Hahhahha! I recently got an email about this earlier post where I was pondering whether I should get Pasha and Luis bronzed dance belts for a holiday gift as an apology for constantly kicking them there during lessons. I’m just so glad, after tonight’s SYTYCD episode that I’m not the only one with that little problem!!
It’s hard to be a male dancer!… What’s up with that look on my face??… Anyway, there we are trying this very cool Karina dip (that I stole from her but can’t do correctly to save my life because, hello, I am NOT Karina!)… This trick is so gorgeous too when done properly IF you can do it properly (when he dips you, it ends up looking similar to the graphic on the top right part of the blog, except of course it should look GOOD, not like that because that is me; I wish I could post a YouTube of Karina and her old partner Slavik doing it because it looks so gorgeous, but they withdrew the clip…) But the trick is so hard because you have to get so close to him and shove your hips into his waist / crotch so that when you arch back you can still hold yourself up and he doesn’t have to throw his back out… And with Rhumba, the beauty of the trick is that you’re coming into him really fast, and with my longish legs, often the left knee that’s kind of humping his back here would be aimed a little farther to the right… He’d shout “hellohellohellohellohello” whenever he needed to warn me. Dancing is so much harder than it looks… Anyway, Argentine tango with all those between-the-legs kicks is just all the worse and I’m sure Pasha is very happy that Argentine tango is not on the International Latin syllabus!
Gosh this is like a lifetime ago! And it’s only last September… Pasha is so incredibly sweet — I just came across these pics recently. He’d agreed to have them taken with me in the studio wearing this Winger t-shirt to model for the Winger! Kristin Sloan (Winger founder and NYCBallet dancer) offered to post pics on the site of Winger readers wearing their t’s at their dance studios or dance-related events, so Pasha nicely let me model the shirt with him 🙂 🙂
I look ridiculously scared!
This was Kristin’s favorite. I look downright in pain! The shirt design is really cool though, right!
I miss him so much! And I miss dancing so much. The most worrisome thing is that, we took these pics right after we’d all returned from Nationals last September (which is on my mind since I’m about to book my tkts for this year — yay!) and I just re-looked at some of my posts on that. I was worried about my flabby butt back then… now, that I haven’t danced in a good — geez eight months — it’s so far beyond sag it’s not even funny. I MUST take dance lessons. I MUST find an inexpensive place.
Anyway, speaking of the Winger, Bennyroyce posted some excellent pics of Bad Boys, the troupe I’d posted on yesterday — they’re far better than mine since they’re up close, or from the perspective of … the Wings! Also, here’s an interesting article in a local Berkshires paper about Rasta and his guys. (Speaking further of the Winger, we still do not know for sure if that dance belt model above is indeed Mr. Hallberg. He would never fess up!!! I think it is — look how similar the face… it’s you, David!)
And coming full circle to Danny and SYTYCD, I was being masochistic and looking up photos of Rasta’s wedding 🙁 and I found this from his ballet school’s alumni page. Look who is in the center of the bottom right-hand picture! And who’s above him — is it Travis from last season?
With all this talk of male dancers and Jacob’s Pillow I remembered that I have performed Ted Shawn’s choreography so on Sunday I will dedicated my manly dance to you.
Hehe, thanks Boris! I will be looking for it!!
But of course that’s David – looking slightly younger and with shorter hair. BTW, off topic but he’s been strangely silent on the Winger lately. He posted much much more at this time last year. I know he’s ultra busy but isn’t he on a break now? I hope he hasn’t tired of the idea of being a regular contributer. And my goodness, you look simply mahvelous in the photos with Pasha – why aren’t you dancing? Not an injury, I hope.
Haha, Barbara — here is an old post on that very issue: https://www.tonyaplank.com/tonyaplank/swan_lake_samba_girl/?p=183
hehehe, Gracia Michelle and Jolene, Winger commenters, suggested maybe I should post that picture of him in the dance belt every day he fails to post at the Winger! He posted there the very next day 🙂 But then the posts slowly became more and more seldom again…
Oh and thanks for the compliment! It just got so expensive ($95 an hour for private lessons…), so I’m trying to decide whether I will learn anything in group classes or whether I can try to afford a private every other week and combine that with groups, etc. It just got overwhelmingly unaffordable 🙁
$95 an hour?!? OOOW.
those photos are awesome. funny how well-known pasha has become in less than a year after those photos were taken!!
oh, and maybe the photo of David is the cause of him dying his hair darker??
heheh. i do hope he knows we are all joking…
OK, I know you are not going to believe me, but when I just saw the first top pic of you and Pasha, I thought you were Anna for a sec. I was like, “ooh, where did Tonya get these cool pics of Pasha and Anna rehearsing.” Such a nice shot!!
And we miss you at DTS. Wish you were doing the showcase with me!
You’re right, Parker, I don’t believe you for a second!!! Jennifer, I hope he knows we’re kidding 🙂 (I’m sure he does) and how much we miss him!
I know what you mean about the cost of classes. Here in the burbs I was paying a lot to go to individual yoga and pilates classes at different studios. Then I finally joined a local gym due to the fact that they have the most awesome pilates coach ever and a really decent yoga teacher too. Now I’ve discovered they also have a very very good adult ballet teacher who I have been going to for extreme torture to my old joints. All this for a fraction of the cost I was previously spending. I had no idea a private ballroom class was so high! Your idea of the occasional private along with some group classes sounds like the right way to go. Don’t stay out of the studio too long – it’s so hard to get the muscles back into it.
Forgot to say that I must have missed when David’s hair went brown (sacrilege!). The times I saw him during spring season it was gloriously longish and blonde! Good idea about shaming him with the dance belt pic-that’ll show him – hehheh.
any excuse to post that picture of david is ok with me. 🙂
my flute lessons with the ex-principal of the LA phil cost $95 a lesson, and it got bumped up to $110 after a year or so. i was grateful tho, that he even took me as a student! i forgot how much money that is.