Sandra Cameron Dance Center

When we first started taking Swing classes at Sandra Cameron Dance Center, we weren't compelled to comment on its sincerity or its lack thereof. I mean, we immediately liked the teachers, but otherwise it just seemed a business like any other: good service, but dedicated to the dollar - not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that. Our one month of "Basic Swing," a terrific deal for $80.00, was so much fun we repeated it a second month. Then, we were hooked. We went on to pre-intemediate, when the price jumped to $90.00 for one class per month, and you have to take, like, 6 sections of pre-intermediate before you move up to intermediate/advanced, but they do give various discounts which helps. We're now into our fifth month of classes and have found that we love Swing dancing on about the same level that we love kayaking - which is a lot. The good thing about dancing is that there are a lot more opportunities for it in NYC than kayaking. I mean, you can't kayak in your living room. There are, however, lots of cheap or free venues for Swing dancing in this town.

But I digress. I now feel Sandra Cameron Dance Center deserves an evaluation.

The teachers are beyond dedicated. They've invited us to participate in performances, giving extra time and energy to working with us, and at the same time they're fun and funny and superb, superb dancers. I get the sense that the same applies to the Salsa, Tango, Ballroom, (etc.) teachers there (though I haven't taken those classes) because the place is so dang popular. Once a month, they have a guest night and invite the public to take free Salsa and Swing classes, view performances and attend practice dances. When we checked out another school's guest night recently, we were struck by its lack of sincerity as opposed to SCDC. First, they charged $10.00. Second, it was all sell, sell, sell, and third, the music stank. So, especially after having had a chance to compare SCDC with another studio, we realized that it's indeed worth evaluating and deem it:
Evaluation: Very sincere

Sandra Cameron Dance Center
199 Lafayette Street
NY, NY 10012
212-431-1825
dance@sandracameron.com

Spider Rock Campground - Canyon de Chelly, AZ

 The thing about a place like this is it's almost sincere by definition. On the other hand there are some things that make the experience of being in a place that is simply jaw-droppingly beautiful and wondrous even more compelling. A few years back we packed up the car, brought along a small tent and went out to rough it for a few days in the wilds of Arizona. We arrived at Spider Rock Campground near Canyon de Chelly, (pronounced "shay") spent a while talking with the very pleasant Navajo man who ran the place, set up the tent, and headed out to view the rock. Nothing I could ever say about that monolith could possibly prepare anyone for actually being on the edge of the canyon looking for themselves. You just have to go. That's it. What could make that experience better? The human touch. When we returned to our campsite a few hours later it was dusk. We discovered that the man running the campground had heaped a generous supply of firewood right next to our tent. It was a simple thing, but the cost of the wood back in "civilization" would have been more than cost of staying on those grounds ($10.00). It was welcoming, generous and really beyond anything we might have expected. He called it a blessing. He told us, "the fire is life." That night we slept like babies warm from the fire, blessed by the wood, and bathed in starlight. A blessing indeed.

(By the way, Canyon de Chelly is much more than Spider Rock. A fantastic hike into the canyon to the river at it's base provides some of the most spectacular scenery you will ever see, including the ancient cliff-dwellings that exist in niche of a sheer rock face, hundreds of feet high.)

Evaluation: Extraordinarily sincere!

  

Spider Rock Campground