. (714) 921-8743. ($200ish) The program looked promising but seemed to run everything from the accounting end not the student. I'll try to explain, at our studio most question/problems are easier to resolve by first looking up the student, seeing what classes they are registered in, look at the billing, then look at the payments. With the IN MOTION:you have to go to different places to find all that info. In COMPUDANCE you can do all that from one starting place (presentation ain't as pretty as the other programs but I still got the info and that is what counts). Compudance will have a Windows version in summer '96. There is also an advertisement in Dance Magazine for DanceWorks; runs under Windows; $395; phone (800) 286-3471 for free demo. For a contrasting view, tangotag@aol.com (Tango TAG) writes: I use WordPerfect Suit, it is great. but you could use any Suite program all you have to do is set it up for your business. To many people spend to much money, on custom programs. Buy a suite program and you got it all. How can I keep up with what's happening? (4.7) ---------------------------------------------- Subscribe to a dance publication. You can find several lists of publications in ftp://ftp.std.com/customers/nonprofits/dance/magazines . More specifically for ballroom dancing: http://wchat.on.ca/dance/pages/4dspubs/0publtn.htm When and where does Championship Ballroom Dancing air? (4.8) ------------------------------------------------------------ Short answer: on PBS, probably a Wednesday in May. Check your local listings. "Championship Ballroom Dancing" is the only regularly scheduled national broadcast of ballroom dancing in the U.S. It's an annual televising of the Ohio Star Ball, a ballroom competition held each November in Columbus, Ohio. Think of it as the unofficial North American championship. The show consists of the professional int'l style standard and Latin finals (see below for an explanation of international style versus American), and typically also includes cabaret events, and sometimes competitor interviews and/or American style demos. Lately, it's been hosted by dancer/actress Juliet Prowse and seven time U.S. int'l Latin champ Ron Montez. The show is broadcast on the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) during the May "sweeps" period and apparently enjoys excellent ratings. Contrary to a persistent rumor, "CBD" is not generally broadcast during "pledge" periods. This information comes directly from Aida Moreno, producer of "CBD," who posted it in February of 1994 and confirmed it privately to Eileen Bauer a year later. However, because PBS stations have a lot more freedom to set their schedules than do their commercial counterparts, some markets may show "CBD" during pledge periods. It's not common, but it probably happens. In any case, although many markets show it on the default broadcast date -- typically the first or second Wednesday of the month -- not all do. So you'll want to contact your local PBS station to find out the date and time of broadcast in your viewing area. For overseas folks: PBS is a broadcast television network in the U.S., supported by public funds (read: taxes) and contributions from viewers. "Sweeps" months -- November, February and May -- are months when tv advertisers look very closely at tv "ratings" (viewership measurements), so all the networks, broadcast and cable -- including PBS, oddly enough -- put on their best stuff; the number of shows with sex and violence skyrockets (8-). "Pledge periods" are when PBS stations interrupt programs to beg their viewers for donations; PBS gets something like a third of its funding this way. [Henry Neeman hneeman@ncsa.uiuc.edu ] Juliet Prowse, who for years presented Championship Ballroom Dancing, died on September 15, 1996. Juliet Prowse was only 59. Was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and the chemotherapy ruined her kidneys. She died at home in California. I filed a newsspot for NPR for tonight's five o'clock newscast so some of you may have heard that. She was trained as a ballerina, but became a big movie star with her debut in Can Can opposite Frank Sinatra. Hermes Pan discovered her in South Africa, where she was a dancer in the Johannesburg ballet. She had the most gorgeous legs I've ever seen and her smile was unforgettable. She was romantically linked with Sinatra and later with Elvis Presley, with whom she starred in GI Blues. She never stopped working, continuing to adjust to the times, becoming a commentator for Ballroom competitions. Juliet Prowse was gracious and kind and very much loved in show business. She leaves a son, her mother and a longtime companion. [ tendu@access.digex.net ] Is dancing good for my health? (4.9) ------------------------------------ First the DISCLAIMER: don't take the following for gospel. If you have medical questions, go talk to a physician. **Overuse** While dancing, you use your knees and ankles a lot more than in daily life. Overuse can be a real problem. Take it easy, do stretches, ice your joints if they give you problems. **Losing weight** Reports on this are contradictory. It is definitely true that dancing is an athletic activity. On the other hand, it is very much stop and go, so you may not reach the level of constant exertion needed for weight loss. **Injuries** Apart from simple overuse injuries, there are the injuries that one dance partner sustains because of the other. Ladies, consider the potential harm that rings, long nails, and other seemingly innocent accesories can inflict. Gentlemen, jerky movements can hurt your follower. Then there is the subject of aerials, lifts and drops. The concensus seems to be pretty much that you shouldn't do those socially. If you have plenty of space on the floor and there is no risk to other dancers, then you only do them if you and your partner have rehearsed them, or if you have agreed in advance to do such potentially dangerous moves. Never spring such moves on unsuspecting partners. Do you really want to risk dropping a woman and find out only after the fact that she was pregnant or recovering from surgery? Here is some more about such injuries: Sometime during my teaching semester at the University of Utah, information is presented to the dance students in my class addressing lifts and drops, and more importantly in social settings: Having accomplished over 100 hours of research on skull fractures, especially avoidable ones, the bottom line is this: It only takes 33 ft pounds of energy to fracture a skull, or approximately 398 inch pounds of energy (1). Skull fractures, many times go untreated and also many times result in a fatality several days later. Sometimes, however the death is instant. You determine how much energy to expect from a fall: Take your own height in inches. Multiply your height by the distance in inches it would take to fall to the ground. If you are lifted off of the ground, multiply the height of this lift by your weight when you impact the non-yielding floor and you will find you have more than ample energy to fracture your skull. As a medium sized individual, that figure for me is 13,000 inch pounds just falling to the ground and striking my head - let alone being lifted off of the ground by someone who is probably NOT formally trained in this precise art, but who also is probably not aware that ACROBATICS of this nature are usually taught by performing arts professionals with spotters and mats. (The same as with any other gymnastic type move). The powerfully sad part to this situation is that deaths by dancing ARE not only unacceptable but preventable. My exact words to my students are : Dancing is a sport, an art form, energetic and enjoyable - it is not supposed to be risky, nor dangerous. Lifts and drops should be left to the professionals in cabaret settings, competitions etc., where the risk to the participants are known to them, and there is NO risk to other dancers on the same floor. The Appels, the Savoys are marvelous to watch because they have perfected this wonderful art form of lifts and drops. They are the professionals ! When club owners refuse to enforce a no lifts/drops policy, we need to express our dissatisfaction with this and leave. More nightclub owners need to own up to their responsibility in not allowing lifts and drops on their social dance floors. Unfortunately, those that do not comply will find more and more litigatious survivors out there that will force them to do just that or be looking for a real job when the lawsuit hits. . In all gymnastic events I've seen, the gymnasts are surrounded by mats to protect them from non-yielding surfaces and skull fractures. **** There is logic here.**** Leave the lifts and drops for cabaret, performances, etc and instructors should adamately discourage their students from trying to accomplish that which can be so deadly. My condolences to the families of those victims of such senseless ego building. (1) OSHA study March 1978. Dept of Industrial and Operations Engineering. College of Engineering The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "An erconomic basis for recommendations pertaining to specific sections of OSHA standard, 29 CFR Part 1910 Subpart D - - Walking and working surfaces. STUDIES ON SKULL FRACTURE WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ENGINEERING FACTORS American Journal of Surgery, November 1949 E.S. Gurdjian, M.D., John E. Webster M.D. and Herbert R. Lissner M.S. Detroit Michigan ENGINEERING ASPECTS OF FRACTURES Herbert R. Lissner, M.S. and F. Gaynor Evans, PhD. X RATED PLAYGROUNDS Pediatrics Vol 64 No.6 December 1979 pg 961-963 THE MORTALITY OF CHILDHOOD FALLS The Journal of Trauma Vol 29 No 9 1989 John R. Hall, M.D., Hernan M. Reyes, M.D., Maria Horvat, B.S., Janet L. Meller, M.D. and Robert Stein, M.D. After researching the fragile nature of our skelatal features, I've become more safety minded and wish more of our students would understand the necessity of using good sense in dancing. [Pam Genovesi, Utah Dance Challenge 103471.1321@compuserve.com ] What can be done about perspiration? (4.10) ------------------------------------------- First of all, sweat is to some extent inevitable, but you really must start by coming to a dance clean. Shower, and brush your teeth while you're at it. Secondly, you can influence how much your perspiration becomes noticable. Silk shirts are especially unpleasant to the touch when they are soaked. Some people wear two shirts (eg, the lower a V-neck T-shirt) so that the perspiration will limit itself to the one shirt your partner will not be in contact with. Sometimes bringing an extra shirt, and changing into it at some time during the evening, is a good idea too. (VE) Thirdly, use a deodorant and antiperspirant. It's easy to do, it works, and it is quite harmless. Since some people might be worried about that last point, here is a short excerpt from "The Secret House" by David Bodanis, 1986, Simon & Schuster, NY; ISBN No.0-671-60032-X: "Antiperspirants do not work by jamming little particles into the openings of sweat holes in the armpits. That might work if sweat shot out ...in miniature geysers, but on the micro-level of the skin, geysers, hoses and all the other usual ways we think of water emerging from a pore do not exist. There's no way the incipient sweat water could build up a high enough pressure in its subsurface tubes to flow... Rather, sweat emerges because it's tugged out. It has a negative electric charge... and as the surface of the sweat pores has a positive charge when excited the result is that the sweat ooze is pulled out. It's like yanking a sausage from a tight tunnel. Enter the aluminium. Aluminum flecks are negatively charged. That means the extra furry cloud of electrons they carry around with them counterbalances the normal positive charge on the skin surface. There's no pull... on the sausage any more. The Al is even likely to have some left over to poke down the sweat pore tunnel and electrically repel the negatively charged water waiting deeper inside. The sweat caught inside dissolves back into the body crumbling through cracks in the sweat tubes like water from a leaky hose." Note that the aluminum salts (unlike common alum, which is an astringent) do not close off pores, and nothing messes with your body chemistry either. [ Wogdoc@aol.com ] More on the topic of smell. Body odor, dirty clothes, overwhelming perfume, bad breath are all the wonderful smells we may encounter on the dance floor. You may not notice how you smell to another person, therefore, it is polite to stop and think about it before you leave home for an evening of dancing. So, how do we smell odors? Odors, or chemical molecules, interact with receptors on nerve cells located in the olfactory epithelium in your nose. These receptors then cause a nerve to be activated - thus sending a message to your brain. When you are constantly exposed to the odor, this pathway desensitizes and you are no longer aware of the smell. For example, the water may seem scalding hot when you first step into the shower, but by the end of your shower, it doesn't seem so hot. That's due to desensitization. For the biologically-oriented in the group - an odor is perceived when the molecule binds to a G-protein coupled receptor, thus activating adanylate cyclase and causing an increase in cAMP. The cAMP causes the activation of Na+ channels, thus depolarizing the neuron - causing it to fire - sending the message on a pathway to the brain. From person to person, there may be as much as a 1000 fold difference in their ability to perceive a particular odor and still be considered "normal." So, just becuase you don't smell the intense garlic on your breath, your dance partner might. This is either because they are more sensitive to the smell, or because they have not become desensitized like you have. Also, some people lack the ability to smell a particular odor all together. This is not uncommon. Additionally, as we age our sense of smell diminishes. Therefore, not everyone smells the same things you do. In conclusion, stop to think about how you smell on the dance floor. Take that shower, wear deodrant and fresh clothes. Brush those teeth and don't take a perfume bath. Be polite to your dance buddies! [Kathie Sindt kas4e@virginia.edu ] A few more thoughts: anti-perspirants also work in other areas than under the arms. -- Contemplate on alternative uses for the hot air dryers in the rest rooms. -- Improving your technique and smoothness will permit you to dance without sweating as much. -- Sweat will do awful things to your clothes. If you don't do laundry every day, rinse your shirt in plain water after you've danced. This file is part of the FAQ list about Rec.Arts.Dance, copyright 1995 Victor Eijkhout . Individual portions may be copyright of their contributors. You may make copies for private use in any form, but reproduction in any means, including book or CDROM, is not allowed without permission from the copyright holder. -- 405 Hilgard Ave ................................. `[W]e don't usually like to Department of Mathematics, UCLA ............. talk about market share because Los Angeles CA 90024 .................... we're not going to share anything.' phone: +1 310 825 2173 / 9036 .................. [Jim Cantalupo, president of http://www.math.ucla.edu/~eijkhout/ McDonald's Int.]