Joanna and I went ice-skating at Bryant Park. If you have your own skates and lock, it's totally free. Inspite of it being free, there were not too many people and skating was great! Finally I felt like it was Winter!

More Info in my Dance Blog.

I've heard about Capoeira while I was in in Brazil but actually have not seen it there. Today, with my Grand Canyon buddies, I took on another physical challenge - a Capoeira class offered in New Rochelle. Boy, am I sore after taking it! Capoeira is a 400 year old Brazilian martial art form which combines dance, martial arts, music and gymnastic.

When we entered the studio we saw several people chanting and playing drums and some other mysterious musical instruments. I quickly changed, grabbed extra cow bells and joined the group not to miss a chance to be part of the percussion jam. Then the class started with some stretching exercises, followed by practice of various Copoeira moves. At the end of the class we got into a circle and various people came into the middle one by one and did the actual Copoeira fighting to the sounds of drums and chanting. Here is the video:

All Photos

Related Links:

• Capoeira in Wikipedia
• Capoeira On Line
• Capoeira Performance Arts Center - the location of the class

All Photos

This is my second time watching this amazing dance troupe perform the most amazing routines. It was impressive how much control and balance the dancers had! Some of the moves seemed to defy the laws of gravity.

After the show the dancefloor opened to general dancing during which there was another show.

All Photos

Related links: Performance in March Gehring Dance Theatre official website

Today we escaped the hustle and bustle of New York by taking a day trip Upstate. Driving there was fun. Our resident expert on scenic routes James made us take a very nice scenic route, albeit going in a different direction of our destination. I was admiring the views so much that he had to yell STOP!!!!!! STOP!!!!!! STOP!!!!! as I was slamming the breaks heading straight into the congestion of cars at a traffic light which seemed to appear out of nowhere. The healthy eating apostle Joanna made James have mere 3 spoons of oat meal for breakfast which caused us to stop on the way.

Our first destination was Awosting Falls. As the picture here shows, we all made it there. It was just a short hike from the parking lot right outside the entrance to the Minnewaska State Park.

I finally tested the cool special waterfall effects of my camera. Compare this photo with this.

Then we drove to the other parking lot on top of the mountain next to Lake Minnewaska. We started on a hike along Castle Point Carriageway. The hike was a very easy one since we were walking along a road similar to the one in Central Park. But unlike the ones in Central Park, our road lead us to several spots which were especially enjoyed by our scenic expert. Sue and Joanna made the famous song by R. Kelly come into reality.

Joanna and I were planning to go Upstate for a while. We wanted to do see the Fall foliage, but with me going to Norway and other scheduling conflicts we only were able to do this today... which happened to be the exact same day when our friend Tim and his wife decided to stay at The Mohonk Mountain House. It is a Victorian castle built in 1869 which is one of America's oldest family-owned resorts. It is located just minutes away from Lake Minnewaska where we were hiking, so it was a great opportunity for us to visit this grand landmark of the Hudson Valley... for free. (Unless you are visiting someone who is staying there, the admission to the property on a weekend is $16 per person.)

After hiking for several hours, nothing beats coming inside a house and sit on the comfy chairs. We also got some free hot chocolate and cookies (not sure if we were supposed to eat that since we did not stay at the house, but no one checked) and chilled out in the rocking chairs on the veranda overlooking Lake Mohonk. Before it got really dark we walked around the surrounding areas along the shore of the lake. There were plenty of gazebos and rock formations. (Yes James, rock, not disco).

We took a tour of the house and saw several dining rooms, but ended up in a small private dining room of our own with self service right out of my backpack.

After catching on with the news and having heated discussions, we finally got ourselves together and headed out to New Paltz for some real dinner. I've been to plenty of White Tie affairs in New York City, but who would have known that this quaint town of New Paltz has them too!

All Photos

Related Links:

• Minnewaska State Park Preserve
• Lake Minnewaska Website
• Mohonk Mountain House

Tonight Joanna came over for dinner for potatoe pancakes. I finally was cooking for someone who is a cook expert. Some nice advice from Joanna was to use butter instead of corn oil. And also not to put as much butter on the pan as I did. We made an experiment. In one frying pan we had potatoe pancakes cooked with corn oil and in the other with butter. The ones with butter tasted much better. So from now on - no corn oil!

I think that's what Joanna was doing at the Farmer's Market today.

Oh and I changed my website layout to match Joanna's sweater.

Today was the second Quadrille rehearsal. I missed the first one because I was in Norway. The afterparty was held in Soho, which was convenient for me to get back to the office to finish some work afterwords.

Photos

Today after work some of my colleagues as well as James and Joanna went to see the 32nd Annual New York Village Halloween Parade. It was awesome. My colleague from Brazil Herval said it's just like the Carnival! We got to Sixth Avenue and West 4th street and it was a mob of people. However once we got to 16th Street, we were able to get the front row viewing spot. So next year I recommend going straight to 14th street and above to get the best view.

What is exciting about this holiday is that this one day when women can walk around the streets like this and get away with it. The highlight of the evening was the roof top of a bus with a woman dancing without underwear. More of the people from the bus can be found here.

My Photos

Other Photos

Arghh, I am so upset that the evite for this party did not mention anything about Halloween so I did not bring my costume :( I borrowed this hat from someone at the party. I should have just brought my costume anyway! Oh well... It was fun anyway, playing DDR, singing karaoke and dancing.

All Photos

Joanna and I were Fred and Ginger at DanceSport Halloween Party. Year after year DanceSport ballroom and latin dance studio has the best Halloween partner dance parties. This year, due to the studio's moving, the party was put together at the last minute and there were not as many people as at the previous Halloween Parties, nevertheless it was still fun. There was a student dance performances as well as the costume contest. Joanna and I got in the finals.

Here are the links to past DanceSport halloween parties I attended:
2004
2003
2000

This weekend Jacob Javitz Center hosted the annual consumer electronics show called Digital Life.

We finally had a birthday party for our dear friend Joanna!

From October 12 through October 15th Kerrie and I were performing in a German play Emilia Galotti on the stage of Harvey Theater which is part of the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. We were part of the 16 couples dancing the waltz in the closing scene of the play.

Well this has been the last Tavern On The Green dance night in the outdoor garden this season. The garden security guard Craig a.k.a. C.L. Smooth has seen us dancing there many times and has given us the names listed on this photo.

I met Julia Kulakova more than 6 years ago. Today I went to see her perform bellydancing at Turkuaz restaurant.

Performance Photos More info about Julia

The photo on the left is a living proof that humans really came from monkeys. I think at Bronx Zoo they perform some crazy experiments with cross-breeding different species. Take a look at a mix of a mouse and a rabbit or a half-zebra half-mule. A creature that looks like a monkey but has a face of a dog can be found here. Click on the photo to see the rest of them.

At night I went to the New York Salsa/Hustle Congress.

Last time I heard Mitsuko sing was more than 5 years ago when she did her senior recital at Manhattan School Of Music performing classical vocal pieces. Back then we used to hang out at DanceSport while both of us were taking dance classes there. I was pleasantly surprised to bump into her several weeks ago at Central Park Tango. It turned out that she is now performing jazz and today I attended her concert at Shatters Cafe. She was performing in a wide variety of styles from Bossa Nova to ballads to standards. Check out Mitusko's website: mitsukojazz.com.

Photos