Breaking the rules is an earned struggle. Being ignorant of the rules is an unearned liberty.

But the rules also change over time. I'm not too conversant on the rules of dance, but at least in musical theater, ballet was once a pretty radical idea. As was using dance to advance the story line. (I understand Oklahoma! was the big breakthrough for both.)

So wouldn't today's young dancer/choreographer learn a different set of rules than previous generations did?

Baby bunnies? How cute, and yet what a nightmare from a gardening perspective. I think you you should name them, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

I think one of the reasons the hair-flinging fall on the floor version of "contemporary" as a dance style bothers me is because of ballet.

Remember how in the eighties it was legislated that Debbie Allen had to choreograph every single dance routine on television except Solid Gold? And about three seconds into every number... whomp dancers rolling around on the floor.

I was jaded about modern dance by the time I was 12. That's just no way to be.

Of course, at a certain point if a form is going to last it will evolve into its own expression and not remain merely a reaction.

I know, right?

They're right against the stakes we put in as a bed edging (to keep out rabbits, hee, guess that was ineffective. As it turns out our local jackrabbits can get over a 3 foot fence, so no edging in the 'verse can stop them.) so there's almost nothing I can do about them. They're also directly underneath my drip irrigation pipe, so now I can't irrigate the bed from my rain barrel (which is full for once, with all the thunderstorms!).

Fortunately, that bed was intended to be drought tolerant, and the only thing actively growing there right now are the two russian sages. The wind blew away the allysum seeds and the rabbits ate the grape hyacinths, which are past season anyway. I was intending to put some annuals in there, but I guess not!

I totally can name them. They're utterly indistinguishable from each other, although I can already see there's personality there; one keeps edging the others out of his preferred spot (see the gender discrimination assumption I did there?), so it may not be long before I'm able to tell the difference.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that contemporary as a style portrayed by SYTYCD contestants seems to me to be too much of what I could do myself, leaping about the streets in collegiate self-absorption, and too little of structure and bursting out of that structure in expression.

Since I don't know anything about dance, I always think it's interesting how different the judges' reactions are from one performer to another, because sometimes I can't tell the difference -- or I think something looks stupid that they rave about!

Oh, this is just turning into the Worst Day Ever.

I desperately need patience ~ma.

I'm sorry you are having such a crappy day. Tino needs to leave you alone.

Lots of patience ~ma, Barb. Try not to kill people.

I need motivation ~ma. Or some self-discipline. You know, whichever.

I need motivation ~ma. Or some self-discipline. You know, whichever.

I call dibs on whichever one the other Amy isn't using.

I Hope to God That’s Batman

Heh.