Good morning and welcome back to my life! Things are suddenly very quiet in the world of Holly, as the past two weeks have been the chaotic culmination of 8 months of planning, crafting, and scheduling. For those of you who may not know me IRL, I got married! Wooo! So my now-husband (that word [...]
Author: hhstone
On Stage Fright
So those of you who know me IRL know that I am very soon to be married. I've found that in the last month, the number two question I've received is "Are you ready/nervous?" The number one question, incidentally, is "Are you excited?" to which I enjoy dead-panning "no." The short answer to Question Number Two [...]
Dance in the Digital Age
Good morning and welcome back to my life. Today's musings might be a little disjointed, as I don't have a central thesis beyond WOO SCIENCE. Let's dive in, shall we? So those who know me IRL know that I don't actually dance for a living--rather I am an engineer at Evil Big Pharama, Inc to [...]
Teaching and Culture: Ballroom vs. Ballet
Hello all! Good day and welcome back to my life. I've been thinking a lot recently about the culture differences between ballet and ballroom. As I gear up to teach another 'season', if you will, of the SU ballroom team, I reflect on what I've done in the past, as well as what bits I [...]
Video Review: Juliana Hough from DWtS
Hello all! Welcome to another Friday--er--Tuesday Video Review. (Best laid plans of insects and internet, right?) Today I have some thoughts and feelings about a video I recently discovered, again from the popular TV show "Dancing With the Stars". Now this is practically ancient news by internet reckoning, first published in September of 2014, but [...]
Wonderings on the Waltz
Good morning and welcome back to my life! Today I'd like to explore the quirks of one of the better-known ballroom dances and the many hats--er, shoes--it wears. If you ask me "what is waltz?" there are four equally valid answers to give--though in reality I'm not likely to explain all of them in person. [...]
Spotlight on Choreography: Nuestra
We come at last to a very influential choreographic project in the development of Holly the artist. The year was 2010, and I was a senior in high school. I was also something of a failure. How, you ask? Well, in my ballet company, there were very few graduating seniors, as members either dropped out [...]
Liberty Swing: Everything Else
Welcome to Part two of my recap of the Liberty Swing Competition! Last post I covered the actual comp in which my partner and I danced, and now I'm going to summarize the rest. Quick Overview: Workshops, competitions I wasn't in, one of the best hamburgers ever. The workshops were very useful as I have [...]
Liberty Swing: The Competition
Good day dancers and enthusiasts, welcome back to my life. This weekend has been another great adventure, which I'm going to relate in two parts. So we drove down to New Brunswick on Friday afternoon, found the hotel, and I was instantly overwhelmed by the numbers of people. l got signed in, looked at many [...]
Past Perfomances: Why We Dance
I don't believe in fate, but sometimes projects pop up at just the right time, when we are in the head space to need them--and I start to understand why there are those who believe their lives are directed by unseen forces. I've been debating whether or not the discussion of this particular project falls under [...]