Dance: Can we dance Tango in kimono?

 On a whim, I picked up colorful Haori jackets of Kimono. Six of them. Guess I was in holiday party mode.

They were authentic Japanese, shipped from Kyoto and Okayama, famous production areas for kimono. Yen was still quite weak, and the price looked right on ebay.

Hakama pants are worn as a formal attire in Japan. You can get married or receive an award in it. So it is qualified as formal party dress. 

But you can move in it, as shown in Hakama pants being used for Kendo or Aikido practice. 

My parties are dance parties. I tested Haori jacket + Hakama pants (basically super wide pants) attire in Salsa and West Coast Swing. And they were fine, no problem. 

But these dances are "far apart" dances.

Now, can I dance Tango in Haori + Hakama attire? 

I googled for "Tango and Kimono" video, and got nothing. Well, my attempt might be actually very rare (or perhaps, just don't work?).

As wide pants, Hakama might not be ideal for leg entanglements. But without cuff and with not-too-long length, it is less likely to catch her heel. Probably the wide dark pants can work as background curtain to show her legs, while concealing my leg movements from viewers. A different look.

Wonder how it looks. Might be like some Turkish dance with "floating" look?

I am a scientist. I'll test it in next local milonga and find out. 

Difference from science; even if it does not work for all others, if I can get it to work, it will be fine for me.

If it is fine, I'd bring it to upcoming Tango festival I signed up for a night's costume. An experiment for fun.

[Two of the Haori Jackets I got]

Dance: Know your body type (Book: "how to play sports" by Hiroko Yamazaki)

 With the word "body type", most would think of "fat, skinny, tall, short" kind. 

Or perhaps, "pear, apple, hourglass", or "endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph (if you are into gym work and weights)".

According to Hiroko Yamazaki's book "How to play sports", there are 4 types, in terms of natural tendencies of body usages.

And the types are evident and can be determined by how you naturally stand.

Forward-weighted type A, and rear-weighted type B. Each can be also subcategorized to  "inner-weighted (1)" or "outer-weighted (2)".

A1 and B2 types use the body in "cross" manner, and A2 and B1 types use the body in "parallel" manner.

They are not about shapes, but rather, how you are wired and how you tend to use your body, and prefer particular ways of moving. Think the type is something like right-handed or left-handed. Your body does have preference, correct?

Based on types, how you hold your body axis at which points (type A with solar plexus, knees and feet, type B with neck, hips and feet), and which parts of your body can be more easily moved (for type A neck/shoulders, hips; for type B, solar plexus/ribcage, knees) also differ. Interesting.

How you stand is a big deal in tango dancing. There are many sayings regarding aesthetics.

But you'd also notice, by watching many tango or other dancers, one rule does not fit all.

 

People's natural body usages are different. You may need to accept the differences, and adopt the aesthetics to usages. 

We may have been trying too much to adopt usages to aesthetics.

For example, leg turnout and L-position of feet is generally recommended as an aesthetically good position for tango followers. It does work with many people. 

But you also encounter body types that are nearly incompatible with the turnout.

Then, do you try to "correct" it, against your body type? Or, would you rather learn to look like using turn out, while not forcing yourself too much going against your body's natural build?

Going against natural body type increases the risk of injury. Also, a body moving with maximum efficiency looks far better than a body with forced moves and looks.

Knowing your own body type helps to make the choice.

I checked myself. I am type B1 "rear-and inner-weighted", so a "parallel". 

Actually, using 2-inch Cuban heels has helped me to compensate for my natural tendency of rear-weighted in tango dancing. For tango, a leader needs to go forward mostly. Rear-weighted means I need extra split second to shift weight to forward from my natural position in order to go forward. The delay can be minimized by my shoes. 

Use of "right and left" axes is intuitively easy for parallel types, but explanations may need to be modified for cross types.

Model/tight roping kind of walk is one of the walk styles fitting tango aesthetics. But as a parallel type, more straight kind of walk is my body's natural motions. 

See? knowing own body type is helpful.

The author Hiroko Yamazaki was competing in Rhythmic Gymnastics in LA Olympics on 1984 as a representative athlete of Japan and placed on 8th. After her retirement from active gymnastics, she remained in coaching position, and led Japanese Rhythmic Gymnastics team to medal-competing position since 2015. 

She was even confessing in her book that she had given "correct for a type but wrong for another type" advices on gymnastics, with mixed results. After learning this body typing and adopting advices considering what advice works better on what body types, her coaching improved. She knows what she is talking about.

In medical research, personalized medicine has become common concept, and its practice is catching up. Maybe fine-tuned sports coaching based on personal body type is in the same trend.

[The book cover (in Japanese), published 7/14/22]

Another tagline/subtitle for this book is "Axis training, rather than muscle training". I like the idea.

Life: Cancer? Stones? Probably Fat.

On a previous post "Life: Slow-moving American medical system" on 9/22/22, I mentioned pain in my upper right abdomen.

Originally, my hospital visit was scheduled on 12/6/22. But they called me after cancellation and I got to talk with an internal medicine doctor on 11/1/22.

"Pain in upper right abdomen" can be caused by many issues. Doctor's diagnostic work is to narrow down possibilities to a diagnosis, so that they/we can move on to therapeutic work.

In established medical practice, doctors follow guidelines and standard procedures based on patient's complaints and diagnostic tests. They are standardised to flow charts. You can find the flow charts used in major hospitals with googling like "pancreatic cancer guideline 2022".

In this case of "upper right abdominal pain or heavy sensation, migrating to back and/or stomach", possible causes and treatments are:

(a) Infection (by virus, bacteria, parasite, etc) and associated acute or chronic inflammation in GI tract.

    We need to treat the infection with antiviral, antibiotic, or antiparasitic, depending on the germ. For acute infection, the pain is dragging on for too long, though.

(b) cancer (in liver, bile duct, gallbladder, pancreas or possibly stomach). 

  By numbers (survival curve with current therapies and 5-year survival rate), none are good. They are difficult cancers and I am not gonna like it. 

  Yet, as a cancer biologist, I have used carcinogens and radioisotopes in the lab before. I cannot just write them off without testing. This possibility is the reason I took this pain seriously.

(c) Gallstones or kidney stone.

  Most likely prediction and common issue.  About 10% of people of my age may carry stones with or without symptoms.

(d) stomach issue (GERD, ulcer)

  Another common issue, although I've hardly had any issues in stomach before.

(e) Liver issue (hepatitis, liver fluke, etc)

  As I work in hospital complex, I got vaccination against Hepatitis B virus and it should still be active. But these infections do happen. Good med for hepC virus came to market in this past decade, which is good news.

There are some others, but blood tests and imaging with ultrasound and/or CT scan can narrow down these possibilities.

So on 11/1/22, I talked with my new doctor. He looked very smart. Following the visit, the lab collected my blood. 

A few days later, I checked out patient portal and they already had blood test results uploaded.

And actually, none of the results were out of ordinary and all were in normal range. Inflammation marker, liver enzymes/liver damage markers, blood cell count, cancer marker, diabetes marker, ... nothing.

At the time, I was relieved. Probably not metastatic cancer or ongoing infection and inflammation. 

But then, what is it?

Probably the doctor wondered the same thing. The doctor's office scheduled an abdominal ultrasound on 11/7/22. So I went. Working in the same hospital complex is a good thing.

I'd never taken an ultrasound imaging before. First time for everything. 30 minutes examination went by rather soon. 

Next day, radiology doctor's report was up.

No stones in gallbladder or kidney (surprise). Visible part of pancreas and spleen were normal.

They found hepatic steatosis (fatty liver). Oh, my.

In the lab, I've seen steatotic liver under microscope. Each cell carries big oil droplets inside. So the liver looks somewhat like a sponge, after slide preparation for microscope that extracts oil components. With gross examination, steatotic liver do look different from "normal" liver. Steatotic liver is, essentially, "foie gras". Might taste good.

Steatosis by itself is a benign and rather common condition. 10-30% of people may carry it without knowing. But for some people, it causes pain, and this might be the case for me. Being Asian is a risk factor for hepatic steatosis.

If steatosis progresses toward steatohepatitis (fatty liver with inflammation), pathological changes and damage accumulate, and the liver can move to fibrosis (damaged liver with scars) and cirrhosis (advanced version of fibrosis). Liver with cirrhosis is a hotbed for liver cancer. You don't want it. And that is the reason this steatosis-steatohepatitis-fibrosis-cirrhosis transition process is getting serious attention in medical practitioners and researchers. 

As of 11/9/22, I have not gotten contacted by the doctor. Next he might want to order another imaging test with CT scan, or he might want to finalize the diagnosis as hepatic steatosis and want me to work on diet, exercise, and/or possibly prescribe or suggest something that can work on steatosis.

Steatosis is a reversible condition. Losing 5% of my current body weight would likely alleviate the pain and other symptoms.

Maybe I need to cut back on my ice cream. Ouch. 

Fat is far better than cancer, stones, virus or parasites. At least, more manageable by myself.  Lucky me. I should take this as my middle age challenge and start lifting weights or something.

[Photo of "Foie gras" in wikipedia]