WE did it!

As I write this I am looking at the 2012 Seattle Dances Cyber Choice mirror ball trophy! I say “we” because what this represents is the generosity and support of everyone who contributed, and I can’t begin to express my gratitude. Your donations go to a very deserving cause in Plymouth Housing Group.

I say “we” also because as they say it takes two to tango, and my partner Michelle Badion and I were also in contention for the judges’ choice award for best performance. Of the many things I learned as were putting our tango choreography together is when we would be reviewing a run through the piece and talking about what needed work, it was never “you didn’t do this right” but “we” need to fix it. Considering that the flubs were always mine, that was a great source of encouragement.

I also say “we” because everyone involved in the event put so much hard work and positive energy into it that we all drew strength from it. Hallie Kuperman of Century Ballroom kept us all in line and put together a great show. I have to say also that seeing everyone’s performance in dress rehearsal and then really bringing on stage, I was in awe. Seattle Dances is the hottest ticket in town!

p.s. Congrats to Cheryl Cooney and Michelle Quisenberry for winning the Calidora and Baxter Plastic Surgery gift cards.

Photo: Team Photogenic

Tick Tock: VOTE by Midnight

The final dress rehearsal for Seattle Dances!  is done and from what I have seen the event is going to be very entertaining. There are some awesome performances and I am impressed with how much work everyone has put in. I am going to try to relax tonight after the adrenaline rush of doing it with the lighting and everything on the big stage. I love our choreography too and can’t wait for all of you to see it. Online voting closes at midnight tonight-click HERE to donate and vote. It’s also the last opportunity to leave a comment and be entered to win a $500 gift certificate to either Calidora or Baxter Plastic Surgery.

Thanks for everything!

Photo by Barbie Hull.

Dancing for Dollars

“I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more to be than a good dancer.” – Nietzsche. A little highfalutin’, but this is one of my favorite quotes about dance.  Am I a good dancer at this point? Perhaps I’ll know more after today’s big rehearsal with all the dancers competing Saturday night at Seattle Dances.  By the way, there’s still time to vote, just click here. For as little as a $10 contribution to Plymouth Housing, you can cast a vote for yours truly. 

And if you have any advice for me as I prep for Saturday, I’d be delighted to hear it.

 

 

Help Get Out the VOTE

We’re in the final days of rehearsals for Seattle Dances, and I’d love your help. Encourage your friends to vote online for me by Friday and you’ll be entered to win your choice of a $500 Calidora gift card or a $500 gift card for non-surgical treatments at Baxter Plastic Surgery. All you need to do is blog, Facebook or tweet and then leave a comment here on Baxter Dances.

And here’s a handy link to the voting page on Seattle Dances. Thanks!

Photo courtesy Richard Mallory.

Author author!

It was great to spend some time with author Robert Fulghum (“All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten“) and meet his wife, artist Willow Bader, at Michelle Badion’s tango party Saturday evening. We gave a sneak preview of our tango routine that we are practicing for the Seattle Dances event, now only a few days away! It turns out that Fulgum and Bader both took tango lessons from Michelle.

With only five days left of online voting for the big Cyber Choice award, competition is fierce. Voting closes at midnight Friday and honestly, I’d love your vote. The dancer who raises the most money online for Plymouth Housing wins this coveted award, so please consider donating and voting HERE.

Unwinding Post-Practice

If tango is about attitude, then Argentinean wine is largely about altitude. As I get deeper into my tango experience in preparation for the Seattle Dances fundraiser March 3, I am trying to channel the Buenos Aires spirit by sampling Argentinean wine, and it turns out to be a great way to unwind from practice. One thing I remember from Buenos Aires is how affordable good wines are there, and many are easily found here. But there are some phenomenal high-end wines too, and the best among them come from high-altitude vineyards.

Argentina is mostly known for malbec, a varietal used primarily for blending in Bordeaux. But something about the terroir of the eastern slopes of the Andes brings out the best in this grape. Some of these vineyards are quite old, dating to the early nineteenth century. One of my new favorites is Colomé, founded in 1831. Their 2009 Estate Malbec “vino tinto de gran altura” is a fruity, minerally, smoky wine from vines 90-150 years old. Some of the vineyards are at more than 10,000 feet, the highest in the world. I found it at Arista wine cellars for about $27.

Another high altitude old vines malbec is Goulart, available at Wine World. This intense wine comes from 90-year vines in the Mendoza at over 3000 feet. I had the 2007 “Grand Vin” (don’t know why the French spelling), which was a huge wine with cassis and dark cherry flavors. It’s a bit more spendy but worth the splurge.

Tango and malbec-based wine have become enduring icons of Argentinean culture. The vines that still give us these wines we can drink today were being planted just as tango was taking root in Buenos Aires. I may be new to tango, but I’m coming to think of my style as the “old vines” version.

Rhinestone Surgeon?

Jamie von Stratton our famous costumer for Seattle Dances adjusts the sleeve length on the 1930’s vintage tux that I will be wearing on March 3rd. I can’t tell but I think she is secretly thinking about where to put the hundreds of rhinestones that she wants. If you haven’t already voted online, just click HERE.

And if you already have voted, please spread the word and thanks for supporting Plymouth Housing.

Choreography in Surgery & On The Dance Floor

I’m starting to see more parallels of dance, surgery, and life in general. I’ve always thought that surgery has choreography, a sequence of purposeful moves coordinated within a team. The surgeon is the lead of course, but the more the others know what moves come next, the smoother it all goes. These are things worth thinking about consciously and paying attention to; they lead to safer surgery and better outcomes. I would even go so far as to say that there is a sort of rhythm to surgery, and a beauty in deliberate movement. When every action is planned and has a purpose, there is greater efficiency too, without rushing. Learning a movement-oriented art form such as tango provides a fresh perspective on my approach to surgery. I can’t pin it down exactly, but there are several possible reasons for this. Maybe it is just another way of developing spatial thinking, so important in visualizing the intended result. Whatever the reason, it has to be right every time, just like a live performance. Perhaps that is why the traditional term for an operating room is “theater.” The differences are in the flourishes that add interest and entertainment in dance. Despite the popularity of reality TV shows about plastic surgery, it’s not about amusement; it’s serious business. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that my tango lessons apply in the operating theater as well as the dance floor. One thing for sure is that my posture has improved.

Tips from a Pro-PNB’s Peter Boal

I attended opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Don Quixote“; what a wonderful spectacle. The dancing was superb and I had a moment to connect with Peter Boal, PNB’s Artistic Director and former New York City Ballet dancer.  Peter of course did not have a lot of time but very graciously took a few moments to share a few words of encouragement and a couple of tips for my upcoming dance debut—in a nutshell it’s all about maintaining strong posture and a stable axis.  PNB dancers rehearsed for “Don Q” with a dance coach from Spain, I have the amazing Michelle Badion and Peter’s pointers–which with luck will do the trick.

By the way, I’d surely appreciate your vote prior to midnight March 2nd.  For as little as $10 you can cast an online vote here, and all the money donated goes to Plymouth Housing.

Eat. Work. Tango. Repeat.