The Dance Primer

Here’s a closer look at the first 13 links in the blog roll. I hope this helps you navigate through which sites you will be interested in. I will periodically post “closer looks” until I’ve covered all 100+ of them…

If you are an author on one of these blogs, I’d love for you add a little more about what your site is all about, or about yourself personally, in the comments. Thanks!

**I’ve enjoyed reading Maria’s posts at A Time to Dance. She mostly writes about salsa and modern dancing, but she has other things to say as well. I enjoyed what she meant to be a serious post about floor-craft, yet many readers found it funny. There’s a reason I usually don’t wear a ponytail when dancing…

*act/re/act is about improvisational dance. I like the discussion his post “Why TV Dancing is bad for Dance” sparked. I personally like SYTYCD, but have never enjoyed Dancing with the Stars, and couldn’t bring myself to watch Dance War - it just looked to bad. I will admit that “tricks” are more important in TV-land than overall dance skill, but Mia Michel’s choreography got me past my perception of what modern dance is.

**Addicted2Salsa’s blog is full of instructional videos, music and reviews, reports on competitions and festivals, and more. If you are interested in Salsa, they have something for all levels. The website also features a forum, and I encourage beginners to check out this section: Salsa 101.

**Malena, who writes on African.Dance.Drum.Life! is a fantastic writer. The first post I read drew me in, spoke strongly to me, and left me wanting to read more. The reading on does not disappoint. She writes more on life and social factors than dance, lately. Even so, she is a top notch writer, and worth a read.

*I find it easy to relate to Alain’s dance blog, as it is written by a fellow swing dancer. I’ve never met him in person yet, but I have seen him do a swing-out on the user-made Gmail commercial.

*Alex.Tango.Fuego is what seems to me a typical tango blog. Poetry, quotes, and talk about tango.

*Evie blogs All About [Her] NYC Dance Auditions for an interesting look on the inside of what auditions are like.

*American Dance Festival features reviews about performances from the modern dance festival.

**It’s fun to read Debbie’s adventures in learning tango at An Ever Fixed Mark. As of now, she’s been dancing just barely over a year, so you’ll find plenty of experiences you can relate to as a beginner tango dancer. I learned something new about tango from her, too. I did not know they have similar birthday dances in tango to what they do in the swing dance world.

**Anaheim Ballet: More Than Dance is a weekly video blog advertising for the Ballet Company. I watched Feb. 9th’s video, “Charlie Stops By” and really enjoyed what he had to say about auditions. He said not to worry so much about how you look because as you practice things will slowly improve. Instead, when you are on stage be sure to dance with heart, and in an audition show them how much you love to dance and how you will enjoy dancing for that company every day. Perfect words for my Romantic heart.

*I love the sub-title at Argentine Tango Videos; It’s all about the footage. Fun play on words! They are exactly what they say they are, and if you feel like watching some tango I recommend pointing your browser in this direction.

*Art writes about the performing arts on Art’s Place, very detailed reviews of stage performances: ballet, opera, symphony and such. He includes lots of pictures, which makes for a fun visual read.

*If you’d like to hear a little about what goes on in the mind of the Artistic Director of a dance company, you could read Artistic Director, Peter Boal‘s blog on The Backstory. It’s currently only a few posts strong, but perhaps it will grow.