Rover Dance

As you might remember, I've been invited to be the choreographer of Rover Dance, a freestyle dance group for dogs. I've been to two "rehearsals" now. It's lots of fun! Last night I sprung some choreography on them. They loved it! Some testimonials:

** "THANKS very much Meg! You're awesome and our dream of having a choreographer has come true." **

** "Thank you Meg. I really had a lot of fun. It was so energizing to see dancing from a dancer's perspective rather than a dog trainer's perspective." **

I'm not quite sure what dancing from a dog trainer's perspective is =D.

Who knows if my choreography is any good. It probably isn't. But none of them have any dance experience whatsoever (neither the people nor the dogs), so I guess it doesn't matter =). What I think they mostly like is having something to work towards and also something new. They know what their dogs can and can't do. I don't, so my choreography might be stretching their bounds a little. And since I have no idea what they've been doing before me, they're probably getting very different routines from what they've put together in the past. It's very easy to fall into a rut, which is why guest choreographers and guest teachers are so great. My ballet teacher, for instance, ends almost all of our grand allegro combinations with 2 tour jetes, a develope a la seconde, and then tambe pas de boure, leap. (pardon my butchered french spelling). It's so predictable, that when she modifies it slightly, by taking out the develope, or substituting a pirrouette for the leap, it totally messes with our muscle memory.

So Rover Dance is all sorts of fun. I taught the humans a couple of basic steps too, that we can potentially use in lieu of walking. It was funny. They really don't have any dance experience! But they were so excited to be learning something for themselves! They want to perform at the Scottish Festival at the end of April, and also at the Ecology picnic in June. We can definitely get something together by June, we'll see about April. And since we're Rover Dance (get it, Rover Dance, River Dance =D), we're going to do an Irish dance.

The best thing about doggie dancing is that the cuteness factor is so overwhelming that it doesn't matter if the choreography is bad or the steps are botched!