Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Dinner For Seven – Beyond Ballroom Dance Company 2013

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing BBDC perform their 10th year anniversary show at the amazing Cowles Center in Minneapolis.  They happened to reprise their original production from year one, Dinner For Seven, which has always been my favorite.  With a several change-ups to the cast and the remaining original cast being 10 years older, I was curious to see what would unfold on stage.

My first reaction was, "Ah, yes, this is pleasant."  A charming ensemble of local ballroom professionals glided on stage, introducing their characters in little vignettes as they entered the dinner party thrown by the feuding host couple, Julie Jacobson and Jay Larson.  Ladies' man Shane Haggerty popped his collar and swaggered in. Chris Kempainen played the totally hot Good Guy.  Deanne Michael stumbled in after having a few drinks beforehand, only to play the part of the hussy/villainess.  Christine and Charlie Hardcastle played the bougie lovebirds.  The crew dances through some lovely formations and combinations to great music.  Nice.

My second reaction was, "I LOVE THIS EFFING SHOW!"  Somewhere between the guys' number and the catfight (Barracuda!), I was pulled into the obvious camaraderie happening on stage.  The highly anticipated and hotly debated question, "Is Julie going to do the thing?" which everyone followed up by this weird hip-shimmy action was answered when she proudly dropped dress in the middle of the stage and shook her booty in a sexy West Coast Swing with the four guys.  No one will argue that that was awesome.  Hot.

My third reaction, more of hindsight really, was, "What now?"  While obviously the show revolved around dance, I was never struck by, "OH MY GOD, HOW DID THEY DO THAT?!" or "THAT WAS SUPER CRAZY!"  The characters stuck out to me more than the dancing did and I expected it to be the other way around.  Harumph.

Last year, I was all, "Oh, this was great, but I really liked that other show," but now after seeing the Other Show, I want to go back to last year.  Grass is always greener, huh?  It's probably unfair for me to compare the 10th anniversary performance to the original.  But I'm not the only one who saw the first go-around and wanted… more on the second trip.  More!

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One year ago: Don't Dance What You See – Body Contact – Part Two

 

 

 

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