Fusion Freestyle Partner Dance http://fusionfreestylepartnerdance.com/ Fusion Incorporates different styles of dance Freestyle Characterized by improvisation Partner Greater mutuality in playing with each other Dance Let the music tell you what to do! Philosophy Dance is play! Movements Forward and back Circular Traveling Background When my grandfather and grandmother on my father’s side in the ‘20s - ‘30s - ‘40s finished their work for the day on their ranch in Northeastern Montana and then finished supper, they gathered the family for singing. Grandfather played a fiddle by ear, and grandmother played a small organ. They made their own music. When I was growing up in the ‘60s, we went around the neighborhood to invite others to join in pick-up games of backyard football, driveway basketball, river hockey, and pasture baseball. We chose our own teams and made our own rules. There were no coaches or referees. I certainly participated in my share of organized athletics through the years, but it was the pick-up games that brought the most satisfaction. It is with this background that I approach the dance floor as a playground. My first dance lessons came with an introductory Valentine’s Day package at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Eau Claire, WI http://arthurmurray.com/locations/eau-claire-studio/ in the winter of 1993 at the age of 39. I became exposed to the basics of the various types of partner dancing. I quickly realized that the ballroom style of dance was too formal for me, but I learned some of the basics that served me well. Later I received what I took as a compliment when an accomplished dancer (and part-time instructor together with her husband) characterized me as a “sophisticated barroom dancer.” I started going to Contra Dances at the Tapestry Folkdance Center in Minneapolis, MN. http://www.tapestryfolkdance.org/ I liked the energy and motion, the slide and glide of this social dance where the caller calls out, “Long lines forward and back,” “Swing your partner round and round,” and “Sashay up and down the line.” The Tapestry also offered lessons in East Coast Swing - then known as Cindy’s Swingers and now known as TC Swing @ Social Dance Studio http://www.tcswing.com/ So, I started taking swing lessons. Cindy taught the basics of 6 count swing slow-slow-quick-quick and the turns that go with it. I then went to the Pines Ballroom in Bloomer, WI https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pines-Ballroom/133934083322686 and danced the two step, waltz, and polka. There’s nothing like flying around the line of dance with a willing partner and an open floor to a lively tune. One Friday-Saturday-Sunday at a polka fest, I danced a total of 18 hours doing the two step, waltz, and polka and would have danced more except there were no women to dance with on Friday afternoon. The advantage of a polka fest is that usually more than one band is playing so that a dancer does not have to sit out dances waiting for the band to take its break. If time and money were no object, I would spend my summers going to the various polka fests. Through the years I have taken lessons and workshops in East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Country Western, line, Cajun, ballroom, Latin, Viennese Waltz, International Folk, aerials, clogging, Irish, Scandinavian, and Sufi. Fusion Freestyle Partner Dance fuses contra dance with swing and traveling dance as well as many other styles. Contra is a walking dance. The saying is, “If you can walk, you can contra dance.” Fusion Freestyle Partner Dance takes the natural walking motion of contra dance with its “forward and back,” “swing your partner round and round,” and “sashay up and down the line” and fuses it with one step swing and one step traveling dance. I am not a dance instructor, nor do I have any such aspirations. I simply desire to demonstrate a dance developed on the playground of the dance floor.
Fish! Philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Be There - When people need you, they need all of you. Setting aside distractions and judgments
to be mentally and emotionally present is a sign of respect. It improves communication and strengthens relationships. Play - You can be serious about your work without taking yourself so seriously. Play is a mindset
more than a specific activity. It allows you to throw yourself with enthusiasm and creativity into whatever you are doing, in a way that is natural, not forced. “Playing” with ideas helps you find solutions to everyday challenges. Make Their Day - Simple gestures of thoughtfulness, thanks and recognition make people feel
appreciated and valued. When you make someone else feel good, you feel good too. Choose Your Attitude - To actually choose how you respond to life, not just react, you must be
intentional. When you get up, decide who you want to “be” today. Moment-to-moment awareness is key. Ask yourself throughout the day, “What is my attitude right now? Is it helping the people who depend on me? Is it helping me to be most effective?”
Unstructured Free Play Important for Kids | MomsTeam
Unstructured Free Play Important for Child Development Experts Say
Benefits of Play
Why is free, unstructured play so important? There are lots of reasons, says the AAP:
Play is important to healthy development of the brain;
Undirected play helps children learn how to work collaboratively, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills;
When play is child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover areas of interest on their own, and ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue;
When play is controlled by adults - such as in organized sports - children have to follow to adult rules and concerns (like winning) and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership and group skills.
Play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to engage fully with their children;
Play and unscheduled time that allows for peer interactions is an important component of social-emotional learning; and
Free, child-driven, creative play protects against the effects of pressure and stress. http://www.momsteam.com/successful-parenting/unstructured-free-play-important-for-child-development-
experts-say
Why children need more unstructured play - KevinMD.com
Unstructured play is that set of activities that children create on their own without adult guidance.
Children naturally, when left to their own devices, will take initiative and create activities and stories
in the world around them. Sometimes, especially with children past the toddler stage, the most
creative play takes place outside of direct adult supervision. Unstructured free play can happen in
many different environments, however, the outdoors may provide more opportunities for free play
due to the many movable parts, such as sticks, dirt, leaves and rocks which lend themselves to
Milton Brown (September 7, 1903 – April 18, 1936) was an American band leader and vocalist who
co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and
pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, “Father of
Western Swing”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Brown
Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration - The New York Times
The myth of the triumphant individual is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. Whether it is midnight rider Paul Revere or basketball's Michael Jordan in the 1990s, we are a nation enamored of heroes--rugged self-starters who meet challenges and overcome adversity. Our contemporary views of leadership are entwined with our notions of heroism, so much so that the distinction between “leader” and “hero” (or “celebrity,” for that matter) often becomes blurred. In our society leadership is too often seen as an inherently individual phenomenon. And yet we all know that cooperation and collaboration grow more important every day. A
shrinking world in which technological and political complexity increase at an accelerating rate offers fewer and fewer arenas in which individual action suffices. Recognizing this, we talk more and more about the need for teamwork, citing the Japanese approach to management, for example, as a call for a new model of effective action. Yet despite the rhetoric of collaboration, we continue to advocate it in a culture in which people strive to distinguish themselves as individuals. We continue to live in a by-line culture where recognition and status are according to individuals, not groups.
The Tennessee Walking Horse is considered one of the light breeds of the equine family. Horses
that were originally bred by the farmers of Middle Tennessee who wanted to develop a breed of
horse that could work in the fields during the day, and give the owner a comfortable saddle gait.
The breed gained wide popularity for this smooth gait and it's agility in the rocky middle Tennessee
terrain.
This breed is composed from Thoroughbreds, Canadian Pacer, Saddlebreds, Morgans, American Standardbreds, and Narranganett Pacers. All were fused into one animal in the middle Tennessee
bluegrass region. These crosses produced a saddle gait, which eventually became the “Running Walk”. The result, over countless years, was the first breed of horse to bear the state name - The Tennessee Walking Horse.
Fusion is an improvised lead-follow approach to dancing to any style of music that does not have a strictly defined dance aesthetic. Just as music adopts, adapts to, and blends with various
influences and styles, fusion accomplishes the same in the form of dance. It is a triad of connection between your movement, your partner’s movement, and the music. Depending on the music and the dancers, fusion can mean creating a new dance style to unique music, or combining two or more established dance aesthetics into a single dance to reflect the sound of a song combining multiple influences. Many fusion dancers are versed in the fundamentals of various dances, be it blues, tango, west coast swing, Lindy Hop, waltz, or hip hop. By finding the commonalities between various dance styles, or creating new movements, dancers can actively adapt and improvise their dance style to music of all influences.
Now, here are two things you can do to be more effective in your relationships. First, create a clear mental picture of the ideal way you want to be in your relationship. Compare your actual behavior with your mental image. Second, act as if you were already the person you imagine yourself to be. Act as if you already had wonderful relationships.
Connection (dance) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Modern Jive moving closer together and further apart are fundamental to the dance, requiring
flexion and extension of the arms, alternating compression and tension.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_(dance)
Have the Relationship You Want from Rori Raye
The Energy Exchange How the Masculine and Feminine Energy moves between you and a man – who gives, who receives, who initiates, who follows, who talks, who listens, who calls, who picks up, who leans forward, who leans back The Relationship Bubble You and a man (even if you’ve just met) are in an Energy “bubble” that has only so much energy. (The bigger the bubble, the better – but still an enclosed space.) How you are in that bubble – what you think, how you feel, how you move, what you say and do, affects the Energy Exchange, and affects your man in predictable ways. Leanback (Leaning Back) A way of shifting the Energy Exchange by physically leaning your body backwards (sometimes even to the point of laying down or Moving Back). Move Back (Moving Back) Physically stepping backwards to adjust the Energy Exchange Leaning Forward (Forward Leaning) Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually leaning Toward a man inside the Relationship Bubble Move Forward (Moving Forward) Physically taking a step toward a man
