Mr. Jonathan’s World

 Robert Frost wrote about two paths diverged in the woods and about how taking the one less traveled made all of the difference in his life. In the grand scheme of things taking the one less traveled is how I think we should all live our life in and out of swing. The tough part is that Mr. Frost didn’t mention the propensity for paths to split into more and more forks making the choices much harder each time we take a step down said path. Each time you choose the less traveled path you loose people along the way and bring your self closer and closer to being alone in the end.  

 Faster or slower…Slower 

Swung or Unswung…Unswung

Pop or Blues…Pop

Dance to the beat or the Words…The Beat

Straight timing or Syncopation…Syncopation

The choices go on forever and in the end we all end up in just about the same place convinced that we worked harder, bleed more, and are more deserving of that location than the guy or gal standing to our right or left. The truth (in my opinion) is that the road less traveled although tougher to navigate is easier to get bated into believing you are somehow better than the rest. The road with the beaten path may be easier to tread but may cause an inner struggle with not loosing who you are in the crowd. 

The difference is what you make of it. If you choose to go down the beaten path don’t just blindly follow that crowd…push the pace. If you choose the road less traveled do so with a humble spirit and make sure the trail you blaze is never over someone else.

Tuesday Night (Every Tuesday the Proceeds go to Youth Storm’s Church)

$10

7:30 Beginner/Advanced Beginner

Dance 7:30-?

124 N. Lowell Rd 

Bingo Hall in Windham, NH

(the light for the sign is out so look for the giant Silo and its across the street)

This Friday  (Pizza Party)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

What is flow? Flow is what happens in your brain when you are faced with a problem that is 10-25% greater than what you physically, mentally, or emotionally can handle and you are willing to face the problem head on with out allowing your self a way out. 

In sports Flow is often referred to as “Being in the Zone”. During the state of flow your brain releases a concoction of chemicals that produce a very euphoric level of focus. Did I just use the words Euphoric and Focus in the same sentence? Yes I did! Since you give your self no other choice because you either paid to be in class, your job is on the line, your boss handed you a dead line, or your life is on the line, your brain responds and rewards you for hanging in there with the extra focus you need to complete the task at hand and an over whelming sense of happiness to be there. Any thing learned while in a flow state is retained faster, held longer, and more easily built upon. Flow produces 5 times the results of non flow states.

The tough part isn’t being in flow its getting out of non-flow. In order for your brain to come to the rescue with its magic potion of brain stimulating chemicals it must be made to feel uncomfortable and you must have the resolve to continue past this lack of comfort. The best part is that it doesn’t just apply to dance…Flow can happen any time you are in a situation that requires you to be better than you are.

Lets be better this week!

Tuesday Night (Every Tuesday the Proceeds go to Youth Storm’s Church) $10 7:30 Beginner/Advanced Beginner Dance 7:30-? 124 N. Lowell Rd  Bingo Hall in Windham, NH (the light for the sign is out so look for the giant Silo and its across the street) This Friday  (Pizza Party) $10 Lesson 7:30-8:15  Dance 8:15-? DNE School of Dance 78 Princeton St. Chelmsford, Ma Sunday Night  $10 6-6:45 2-Step lesson 6:45-7:30pm WCS 7:30-? California Mixer Longfellow’s Club JoEllen 524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20) Wayland, MA

You may or may not know that I financially support a group called Youth Storm though regular donations both financially and in the form of services like teaching and DJing. This faith based group is an off shoot of a local church, and they work with young adults develop leadership skills and teach them how to become assets to the community. The church used to pay rent and hold their weekly worship in the gymnasium of the Windham high school. Recently a local well to do widow sold this church a plot of land (formerly the Taylor Farm) at a very inexpensive price because she (all though not all that religious and not affiliated with the church) believed it would be good for the community for this “church group” to own her family’s property and she wanted them to have it. 

The town of Windham made the church jump through all kinds of hoops to get multiple occupancy permits in ridiculously short periods of time under the threat of paying higher taxes.  Each time they bring a new building up to code the town finds another one one the property to go after and have even dragged their feet on issuing the permit for a Church sign out by the road. 

From the outside looking in it feels to me like the town of Windham’s elected officials have a hair across their ass about people going to this church and have made it their mission to persecute these people who just want to worship who they want, when they want, on their own property. For the record, I do not go to church (any church), I have no religion, I do not pray, nor do I have a god that I believe in at this point in my life. In essence my religion is no religion at all! The United States Constitution grants ALL citizens the right to religious freedom. Any and all forms of government should be aiding anyone attempting to exercise this right rather than aggressively blocking it.

The communist republic of Windham appears to be actively attempting to stand in the way of one particular religious group that does worship because the bureaucrats either choose not to pray or perhaps they worship tax dollars. As it stands right now the church will have a  bill to just south of $100,000 if they do not get an occupancy permit for the final building on their property. The church’s request to have more time (since they have used up all of their financial resources working on the rest of the property) has been denied by the town and the building is in need of $15,000 worth of repairs to be brought up to code.  Until such time as they raise the money I am donating every penny of my Tuesday night class to the church in an effort to take a stand against this persecution. If you want to learn how to swing dance and make a difference at the same time, we are holding class at 7:30 every Tuesday night for just $10 per class.

I am just one person with limited reach but if everyone that reads this either comes to class or donates just one dollar and passed the word around social media the church would have the money they need in under a week and the bureaucrats in Windham, NH could suck it! If they are allowed to go on like this no group of people will be safe from the agenda of anyone in office. Someday the thing that makes you happy could be in jeopardy and you will realize the importance of the constitution…but it will be too late! 

Tuesday January 14th (Every Tuesday the Proceeds go to Youth Storm’s Church)

$10

7:30 Beginner/Advanced Beginner

Dance 7:30-?

124 N. Lowell Rd 

Bingo Hall in Windham, NH

(the light for the sign is out so look for the giant Silo and its across the street)

This Friday  (Pizza Party)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 (We are Up-Stairs this Week) 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

Saturday Night (Kirsten Obermiller is the Teacher)

$10

7-8 WCS Spins with Control and Directio

8-9 WCS Patterns with the Dummy Hand

9-? WCS Dance( I am the DJ)

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer( I am the DJ)

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

If I could play an instrument I could get my music fix without dancing. I don’t and so I must dance! You may be saying to your self…”Self (cause thats how self conversations start…right?) couldn’t he just listen to the music to get his fix?” Which is like asking someone addicted to 8 cups of coffee a day if they could drink warm water instead. 

Listening only involves one sense…hearing. Swing dancing utilizes ALL of the senses making the experience total body. You see your partner, feel their connection, hear the music, smell each other (this part can be just as bad as it is good which is why personal hygiene is a vital part of the equation), and you taste your own sweat as things get cooking (I nearly wrote a check that my ass couldn’t cash when I said ALL five senses so lets pretend it sounds normal and move on, shall we?)

For an outsider or beginner dancer the description above may seem like its bordering on disgusting at times but just like my coffee example…no one “likes” black coffee the first time they take a sip. What you like is what coffee gives you after you drink it and partner dancing is no different. No one gets up in the morning and looks forward to tasting their own sweat but when it happens in conjunction with a great dance you wouldn’t have it any other way.

“How do I have a great dance every time?” you ask. There are some keys to it but they all start with practice. Dancing after the lesson at a social doesn’t count either. You must do a little bit of drilling the basics every day. You don’t have to be an animal about it and work for an hour at a time but if you take 5 minutes and move through these 7 basics (see top video on home page)  to a song it makes ALL of the difference in the world!

Only when our body can go through the motions on “auto pilot” can we begin to focus on what is happening in the music. if you can’t think about something other than your whip while you are whipping(or being whipped) you may not even be dancing on the beat. If you are not focused on the music it may as well not be playing right?

This Friday is my actual birthday and in leu of any gifts (or that gawd awful birthday song) I am accepting donations for Youth Storm in any amount (or nothing…no pressure) This week I am playing a ton of new music and some stuff that I haven’t heard in a long while (for some of you it will be completely new sounding). I have already ready heard from several friends that are traveling up to celebrate the night away with us so I expect we will be going later than usual. Bring your dancing shoes and I will have the extra water and pizza to accommodate everyone!

Tuesday January 14th (Every Tuesday in January)

$10

7:30 Beginner/Advanced Beginner

Dance 7:30-?

125 N. Lowell Rd 

Bingo Hall in Windham, NH

(the light for the sign is out so look for the giant Silo and its across the street)

This Friday  (Pizza Party)

$10

Lesson 7:30-8:15 (level is very Beginner Friendly) 

Dance 8:15-?

DNE School of Dance

78 Princeton St.

Chelmsford, Ma

Sunday Night 

$10

6-6:45 2-Step lesson

6:45-7:30pm WCS

7:30-? California Mixer

Longfellow’s Club JoEllen

524 Minuteman Dr off of Boston Post RD (Rt 20)

Wayland, MA

This past Tuesday Morning my Grampy died. He was not sickly nor did suffer, in fact he lived his life to the absolute fullest and when he had enough he left this world to be with my Memere his wife of 62 years! His 3 passions where smoking good cigars (where I get that awesome habit from) drinking scotch, and passing his wisdom down to his children, Grandchildren, Great Grand Children, and yes even a couple of Great Great Grandchildren.  Grampy taught me  many important things… For example There is a great place on 495 to really open your car up easily hitting 100MPH without having to worry about the police and their radar guns because there is simply no place for them to hide. Incidentally He left out the part that this only applies to the southbound side but don’t worry my ticket was only $300. Amoung other things he also shared that you should never leave the house without your pocket knife. If you treat your wife like the queen of the castle by default you become the king…incidentally this does not work the other way around. He taught me that the expression “Boys will Be Boys” is completely true! In fact as a man it still applied to him…and I am so thankful that he understood us all as children and he let us be the boys we were….Nothing seemed to ever bother him?…”Grampy can I help?” …”Of Course you can!” “Grampy could I try?” …”As long as you are careful” “Grampy do you know how to fix this” “I don’t, but I would be happy to try and figure it out with YOU” and that was in the first 5 minutes of every visit! This weekend my family will pass our stories around and I am sure we will laugh and cry with each other. This is one of my favorite Grampy stories. He had taken me to watch the Super Modified Race cars and when we pulled into his driveway at Old County Rd. I got out of the car and slammed the door of his car as hard as I could. Up till then I thought that ALL car doors should be slammed or they wouldn’t shut because every car my family owned up till then required some serious effort to get the doors to stay shut.  This was Grampy’s car and I wanted to be extra sure that his door was closed. So I put every ounce of strength I had into this particular slam. In my mind I was returning the favor…after all he took me to races, helped me find the bathroom so I didn’t have an accident, and bought me ice cream all on the same day…I had to be sure that this one time the door would close and stay closed! I loved my Grampy and wanted to give him the gift of not having to re-close my door. It would it be fair to say that door slamming was high on his very short list of pet peeves…but this particular one had to have shot straight to the top where it stayed forever!  He would have been more than justified to give me a smack, taken away a privilege, or a verbal dressing down. But this was not his way. With extreme patience he pulled me aside and asked calmly “Why did you slam my door?” I had no idea that he inside he was boiling mad.  I answered honestly “I wanted to make sure that it was closed all the way for you Grampy” He then opened his car door and closed it all the way with just one finger…”When you slam doors, before you know it that is the only way they will close. When you close doors gentle and firm they will close easy every time. You try it”  Sure enough his door closed with very little effort. He didn’t teach me how to close HIS door…He taught me how to close ALL doors.   Whether you called him Frank, Dad, or Grampy he called upon you to treat the world as he did…with a smile…but not his smile…he wanted yours! He challenged himself every single day to make someone else smile. He would say “Make someone smile every day, it cost you nothing and you never know how much they might have needed it!” How could you argue with that logic?   Can you help me make my Grampy’s living wish come true? Do you accept his challenge? Can you make someone smile every day? Tonight  (Pizza Party) $10 Lesson 7:30-8:15 (level is very Beginner Friendly)  Dance 8:15-? DNE School of Dance 78 Princeton St. Chelmsford, Ma This Saturday (I am Teaching a WCS Lesson) $10 Lesson 7:00-8:00 Dance 8:00-11:00pm DNE School of Dance 78 Princeton St. Chelmsford, Ma Then: I am Dancing at Twirl The Girl $30-All night pass! 2 workshops & dance Starting at 7:00 with Kimmie and Jimmy! $20-1 workshop & dance  $12-Dance after 9:15pm  Location K of C The Bouffard Council 15 Bassett Street North Providence, RI 02904  Tuesday January 21st (This past Tuesday we double our Attendance!) $10 7:30 Beginner/Advanced Beginner Dance Practice 8:15-? 125 N. Lowell Rd  Bingo Hall in Windham, NH (the light for the sign is out so look for the giant Silo and its across the street) Leadership is the manipulation of energy. Following is the embodiment of energy. Connection is the tie that binds the two together.    Mr. Jonathan www.MrJonathanIsMyDJ.com 603 475 1391  Dance on!