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

  • Social vs. Competitive Dancing

    Social dancing and competitive dancing are not different.   (Oh, duh, I know they are, but the point of today's post is how they are the same.) Sometimes, I field comments from strictly social dancers about how competitive dancers only know how to dance choreography, then the competitive dancers complain about how social dancers don't…

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

    – an hour and a half of weeding somehow made the garden look worse. bad garden, bad! – plants are on the way for the 2nd bed.  Maybe I will spend some more time out there, trying to contain my over-achieving plants? – this is how you put on lipstick, then admire it… make this…

  • A Little Dancing

    keeping up the big kids V competed at Twin Cities Open Ballroom Championships last weekend.  (So did The G and I, but more on that later.) She was nervous (wouldn't talk to me before she had to dance).  She loved wearing her sparkly dress, fancy bracelets and necklace, shiny shoes, and makeup (AND lipstick!).  …

  • This Is Not A Cop-Out

    I know many of you are gearing up for the fabulous Twin Cities Open Championships, so I wanted to throw out some advice.   That advice happens to be in the form of old posts, but I have re-read them and edited and they are all fresh and shiny (oooo, shiny!) for you. Looking for…

  • Five Minutes A Day

    If a 3 year old can learn to ballroom dance 5 minutes at a time (for 6 months), imagine what you can do in an hour. V's dress rehearsal (because I didn't know if she'd really do it):   V's ballroom dance debut (at the Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN, dancing with Daddy, AKA…

  • Making a List, Checking It Twice

    With the heat index in Minnesota being over 100 degrees for, like, the 75th day in a row, I thought you all needed a reminder HOW AWESOME SUMMER IS.   Remember this? Romantic patio date? Check.  It involved a ton of food, whiskey, and some classic Bratt portraiture.   photo bombing our own photo  …

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love- Action Version

    – slacker alert! (For some reason, I say that in my head with my best Austin Powers impersonation.)  "Vacation" totally messes with you, doesn't it?  Naptimes have been wasted doing meaningless things like unpacking and laundry, instead of awesome things like blogging.  Lame.  And dang it if I'll ever get those girls off their party…

  • Gold Digger

    Remember last week when I rambled on about the expectations of Silver level dancers?  Now I'll finish the theme off with the ye olde Gold level expectations. First of all, most dancers don't need or want to get to the Gold level because it's mainly for competitive dancers (in American style [Smooth or Rhythm]).  They…

  • The Silver Standard

    I'm talking about the standards for Silver dancers, not Silver Standard.   Hahahahaha- DANCE JOKE.  BAM!   here's another one     Anyhoo, back awhile ago, I told you what Bronze ballroom dancers are expected to do.  It boiled down to What and When.   We're moving up in the world to the ye olde Silver…

  • To Improve Your Dancing…

    STOP WEARING PRACTICE SHOES.     stop it   [If you're new to the ye olde R'n'F, you're about to step into the world of ballroom dancing.  I'm opinionated on the subject, and usually right, but I have a lot of experience and learnin' on the subject, so be warned.) Unless you are teaching (a…