Rollin' rollin' rollin.. Keep those spines a' rollin... RAW Modern

I don't know how to add sound or I'd find that old tv series soundtrack... since many of my followers are old school "drill teamers" of one form or another...chances are we've all heard the band arrangement played at a football game. So let it play in your heads.

So my first post regarding MODERN dance begins with an incredulous discussion of what we should call this art form since it was "modern" at the time of flappers and speak easy clubs.

A lovely young upstart might chime in and offer up the word "Contemporary" which I haughtily declare doesn't work for me either because I own a dance book from the 80's- 90's that described movement and back then they were calling what they were doing "Contemporary" and besides all that... Ultimately... "Contemporary" was a term some nice designer snagged for furniture. They got "dibs" on it.

Now granted...in some post-modern philosophical choreographic declarations made by self-proclaimed aesthetic anarchists - furniture could inspire dance and furniture might just "dance" by nature of its ability to occupy space with qualities of weight while denoting the passing of time (by layers of dust if it belongs to me) -- but really that kind of "statement" is better suited for HGTV performance artists...and so therefore I respectfully and thankfully recover from my digress... and declare that "Contemporary" gets booted too. We're going to have to keep on trying.

See you have to use lots of big words and concepts strung together in impossibly long sentences if you want to be thought of as a devotee of "serious modern" and then if you want to be considered "an artist" you should try to condense those eloquent words and phrases down to the most bare essential movement and then if successful you might be declared a "genius."

So today... I will begin to condense "Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Modern Dance I learned While Wearing Footless Tights that I Cut Myself" into prose via my thoughts about my beginners and their dramatic interpretations of the basic warm up exercises.

But for today.. I salute Us... the teachers and... so I give you my fellow educators, a self-indulgent moment -- " The Roll Down" and I promise you its companion work "The Roll Up" will be released at date to be determined in the future.

Rolling Down.. really isn't that the best part of modern dance? I am sure some of you might choose "breathing" and others might chose "constructive rest" --but I've decided to create a personality quiz in an upcoming blog and based on your favorite modern exercise I'm going to tell you things that you want to know about yourself, give you advice on everything from your love life to stock investments and tell your past and your future. And then we'll post it on facebook and see how many people we can get to take the quiz.

Back to rolling down...and really that's what its all about our BACKS. How glorious is our spine and all its boney appendages! How nice it is to just give in to gravity on purpose instead of it playing tricks on us like it does with our other body parts.

I love to roll down.. from the moment I drop my chin and feel the tension in my shoulders fight back in desperation trying to remind me of the world outside of dance class.... to the moment my hands hit the floor and I think to myself "Ha Ha I'm still flexible!" -- rolling down is fantastic.

I like the feeling when my shoulders droop forward and I no longer have to hold "the girls" up to look instantly 10 pounds thinner.

What a feeling when I roll on past my abs and despite the little voice in my head that sounds suspiciously like a ballet teacher or an armed commando saying "engage engage" -- I can just exhale and keep on going because I'm now folded in half and I have nowhere else to go but down.

and bless my heavy 'ole skull -- weightily (that's my own adverb for the opposite of lightly) it hangs from my neck and pulls my whole self forward and right on past my thighs. I just don't acknowledge that they are there. No sense in disturbing my bliss. I have a head heavy-laden with knowledge and wit... who needs to dwell on thighs that aren't super-model-like?

Sinking onward I pass my knees... my old friends...not as dependable as they once were ..but such troopers... I salute you as I work my way to the end range of my forward flexion.

Dead arm hang... love it... because it feels so dang good and because if i've released my head and neck properly there's no way I have to observe that 'granny flap" stuff that sometimes appears around my underdeveloped triceps. I can just evaluate my need to shave my legs or contemplate the color for my next pedicure.. either way.. my choice and mine to ignore.

and then I'm at the bottom... fingers curled to the floor in a primate drag. And my self-esteem building mantra continues.. I'm still loose and at least while upside down...I'm leggy. My hair is full and luxurious and hanging about my face. I'm pretty sure from this angle no one can see my double chin and I'm feeling young again!

This is magical...no mirror...just a self-image of a 18 year old me in modern class and I'm looking good in my plain black leo and footless tights.

I'd love to stay here all day but reality will reappear in my conscious mind...and then I realize my gluteus maximus is in maximus view at this angle and I am not in a studio in the dance building of my past.. I'm in the school

Inevitably if I were to enjoy this any longer.. a student aide will come by with a note...and looking sheepishly around and then quickly adverting his eyes.. he'll ask where the teacher is...

At least no one in the class is crass enough to identify me as the one with the granny panties' waist band peeping out of the top of my loose fitting pants...

it is tough to grow old in dance class...but yet many of us choose to do it. I think it is because we can always roll down and cosmically roll back in time.

Let the glory days be relived... at least until we have to roll back up!

Just a quick quote...

I have the "quote of the day" gadget on my igoogle page and today it had these words of wisdom from Gail Godwin,
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater."

I simply couldn't agree more. In fact I've spent the last 23 years of my career as the embodiment of this realization.

We've started our modern dance unit in beginner classes. Look forward to some observations from my exhilarating experiences bringing the many blessings and philosophy of modern dance to a bunch of 14 to 17 yr olds!