My sister Karen is going through boxes of our parents’ memorabilia. One of the things she shared is the Dale family’s 1960 Christmas letter, perfectly typed by my mother. The two pages recount the year's events including the birth of my sister Melissa ("very throaty, no head resonance") and my father’s second appearance at [...]
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was born on this day, November 14th, in 1805. (Google honored on this, her 216th birthday, in its daily doodle.) She wrote more than 460 pieces of music, at least some of which were published under her brother Felix's name. The first work published under her own name was her Opus [...]
"These experiences lead to a richer more meaningful life. Also, the understanding of how to dance together in a group, I think, answers a contemporary need." - Mary Ann Brehm
Happy Anniversary! Today is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. It’s hard to believe it was only two generations ago that American women were disenfranchised. My own grandmother was prohibited from casting a ballot. Even after the ratification of the 19th amendment, black women (as well [...]
Freda Miller Modern Dance Musician, 1911-1960 Remember Modernism? Soon after women won their right to vote, they began the audacious exploration of dance as their own art form. Women were often their musical collaborators, as well. Here I'll introduce you to a significant one: Freda Miller. The staples of suburban dance studios seem to reference [...]
Inside out <-> Outside in We’ve all heard the phrase, “dance like nobody’s watching.” It’s a cliché now, but it caught on because it means something… Something about feeling free in one’s own space, and therefore happy. Not that freedom to feel always means feeling happy. Otherwise, people wouldn’t have come up with so many [...]
On a whim, I looked up “November 18” in music history and discovered a coincidence of composer birthdays. 11/18/1680 is the birthday of Jean-Baptiste Loeillet. 11/18/1860 is the birthday of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Maybe I'm easily amazed, but that was enough to get me going. Loeillet The Loeillet soubriquet has been a bit confusing for [...]
If you think people today don't understand what Jaques-Dalcroze's work was about, take a look at this article from 1913! Journalist Rothay Reynolds visited Hellerau to see what Jaques-Dalcroze's new method was all about. His report, Higher Culture Gone Mad in Cult of Dalcroze, suggests he was confounded by the encounter. Published in the Courier-Journal of Louisville [...]
