A Salute to Merce Cunningham

photo courtesy of danceheritage.org

Reading about Merce Cunningham's passing earlier this week, Cath and I felt one of those great lights had gone out. As young dancers we dreamed of dancing with anyone as powerfully moving and awe inspiring. 

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls."

We never got a chance to dance a Cunningham piece, so I have no idea what I'm doing here. I'm pretty sure he would have vetoed the 5 inch stilettos.

Cath and I stuck with dancing from the wee age of three until the "end of our careers" at 18 (pesky college got in the way), but seeing that this man was still moving and pushing dance forward until his 80s proves that he is one of those steady souls.  

Thank you, Mr. Cunningham.

LL

Weekend Recap

With 3 dance performances and the parents in town for a few days we jammed a lot into the weekend. Below are just a few of the highlights.

Our dance friends are ridiculously stylish. Not only can they drape Ikea sheets like pros (see earlier post), they're also true fashionistas off stage. Below Becca and Stacey prove my point. Becca is dressed in vintage finds and Stacey is head to toe in Target - and they both look fabulous! You can check out another dancer friend's style on her own blog: Hiking in Stilettos.


A weekend would not be complete without a few stops in some local boutiques. DressCodes is one of our favorites - great clothing and a super cute (and friendly) guard dog.


After the Saturday night performance we celebrated with dessert at Cakes & Ale - Decatur's newest restaurant. The pistachio and strawberry ice cream Baked Alaska (left) is the best I've had. The Phatty Cakes (right) are soft ginger cookies with a creme filling - perfect with a cup of coffee from a French press.


While stuffing our faces with Phatty Cakes, we met fellow blogger and local jeweler extraordinaire June Shin. More on that in another post!

To sum it up, a good time was had by all. I wouldn't mind having more weekends like this one.

CL

How to Wear a Sheet (while Dancing)

Lovely ladies from L to R: Stacey, Kat, Becca, and Ashley. (Asian Cajuns below).
sheets: IKEA
leotards and tights: various

These are the gorgeous ladies we've been dancing with this past week. Apart from being beautiful dancers, and lovely people in general, all of these ladies make a flat IKEA sheet look good (do you like how I'm working this to somehow make this fashion blog appropriate?). There is no cutting involved, just lots of creative draping and twisting. Most amazingly of all, these stay on as we roll about the floor and run across the stage for 10 minutes. The perfect marriage of fashion(ish) + function.

LL