Dance Dispatches

Today, Heidi shares both her knowledge of soft shoe dances and hard shoe dances with students Heidi structured the class, so that we could embody and compare the funky old-style Sean-nós groove with the polished present-day Irish step dancing style. However, there are some dancers that are interested in reviving the Sean-nós Irish dance style, and other dancers that want to learn historic choreographies that are not currently eligible in Irish dancing competitions. Physical intensity: 3 / 5 – but only because the dancing was spaced out between discussion points and mini-demonstrations Most challenging moment: trying to assume the cool, laidback Sean-nós (or “old style”) step dance style – since I really enjoy the lighter, competition style Best moment: dancing with the music –

Our online dance club members voted to learn this fun dance style, so we invited Ayesha Khanna of Bollywood Funk NYC to lead a class and teach us about the cultural dance. Before we started the choreography, Ayesha explained that Bollywood dancing comes from “Bollywood” – the Hindi film industry that is based in Mumbai, India. Learn more about Bollywood dance and representations in American media in our interview with Joya Kazi, who choreographed a Bollywood number in Mindy Kaling’s Although Ayesha ran an exclusive class, just for our Dance Dispatches Social Club members, you can learn from her and other Bollywood Funk instructors via their #BFunkNYCDigital hub.

We invited Krysten Resnick of the London School of Hula and ‘Ori (LSHO) to lead our very first Dance Dispatches Social Club online dance class. She taught us about how Tahitian dance intertwines with other aspects of Tahitian culture, a few fundamental hip motions (of the ōte’a style) and some graceful storytelling gestures (of the ‘aparima style) during our bespoke 90-minute workshop. First, she reiterated that ‘Ori Tahiti (Tahitian dance) comes from the islands of Tahiti – while Hula comes from the islands of Hawaii – and showed us the instruments that accompany both. We kept our hips swaying as we moved through the gestures, and although the movement was quite simple (not easy, but simple in comparison to other Tahitian dance movements), for brief moments I did feel like I was actually dancing to the music – instead of just going through the motions.

You feel like everyday life is wearing you out to the point where you just want to spend your free time scrolling through social media or smashing another television series. How to step up your game: You can’t dance if you aren’t willing to engage with dance. You don’t want to put yourself out there because you’re worried about how you’ll look and what others will think of you. You’ve determined the reasons that you’re reading this article instead of doing what you actually love – which is dancing!