A wise woman once said, "life is an adventure, live and love with no regrets." She is incredibly right. And I'll say, watching an airplane fly below me is quite an adventure...
2011 UNLV Desert Challenge — IMG_9997.JPG, originally uploaded by Titoxd
The most fundamental similarity between dancing and dating is that they both are endeavors that require constant communication between two people. Both of them are undertaken by individuals who are striving to reach a goal neither one can reach independently. Both can only work when the goals of both partners are shared and laid out in the open. The result of both dancing and dating can be expressions that are unparalleled in beauty. However, they required hard work by both the guy and the girl.
No single person can carry a partnership: the task is too complex and the difficulty is too high. As experience has let me know, relationships with a material unbalance in the expectations from each partner will invariably end up in disappointment, even if it doesn't occur immediately. So if you are planning on getting into some sort of commitment, be it before the dance floor or before the altar, be extremely clear of what you expect from the other person, and of what the other person expects of you.
2011 UNLV Desert Challenge — IMG_2640.JPG, originally uploaded by Titoxd
We've been trying to draw parallels between ballroom dance partnerships and partnerships outside dance, and so far we have drawn a few interesting conclusions. However, dance really has a lot in common with life in general. Let's consider another example.
If you have two professional dancers who are performing an exhibition, and they have never danced with each other before (such as what happens in a Jack-and-Jill contest), chances are that they will look pretty good. Their technique will be [hopefully] flawless, and they will entertain the crowd with their flashy moves and their acting. (Ballroom dance does require some theatrics every now and then.) However, while both persons will move a lot, chances are that the combination will not move the audience, as my friend Jee would put it. If there are any disparities in skill or talent, this effect is magnified, and it will seem at times that one member of the partnership is showing off his moves, making his/her partner look bad in the process. As such, the partnership acquires a subtractive character, as the result of the partnership is lesser that the sum of the dancers' individual skill.
On the other hand, a professional partnership who has been dancing together for a considerable period of time is capable of adding a completely different dimension to their performance. I have watched couples who, by virtue of knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, are able to tailor routines to maximize the appeal of their dance simply by working with each other. These partnerships are additive, instead of subtractive, as they are not based in showing off flashy trash.
Some couples are able to use this communication so effectively that they completely hypnotize a crowd, simply by doing basic steps in a way that exudes the characteristic of the dance. These are the couples that have reached a level of greatness seldom found anywhere else. The couple seduces each other during a Tango, and seduces the entire audience at the same time. Alternatively, the couple's Rumba makes the public wonder what the dancers really did after the performance. Outside the ballroom, the same effects can be achieved simply by knowing your partner, being open about your needs, working off each other's strengths, and avoiding each other's weaknesses.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
2011 UNLV Desert Challenge — IMG_2476.JPG, originally uploaded by Titoxd
We can gather even more insight into romantic relationships if we continue to analyze the interactions between males and females in the ballroom. A Rumba pattern we tend to do rather often here in the beginning ballroom classes is what we call the "Around the World" dip. (I am sure it has a technical name, but hell if I know what it is…) In it, the guy and girl are doing Opposition Breaks, and the leader intercepts the follower, traps her right leg between his knees, bends her over backward, and allows her to snap her head right in front of his face. If done properly, this move is amazingly erotic.
The keyword here is "done properly": Since the girl is shifting her center of mass backwards by bending over, the guy will fall forward into the girl if he just stands there and looks pretty—and trust me, girls don't like guys falling over them. To avoid the epic fail, the guy needs to provide the proper support to the girl by pushing his bottom backwards, which shifts his own center of mass in a way that retains the common center of mass over their feet.
If we think about it, the girl is taking a large risk while doing this pattern. Her head is backwards in a position where if she just allowed herself to fall, she would hit herself in the back of the skull, possibly injuring herself. The support provided by the male is what allows her to do this pattern safely, and offers her a reward for her risk, as she ends up feeling hot and happy. The guy then becomes a beneficiary of the sensuality that the girl exudes during this dance move.
In life, girls will take risks when they feel they have the support from the guy. If the lady feels unsupported, she will be unwilling to risk injury—be it physical, mental, spiritual or emotional—and will be frustrated due to the lack of rewards. That frustration will be directly or indirectly pointed at the male, which is in her view useless. Now guys, do we want to be perceived as useless?
It turns out that the similarities between dance, life, and even sex do not stop there.
One of the principal elements in ballroom dance is connection between the two partners. We practice connection by standing in front of the partner, touching the other person with slight pressure only at the sides of the palms, and asking the lady to simply try to retain balance. We then ask the guy to lean forwards and back with no discernible rhythm.
The beautiful thing about this exercise is that it works properly only when there is sufficient connection between the couple. If the girl tries to backlead, she will not be able to correct whatever perturbations he causes in the partnership's balance, and they will fall down. It takes following—listening with the body—to maintain balance.
In a relationship, a similar concept applies. It takes listening with the heart to maintain the relationship's balance, but in this case, the following must be in both directions, as the guy needs to follow the girl's lead as well. If a guy or girl does not listen to the other person's needs, the relationship is doomed regardless of the efforts made by the partner.
2011 Phoenix Challenge (NQE) — IMG_6331, originally uploaded by Titoxd
A few weeks ago, my friend Noël and I got into an awesome conversation, and concluded that awesome dance partners would make for amazing sex. We found that girls prefer a man who is dominant and confident, yet respectful and mindful of a girl's needs—and since we all know that happy wife = happy life, that constitutes one of the keys to a successful relationship. However, there is another very important requirement in a relationship: the girl has to respect the guy, trust him, and follow his lead. This can only happen when the girl is fully convinced that the guy has her interests in mind. What happens when she doesn't believe this? She starts to backlead, and at that point, nothing works right anymore. It works the same way in ballroom dancing and sex.
Monday, September 12, 2011
I'm not sure I've ever seen this before. 64 packets were sent during a ping session, but we got 65 back? Where did the extra packet come from?
According to Occam's Razor, the most simple explanation is the one that is usually right, so there can only be one explanation...
The other packet... CAME BACK FROM THE FUTURE!
Ladies and gentlemen of the peanut gallery, listen to me for a second. This is a packet from the future, and things that come back from the future can only do two things: They can come to warn us about impending doom, or they can come to kill John Connor. Since Connor is already busy dealing with machines that look like old bodybuilders, we can safely assume that SkyNet would not send a packet to finish the job—that would be wastefully redundant on the machine's part. So what we have here is a crystal-clear case of a packet that is obviously trying to warn us about something. But what is it trying to tell us? It didn't come in a DeLorean, so it cannot have anything to do with Marty's kids... so what could it be? Will we be able to sleep at night again?
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Now that you know how to make a Pokébra, we are found in a different dilemma. Which Pokébra to use? To save you time, here are a few quick-and-dirty rules to help you choose which one to wear in your next adventure...
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
The entirety of the state of Arizona is in shock over the unfathomable events that transpired not even 48 hours ago. The dust from the vicious, inexplicable attacks on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has not settled yet, but the ramifications of the event are already becoming clear. As a nation, it seems that we have begun to take a good look at ourselves in the mirror, and to paraphrase Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, we need to do a little bit of soul searching as a nation.
That is exactly what the Pima Sheriff lamented: The political atmosphere has become toxic. America has become dominated by a sports-based political system: My team are the "good guys who want to save our country", while your team are the "evil bad guys who want to ruin our country". Neither side of the political spectrum even considers the possibility that the other side cares about this country as much as they do, just considers a different solution to be optimal. The media encourages us to villainize those who disagree with us, instead of trying to find a middle ground. We have an opportunity to pull together and figure out how to resolve our differences with decorum. However, I've also seen too much finger-pointing going on, which only perpetuates the problem.
It is in this atmosphere that ridiculous absolute statements such as "the government wants to slave us all", or "corporations want to slave us all" take root. It doesn't take much for somebody who has some loose screws to believe this garbage, and decide to act irrationally.
If this situation doesn't change, will we need to ask what's next? Or rather, will the appropriate question be who is next?