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.

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  • Pants of Dance vs. Dance Pants

    Men wear black dance pants.  Pants.  That are black.  That they dance in. Ladies wear dance pants.  That are not pants.  That they dance in.  Under their dresses.  I say them like, “dancepants.”  They are also called dance trunks.  Dance shorts.  Dance briefs.  Opaque, high-coverage undies that you wear so your actual undies aren’t on…

  • Anarchy

    The Children's Museum is a great place to bring your kids.  There's interactive exhibits, lots of room to burn energy, cool ways to learn without it feeling "learny", and, of course, other kids. In other words, anarchy. There's no telling a toddler to wait their turn to drive the fire engine.  There's no way for…

  • Start Here

    You’re probably looking for ballroom dance fun. But maybe something else.  So here: (Please note that this blog is older than most of my children, so some info may be out of date.) Starting Out in the Ballroom Learn How to Dance – literally a starting point on where and how to begin ballrooming (which…

  • The Learning Curve – with crappy graphs

    When one starts learning a new skill, one is usually is excited because NEW! FUN! NEW FUN! Then somewhere along the way, the New Fun wears off and one decides whether the new-ish skill could still be charming when it's not being fun and looks more like work and doesn't put on makeup every day.  …

  • On Getting Things Done

    I have a list of fifteen things that has to get done before I go to work in four hours and guess how many of them I want to do? Yes, correct.. ZERO. And it's not things like "brush the cat" or "dust the vacuum" or anything frivolous.  It's things like "take a [much-needed] shower" and…

  • What Not To Do When You’re Broke and Want to Get Better

    Here’s my naggy, scold-y version of how to get better: Expect progress to happen spontaneously.  Progress isn’t elusive, but it will keep you honest.  If you aren’t improving the way that you’d like, is it really your situation or is it your lack of a plan, commitment, motivation, or follow-through?  Remember, there’s a whole learning curve…

  • Jello/Kool-Aid Popsicles and a Whole Lot of Opinions

    Ever since I can remember, I've been eating those popsicles made out of Jello and Kool-Aid.  I highly covet my mom's classic Tupperware popsicle molds (which OMG I just found on Amazon).  I posted about them a million years ago.  And it's 90º and I'm pregnant and want to chew on ice pretty much 24/7.…

  • Food Crush: Leon

    Naturally fast food.  What? Duh. Wait, what? How? Stocking up on cookbooks at the local library, like I do, I spotted this fancy one and was intrigued.  Who is Leon?  Is there such a thing as "naturally fast food" where you need actual recipes?  (I mean, can't anyone throw together a salad ?)  Why is…

  • December Mixed Tape

    It's not Christmas music.  It's just awesome.    

  • The Coffee Recipe

    Recently, I made a large claim that I make better coffee than you. Yes, YOU. Well, it's true.  But I'm generous and therefore I will share the recipe with you. I am so nice, in fact, that I even experimented with an uncouth French Press recipe instead of my completely refined Chemex coffee maker.  I…