Feigning ignorance, a man who bought strawberries at the Wednesday afternoon farmer's market in Palo Alto might believe that the placement of the trash cans down the next three blocks were spaced exactly for him. He might deduce that some brilliant engineer calculated the average rate of leisurely stroll along with the time necessary to consume one fairly large, extremely juicy California strawberry. But that would be a man feigning ignorance.
There's some good blues harp being played to the community outside the Palo Alto Apple store. Feigning ignorance, a man who saw that scene might think that a community wealthy enough to buy Apple products might support such an asset as good live street music... But maybe I write too soon.
A man who heard Mura Dehn in the Spirit Moves refer to blues as the "most essential, the most profound" aspect of jazz music might not understand what she meant. I still don't understand, but today Richard Powers taught a blues class. The basis of the class was American steps that crossed the Atlantic and were recorded by the French. Two of interest:
1) Slow, quick, quick... The first slow is a double cross step. Both partners cross in front of themselves, followed by a little side quick quick step, and the patterns repeats to the other direction.
2) Something called the "two plus one" It's a side, together, side step followed by another slow side step to the free foot. Then the pattern continues. Done only as side steps, it progresses to one side.
These two steps were amalgamized by other types of music and dance - the first becoming the cross-step waltz, and the second becoming the foxtrot. To make this even more interesting. Richard first saw someone performing the cross step waltz many years ago in Stanford. When inquiring where this step came from, the man told him that he took the step from a blues class Richard himself had taught. He simply modified the rhythm to fit waltz timing. Richard continued teaching this as the cross-step. But the story continues... Upon traveling to Prague or France or somewhere that dance historians travel to, he saw Frenchmen performing the same steps to waltz music. inquiring where it had come from, they said that it had been around for some time - arising from a certain step originally attributed to blues dance!
The exact same development had occurred 50 some odd years before.
I don't have the full story on the development of the foxtrot. Seemingly, it went through some more stages, but it's a curious phenomenon. Why did the blues result in these dances? Maybe it had nothing to do with Mura Dehn's claim. I have no idea, but it was a fascinating class (and I am not feigning ignorance).
