Line Up!

Here are Richard's and my line dance videos from Montreal. We did Rise and Fall again, and added Lilt. We worked with Clive, who is a Line Dance Superstar, on these line dances this week, so the next time we compete them the styling will look completely different.

Tons Of Poutine Needed After That Night

So I promised you a look at Showdance v 2.0. Here it is, from Montreal:

New intro, beginnings of a new costume theme, a few new moves. We slowed the music down 2%, just so our intro could be clean, but we'll speed it back up at the next event. Orlando is in two weeks, so you'll get to see version 3.0 soon.

In other dance news, my new partner Sasha and I competed in Showcase Masters for the first time in Montreal as well. Sasha is 23, and he holds the honor of being the youngest male to ever make it into Masters, which he did when he was 18 (he beat Richard and I that year, the bugger!!). He hadn't been on the competition floor in 3 years and I am so excited to be a part of his return to glory!

This was the first competition where I was going to have to compete in Classic and Showcase at the same event, during the same floor show. The event directors were nice enough to create the floor show schedule in such a way that I had 2 acts between each time I danced. I made it out alive, I didn't pass out, my legs didn't give out....I will admit that during floor show rehearsal I had a moment where my brain said, "Wow, who do you think you are?? Why do you think you can do all this?" But I told my brain to piss off and I just buckled down and willed my legs to keep moving.

Showcase Masters is different from Classic Masters (which is the division I compete in with Richard) in that you choose your own music, and you can do lifts and aerials. Sasha and I had choreographed and practiced this twostep routine exactly 6 hours total, and I think it looks great! We had some costume malfunctions (no more dancing two step in a long coat with tails when I'm sliding through the man's legs and spinning under his arm!), but other than that I think this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership!

Here are Richard's and my Smooth flight and Rhythm flight from Montreal, in the Classic Masters division. Classic Masters do not know what song will be played for each song, and you may not do lifts or aerials. You dance your 8 dances in two flights, Smooth and Rhythm. You don't have to dance all 8, you have to dance at least 5 and that 5 has to include Waltz and Two Step. In Smooth flight you can dance Waltz, Triple Two, Nightclub and West Coast, all back to back. Or you can elect to do just 2 or 3. We are doing 2 smooth dances right now, until we get new choreography.

And here is our Rhythm flight. In the Rhythm flight you dance Two Step, Cha, Polka and East Coast Swing, or a combination thereof. If you aren't dancing a certain dance, you must step off the floor while the other couples dance, then step back onto the floor for the next dance. Obviously when you're the only couple competing they don't give you a break, you just dance them all nonstop. This was a brand new polka routine, choreographed one week earlier, and when cha is finished and we're walking to our new place for polka, I'm saying to Richard, "SLOWLY, walk SLOWLY.....SLOWLY please...." Rhythm flight is a monster.

Tomorrow I'll post our line dances.

My Brain Needs A Sweatband

I am having the most challenging dance week of my life, thanks to Clive Stevens. Classic, Showcase, Line Dance, he's pushing me to my limit in every area of dance. Richard asked me last night where all of the sweat on my chest was coming from and I replied, "My brain..."

Watching Clive demonstrate my parts for me makes me want to quit dancing and become a big fat boring housewife who scrapbooks and coupons and bakes cookies all day.

Any guess as to what the kids were playing outside yesterday? I don't know either, but it looks like I won't need to feed them for a week.

Waltz Shmaltz

It's Showcase Waltz song choice time. Sasha and I were up last night listening to music, and we narrowed our list down to two.

Wynonna Judd, I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry

...and Fairytale, by Court Yard Hounds.

listen here

We're going to take both songs to the studio tomorrow and dance a little bit to each one, to see if either one feels better to dance to, and then make our decision. But feel free to chime in if you have an opinion on which song you'd like to

Welcome Back To America

What a crazy, crazy day yesterday....seeing my friend Clive completely unresponsive and barely breathing in the car was quite a shock. St Peter's Hospital in Albany, NY did a nice job treating him and releasing him in a timely fashion. Turns out he'd had an allergic reaction to a painkiller he'd taken 10-15 minutes before.

All has ended well, and once we all sleep for 3 days, we'll be back to normal.

Hand Wind Tunnels

Love these Dyson Airblades that are in public restrooms here in Montreal...

Eric would like me to print a retraction. He HAS been to Canada MANY TIMES (you know, twice). I sincerely apologize for the misleading information previously posted.

Oh, Canada!

Today we're headed to Canada for the Montreal Country Dance Grand Prix! It will be my first time crossing the northern border, Eric's first time too. Should be a fun weekend, the French Canadians are a fun crowd.

Life Cycle Of A Showdance

In the UCWDC, Classic Masters are required to dance at least 5 of 8 dances, danced in two separate flights: Smooth Flight and Rhythm Flight. We don't know what songs are going to be played for those 8 dances, so our choreography for those 8 dances is done in such a way that it will fit with most any song.

We are also required to dance a Showdance. The Showdance is a 2 1/2 minute dance of your choice (from the 8 dances we use in the UCWDC), to a song of your choice. The dance doesn't have to have a theme, but it can. In my mind, the Showdance is a time for Classic Masters to express a little bit more of their personalities. You can play a little bit more with the tempo and the character of your chosen dance.

You are not required to dance both flights and a Showdance at every competition, but doing so qualifies you as having danced a "full program". And only those couples who danced a full program are eligible for prize money. So you can see why Richard and I try to have a full program ready at all times!

While Classic Masters normally keep the same choreography from year to year in their flight dances, the Showdance tends to change each year. I'm going to let you in on how a Showdance goes from birth to adulthood. Masters have one year to get their Showdance to World Championship shape.

The World Championships are the first week of January, and Richard and I usually take the rest of the month off from each other when we get back home. October-December are spent in feverish rehearsal, so by Jan 10th we're over each other. We usually start rehearsing again in February. Our first competition is Baltimore in March, so we only have a month or so to come up with a new Showdance.

This year, Richard and I chose to do East Coast Swing for our Showdance. I found a song that we liked, and we needed to have something to put on the floor by March. So in February we took our old ECS flight choreography and danced it to our chosen song. We tweaked a few places, added an intro and an ending, and bam! we had our first draft of a Showdance. Showdance v1.0.

Here is how our first version looked back in March. Throughout the year, I'll post the Showdance each time we dance it, so you can see the subtle changes it goes through before it reaches fighting condition in January, ready to be put on the World Championship floor.

Showdance Baltimore from Suzanne Mosley on Vimeo.

It's very hard for me to watch this, as we've made so many changes since March. A few changes were major, we changed the entire intro and added another trick section in the middle, but most of the changes have been subtle: changes to HOW we dance certain parts. It's so much better already that I almost can't watch this version

We're dancing it again in Montreal this weekend, and you should be able to see a lot of changes in version 2.0 when I post it next week.

Melissa Gone Wild

Did you feel it? The subtle shift in atmospheric pressure around 1:15pm on Thursday May 12th? The momentary darkening of the sun? Did you feel off balance for a second as the earth shifted on it's axis? An unexplained pulling at your back, as if a black hole had opened up behind you and was sucking you in? I know you felt something. You must have. Because Melissa and I ran into each other.

(For those not in the know, Melissa and I have been best friends since childhood. Well, only friends since childhood, if we're being honest....)

This unexplained scientific phenomenon happened at Chick-Fil-A in Audubon. I was coming home from the kids' piano lessons in Norristown, and Melissa had just been to a kennel in Audubon to pick out a puppy with her husband and kids. It was one of those rare days when neither of us knew what the other was doing. I didn't know I'd be going to Chick-Fil-A, she didn't know where Audubon was and had never been in that area before. Melissa and I don't live close enough to each other to run into each other. Our in person contact is always planned.

I walked up to the counter to order, and stopped in my tracks. I saw a woman from the back, and something about her made me stop in my tracks. Everything around me slowed down. I saw her feet first, and if you know Melissa, you know that her feet would stop anyone in their tracks. A man is known by the company he keeps, but Melissa is known by what she keeps hidden by Converse in the winter months. Her feet are prehistoric. Reptilian. Skeksis, even (only Andrew will get that reference, but it's a good one).



There are random bones and knobs sticking out from every which angle. You barely recognize them as feet. And then she puts on a toe ring and I want to shout out, "Gollum has his Precious!!".

But I digress. The point is, the feet I saw looked so familiar to me. I moved up this woman's body and realized I knew that tee shirt from somewhere. I looked up higher to the hair, and said to myself, "Huh, Melissa wears her hair like that..." But my brain took so long to register that yes, it was Melissa. You see, I never see her in the wild. I have never seen her when she didn't know that I was seeing her. It was like I was a National Geographic photographer on assignment in the Siberian tundra and I had just come upon a rare white tiger that I'd previously only seen in zoos.

A million thoughts were running through my head: "Am I really seeing this?? Can it be true? Don't make any sudden movements, you'll scare it! I wonder how it got here? What is it about to eat? Where is it going? Holy crap, it really IS white! Wow, it never does THAT at the zoo..."

Once my brain finally allowed me to admit it was Melissa, I walked up and stood right behind her without saying anything. She jerked her head around, and, being an extrovert, had the same reaction I had had minutes before, only very loudly and dramatically. We were both so flustered at what was happening that we couldn't complete a sentence. It was fragments of, "what is going....how did you.....i don't even know where.....puppy....i was at....the kids are...I...chicken.....andrew lives near here??...."

Fortunately she had to run because her husband and kids were waiting in the car, otherwise we'd have both probably melted into puddles of confusion as every neuron in our brains exploded like a 4th of July fireworks finale.

I finished having my lunch with my brother Andrew and LittleRFL, but I was in the fog of nuclear fallout. As soon as lunch was over, I got into the car and called Melissa. She was experiencing the aftermath as well. We talked for 60 minutes about the scientific anomaly that had just occurred.

We realized that we don't know how to be casual with each other. We've never had call to be, and have ZERO interest in such behavior. It would be beyond ludicrous for me to say, "Oh hey, Melissa! Funny seeing you here! Getting some chicken? Okay, I'll talk to you later!" She would sooner wear frosted eyeshadow than say to me, "Suzanne! I didn't know you were going to be here! Oh cool, Andrew lives near here, didn't know that! Ok, gotta run!"

We have learned in our lives how to do that with other people, in order to be accepted socially. But it's impossible to do it with each other. It's unnatural. It would have been much better if I had pretended I hadn't seen her, and the moment had never happened. It was too creepy for words, although I've given it many more words than previously intended.

So we apologize if the resulting earthquake, asteroid or blackout messed up your day. Trust me when we say our day was much worse. We saw something we never want to see again; Melissa and Suzanne trying to pull off casual. It's ugly, it's uncomfortable, it's degrading. It's like that time she and I went to the Philly Zoo and saw/heard the giant turtles mating.

Reminds me of a blog post my brother Eric sent to me the other day, written by a man who is losing his voice to cancer. Christopher Hitchens says:

"A good conversation is the only human equivalent: the realizing that decent points are being made and understood, that irony is in play, and elaboration, and that a dull or obvious remark would be almost physically hurtful."

Monday Mornings With Zachary

Watch Zach, aka "The Stink Bug Catcher", rescue his sister Ava from the killer stink bug in her room. Neither Colson nor Ava will catch stink bugs, so Zachary's skill is called upon often in this infested house.

Cute And Weird R Us

Happy birthday to my mother, who passed along to me both her fashion sense and her love of crazy jobs and hobbies. Bet you've never seen a better looking Funeral Director slash Senior Center Line Dance Teacher or a cuter Same-Sex Dance DJ slash Cyber Charter School Activity Coordinator.

The print.

Blogger is having issues, gonna try posting from my iPhone. Colson's collograph, made in art class yesterday. He used it to make a rubbing and a print. It's an Aztec Indian design featuring a jaguar head.

The rubbing.

Please Call 1-800-EXORCISM

My 3 year old fairy goddaughter Sophia, daughter of my best friend Melissa, has been having a rough time the past few weeks. She been getting into trouble a lot, forgetting the rules and generally getting ahead of herself. Her brain is way too big for her age, and that's hard to deal with when you're a toddler.

Melissa's been punishing her more than usual lately, due to the increase in bad behavior. The other day Melissa asked Sophia, "Why do you think you've been getting into so much trouble recently??" Sophia sat for a moment and thought about it. Then she said very gravely, "Mom, I think I know why."

"I think that there's a monster in my belly, and he's been telling me to do bad things. I've been listening to him, instead of listening to God in my heart. I need to stop listening to the monster in my belly and listen to God in my heart more."

So now when Sophia starts to misbehave, Melissa asks her, "Sophia, who are you listening to?" and Sophia immediately changes her behavior. Today Sophia said to Melissa, "Mom, I missed you so much when I was listening to the monster in my belly..."

So let's all take a cue from Sophia and stop listening to the monsters in our bellies. I know her fairy godmother needs to learn that lesson, judging from all the empty Ho-Ho wrappers laying on the floor around me....

Peers???

From a conversation with my husband last night:

Eric: Ugh, what's with all this peer pressure from you?

Suzanne: It's not peer pressure, I'm far superior to you.

Your Status Means Nothing To Me

So, here is another of my favorite Ava chats. This one was with her brother Colson. If you've used Gmail chat before, you know that you can choose your chatting status. You can be shown as "available" or "busy" or you can even go invisible. When you start to chat with someone who shows "busy", the chat box says "so and so is busy, you may be interrupting". So in this chat, Ava starts a conversation with Colson and says this:

Ava: you are busy. I may be interuppting and i don't care
HA!!!!!

Monday Mornings With Zachary

Today Zachary is preempted by his mother's first attempt at advanced line dance in over 10 years. That's right, it's not enough to compete in Masters Classic and now in Masters Showcase as well, I also have my eye set on becoming a Superstar line dancer. Richard is trying his hand at it as well. We both did the Rise and Fall in Baltimore in March after spending maybe 4 hours learning it, and these are our videos.



Triple pirouette has become much easier since March. Not stepping on my waltz skirt while getting up from the ground is still tough...haven't figured out the trick to that one.



Clive Stevens gave both Richard and I a 24 count intro for the beginning of the dance, before the "4, 5, 6" count in happens, at 1am that morning. I was cursing his name when he told me I had to start on the floor. As if I'm not on the floor enough in this dance. Clive is 5'1" and 125lbs, so he has no idea how much harder it is for 5'10" and 130 (why are you laughing??) to get up from the floor.....

Anyway, we both received great critiques our first time out, so we're going to compete again in Montreal, and this time do both the Rise and Fall and the Lilt. If we decide to continue through Worlds, we'll have to dance all 6 line dances, one of which is this one.



What is the deal with all the laughter today? You just watch, I'm going to be the hip hoppiest of suburban minivan driving homeschooling mothers you ever saw...

This Is Andrew Speaking

(Remember how my brother Andrew used to hijack my dollhouse? Well, he's done it again, only this time he's taken over my blog!! Enjoy your respite from me...)

... while I didn't know at the time, this was my last Mother's Day present to my mom as a single man - a hastily drawn card, complete with audio soundtrack - describing the crazy antics of my mother's lifestyle. I only touched the tip of the iceberg, but I hit a few of the oddest stories ... from her years selling Adorn clothing/jewelry (a home party and direct sales company), making matching clothes for her children, her zen-like ability to win public games, her affinity for padded bathing suits whilst raising her brood, and her charisma when it came to ministering to women. My wife just recently uncovered this card during our latest move and I was able to hunt down the audio portion.

Now for your viewing pleasure ... a glimpse into the wonderful world of Janice Lavernia Godwin Lewis. You've never seen a real step-ball-change until you've seen Ms. Godwin's ...

To All The Moms I've Loved Before

Today the "Lewis Mothers 2011" yearbook comes out. I wonder who the class celebrities will be??!! I'm so excited!! Let's look....

MOST LOVED MOTHER

My own mother earns this title because, well, she's MY mother. Any woman who says, in regards to Angelina Jolie, "If God had wanted me to adopt African babies, He wouldn't have put that big ocean between me and them" is going to be the mother I love best. Even the most olive complected mothers pale in comparison.

MOST PATIENT MOTHER

Ah, the woman who used to understandably HATE Mother's Day, my sister-in-law Kathy. 20 years of marriage without a child and you'd probably avoid the day altogether too. And while I'm sure Kathy will no longer hate this holiday, I would guess she feels that every day since little Robert came into her life has been Mother's Day. After 20 years of waiting, the look she has in this photo is the look you see on her face all the time.

BEST NAVIGATING MOTHER

Talk about a life changing year. My sister Amy had to face every mother's fear when her daughter Ashley, who has some learning challenges, got pregnant. Amy navigated those rough waters with a grace and dignity that some might not expect from my sister. But I never expected anything less. Her love for her daughter, as well as for her childless brother, gave her the strength to choreograph the most beautiful of endings. And while most will never know the great toll it took on her, a few of us do, and we bow down in awe.

MOST HEALING MOTHER

My sister-in-law Sue has the unwanted distinction of being the mother with the sickest kids of the past year. But if anyone can handle that title, she can. No one can attend to and mend a sick child like Sue. From ear infections to lifelong diseases, she can manage them all with ease. She definitely missed her calling as a nurse. If my kids ever get very ill, I'm sending them to her house!

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED MOTHER

Though this mother's baby looks oddly like an unsalted peanut at the moment, my niece Brooke will no doubt be putting the rest of us mothers to shame come December. She will be changing diapers and making bottles and folding onesies and powdering bottoms and tickling toes, all with both hands tied behind her back. I know I'm looking forward to meeting this perfect mothers' baby, who will surely have the fattest cheeks in all of Christendom!

MOST ATTENTIVE MOTHER

This toughest of nuts was forever cracked when her baby Landon was born. From the minute my niece Brianne laid eyes on that baby, she fell head over heels and turned into a big bowl of mush! That boy will never go a minute without knowing his mama thinks he's the smartest, most handsome, funniest, kindest, most talented, best dressed, fastest, most creative, best hairstyle, cleanest eater, best sleeper, ....you get the point. Landon's got his mama's full attention, and we all love seeing her soft and gushy side!

MOST PREPARED MOTHER

She may not now be or ever have been a Lewis, but my best friend Melissa has earned her place in this family's yearbook. While some mothers make decisions for their kids on a whim, Melissa analyzes to a gnat's eyebrow each and every decision regarding her children. Whether it be as simple as what outfit they should wear to a party or what the best course of treatment is for their learning disability, she will spend hours upon hours researching each and every possibility to find the perfect one. Her children can sleep deeper at night in the knowledge that what their mother has done for them has been exactly what they needed.

MOST EASY GOING MOTHER

Nothing ruffles this mother's feathers. My oldest niece Bonnie has 5 children under 13, and you never see her lose her cool. And why would she? She was born to be a mother. She's seen her kids safely through rough times with her relaxed, positive manner. There's not a week that goes by that either Melissa or I don't say to each other, "I really wish I could be more like Bonnie right now...why can't I just relax about this??!" No grey hairs in this mother's future, that's for sure!

MOST GRATEFUL MOTHER

I am so lucky to be part of a family full of strong maternal influences. The Lewis family as a whole would fall by the wayside if not for the perseverance and tough-mindedness of all of these women.

MOTHER OF THE YEAR

While the rest of us spent the last year ranting and raving like plucked chickens about our petty issues, my niece Ashley was quietly proving herself to be the most real mother of us all. She had the intelligence to realize that she wasn't ready for the challenges of motherhood and the courage to allow her child to be raised by people who were ready for those challenges. We should all hope that in the face of tough decisions, we would be as practical and as brave as Ashley has been. (Not to mention she gave her Aunt Kathy the chance to stop hating Mother's Day!)

*Wow, those moms are all so cool...I hope they sign my yearbook!

(p.s., keep your eyes on Being Suzanne Mosley around 8am, there may be a surprise in store!)

The Unknown Soldier Loved S'mores Too

Mosley/Johnson Independence Hall field trip, circa 2009. The Pre-Maddy days. We need to repeat that trip, it was a great day. Bonnie and I wetting our pants over the idea of roasting marshmallows over the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, teaching the kids about poverty by taking photos of a homeless man sleeping on a park bench (Zach thought he was dead, and by "thought" I mean "hoped"),....ahhh, the memories. Good times, good times.

The Dalai Ava

The following is a transcript from an instant message conversation between my 8 year old daughter Ava and my sister Amy. This one is one of my favorites because of the extremely insightful tidbit from Ava towards the end. Sometimes that girl sounds like Mr Miyagi. I see a future in writing for fortune cookies...

Ava: hi for the hundredth time
( Kidding )
Guess what?!?
2 things, though

Amy: hey

Ava: 1st, Clifford said you are his favorite aunt.

Amy: who is clifford?

Ava: My facorite stuffed animal that I had since i was 2 or 3
favorite

Amy: nice!!!!!
who is cliffords favorite uncle?

Ava: 2nd, I got a wal-mart gift card that has $20 in it. Oh, uh hold on, I'll ask him

Amy: make sure you listen !

Ava: ...He said, "HM? Uncwle Ewd." so I guess it means, 'Uncle Ed'

Amy: he is funny!!!

Ava: he is...hm...
SIX years old, one year older than Zachary.

Amy: who gave you clifford?

Ava: I don't know...I forget and my mom forgets and my dad forgets.:-/
If I could have a time machine that goes into the past I could tell you

Amy: thats true

Ava: But i didn't ask santa for it so anyway...he didn't give me any.

Amy: who gave you the wal mart gift card?

Ava: uh, it was for my birthday i think...HANAH!!!!! She gave it to me! Hanah.

Amy: hanah is nice...

me: she is from word changers
world

Amy: ah

me: " BUT WE DON'T CHANGE THE WORLD" Zachary says.
so anyway...

Amy: i have to run out = will be back soon!!

Ava: going where?
nevermind...anyway...one little question leads to a giant conversation
b-bye!

Amy: bybyebybybyb

Ava: byb?
oh, nevermind...bye!

Could Have Been Worse

My instant message conversation with my husband yesterday.

me: 1. see you at 6 2. please ignore the state of the kitchen table. i'm in the middle of yearbook hell, it has to be finished and copied by tomorrow night. i'm going to work on it some more tonight and tomorrow, so no one is allowed to mess with the kitchen table

ericmoze: 3. i am in a mtg presenting on a big screen. everyone is laughing

Adios Awana

Another year of Awana in the books. This was the first year for Zachary in Sparks, and Colson's first year in TNT (Truth In Training).

Colson's group put on a play. Excuse the funny green fuzziness, old camera...

Untitled from Suzanne Mosley on Vimeo.

Zachary and Ava's group prepared a little speech ( Zachary practiced his part all day long, but I neglected to inform him that there might be a microphone involved. So when he was handed the mic, he balked and refused to speak). Ava also did a little play with the girls.

Zachary and Ava's group also performed a little song....

She Whips Her Hair Back And Forth

My great-niece Audrey, oldest daughter of my oldest niece Bonnie, filmed by Bonnie's father and my brother Eric. Watching her dance moves, my heart is warmed seeing that my dance style lives on. I've heard talent like mine skips a generation, and Audrey has proven that to be true. I love what happens at 1:40.

Monday Mornings With Zachary

In today's video, Colson tapes a puppet show written by Ava and performed by Ava and Zachary.

Ava's Fashions

Black velvet, purple iridescent satin, and a host of admirers. Every Christmas should be that good.