Dance: Ballet-Tango kind of body usage vs Salsa-bachata kind of body usage

 I went to a dance social that offers mix of party Latin (Salsa, bachata, merengue, cumbia, etc), Kizomba, and Argentine Tango (maybe and ballroom). This kind of social dance setting is rare (except ballroom dance events that are also a mix of bunch).

If you go to a dance event, the dance-specific dancers show up (salsa dancers for salsa event, Argentine Tango dancers for milonga, West Coast Swing dancers for WCS event, and so on).

Dancers choose their dances. Maybe due to their culture. Maybe they like the songs. 

There is natural physical affinity factor. Some are agile, some are elegant. They may choose song and dance that their body likes. 

Each dancer has natural affinity to a type of dance, and it shows.

Ballet-Argentine Tango-kind of dancers use frame and axis for lines and balance. They tend to stand tall and have good presence while standing. Their body tends to move as a unit, and that is a reason occasionally done leg flick or other embellishment moves can attract attention.

But they can look awfully stiff on the Latin floor.

Salsa-bachata dancers have more flexibility and use body isolation. Cuban motion with pelvic gyration, shimmy shoulder isolation, head flick, arm works, etc, all belong to party Latins.

Have fun in moving!

But they rarely have good walk stride with stretch. They are accustomed to dance on a spot, and few have good traveling walk. Their dance can look less "purposeful".

If you want to dance both of them well, you need to switch body usage consciously.

For dancing Argentine Tango, you'd use muscles in lower back like adding corset to form good axes and to help balance. Axis-based balance and pivot is a critical technique for the dance.

For dancing party Latins, you'd loosen up joints, especially at hips and shoulders, and use them with more flexibility. Got to be careful not to pull a muscle or anything, though. Use warm up.

Thanks to the switching, mixed dance party can give you a good workout and some sore muscles the next day. 

But I like it.

Life/Science: 2022 began, ....we reap what we sow.

 It's been one week since winter break was over and work resumed. This week was spent mostly for writing a manuscript in office.

If I want to publish the manuscript by or around a conference on April, I got to complete the manuscript and send it out by February or earlier.

There will be a couple of conferences on early April (4/1-3 and 4/8-13). Judging from current covid situation (omicron is surging here in the US and it will likely continue on January), they will likely be online. That means preparation will be needed on March. 

Also on March there will be some due date for project report. For that, the data should come out and analysis should be completed by mid-Feb. 

For the data to come, we need to send samples by mid-January. For that,.....

Just like that, future events dictate what I should do now. Such is work, and it is somewhat like farming or gardening.

This kind of thinking allows us to have some sense of self-control. "We can choose the future."

So plant the seeds now. We reap what we sow.

[University of Oklahoma (OU) seal "the seed sower"]

"The Seed Sower… a reminder of the importance of sowing the seeds of knowledge, to bear fruit in the future. The face of the Seed Sower on our university seal was rendered to resemble the first president of the university, David Ross Boyd, who took half of his first year’s salary and personally bought, planted and even watered the very first trees on the then-barren OU campus." (from OU webpage)