Fred Astaire was an American dancer, actor, singer, choreographer, and television presenter. He is widely considered the greatest dancer in film history. His career spanned a total of 76 years.
Known for his performances with Ginger Rogers in "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta 1935, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance 1937 and "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat 1935.
Created by Frederick Ashton and originally performed by The Royal Ballet in 1971 Tales of Beatrix Potter was created as a film and brought to the stage in 2007.
A delightful performance from start to finish bringing our beloved Beatrix Potter Characters to life with clever and stunning costumes, beautiful sets and playful choreography.
The way each the choreography gives each character a unique way of moving that is so true to their animal. Personal favourites of mine are Mr Jeremy Fisher and Squirrel Nutkin.
The Fiddle and The Drum, danced by the Alberta Ballet company, was first performed on 8th February 2007.
The ballet, choreographed by internationally famed Jean Grand-Mâitre, was created to music by Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. The dancers visually portray Joni Mitchell’s life-long concerns about environmental neglect and the warring nature of mankind, wearing simple costumes so as not to detract from the issues raised by the lyrics.
Throughout the ballet, the Alberta Ballet Company gives metaphorical life to Joni Mitchell’s music, whilst images of her art-work appear above the dancers.
My favourite part of the performance is the choreography to Joni Mitchell's 'Three Great Stimulants'
Amelia, performed by La La La Human Steps and choreographed by Édouard Lock, was filmed in 2002 as a restaged version of the Amelia stage show by the same company and choreographer.
The intention of the production was to create a dance production without narrative or storytelling devices. The choreography was taken from the original stage show and reworked with the the camera being choreographed specificallly for each piece, almost like the view point of an additional dancer.
The production is a combination of pas de duex, pas de trois and pas de quatre with changing camera angled and light to create different atmospheres and effects. This production also showed as an example of male dancers using pointe shoes.
My favourite part is the opening pas de duex, the movements are like a conversation between the male and the female dancer.
Carlos Acosta CBE is a retired Cuban-British ballet and currently the Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Born in 1973, Carlos grew up in one of Havana’s poorest districts. With the persuasion of his father, Carlos was sent to train at the National Ballet School of Cuba. Here he trained with some of its most influential teachers including Ramona de Saa.
Carlos danced with the English National Ballet before the National Ballet of Cuba and Houston Ballet. In 1998 Carlos accepted a position at The Royal Ballet.
Carlos retired from the Royal Ballet stage in 2015 with his own version of Carmen, choreographed for the company. He then brought the curtain down on his classical career with sell out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2016.
Good Vibes, Good Life : How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Greatness is Vex King’s first book published on 2018. It talks about providing good vibes to ourselves by practicing self-care, overcoming toxic energy and prioritising our well-being, to be mindful and practise meditation, strive for building positive habits which eventually will invite a positive life, trust the universe and be a shining star for ourselves.
I'll be honest, when I picked up this book last year I was skeptical. It was one of the first books I read about self-love and positive practices but I found it enlightening. Reading it shifted my view on the world around me and started positive practices that I still use a year on.
The Dance Cure by Dr Peter Lovatt
-----------------------------------
This book gives a powerful insight into dance for every body; regardless of age, size, flexibility, fitness level or ability.
Showing how dance can benefit everyday life with examples of applications and easy to follow tips to bring the power of dance into your life.
I know what role dance has played in my life but this book has helped me to understand why and how this has happened which has guided my approach to teaching.
Reminder.... Take some time for yourself.
Whether you're lying down, seated or standing, take just a few seconds to scan through your body.
I like to do a short body scan first thing in the morning before getting out of bed and have found if I do a longer one at night when I'm trying to fall asleep, going through each individual finger, lower arm, elbow, bicep, tricep... I fall asleep faster.
Every system in the body relies on oxygen. From cognition to digestion, effective breathing can not only provide you with a greater sense of mental clarity, it can also help you sleep better, digest food more efficiently, improve your body’s immune response, and reduce stress levels.
Taking a moment to centre yourself, following simple guided breathing, you can see immediate results in the lowering of your heart rate and long term results with better sleep, lower blood pressure and a greater ability to focus.
Funk originated in the mid-1960s by musicians who began mixing the genres of Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and Jazz.
James Brown was one of the key founders of funk accented by any number of instruments involved in rhythmic counter-play, all working toward a “groove.”
4 characteristics of Funk:
🎶 Syncopation: The syncopation of funk music—particularly in its guitar and bass lines—helps to make it easy to dance to. Songs like "Sex Machine," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," and "Super Freak," rely on syncopated rhythm guitar to establish a groove.
🎶 Strong downbeats, followed by 16th note grooves: Funk pioneer James Brown was famous for directing his band to play "on the one," which meant he wanted strong downbeat accents. These downbeats were followed by funky 16th note riffs that filled out the measure.
🎶 Seventh chord variants: Funk music relies on densely voiced chords, particularly 7th chords and variants such as major and minor 9th chords and 13th chords. Often these chords are sustained for multiple measures as a player locks into a groove.
🎶 Grooves driven by bass guitar; some of the most influential funk musicians are bassists, including Bootsy Collins of Parliament-Funkadelic, and Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone.
Blues is a music genre which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is found in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterised by the call-and-response pattern of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common.
As one of the pioneers of recorded blues Robert Johnson was essential in the popularity of blues despite the remarkable fact that the only recordings which exist of him are from a period in 1936 and 1937. He is known primarily as a classic blues singer accompanied by erratic blues guitar, with hit blues songs such as “Cross Road Blues” and “Sweet Home Chicago”.
B.B. King, The King of Blues, born in 1925 and rising to fame as a guitarist of extreme restraint and sophistication. BB King’s career really began after he moved to Chicago and, as his fame grew, he began to tour extensively. In fact, King is famous for playing relentlessly, once rumoured to have played 342 shows in 1956 alone.
This quick, easy and zingy recipe tastes brilliant and can be customised to use up those pesky bits of vegetables and salad you have left in your fridge.
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 100ml milk
• 150g spinach
• 1/2 small pack of mint
• 3 spring onions
• Handful cherry tomatoes
• 1tsp mint sauce
• 1tsp lime juice
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Butter/Sunflower oil for frying pan
STEP 1
Add the milk to the beaten eggs. Season well with salt and pepper.
STEP 2
Combine the herbs, vegetables, mint sauce and lime juice with the egg and milk mixture. Heat the oil or butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-low heat until the butter has melted and is foaming.
STEP 3
Pour the mixture into the pan, tilt the pan ever so slightly from one side to another to allow the mixture to cover the surface of the pan completely. Let the mixture cook for about 20 seconds then scrape a line through the middle with a spatula.
STEP 4
Tilt the pan again to allow it to fill back up with the runny egg. Repeat once or twice more until the egg has just set.
STEP 5
Slide onto a plate to serve.
Low Fat Spiced Cinnamon Apple Cake 🍎
• 3 apples (approx 250g/8.8oz)
• 3 eggs
• 150g/5.3oz/ 3/4 cup of sugar (I used golden caster but could mix it up and use light brown or cane)
• 2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 170g/6oz/1 1/3 cups + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
To top:
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of granulated or brown sugar
--------------
• Preheat oven to 180°C / 360°F. Butter/line with greaseproof a 9" cake pan or Loaf tin
• Peel the apples and remove the cores. Dice into small cubes and set aside
• Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy (approx 3 mins). Mix in the vanilla extract.
• In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.
• Carefully fold the dry mix into the egg mixture, do not to over mix.
• Fold in the chopped apples.
• Pour batter into your greased/lines tin
• Mix together in a small container the cinnamon and sugar for the topping and sprinkle across the uncooked batter.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes for round cake tin, 40-45 minutes for loaf tin, until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Between 1935 and the mid-1940s is sometimes referred to as the swing era. Swing music has a compelling momentum that results from musicians’ attacks and accenting in relation to fixed beats. Swing rhythms defy any narrower definition, and the music has never been notated exactly.
The big swing bands organized their players into sections of brass, woodwinds, and rhythm and hired skilled orchestrators to write music for them. A popular element was the riff, a simple musical phrase reiterated by a band or by a section in counterpoint with other sections’ riffing until, by sheer power of repetition, it became almost hypnotic.
The bands led by the Black pianist Fletcher Henderson in the 1920s were especially important in disseminating these musical ideas, which were then picked up by white orchestras riding the later tide of swing’s popularity. Henderson and his brother Horace remained among the most influential swing arrangers of the following decade. Equally as important was Duke Ellington, whose music was infused with a unique range of harmonies and sound colours.
The swing era also coincided with the greatest popularity of dance bands in general. But when singers who began as swing stylists, such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, and Sarah Vaughan, became more popular than the swing bands they sang with, the swing era came to an end.
Jamiroquai are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. Formed in 1992 they built on their acid jazz sound in their early releases and later drew from rock, disco, electronic and Latin music genres. Lyrically, the group has addressed social and environmental justice.
Song of the moment: Canned Heat from their album Synkronised in 1999
Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. His music is a mix of strings and piano with loops and beats. Ranging from ambient/electronic to atmospheric pop.
Song of the moment: ekki hugsa from Ólafur Arnalds 2018 album 're:member'
In May 2022 Adult ballet dancers from etcetera danced to 'Happiness Does Not Wait' by Ólafur Arnalds as part of Roshe School Crawley's show 'Luminescence'. The dance was pre-recorded as sirens in the sea to be projected as part of the production.
🎶ekki hugsa - Ólafur Arnalds🎶
The Piano Guys draw on a variety of classical, pop, film score and original music in their compositions for piano and cello. They are especially well known for their mashups of classical and contemporary songs, such as blending Mozart and Adele, Bach and Michael Jackson, or Vivaldi's "Winter" and Disney's "Let It Go".
Song of the moment: Fight Song / Amazing Grace from The Piano Guys' 2016 album: Uncharted