DrumnDance

In San Diego, it was an annual event that every Christmas Eve we would have an open house and invite any and all involved with the dance studio etcetera. People were invited to come to our house. Basically, the idea was to invite everyone who had migrated to Southern CA and had no family with which to celebrate Christmas. We became a family. We did that for 17 years and loved every minute of it. Then, we moved to Eastern TN. There was no need for this event as everyone had family locally. This worked well till this last Christmas-2019. This was the year we had sickness and there was no real celebrating. Health was getting better but no one had the energy to plan, cook or celebrate. So many people just wanted to relax. In January 2019 we had invited a couple we consider close friends with a friend we had met through them and their son. The date happened to be "The 12th Night of Christmas which fell on Jan 6th. The Feast of the Epiphany. No one here celebrates 12th Nig...

What a beautiful name for an absolutely fabulous place. As I was perusing my emails back in the week before Christmas, I came across an advertisement for a FREE concert. This sparked my interest. I had no idea what to expect. We decided to go as we live in an area where the arts and culture are next to nothing. The Rose Center is located in Morristown, TN about 15 miles from where we live. The function was called "Java Jive". We got there at about 6:30. Found our way to the theater which is actually a dual- purpose room. It was set up banquet style. A beautiful room that was decorated for Christmas. At 7pm sharp the musicians entered the room. We were in for a treat. The show was called "Christmas With the Collective" The leader of the group was Antonio Gomez. There was an excellent guitarist, drummer, and a female singer. They were a jazz group. Now, Jazz is not my favorite thing but they were so good and so professional that we enjoyed the whole thing. I ...

Tales 1001/Books

Winging It - Improvisation Middle Eastern dance styles are made up of both choreography and improvisation. Theater dance and group are done with choreography. Restaurant and night club dance, commonly called belly dance in America but is really Oriental Dance or Danse Orientale in the rest of the world is done by improvisation. Winging it is actually a misnomer. It is planned! Why improvisation when in this situation? Mainly because you as a performer are working with musicians. This is the ultimate in performing for this style. Today many clubs have closed as owners do not want to pay musicians and dancers. This is a travesty and harming our business. But, if you are lucky enough to live in an area where live music is available or you get the opportunity to work with musicians, take it. It is so worth it. After being in Los Angeles and seeing a theater performance with live music where 9 out of 10 dancers just did not know what they were doing. All dancers were excellent, not...

Cedar Productions 2019

Cedar Productions 2019

Tales 1001/Books