Monthly Archives: September 2007

The Soothing Moonlight Sonata

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In college, my ambiance of choice while studying was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. I also had this weird routine that on the way to any final or exam, I would put on my headphones with Moonlight Sonata movement 1, repeating continuously for the duration of my walk.

When I get the the exam room, I would sit quietly in my seat, and listen to the sonata. Sometimes students would try to ask me last minute questions, but I have to gently decline to answer as I am preparing my mind for the exam to come. The teacher walks in and hands out the exams. I look at the cover page, close my eyes, turn off my cd player, and begin the exam.

I have always enjoyed this piece, but after seeing Gary Oldman, as Beethoven, playing this piece in the movie Immortal Beloved, I was hooked. In the movie, the father of his student orders a new piano in order for Beethoven to ‘test’, as he does not believe Beethoven can really play the piano. Since Beethoven does not play for anyone, they tell him no one will be home during his test, but they hide out in a secret passage.

Beethoven enters the room, fumbles and slams the keys creating quite an unpleasant sound. The slowly, he turns his head, and lowers it, placing his ear on the piano. There is quiet, then suddenly the sonata begins. Like a soft pitter patter of the rain, the piece gently rises, yet the ears can barely hear. The soft melody causes you to creep in and listen closer…

Ahh…. such great memories. Tonight, when the tensions of the day are still wrought in my body, I listen to the Moonlight Sonata and go to that ‘peaceful place’ in my mind.

Enjoy Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, movement 1:

URL: http://youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk

Grapevine and the Fox Trot

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During our last dance class the instructor reintroduced the fox trot to us. After doing the tango and waltz for some time, the fox trot was quite easy to pick up. The basic pattern was slow-slow-quick-quick.

After getting down the basic pattern with tempo, we were introduced to the fox trot grapevine. This is a common step found in other fitness related activities, but the gist is basically moving sideways, while alternating stepping behind and in front of the supporting leg.

We were then given the task of nearly traversing the whole length of the room using the grapevine fox trot. This was much more difficult than it sounded as one of the requirements is to keep out shoulders square facing each other while our legs pointed the direction of movement. This really works on isolation of the hips and shoulders in movement (quite the opposite from taiji).

He then gave us a hint to think about the concept of ‘push and pull’ within dancing. After watching him demonstrate it again, I noticed that during the setup, there was a strong turning of the hips to the direction of motion. This results in having the ability to ‘step through’ with the leg instead of step around. Additionally, there was quite a bit of ‘pushing’ with the foundation leg in the movement. In order to truly push with good power, the hips have to really be squared up so that one can ‘push through’.  Can we clearly differentiate between pushing and pulling in our movement?

Also, he emphasized in dancing the importance of weight changes on the foot. You have to really be clear of which foot is weighted and which foot is not. Always move with the un-weighted foot. Are we able to clearly define the weighted foot? Are we able to clearly define the transfer of weight within the foot (from heel to toe)?

With these points in mind, we attempted it again. While the result was better, we were still unable to hit our mark. We only made it about 90% of the way down the room, but this gives up something to work on.