Monday, January 15, 2007

the boy detective as autochoreographer

So, for the past four years my friend Rob has organized an NFL pool. The grand prize includes not just money from the other competitors, but also something original from me, to be posted on this blog. Only when Rob sends out his mass e-mail announcing the pool at the start of the season do I learn what it is that I will be expected to create. The first year, it was just an original haiku. Then, it was an original recipe. After that, he asked me to invent something on behalf of the winner (I would say "original invention," except thats redundant). This year, my task is to devise an original dance, to be posted at halftime of the Superbowl.

Anyway, today I clinched victory in the pool--my first win--even though the Superbowl is still three weeks away. Which means that now I have to come up with an original dance in honor of myself. Alternatively, partly in anticipation of this possibility, I've actually entered the pool under the name "Dorotha Harried," so I could create an original dance for someone else's blog pseudonym.

I don't have any idea what I'm going to come up with for this dance. More than this, I don't even know how one goes about posting an original dance on one's blog. Is there some standard dance notation? Should I draw little stick figures? Should I pay professionals and upload it to YouTube? Should I act it out with marionettes? Let me know if you have any dance or dance-representation ideas.

Also:
So long as I'm previewing coming attractions, readers can also look forward to a Super-Secret Special Guest Poster potentially making a series of appearances soon.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

An original dance is the prize for the winner, huh?

That sounds like a very funny competition you fellows run. I wonder if they conspired to throw the victory?

Anonymous said...

I think you'd have to go you tube on this one, but you liked the treadmill video so much, why not try to work something out with a different exercise apparatus? I can imagine something with a stairstepper or two, and I like to see that!

Anonymous said...

Now Jeremy, you know you come from a long line of "Chicken Dancers," so I don't really understand your dilemma....ha, ha! Sounds like a fun contest and I LOVED the "bat recipe." Have a great one!

Lucy said...

You definitely need video for this, but you should do the dance yourself. I like Dan's exercise theme, too; you can incorporate your new elliptical machine!

Anonymous said...

Two suggestions:

1) Do a montage of ridiculous dances from TV shows. Think of Elaine's thumbs-up, jerking, kicking, spasmodic dance on Seinfeld. Or the "Dance of Joy" on Angel. Or the various ridiculous dances you always see on Scrubs. Or the incredibly uncoordinated crap you see from football players every time they make a 2-yard gain or stop the other team after a 75-yard gain.

2) Get a tape of Dancing With the Stars. Imitate them as jauntily as you can. Tape your performance and upload it to YouTube.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it obvious? It would have to be you performing the dance recorded on video then uploaded to YouTube.

Anonymous said...

I found a choreography editor for you that is just what you need for this task.

See
http://www.nomadslab.org/gruenvogel/content/gruenvogel_iva03_final.pdf

Figure 2 in this document shows the potential for this approach.

Anonymous said...

There are indeed standard dance notations, notably Labanotation and Benesh movement notation. The advantage of your using them (as vs. posting a video of yourself) is that almost no one will be able to decipher them and hency snarky comments will be kept to a minimum. Not that your video could possibly elicit any.

lmw said...

You should seek some inspiration from Napoleon Dynamite.

Unknown said...

Or Joe Cocker. See here. (Stick around to 1:15 or so, when Belushi makes an appearance.)