Modern and Lyrical Dancing

The other day I was looking at classes online and found that there was a Modern/Contemporary Class and a Lyrical Class. When I looked at youtube videos between the two I could not tell the difference. 

Lyrical Dancing:

          Modern Dancing:

Could you see a difference?

The difference, I found out, was lyrical dancing is more to the words of the songs and the lines in dancing are more defined. It much more like ballet in which the lines you create with your body are much more strict and precise. Modern dancing is more about just moving your body and doing what you feel in the song. The lines aren't as important which you can see in the second video when she is jumping around in the video. The second video does follow a little to the lyrics and that can happen but it's definitely more due to the fact that the source this came from is putting on a show. However her lines and his are not so defined and that really is the difference. It can be more of a complicated explanation than that, but it is the most simple way to tell the difference between the two.  

Dancing in the Kitchen Top Tunes

I feel like most people have their bands or songs they like to listen to when cooking whether it's making dinner, baking, or whatever the occasion is. For me it really depends on what I'm cooking and who I'm cooking it for. However, I have a top 10 for sings I listen to no matter what the occasion in kitchen is for me.

Here are my top 10 kitchen songs:

1. Take A Walk by Passion Pit

2. Me Against the Music by Britney Spears and Madonna

3. Every Day by Buddy Holly

4. Sea of Love by Cat Power

5. Carried Away by Passion Pit

6. You and I by Ingrid Michaelson

7. Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert

8. Shut Up by The Black Eyed Peas

9. If You Seek Amy by Britney Spears

10. More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley

I'm not the only one who dances in the kitchen!

Need to find this guy and marry him or just be his friend!

Strawberry Tartlets

Today, after class, I took a break from trying to catch up on all the postings I should have done way earlier so I wouldn't be blowing up all my class mates readers. I think they all are probably sleeping like normal people who don't procrastinate can! To my point though, I made some delicious strawberry

tartlets! They are very simple tarts to make. Just tart dough baked off, filled with pastry cream, topped with strawberries, and glazed with apricot jam! 

Here are the recipes I used for the Pastry Cream and Tart Dough:

Pastry Cream- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pastry-cream-2/

Tart Dough- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-tart-pastry/

Helpful Hints:

After making the tart dough let it rest in the fridge to reduce shrink cage. Don't work with it if it's too hard, leave dough in room temp it will become easier to work with. After shaping tart shell let it rest again in fridge. Make pastry cream and cool before baking off tart shells. Fill warm shells with cold pastry cream or cold/room temp shells with warm pastry cream. This creates a better adhesive effect. When glazing with apricot jam warm on a double broiler in order to achieve a more smooth look. 

Brioche

Yesterday, to entertain myself and get my mind off the events of Saturday I decided to make brioche. If you don't know what Brioche is I'm terribly sorry because you've been missing out. My best description of brioche is very buttery bread that is just divine. I came home from a long clearing my mind walk I took around St. Johns earlier that morning. Then I decided to make some brioche dough. I have a secret recipe I can't share with you. However this RECIPE, has always done my freinds' quite well. I then put on some Ingrid Michaelson Spotify Radio and began to make the dough for my brioche.
The thing about brioche dough though is you fold in a ridiculous amount of butter. Which makes it taste great so thats fine! However! Since the dough is so fatty it takes a very long time to bulk ferment. So after making the dough I then let it bulk ferment on top of the oven not on any heat, but room temp with a warm towel covering it. This took about 8 hours for it to double in size. After wards I shaped the dough in my little brioche cups I have at my house. I usually weigh them at 2 oz before shaping, but each cup requires a different amount since it will double in size again after proofing. The shaping part can be tricky but this youtube video can be very helpful:

There are other methods to shape brioche, but this one is easy and I have found the most effective. After shaping they will need to proof till they double in size. Then you can bake them. MAKE SURE TO EGGWASH THEM! This adds color and they don't like as dull. You bake them on high heat at first usually around 425F then you can lower it to 350F. This is to get good color and making sure they bake all the way through. Baking doesn't take that long. The hardest things about making brioche are waiting for it to double in size the first time and shaping them. You end up with a delicious butery treat though! This is my brioche!

Dancing In Movies

When I think of dancing in movies I think of scenes from movies like Chicago and Moulin Rouge. Other people think of movies like Step Up, You Got Served, and Bring it On. It's so disappointing. I will give in and say the first Step Up movie was decent, but what after feels like the sixth one I think every one is a little over it. Which isn't to say Channing Tatum can't dance; most girls have seen Magic Mike and know that statement would be no where near true, he definitely can. While street dancing is quite popular now especially with shows like America's Best Dance Crew, I wish dance routines in movies would live up to some of the same dance scenes and skill levels in movies like Moulin Rouge and Chicago. I know these are musicals and a little different, but why should musicals be held to higher standards when these people in these dance movies are supposed to be so good and passionate about what they do? This is really why you should really go out there and see these ballet shows, musicals, circus shows, and etc. Instead of letting these new "dance" movies decide what is the new thing in dancing.

My top 5 favorite dance movies and scenes and them are as follows:

1. Moulin Rouge - El Tango de Roxanne

2. Chicago - Cell Block Tango

3. Dirty Dancing- Time of My Life

4. Rocky Horror- Time Warp

5. Singing in the Rain- Moses Supposes

So You Think You Can Dance

If you have never watched the show, So You Think You Can Dance, I recommend that you start. If you don't like dancing or appreciate watching others dance then it's probably already obvious my blog is not for you. I love this show. I watch it every season and why I would like to pick all their routines as my top 5 favorites, these are my top 5 favorite dances from the TV show:

1. Travis and Heidi-Calling You by Celine Dion

2. Twitch and Kherington- Dreaming With a Broken Heart by John Mayer

                                                                      3. Randi and Evan- Koop Island Blues by Koop

4.Kathryn and Russel- I Can Transform You by Chris Brown

5. Ellen and Twitch- Outta Your Mind Lil Jon and LMFAO