Riot and Frolic

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

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about

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.

Category: Dancetastic

  • Ballroom Flow

    DWTS and SYTYCD and all the soon-to-be ballroom reality shows are confusing people.  Is Salsa a ballroom dance?  What's with Quickstep?  What the heck is Dancesport?  Why can't I do Lindy Hop at a ballroom dance competition? Well.   Here: Okay, so ballroom dancing roughly means any dancing that a couple performs.  My favorite definition, while vague: two…

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

    – read Pride and Prejudice.  Accidentally.  Explanation: I like reading while eating my breakfast.  Much to the detriment of my brain cells, my table has been well-stocked with catalogs and magazines.  But late last week, GOD FORBID!, I had run out of inane material and I shuffled over to the bookshelf and grabbed the pretty,…

  • I’m Annoying

    I was talking to a new student this weekend about how much he LOVES dancing and how he practices it allthetime.   Like, allthetime allthetime.   Like, at the bathroom sink, on the way into work from the parking garage, in the grocery store, while making dinner, reading to his kids, talking on the phone.…

  • A Place For Amateurs

    Maybe you're a long-time member of the thriving Twin Cities ballroom dance scene, getting bored.  Maybe you've never danced a box step in your life and are wondering where, if you ever had the inkling, one would even start such an undertaking.  Maybe you're just feeling like there's no foothold for amateurs in the state…

  • Ukulele and Ballroom Dancing

    I've taken up the ukulele.  As in, I pick it up and pluck out the same four chords over and over with a small amount of variation and a lot of mistakes.   But I keep strumming.   The G effortlessly grabs the uke and plays recognizable songs without sticking his tongue out and in…

  • Dance Sarcastically

      One of my favorite movies is The Other Guys, which besides starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, has one of the funniest lines ever in it:     You learned to dance like that sarcastically? Often in tough practice sessions, when things just aren't working or I don't feeeeeel it, I dance sarcastically. I pick…

  • I’m Not Lazy, But You Should Read This

    I don't repost full articles from other people.   But today I'm going to…  Sort of. I'm not being lazy; they are really amazing articles that deserve more than a passing mention, highlighted-text-style, in MAH BLOG.  They deserve more than a cut and paste of each article's headline also, but that's what I'm doing.  …

  • To What Are We Dancing?

    After being in ballroom dance studios for 30+ hours a week for 10+ years, I am an absolute PRO at singing along with most elevator and hold music.  Most of the time, I don't even realize the music that has entered my subconscious after hearing it in the background for hours at a time until…

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

    – fun fact: I yawn when I'm nervous.  I don't get butterflies anymore and I would rarely go so far to say I'm actually "nervous", but when the gun is about to go off… I look sleepy.  *yawn yawn yawn*  Like, ferocious yawning.   – we traveled with the 3 ladies on a plane again and…

  • Be Better

    It's very simple. Stop complaining.   Be better.   One year ago: Let's Meditate Two years ago: Interesting Fact