Elements of the Salsa Song

There is more to a song than just the underlying 4/4 time and finding the 1/2/3 depending on what beat one breaks on. There is the 2/3 or 3/2 clave, the cowbell, conga, maracas, piano, timbales, bass, bongos, guiro. In addition an instrument can play different rhythms. The more you can understand the song elements the better your dancing can get and one neat little tool that can help one understand more of these different elements is the SalsaBeatMachine. Check it out for yourself and see whether it can help you.

Whole wheat bread

Ingredients:2 2/3 cup wheat four, 1/3 cup gluten, 2 tsp brown sugar, 2 slightly heaped tsp yeast, 1/3 tsp salt, 5 tsp oil, water as needed

Warm up some water in a bowl, and add 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp wheat gluten, 1 tsp wheat flour. Dip finger to make sure water is luke warm. Add yeast. Let sit until the surface is covered with reacted yeast and bubbles. It usually takes couple minutes. Add this mixture to remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. Knead, adding water as necessary until all the flour is incorporated and dough stops being sticky. Add 5 tsp oil and then knead until oil in incorporated. Total time from adding liquid to dry ingredients to final dough is usually under 30 minutes.
Cover bowl and put in luke warm oven (I heat oven for a minute or two) to rise. After an hour take out, put in oiled baking pans (you can make little more than a loaf or buns) and put back in oven to rise for 45 minutes. Remove, preheat oven to 350, then bake for 25 minutes.

Khichdi

This rice and lentil dish is an easy way to make a nutritious healthy and delicious one pot meal. This is even easier than the traditional khichdi, if you can imagine such a thing.

Ingredients: 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup lentils (any of your choice from masoor, moong, French, mung....), 1/4 tsp salt, pinches of whatever spices you like (tumeric, garam masala, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamon), 1/2 an onion and 1/2 a tomato, 3 cups water.

Wash rice and lentils well, then add three cups of water. Add the spices, cut tomato and onion. Cook until the water is boiling, stir and then cover pot and let simmer until all the water is absorbed. It usually takes about 35/40 minutes of simmering. Sometimes I have added veggies as well when I turn down the heat and let it simmer.

How much time you need to cook will vary on the rice and lentil you use and type of stove you have. I always cook with brown rice which takes longer. Using white rice and red lentils will result in a shorter cooking time.

The locavarian foodie

A locavarian is one who supports the idea of living local: buying locally grown produce and other local products; frequenting mom and pop shops/stores and restaurants so that the money spent has a greater probability of circulating in the local area. In trying to live a more fulfilling healthier life I've discovered that being a food locavarian makes sense. Who wouldn't be attracted to the fragrance of freshly ground flour, or vibrant flavorful veggies/fruit freshly picked that morning? However, with a premium usually placed on local and organic products often it is cheaper to buy from a supermarket chain, or even fill oneself with a burger at McDonalds. Yet, it always isn't so. Bulk items such as rice, beans and flour, vegetables/fruit in season are comparable or in some cases even cheaper. And when prepackaged items go on sale the organic product may be even cheaper than what you can get at your typical chain supermarket.

Take the case of wheat bread, comparing loaves of equivalent cost.

Wheat bread made at home: freshly ground organic wheat flour and wheat gluten, oil, sugar, water, salt, yeast

Typical store bread: enriched wheat flour (unbleached flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, floic acid, riboflavin), water,sugar. Plus contains 2% or less of soybean oil, yeast, wheat gluten emulsifiers(DATEM, soy lecithin,DATEM...), corn grits....

It is a no-brainer. Who wishes to put the crap of the store bought bread in their bodies when there is a viable alternative?

Take the time to compare prices and you may be surprised. Moving to becoming a locovarian may be easier than you think with the additional benefits of being healthier and feeling good supporting the local economy.

Born to dance - why we really don't have two left feet

Today while browsing the internet I found out researchers have determined that we may have born to dance. An article at Science Daily reports that in a study of babies ranging from 5 months to two years it was discovered that the young ones have a "predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music." The babies are simply following the beat, not the melody or some other component of the music, but it does make a valid point. We all have the innate ability to move to the music, to follow the beat. You may think you have and always will two left feet, but you can learn to follow the beat.

So what is the difference between a baby and us? A baby does not have the cultural and societal trappings that can encumber us. He/she approaches the music with an open mind and moves instinctually, intuitively. This is why I suggest to people who want to learn to dance to play the music in the background while doing your everyday tasks:driving, cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, homework... Let the mind absorb the rhythms of the music at its own pace, and the body will in its own time start moving to it. Eventually when it comes to actual partner dancing trust in your mind and body and you will be able to move to the beat. And it works. Take it from someone who followed and still follows his own advice.

As a dance newbie I couldn't find the right beat to start moving, and had problems keeping the beat. And even today when I have lapses where I just can't seem to move right to a song I do the following: I take a deep breath, stop thinking, and let my body respond to the music.

I wanna be like you

The song, "I wanna be like you" is a classic. No matter what we do, and in spite of how much we have in common, each one of us is still unique and different from others. Makes for an interesting life.

Dance Musicality

I admire those people who do ballroom competitions and so accurately portray the character of the dance, and song. Their technical ability to match their emotional connection to that of the song, no matter what is going on personally in their lives, is great. We often say they exhibit great musicality, yet I still find something is missing. There seems something robotic, artificial about this.

Well, wikipedia defines musicality as “fitting a dance to the music being played, with the goal of relating the dance to the music's rhythm, melody, and mood. Dancers usually step on the beats of the music, and may vary the size of their movements with the volume of the music. This is especially true in choreography, where dancers plan a routine of dance moves, sometimes with a specific song in mind. This is also a key characteristic of improvised...dancing.”

We can then look at Jack and Jill competitions in West Coast swing where two people are randomly paired up and dance to a song that is chosen for them. Or on the social dance floor a great technical dancer with a good repertoire of moves who can use this to improvise to a song he/she has not heard before. Great musicality, with improvisation, yet I submit still something missing.

What I have been describing previously is “technical musicality”. The missing element can easily be seen by observing those who do not know how to dance technically, yet appeal to your eye as you watch them dancing. They have that something extra: personal emotional interpretation.

In an earlier post “FUN-KEY or FUNKY! What is your dance style?I briefly touched upon musicality. I talked of developing one’s own dance style through hearing something in the song (instrument sound, singer’s voice...) and playing with it. In following an instrument, for instance, one is matching the rhythmic structure of the song - technical musicality. Still, by letting one’s personal emotional interpretation - what is inside - determine what elements of rhythm to play with and how to play with the elements, one is superimposing the personal/inner on the technical/outer, fusing the two - alpha and the omega. There may be an evening when I am ecstatic, life is great. Here all dances will be tinged with something from that joyful element. Another night I might be unhappy/sad and again the same will apply. I think that is what makes social dancing so great.

Note the emphasis on “personal” emotional interpretation in dance musicality, and not just emotional connection. One can say that bachata is romantic and the song is sad and so one’s emotional connection should match that. That is not driven by you, but dictated by the dance style and song. To be personally involved requires that the sad song for romantic bachata sparks something in you that you use in your dancing - not necessarily sad feelings. And it works! In doing so one finds a flow to the music to follow.

This past Friday I was watching a couple do swing at the jazz night at the Oasis dance club. I enjoyed seeing them move, yet they were not following musical structure technically as others were. I asked Phil, and he said, “The music is too fast for me, and so I listen to the music until I find something that matches me. I find it and follow.” Here dance musicality, my definition of musicality, is “that personal emotional interpretation of the music to some type of flow.”

Two definitions of dance musicality - which one will you follow?