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Tangosource.com is up, dance web applications

Eric — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:50:13 +0000

I’m proud to announce the launch of tangosource! We’ve turned the dancehop team into a true web application company, and are now offering our services externally. For passion, and pain free outsourcing, check out tangosource.

Seattle DanceCamp

Eric — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:29:53 +0000

I’ve been thinking about a great format for a collaborative event, based on experiences of prior BarCamps, like this one, or this one. My current concept is a 30 hour non stop dance experience, with an evening dance Friday night, workshops starting around 11 AM Saturday, and a Saturday evening dance.

For those of you unfamiliar with BarCamp, it’s a collaborative, attendee run conference for geeks. In this case, I’d like to try out the concept and call it Seattle DanceCamp. It would allow people to:
-Practice leadership
-Learn about different dance communities
-Expand awareness of what they do to others in Seattle

Attendees would run workshops about anything dance related, from beginning salsa, to AcroYoga. Attendees would then vote on each submitted workshop, and we would have 3-4 workshops running simultaneously.

One original concept that I have is to host a couple of fusion exchange type dances. The format is 10 minute sets: salsa, blues/swing, tango, and possibly a surprise set (eg: Manamana). Emphasis would be on songs that could be danced in different genres, such as alternative tango. There would be a tango line of dance on the outside, and swing/salsa/blues in the center.

A note on the “camp” concept. People could also crash at the venue, and typically up to 1 of 5 attendees at such events actually do.

Want to help make this happen? We’re currently looking for:
-A venue
-Volunteers
-Sponsors (venue, refreshments, badges, shirts?)

Dancehop will match your Haiti SMS donations

Eric — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:06:14 +0000

I’ve been racking my brains as to how to help with the earthquake tragedy in Haiti. My mother informed me that it’s in a critical state, a couple days out from rioting. If you haven’t seen details of it, watch this AP report, referred to me by Andru Edwards on gearlive.

Starting now, if you send an SMS donation to either the Red Cross (by texting the word HAITI to 90999) or to YELE (by texting the word YELE to 501501) Dancehop will match it, up to $50.

Join the dance community now in helping! Leave a comment after donating, and we’ll match your donation.

Help spread the word. For every post on Facebook and Twitter (reply to @dance_hop), we’ll donate $5. Let’s work together as world citizens of dance.

Mashup of Billboard’s top 25 hits, from 2009

Eric — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:16:29 +0000

I had to share this video from DJ Earworm, it’s one of the most ambitious mashups that I’ve seen, and is a much better execution than his 2008 effort.

Survey Results, and a new Dancehop release

Eric — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:02:13 +0000

It’s been a busy couple of months for the Dancehop team. We currently have two members working full time on it, and a couple of part time contributors. Last week, you told us what you think about Dancehop and your dance experience. Here are some of the results:

-Female dancers: 60%
-Average age: 29
-Dancers have been dancing at least 3 years: 62%
-Respondees wanting to improve their dance: 90%
-Half of the respondees found out about Dancehop through employee contact

We got a lot of great personal feedback as well, and will be implementing some key ideas in the coming months. We also found out that half of you would like more events on Dancehop, which will be a reality in the coming weeks. This last software release is going to help that:

-Fixed a large bug stopping us from adding new cities or having repeating events show up well
-Upgrade to a new version of Ruby on Rails
-Migration to a faster server with some nice features
-Improved Facebook integration

All of that work is paving the way for a lot of changes in the coming months. Also, two winners were chosen via a random number generator on random.org. Winners will be contacted with their $75 gift certificates to the Dancehop store.

Shoes have free returns, and we’ve currently got a 25% discount on a size 9 green silk women’s dance heel, returned because it was half a size too small, seen below:

Green Dance Shoes, Tango Brujo

Interview with Salsa teacher Jim Chow

Eric — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:12:17 +0000

Jim Chow Salsa

Here’s the second interview, with Jim chow, who runs the Seattle Salsa Meetup, and runs the Belltown dance studio. The audio wasn’t great so I just did a transcript. Let me know if you guys prefer audio or text. Lots of videos and content, so check out more after the jump:

E: Hi everybody this is Eric Siegfried founder of DanceHop.com, and I’m talking today in the DanceHop interview series with Jim Chow. Jim, how’s it going ?

J: Going great, how are you doing Eric?

E: I’m doing awesome, I’m glad to be here.

So first off, could you tell us about yourself, your dancing background, and what you do.

J: I discovered salsa over 10 years ago, almost 11, and it’s been a love at first sight. I first started at CB and have been at it ever since. I’ve been in love with it the same as the first day I started. Totally addicted.

E: That’s interesting, because a lot of people who dance haven’t been able to keep that same feeling going.

J: Oh yeah, that’s never changed. I’m passionate about it the same as the first day I saw it.

E: Why do you feel like that’s happened for you?

J: It feels good to have that kind of chemistry and connection with someone without any verbiage, it’s just like a roller coaster ride.

E: Ok, so earlier I was talking with Jim about his work as a commercial artist, before he got into salsa, and he was saying how salsa as a dance …

J: Is just another form of art to me, another way of expressing yourself.

E: what’s it like for the average person who’s just starting out? maybe they just finished 1 class, and they want to figure out the point of dance

J: Well I think it’s like anything else, you gotta put in more than a trial effort, to really know that you really like it. I’d give it at least 3 months, 4 months, of classes and see if it’s really for you. It might be a completely different dance, it might be swing instead, for all you know, but most people look into this for one reason or another. The social aspect, or to stay fit, keep healthy.

E: So, why salsa out of all the dances?

J: I think again you tend to gravitate towards something you can relate to, as far as style and self expression. I looked at swing, and said “nope that’s not me” because it’s a little too happy and a little too bouncy. It doesn’t fit my personality. Someone else might see swing and say that hey, that’s totally fun. I’m more about the sexiness and that feeling that salsa gives. I might tap into tango a bit more down the road, something that’s low key and not as fast.

E: Although for the people listening out there, there’s a type of tango dancing called milonga, which is a quicker dance, here’s a video example:

Ok that’s interesting. In general, listen to the music you like and try out different dances and see what works. What would you say your teaching style is?

J: My style, I mostly dance on 1, I tap into 2, I’m still more comfortable on 1.but my flavor of on 1 is closer to on 2, because the tightness of everything and the complexity of my patterns. I don’t like to dance big, like the bigger steps of LA style. (before the interview Jim mentioned his emphasis on clarity of lead and follow)

E:BTW do you teach salsa rueda?

J: No

E: For the people out there, that’s salsa done in a circle where you pass partners around.

What would you like to see in the community in the next couple years?

J: It’s changing, and one thing that I’m not exactly fond of is how a lot of the advanced dancers don’t go out as much as they used to. Maybe the passion just kind of faded, or they joined a lot of dance groups. If that turns them on it’s good, but what’s left behind is not too much advanced dancers in the social scene.

E: How do you think advanced dancers effect beginners?

J: I think the less you see the advanced dancers, the beginners have less to measure up to, like “hey I want to dance like him, or her”. With less standards start dropping.

E: What would the formula be to get good quicker, if you could give yourself advice 10 years in the past, what would it be?

J: I think taking 2 group classes is the most someone should take. I don’t think there’s any faster way. You can also take private lessons, which will speed things up tremendously. In general I wouldnt take more than 2 different group classes with 2 different instructors.

E: Does it help to have practice partners?

J: Absolutely, I find that finding someone you get along with and are patient with each other is the best thing.

E: Although I would add it’s important to mix it up. If you dance with the same person all the time…

J: Well to me it’s like anything else that I do, I always test it out on the dance floor with one of the top follows, and I know what does and doesn’t work.

E: I noticed that you pick up steps really quickly, how did you get that ability?

J: When you’ve done so much of it, it becomes easier and easier. Where everything starts to relate.

E: What do you think of dance and travel?

J: To me it’s a total treat. You dance with different follows, they haven’t tasted your moves before. And they’re excited, and you’re excited because they’re excited. The whole chemistry is developing, it’s awesome. I love going to congresses for that reason alone.

E: What are your favorite congresses to go to?

J: I’d say San Francisco first, then LA, but then those are the only to that I’ve been to. Portland just started theirs. It was the Gemini competition, it’s gotten so big that it’s the official Portland congress, and the community is very different than Seattle. All the different groups have managed to collaborate.

E: I’m going to have a list of tips from Clay Nelson, who helped create a really cohesive Portland tango scene, so keep an eye out for that.

There’s something to be said about collaboration over competition. What is it that dancers can do to keep the scene going?

J: I personally run competitions for my students, but now I’m starting to do Jack and Jill, I’m doing a bachata competition. I’m hoping that people will finally show up and mix it up.

E: Yeah those people are probably in their comfort zone.

J: I’m doing things for the public, like the Alki beach. It’s happening July 11th. Last time there were 45 people, this time is looking even better.

E: Any other departing pearls of wisdom?

J: I would love the dancers to take this a bit more seriously and take it beyond the intermediate level. It can be a hobby and yet still have a goal to get higher.

E: What’s the difference between intermediate and advanced dancers?

J: They stop going to classes, they get by. I want to always be a better lead than wehre I am now. Constantly setting goals.

E: I think there’s something to be said about having role models. Who do you admire?

J: Well, all the top dancers, John & Liz. There are so many.

Alright, this was the 2nd of the DanceHop interview series. I hope you guys enjoyed this. If you have any questions for Jim or myself, please ask in the comments.

Testing new dance events page, what do you think?

Eric — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:18:53 +0000

We’re constantly looking at ways to create the best experience for dancers on dancehop.com, are currently looking to streamline the events page. Here’s a sample:

Quick dance events page

I think we can tighten it up with by moving the X Dancers | X ratings up a bit, but overall how does it compare with the dancehop events page currently?

Featured dance photos

Eric — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:53:47 +0000

I wanted to showcase a few more pics that I enjoyed, you can check out the whole set on the Flickr photo stream.

Here’s a new Flickr submission:

Mehrdadz photo submission on Flickr

More free meals!

Eric — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:39:27 +0000

Dinner with Walt, the aftermath

Yesterday was more abundance in action. For those of you out of the loop, I’m buying dinner or lunch for people who might have ideas for DanceHop until June 15th.

I had dinner with my friend Walt, a great Rails developer and PM. We had an interesting and productive conversation at Tom Douglas’ Greek inspired restaurant, Lola. Here’s what we ate:

King salmon kebab

Oyster mushroom kebab with anchovy paste

Halibut main course

Charred asparagus with stewed diced garlic tomatoes

Goat cheese pastries with honey, mint, and almonds

It’s surprising how generous other people are when you yourself are generous. It’s the law of attraction in action. Our conversation helped hone my focus for the next few months on what value DanceHop will be providing.

It all relates to a goal I’ve had: increase the number people dancing every week in the US by 20%. This means focusing on people who love mentoring and sharing dance, and helping those that want to learn. I’m going to be thinking a lot on how to help new people get their feet on the floor, as always, your ideas are welcome.

New DanceHop flyer

Eric — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:22:03 +0000

New DanceHop Flyer

So I found a design I liked, modified it, got great feedback from Nicole, and we’ve got a flyer produced by EricB. This will be the 4×6 paper flyer until we get a nice glossy photo out. We’ll probably print this on orange paper, same color as the bouncing ball. Any feedback?