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30th Anniversary Event: Wednesday December 30th, 2009
Dance Flash: Rhythm & Motion -- Legwarmers Not Required
by Becca Hirschman, SF Appeal Newspaper
December 23, 2009 2:00 PM
Taking a dance class as an adult can be a daunting thing, especially if your mom didn't enroll you in toddler tap-and-nap classes at Miss Minnie's Salsa Spin-o-Rama (not a real dance studio. Really.). Here in the city, we have several drop-in dance programs geared towards adults, but starting dance classes post-teen years can be stressful.
How do you know what program is right for you? And what if you're a pure beginner? And even more so, what if you just want to go, exercise, have fun, and not stress too much about how many fouette turns (those spins where you kick your leg out to the side and keep turning on one leg until you a) fall over or b) but your leg down) you can do? Those are a lot of questions, which perhaps can be answered by two words separated by a symbol: Rhythm & Motion.
What: Rhythm & Motion's All-Day Dance Bash
When: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Where: ODC Dance Commons, Shotwell St, San Francisco
Tickets: Those classes are FREE! Limited reserved tickets for the evening's performance are available by emailing samantha@rhythmandmotion. com or calling 415-863-9830 x202 to reserve your seat.
"Inspired by the idea that truly 'anyone can dance,'" Rhythm & Motion, a for-profit dance program housed out of the ODC Dance Commons, "fosters physical and emotional well-being for all ages and abilities." Sounds nice, doesn't it? Created in 1979, Rhythm & Motion has "evolved into a comprehensive center for global dance and dance workout, fusing dance styles and incorporating eclectic music to create an invigorating, physically challenging and fun experience."
Fusing dance styles and eclectic music? A dance workout? This is gibberish, sort of like if someone said that Mayor Newsom had turned in his hair gel for pomade. Make sense, dammit! Well, to find out, I did what any hardworking dance writer does. I went and took a class.
Now, I will preface this by saying I have a dance background. I mean, I have to have some sort of semi-decent credentials in order to write about dance. But the most I've taken in the last eight years has been a handful or two of ballet classes.
Arriving at the Commons, the first thing I did was check-in for the Fusion Rhythms (FR) dance workout class. Including choreographed warm-ups, cardio, arm, leg, and ab work, the Fusion Rhythms dance workout series incorporates hip hop, modern, African, Latin, and aerobic dance into a 60-minute running-with-the-bulls session.
There are also two other options for the dance workout: Essential Fusion Rhythms (EFR) is the beginning version of the Fusion Rhythms (FR) dance workout. Steps are broken down and routines slowed down a bit to help everyone "get it." The other version is the Modern Fusion Rhythms (MFR), which is a longer version of the class and demands a little more experience and choreographic memory.
Post-check-in included changing out of my work clothes and into workout clothes, but I know what you're thinking so I'll stop you there--no leotard and tights! Anything comfy will do like yoga pants, tank tops, shorts, etc. Oh, and sneakers! Preferably something you don't wear outside so as not to dirty up the floors.
I stuck myself in the middle of Eyla Moore's Wednesday evening class. For beginners, positioning yourself in the middle of the class (halfway between the front, back, and sides of the class) is ideal. You'll be able to follow everyone around you, even if you turn around to the back wall or the side windows.
After a quick welcome and update (R&M was prepping for the flash mob performance at the Powell cable car turnstile, as seen above, so the deets were shared along with holiday schedule notes), Moore tapped her iPod and the 25 class members and I were off and running.
OK, not running. More like breathing, bending our knees, stretching our arms, and isolating our ribs. Then we progressed to hip shaking, paddle turns, weight changes, and flying through the air, and holy crap, I sweating buckets! For the first few songs, I was lost.
Oh, alright, for most of the class, I was lost, but I kept following Moore and the students around me. Moore shimmied through the class as she led us through the class, and the music, a blend of drums, hip hop, and dance hits, pushed me along. Each routine repeated itself several times, so by the end of each song or section, I felt like I was getting the hang of things, keeping up with the class as we steamrolled towards the finish and cooldown. One, two, arm up, hip, step, step, step, jump, turnturnturn... By the end, as I crunched and stretched, all my cavorting seemed like a blur, but the sweat permeating through my clothes reeked of success. Sweet, salty success.
Of my semi-perplexed feelings of "I did it!" vs. "I did it?", Moore says that this is expected for all new students but "the more you come, the more familiar the movements become, and then it's easier to follow along...." For new students, she suggests "come knowing that [you're] not going to get everything perfectly, and that that's not even what the class is about. It's really about just enjoying yourself, enjoying the music, and just feeling the spirit of everyone in the room, and just going with the general flow of the class. But all people need to do is be prepared to get lost and that's OK! It's part of the process."
Moore says dance technique "is important so that no one hurts themselves," but an R&M class "is much more free, as much as you're not really focused on being technically perfect or anything; it's more of enjoying dancing, enjoying music, and really just moving around and keeping moving for that hour. The beautiful thing about it is that people that have never dance before will come here and have a great time. I think sometimes in some of the modern classes they feel more pressure, oh, like it's more advanced and they have to be more technical. So this is about enjoying yourself and letting it go and not worrying about anyone looking at you or doing it perfectly. It's about enjoying dancing."
Awesome. No one will care if you screw up! Turn the wrong way? So what! Leg can't go too high? Kick it the best you can. All that matters was that you keep moving, try your best, and have fun. Oh, and don't intentionally whack anyone with a flying limb.
Alena Bell-Farrell started taking R&M classes in 2001 and is a regular in Moore's Fusion Rhythms class. Working in a medical office, she uses the class as a mental breather as well as a time to get a total workout. "Every day is different. Some days I'm stressed out, I come here, and I want to decompress, forget about my day, not really focus, and just kind of breathe deep, get into it, and forget about it. Not even caring if I'm doing the movement right, if I'm backwards, or if I bump into someone and I'm like 'I'm sorry!' because sometimes you just need to let it go. And then other days I'm really focused, I really just want to work out, and then I'm like, hop in and jump in and really put a lot of my physical energy out. But yeah, every day it kind of goes on how I'm feeling and what I need, and I think you can really get anything you need out of that class."
Next week, Rhythm & Motion is hosting an All-Day Dance Bash to celebrate 30 years of hearty and healthy dance instruction. The day sports free classes in Fusion Rhythms, Mexican Folkloric, Afro-Brazilian, pilates, 80s dance, house dance, bollywood, belly dance, as well as a performance and party. Outside of the Bash, single classes are $12, which is cheaper than most yoga classes and comparable to a glass of bubbly. So if you're looking to try something new in 2010 or just want to add a little zing before 2009 rolls to a close, check out Rhythm & Motion's introductory day of enjoyable, no-pressure dance classes.
For Full Article, visit SF Appeal Online Newspaper website.
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Moves, grooves
By Tamara Straus
The wacky, wonderful, totally unpretentious Rhythm & Motion Dance ( www.rhythmandmotion.com) program is celebrating its 30th anniversary Wednesday with a day of free master and global dance classes as well as a reception, performance and DJ dance party, from 10 a.m. to midnight at ODC Dance Commons in the Mission.
Inspired by the idea that "anyone can dance," R&M is a peculiarly Bay Area institution making inroads into more physically uptight parts of the country. Blanche Brown, former Mayor Willie Brown's wife, has taught there for decades, as has Amara Tabor-Smith, formerly of Urban Bush Women. The program offers 25 types of classes in (for example) Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Haitian, ballroom, salsa, flamenco, tribal belly-dance, hip-hop jazz, rhythm tap and the masterfully choreographed dance workouts.
Founder Consuelo Faust never expected R&M to last so long. But she said that as a teen she learned perseverance and community building from her mother and aunt, who "took a small shotgun house in New Orleans and built it into a bookstore that is still going strong to this day."
R&M now has a branch at the Cincinnati Ballet, and an outpost class in New York City, at the Mark Morris Dance Center. But Faust said the program's focus remains on the Bay Area.
"San Francisco is still a place where people live in a way that is both risk-taking and open hearted," said Faust.
"We tried Rhythm & Motion in Manhattan in the mid-'80s and it proved difficult because, even in a dance-for-fun workout class, people persisted in taking themselves so seriously!"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/24/DD051B6HM4.DTL
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/24/DD051B6HM4.DTL#ixzz0cLssxdPr
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"Free Your Butt, and the Rest Will Follow"
By Hiya Swanhuyser, SF Weekly
Texas journalist Molly Ivins coined the term "little-d democracy," but San Francisco has perfected its application with stuff like free clinics, needle exchanges, workers collectives, and creative bartering. Case in point: Rhythm & Motion Dance Workout, with its philosophies "Anyone can dance" and "Everyone has the right to be a beginner." Because so many people have been run out of dance class by the pervasive snotty contempt, fascistic ideas about the human body, horrible music, and the sense that you should already know how to do all the steps, you loser, the anti-elitists at Rhythm & Motion have been hard at work for the past 30 years. At Rhythm & Motion's Free All Day Dance Bash, get to know the program's standard routines (the same ones used in its roughly 200 classes per week) in the morning and afternoon master classes, and take addtional free classes in Afro-Brazilian, Tribal Belly Dance, Flamenco, and other styles. In the evening, enjoy a party atmosphere and performances by instructors past and present, and a general dance party after that.
For Full Article, visit the SF Weekly website.
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Weekly Event Pics: "Rhythm & Motion 30th Anniversary Dance Bash"
The San Francisco Bay Guardian
If you're really going to throw down on the dance floor this New Year's Eve, it's time to train, and there is no better time or place than the 30th birthday celebration of Rhythm and Motion, a center for global dance and dance workout created by Consuelo Faust.
For Full Listing, visit the SFBG website.
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ODC All-Day Dance Bash Tomorrow
by Rachel Brodsky
You want to join the gym, but who can justify the cost these days? Luckily for you, there are all kinds of free and cheap opportunities to get off your ass. Take this Wednesday, for example, where ODC hosts Rhythm & Motion's 30th Anniversary, featuring an all-day dance celebration from 10am-12pm. No one's really working in the interim period between Christmas and New Year's, so again, we ask you: why not get your derriere of the couch and shake it instead?
The all-day dance bash begins with introductory 30-minute Rhythm & Motion Dance Workout Classes to get the heart rate up, followed by Afro-Brazilian, Fusion and Global afternoon classes. Later, ODC hosts a wine and hors d'oeuvres reception, followed by a dance performance by R&M teachers and an all-night DJ dance party to top off the evening.
Schedule of events:
30 min. R&M Dance Workout Classes for Beginners 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm
All Star R&M Dance Workout Classes 10:30am (Modern Rhythms), 12pm (Fusion Rhythms)
Mexican Folkloric, Afro-Brazilian, Pilates 1-2pm
80s Dance, Pilates 2-3pm
Bollywood, Latin Grooves 3-4pm
Tribal Belly Dance, House Dance 4-5pm
Reception 5:30pm
Performance 7pm
DJ Dance Party 9pm
Oh, and did we mention that this was free? Because it is.
What: Rhythm & Motion's 30th Anniversary All Day Dance Bash
Where: ODC Dance Commons
When: Wednesday, December 30 (10am-12am)
How Much: Free
To see Full Article, visit the SFist website.